Acting experience

Yes, I know, I do not write regularly. Shame on me.

So much more I appreciate that you keep reading this /unconsistent/ blog!

Today I wanted to talk about an interesting experience I made: acting.

I have never felt any strong passion for acting (although I love to direct others who do it...), but in our film school the students asked me to participate in a casting, and I won the role. Ok let's do it, I thought.

So I was to do this character who had lost is wife recently. It was a quite interesting little story and I accepted the challenge to try to make a little portrait on the screen.

Actually the thing I got out most of this, was to experience how it is to be an actor in filming setting. How it is to try to immerse into a role when people are running all over the place, talking about camera angles, lighting, schedule, making jokes, etc. I gained a new admiration for professional actors who deliver on the word Action. And also a new understanding of how important it is to treat the actor well and to do everything in one's power to facilitate for him or her to be in their role.

In short, it was a great experience and I learned a lot that I hope makes me a better filmmaker.

Amongst wild mandarins and coffee

Today I woke up in Shire. At least it felt as it, as I spent the night in a mud house. It pretty much could have been Frodo's house in Lord of the Rings.

The mud house

Out on the porch at 6 am, I faced the view of a a lush valley with trees of mandarin, orange and coffee, while the sun slowly rose over the mountains and exposed Cachipay, the village on the other side.

We arrived yesterday to this very special finca, and believe it or not, but the house was built entirely of clay, and its shapes were similar to the works of the Spanish architect Gaudí; not a single even line. Even the mosaic was in place.

The constructor and architect, my guide's friend with the coolest name ever, don Segundo, had no idea who Gaudí was. But this was not his first mud house, he had also built a mud mansion, a much bigger one than this, in Villa de Leyva, a village a few hours away. He showed me pictures on his cell phone as proof.

Wild mandarin

"Did you have foreign journalists visiting you?" I asked. Yes he did. He even said that they shot an American film in the mud mansion. I'll believe that when I see the film...

The mud house where I spent the night is situated a 40 minute meandering walkway from the village Anolaima. I know this because I made the trek yesterday, here and there being chased by barking dogs.

Later in the afternoon yesterday we took a dip in the village pool, which was deserted but reasonably clean and gifted with a great view of the sourrounding valley. On the other side of the valley was a mountain top where a small lonely house seemed to be glued to the steep slope. Why have a house up there? I guess the view makes it worth it.

Mosaic stairs in the mud house

Later we visited another finca, owned by a German university professor who had lived in the area for 20 years. The relatively small house and lot were well extremely well taken care of and the interior looked like it would fit in Architectural Digest. In the garden flaunted rows of coffee, bananas and oranges. The finca was on sale for 196 million pesos (120,000 USD). I thought it was pretty expensive but my guide got excited and started dreaming.

Everybody we talked to in this area was very friendly and it felt as a safe area to visit. I was told this region hadn't suffered from the civil war, which probably makes a difference.

After enjoying a breakfast of coffee and eggs in the adjacent village Cachipay today we took the bus to Bogotá and then I ended my little vacation and took off to Medellín.

A trip out on the country

Today I woke up in a small village called Anolaima. It is situated about 70 km northeast of Colombia's capital Bogota, in the department of Cundinamarca.

I had decided to take a couple days off and went to Bogota, where I met up with an old Colombian friend that I hadn't met in 25 years (!). We met in Switzerland when we did an exchange year.

As my friend also had some days available we decided to take a bus out on the country, and we decided to hit Anolaima. As all busrides I have taken in Colombia this was a curvy one (due to the Andes), and the last part of the three-hour trip was all steep bumpy dirt road, with the passengers jumping up and down in the seats while the traditional music was played loudly in the bus's loudspeakers.

Anolaima got its name from the natives of the Panche tribe, the Anolaymas. Somehow this village invites to think about history, as the character of the village is very traditional and it almost looks as time stopped here. The pace of the people is very relaxed, and everybody is friendly. They don't even seem to notice the tall Scandinavian stranger walking around, but I am sure they do, they just politely avoid staring.

The climate of Anolayma is "balanced", neither hot nor cold, quite similar to that of Medellin. The village is situated on a hill and there is a beautiful view toward a little part of the Andine mountains.

