Amado Villafaña Chaparro

Amado Villafaña is a photographer, documentary filmmaker, and communication leader of the Arhuaco people. His documentary works have been shown in national and international film festivals and some of them have won awards. In 2002, he was persecuted by armed groups and was forced to leave his territory. This motivated him to make visible the cultural, environmental, and social threats affecting the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and to disseminate the thinking of its traditional authorities or Mamos. He has been involved in community organization processes, cultural defense, and teaching and translation of the Iku language into Spanish. He was the Founder of the first Indigenous communications collective Zhigoneshi of the Gonawindua Tayrona Organization (2002-2012). He currently directs the production company Colectivo Yosokwi. His 80-minute feature film Resistencia en la Línea Negra (2011) was awarded in the mountain life category at the Espiello Festival in Spain, in the environment category at the Bogota Film Festival, and Audience Award at the Panorama of Colombian Cinema Festival in Paris. Recognized films: Palabras Mayores series (2009); short film, Nabusimake: memories of an independence (2011); Resistance in the Black Line (2011); Naboba: ancestral vision of water (2015); Anzasari Niwi Umukin (2021), and others.
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