Photo by Darwin Torres
IGUALADA, the most recent documentary feature by director Juan Mejía Botero (Death by a Thousand Cuts), will have its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2024 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, on January 21, in Park City, Utah. The uplifting documentary chronicles Francia Márquez’s amazing journey from a rural grassroot activist to her history-making campaign to be the first Black and first female president of her native Colombia.
With exclusive access, Mejía Botero’s documentary chronicles the empowering story of a Black woman from a rural background who dares to challenge the status quo by launching a presidential campaign in Colombia, a nation beset by profound racial and socio-economic disparities.
Reappropriating the term “igualada” (a derogatory term used to denigrate someone who acts as if she is deserving of rights that supposedly don’t correspond to her place in society), Márquez catapults a movement to the upper echelons of power, by refusing to “know her place.” Shot during the course of 15 years, this documentary peels back the curtain on how unprecedented change actually can happen.
Echoing Knock Down the House and Mandela, Mejía Botero’s documentary deftly traces the steps of this global icon in the making, capturing the thrill and magnitude of Márquez’s historic presidential campaign from an intimate vantage point. An engrossing David vs. Goliath story, IGUALADA is the powerful portrait of a woman who refused to say no, making history along the way.