Dogs. As many other Latin American villages Anolayma has a lot of stray dogs wandering around, in all sizes and races. As the block where I live in Medellin also is literally full of dogs, I begin to wonder, is there a special love between Latin Americans and dogs? (I've made the same observation in a few Latin American countries).
Colombians also seem never to mind a dog barking. In my apartment in Medellin my patience has been tested as the neighbour dogs sometimes bark for hours without ceasing. But people seem not to be disturbed or even notice. Once I mentioned it to our building caretaker, a middle-aged lady who also has dog (which also barks a lot), and she just answered, "If I would live in a finca I would have fifteen dogs!"

Today we will apparantly spend some time out on the "real" countryside, in a finca outside of Anolaima, belonging to a friend of my friend. I don't mind.

Next week we start our film school in Medellin and there'll be lots of work. A few days off were needed as the Film Adventures continue.

Baptizing murderers and meeting film stars

Intense days.

Last Tuesday I went to the Bellavista prison in Medellin, the biggest prison in Colombia, where 7,600 prisoners are trying to fit into much too small and worn premises. Bellavista which not very long ago used to have two murders a day, has now changed to the better, and who knows, maybe thanks to Swedish Ankarstiftelsen, their partner Confraternidad Carcelaria (a part of Prison Fellowship International) and their missions work in the prison.

There I met Ruth, a radiant lady in her thirties who coordinates the evangelism work in the prison, the only female evangelist among 7,600 murderers, rapists, thieves and who knows what. "They have taken me to their heart and see me as their mummy" she says with a tender smile. At the end of our visit she asked our Swedish Christian friends if they knew a way to finance one thousand refreshments for a special week where they will do small theaters and festivities for the inmates. Within seconds one of our guests promised his church would finance it.

Pray for Ruth! and if you want to support her, let me know, her small salary depends totally on gifts.

During our visit we baptized around 20 prisoners who had decided they wanted to become Christians. I did the translation and it was powerful to say the words "I hereby baptize you to Christ, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen" and then see the person be pushed down under the water of the small pool and then risen up to a new life.

According to Ankarstifelsen, around 20,000 prisoners have decided to become Christian believers during their years of work in approximately 80 prisons in Colombia. People who leave their criminal ways and start a life of honesty, goodness and responsibility. No wonder Colombia is changing for the better!

During our visit the local coworkers of Confraternidad Carcelaria showed us a "restoration" program called Arbol Sicomoro, where the new Christian prisoners learn how to take responsibility, how to forgive and to ask for forgiveness, how to reconcile with their victims, how to restore their values etcetera. In a few words, they are helped to become good, whole and responsible citizens.

Well at the end of that rewarding day, I flew to Bogota to participate in a premiere event for the film Jerusalem Countdown produced by PureFlix, an American Christian film production company. I got to lunch together with the stars of the film as well as one of the producers. We were also inside of RCN, Colombians biggest TV network, where our American visitors were interviewed in live television.

Due to a job I had to finish, I flew back to Medellin today but I hope to be back to Bogota soon again.

Intense days, living the Film Adventure!

P.S Sorry for spelling errors... in need of English proof reader!

In prison

Being on the side of a Colombian prisoner being baptized in water, is one of the moments that I have enjoyed most in my life.

Today I once again had the opportunity to join Swedish Ankarstiftelsen as they visit the prisons of Colombia. Today we accompanied their local Christian volunteer workers in the prison as they baptized new believers among the prisoners. More people saved for eternal life! Yohoo!

Do you believe these words of Jesus are still valid?

Truly, I tell all of you with certainty, the one who believes in me has eternal life. (John 6:47)

Tickets to heaven are still around and it's real! Let me know if you are interested!

Ankarstiftelsen is a fantastic organization. Walking in the footpaths of Jesus, they "waste" a lot of money on:

• Constructing schools for kids who have none
• Helping young people to escape criminality through soccer and teaching them how to live a constructive and meaningful life
• Helping prisoners to enter a path of legal and healthy life
• Offering microloans to poor women who take off and start contributing to society 
• Reconciling criminal gangs who have been in conflict
• Supporting orphanages

Tomorrow we are going to another prison... one with around 7,000 prisoners...

Speaking of which... last week we started shooting Sin Reversa! Tell you more soon. Now I need to pack my bags because I'm taking off to Bogota tomorrow!

More rehearsals

Our rehearsals for Sin Reversa continue. Today I made a special rehearsal with the two protagonists. It was very rewarding. I like to do a lot of improvisations with my actors, I think it feeds a lot into their characters.

I started out interviewing the actress "in character", letting her invent things as she answered questions about her family, her home, her finances etc. Then we did some improvs to provoke some of the feelings I am looking for in the film. It worked like a charm.
I always try to improvise with a lot of conflict, that always gives fire to the conversations and expressions.

Earlier today I contacted a friend of mine who I know has a lot of insight into acting and directing and I explained the difficulties and he gave me a lot of material to work with, many of them very concrete.

Finally we did a camera movement rehearsal. It worked fine as well, because the guys had prepared the content before arriving. Great! I felt I regained some control today.

Monday we will have our last production meeting before shooting.
O yeah, the finances, another burning issue. We are trying to raise $4,000 for this film. Until this point we have received $218 in our IndieGogo campaign. Still lots to go! And we need it before Wednesday!

If you feel you'd like to support this film, check THIS LINK out!

Second rehearsal done

We have finished our second rehearsal for Sin Reversa. Now we only have the rehearsal on the day of shooting left. The plan is to dedicate half of that day to rehearsals and half of the day to final shooting. We have a pretty complicated scene to do.

Today I learnt more stuff. I learnt that everything needs to be prepared, instructed and rehearsed. Especially so when you work with non-paid people. We hadn't rehearsed with the camera operator and the protagonist before the main rehearsal. The protagonist came without knowing his lines by heart and so did I. The camera operator had to be instructed, and all this took a lot of attention from directing the actors. Actually, I felt I lost control. We didn't have time to do all the things I had hoped and instead of being able to focus on the acting, I put all my attention on the image sequence.

I guess this is the moment where I need to let go and trust. Trust that everything miraculously will come together. I do my best, and God does the rest...

Some positive things were that we had lots of the extras/actors showing up. Incredible, since we can't even afford to pay them something basic, few of them have film experience and we have never worked with them before. The main actor showed up and so did the camera operator.

Next step is to do side rehearsals before the shooting day. With the main actors, with the cam op. I have to learn the script by heart. Still lots to do.

And let go and trust.

First "final" rehearsal for Sin Reversa

Today we held a production meeting and the first of two final rehearsals for our short film Sin Reversa.
We had plenty of our actors/extras showing up, that was awesome!

We also got the actor we were looking for! Not in the way we had thought. Actually, the "loudspeaker" method didn't work at all. I don't think even one person showed up from hearing that. But some other people showed up, some that we had invited personally. No, instead our last-minute solution was to call back a previous actor we had seen and who we were unsure about. But... we saw improvement! So much that we decided to stay with that person.

We keep learning. One thing, casting auditions need to be well announced. The key is how you announce....

Today I learnt something else. Producing a feature film vs. producing a short film is not like driving a car vs. driving a bicycle. It is like driving a car a long distance vs. driving a car a short distance. You need the same complete car. You need a complete team to produce a short film. Every position and procedure is important and needed, down to the assistants. You need a lot of time to prepare. Meetings, preparations, lots of think-through. Equipment. Bring-in-case's. Calls. People need to know where to go and what time. And last but not least, you need money.

Well, I guess this is all valid if you want to do something with "almost" the same quality as a feature film. And that's what we're trying to do.

Tonight I feel totally dead. One of my most stressful days in a long time. How dead will I feel directing a feature film? I hope a good team would keep me alive...
But I am also happy. We got so many things to work tonight. I am grateful to God. We are going forward.

One more rehearsal to go tomorrow.

PS. If you want to support this project, click here!

Scouting actors.... on the streets of Medellin

Last week we had four different casting sessions for our short film Sin Reversa. We are getting our actors together step by step. But since we are working with non-paid and many non-experienced actors,  we get a lot of "acting" that we aren't pleased with, or simply put, it looks acting.

There was one important role that we still hadn't got the actor for at the fourth and last casting last week. What to do? We have our last blocking rehearsals on Wednesday and Thursday this week. I said, "Let's go out on the streets and simply ask people".

Since we are Christians and do our film projects with a spiritual purpose, I thought, "Ok, we'll pray and go out and God will do the rest", just like the disciples of Jesus did, has they held up their fish and bread to Jesus.

So we decided to go to a poor area (a "comuna"), because the role we are looking for is that of a person from such an area. My friend and casting coordinator J-C told me,
"Urban, there is a way, my friend works with this 'perifoneo', a car that drives around the area announcing cultural events with loudspeakers. It would only cost us 25.000 pesos. Do we have the money for it?"
I sadly responded,
"I'm afraid we don't have that money."
I had already spent the double of that on newspaper casting ads the other week and I am just out of money.

Then, after having prayed for God's guidance and protection, we went out on the streets. We started to ask some people. But quite soon J-C told me,
"Urban, I want to pay for that loudspeaker thing out of my own pocket."
"Really? Ok, let's do it".

So we went to this local cultural center in the comuna and asked to borrow a hall were we could do an audition tomorrow. Gracefully, they not only had a space free tomorrow, but they would let us use it for free! J-C would go on and contact the loudspeaker guy.

Then, in case the loudspeaker method wouldn't be efficient, we went out on the streets again. With only a notepad in our hands, we went around and asked the people walking by, "Would you like to act in a short film? You look like the character we are casting" and informed them about the audition tomorrow. Some of them were interested, others were not, or were busy working. Surprisingly, nobody seemed to think we were weird or suspicious.

Anyway, I am excited to see what this can lead to and what can happen as we pray and go forward. Starting with nothing, we now have a new audition set up, one that will be announced by an ambulating loudspeaker car!

We asked somebody "Do you think people here are interested in such a thing? Would they go if they heard the message?" "Oh yeah, everybody here wants to do stuff like that" they assured us.

Tomorrow we will see!

Sin Reversa funding campaign!

Preproduction of Sin Reversa is getting more and more intense.
This week we had four casting auditions and a productive production meeting.
Set design is getting discussed and made, and we are creating some interesting extra characters.
We are getting the final production team together and today I agreed with a location sound mixer.

And.... we just launched our IndieGogo Funding campaign! Check it out!

Location scouting

Unexpectedly meeting a storyboard artist 

Yesterday we went to see a location for our upcoming short film No Return.
We had scouted a bar in Poblado, Medellin and had agreed to meet the owner, whom I had never met.

For some reason I had pictured the bar owner to be a half-alcoholic, rough-looking slob, but I was pleased to meet a distinguished physician, who immediately showed us around the whole premise and then asked us if we were looking for any other locations.
Sure, we are looking for an apartment...
"Let's go and see my place" he said and then presented us to his cousin and his cousin's mother. Then he took us to the bar's garage where his pickup was parked. "Here they filmed a scene of the film In Coma", he said. In Coma is a Colombian feature that came out last year and was pretty decent.

Cool, we enter the pickup and then the owner's cousin presents himself as a storyboard artist who had lived in California for 30+ years working with digital art for films and commercials. Okay!

The apartment was nice, but we decided we would need more space (on film everything looks tiny). But we agreed to shoot at the bar, and then the cousin showed us his conceptual art he had done for different film projects. They actually looked really good! I showed him some reference pictures for our other upcoming short film Hero. He said he would gladly collaborate with us and do some conceptual art for free. No joke? Awesome!


Tech scout

Today we went to the village where our bank location is for No Return. Normally after a first visit, if a location shows out to be suitable, the next step is to do a "tech scout" (except signing contracts). So we went with the producer, the producer assistant, the art director, the camera operator and the gaffer. Unfortunately the director of photography could not make it, but he sent the gaffer instead.

We discussed the lighting, the angles and how to decorate and prepare the place. The executive of the bank, as last time, was very collaborative and generous with letting us run around with cameras, measuring-tape and note-pads as the customers were there.

On the way back we stopped and looked for an outdoor location for Hero.

Thank you God! I am happy with how the preparations are going, we have a team that is ready to do some great work and things are falling into place as if they were blessed from above.

Colombian ID card

Today I went to get my new Colombian foreign ID card, the "cédula de extanjería", at Migración Colombia (former DAS).
They had said I could get it in 20 days and the time had come.

The attendant handed over a piece of printed paper and said "This is your temporary ID card. Come back 15th of January to get your real one."
"What? 15th of January? In six months? That is a very long time! Why?"
She explained that the company that previously had made the plastic cards for the immigration authorities, had some problem and they had to change company (or something like that).

Six months to get a new company to make plastic cards? Come on, Migración Colombia, is this stone age? I thought we were getting forward in this country!

Finding a bank location

An important aspect of filmmaking is finding good locations.

We are in the preparations for a short film called "No Return". This film has a scene in a bank.
When we started this project, we had no idea how difficult it would be to find a bank premise that somebody actually would allow us to use. All banks are rigorously concerned about security and we visited and wrote to many institutions, but none would let us film in their premises. We went searching for other alternatives, like educational institutions and even empty museum halls. But we knew that if there were no counters for example, our production cost would skyrise to provide with, or construct, all the furniture ourselves.

Now, in this process I learned about the power of good connections. I knew that a friend of our ministry who is actually the father of one of our previous students, had some influential contacts. I wrote him an email and presented out problem. And just within days, he presented us to a bank president, a friend of his. Almost instantly the president said yes. First we went and saw their premise in Medellin, but when we started our technical scouting we understood that this premise would give us some real challenges. There was a huge pillar in the middle of the hall, and the doors were awkwardly placed.

So we heard that the same bank company had another premise in a village, two hours from the city. We  thought "Ok, so what if we just bring the whole crew and cast in a bus then?" The president was just pleased to show us this place and let us use it for our project.

So yesterday we went there, and finally we found our place. A traditional bank hall, with counters and doors from where you instantly see the counters. The walls and the floor have the characteristics that we were looking for.

This was another occasion when I was overwhelmed by the "Paisa" generosity. The executives invited us to lunch and even showed us the surroundings.

We were ready several months ago to shoot this film. We had the whole thing ready to go, but we were hindered by the that bank location. Now, if we can quickly get the finances together, it seems we can finally greenlight this film.

Why did this run so smooth? Because of our friend's recommendation. Those few words opened all the doors. It reminded me about what the Bible says:

A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. (Prov.22:1)

Medellin Flower Parade

Today I visited my second Medellin Flower Parade. It is an annual event, where the flower makers of the village Santa Elena outside of Medellin, go down to the city and parade their "silleteros", a kind of chairs for vending flowers that they carry on their backs.

The parade goes on for hours and have thousands of spectators. Not only flowers are exhibited, but also marching bands, circus figures, trucks with music groups etc. One thing that I noticed was that the amount of sponsored participants seemed to have increased from last year, thus we saw lots of flower installations with the names of the bigger companies in Medellin (come on, let this be a cultural festival and not a comercial event).

Another thing you can notice in the parade, is the joy of dancing of the "Paisas" (the people from the department of Antioquia in Colombia). The flower parade might not be the same as a Rio carnival (which I have never seen), but there is a lot of spectacle, lots of joy and willingness to share the fun with the audience.

The parade is just a part of a whole program of activities in Medellin during this week.

So it happened!

One thing you get warned of in Medellin is to get robbed.

And there seems to be good reason for it, during my stay here I have heard of many friends, or friends of friends, who got robbed. The most common case: woman walking on empty street. Man coming by on motorcycle and threatening with gun or knife to hand over all belongings. Key word: empty street.

I usually take care in not walking on empty streets, and if I have to, I try not to have too many valuable things on me.

So that's the street robber. As I have understood, these guys are usually from poor neighborhoods and go on their little "journeys" in other parts of the city and then return home.

Another one is the "public space" robber. Or let's call him a thief. This is the one I encountered last week.

I was sitting on a cafe, a pretty safe-looking one, situated on the second floor in a multi-purpose building with libraries, gym, pool etc. But I made a mistake: I put my backpack on the floor.

About two hours later, after being in work conversations over the table, I reached for my bag: gone.

So the whole procedure took place. Talking with the security guard, asking the people at the other tables, then going to the police, then to the prosecution office. The cafeteria had surveillance cameras, and I had been told I could get access to the recordings.

Finally, a couple days later, I went to the head offices of the cafe, that belongs to a mutual funds organization. With the prosecution report in my hand, I was able to enter the "security hub" of the organization, where they have all their surveillance camera recordings. As always in Medellin, you get treated as a king as a foreigner.

So I saw it, on the desaturated big screen in the surveillance hub: the theft. There I was, sitting at my table. And there he was, the guy. The man who with cold calculation and focused malice took my backpack. Frame by frame, I watched how he first just sat at a table, having a mineral water, overlooking the cafeteria, like relaxing. Dressed in a T-shirt, jeans, white sports shoes, sunglasses. Not awakening anybody's attention.

Then after doing that for a couple minutes, he approached my bag, took it, sat down at his table again and put my bag in his lap as if it was his. Then he looked into it. Then took another sip of the bottle. Took up his phone and simulated a phone call. Then a couple minutes later put my bag on his shoulder and just walked out.

In one way it was good to see what happened. It confirms that my bag got stolen. I hadn't forgotten it anywhere else or anything. In another, it was shocking to see how a person can behave in such a calculated, shameless, evil way.

In my opinion, the guy's behavior showed experience. This guy is a specialist and has done this many times.

In the bag, I neither had my laptop nor my phone, nor my wallet. But I had my prescription glasses, my small camera, my Mac charger and a 1TB hard drive. And I don't have a theft insurance.

I had been warned in several other cafeterias/restaurants not to put my bag too far away from me. I guess I had to have it happen to learn the lesson.

Colombian expressions of affection

One area where Colombians differ from Europeans, and I dare say this is true about most Latin Americans, is the way they express affection verbally.

The most common form of addressing another family member in Colombia is probably mi amor, my love, which is how spouses usually call each other, but it is just as often used for the kids. An even stronger expression is mi vida, "my life". Other common spouse ones: cariño (affection), mi cielo (my heaven), mi corazon (my heart).

Toward kids princesa (princess), tesoro (treasure), precioso/preciosa (precious) are totally normal, and also papito and mamacita which are diminutive forms of "mum/dad" but used for kids.

One that still surprises me is gordo/gorda which literally means "fat" but which is a way of showing love and acception toward a spouse or kid.

In male friendships, hermano is very common ("brother") and among girls you will often hear linda, hermosa etc where they remind themselves of their beauty. Toward a friend of the opposite sex querido or querida are totally normal, which mean "liked".

Also in street life you will hear words of affection, for example in Medellin are common hermano even for people not known, as well as mi hijo or mi hija, my son / my daughter, but not toward the kids in this case, but among friends or toward a younger person.

In all informal relationships diminutives can be used to express affection; this is done by adding -ito or -ita to the name or the word, like Anita for Ana, or corazoncito for "my little heart".

Toward an older person reverence is shown through using don and doña before the name (i.e Don Alfonso, Doña Lucía), and of course always usted (formal "you") for an older person and for people not known.

Colombians alternate between three forms of "you", which are usted, tu and vos, in order of acquaintance. These have regional differences within the country. Even in the closest marital relationship, the formal usted is not uncommon, to show respect.

For a Northern European, living among these expressions of affection is humbling, we have a lot to learn from our Latin friends of how to show kindness, care and honor simply by words.

Announcing news

In Colombia, midday news is a big thing. Families gather around the telly at 12.30 to keep up what is going on in the world. As in all countries, news are full of sad and discouraging stories. In Sweden, mostly when announcing sad news, like violence, murder, catastrophes etc, the announcer does her best to use a compassionate voice to indicate empathy and reality. In Colombia, the announcer always sounds like a circus announcer, cheerful and dynamic: "Farmers died in Cauca!" "Murderer cried in front of victims!"
I am not saying this is uncompassionate, it is just different to what I am used to. Maybe I interpret the tone incorrectly. Or maybe it is there to help us keep a positive attitude. In any case, it kind of balances the tragedies a little...

How to respond a Colombian street vendor

One thing you will encounter in Colombia are the many street vendors. Many of them really are disguised beggars. This is revealed by the word "colabórame", which means "cooperate with me".
Now, if you don't want to buy the product, there is an easy way to get them to understand this, and that is by saying "Gracias". Don't say "No, gracias", because in Colombia negative messages are considered rude.
If the salesman is a polite person, which many of them are [it doesn't hurt sales], he will respond "Dios le bendiga" (God bless you) and go on to the next customer.
If you accompany your phrase with a short smile, then look away like you are busy, the message gets even clearer. Sometimes this will need to be repeated a few times, but eventually the seller will accept the fact without feeling offended.

"Cultura Metro"

Medellin has one thing it is very proud of, and that's the metro. Not even the capital of Colombia, Bogota, has one. The metro in Medellin consists of one straight line from North to South, and one that goes eastward, connecting the other in a T-shape.

Additionally, there are two cable cabin routes ("metrocable"). These connect the metro with poorer areas up on the hills, transporting people in cabins that run on wires in the air. Quite cool.

Well there is something special about the metro, and that is "Cultura Metro". This is the name of the values of how the metro system wants people to behave. Thus, in the metro you will hear regular messages from the speakers like "Let's not lean onto the poles". On the next level there are those who remind you to be courteous: "Let's give away the seats to the people who has most difficulties traveling standing." 

Finally there are those who teach you how to be a better person. "A smile makes everybody happier". Mostly these message sequences end with "Let's live 'Cultura Metro'". Of couse we are talking about pre-recorded voices played back by a machine. One is male and one is female and both did their best to to sound sugar-sweet. But it works, it almost feels like there are two good-hearted "parents" on the train watching out for us.

Of course, it is a little contradictory when one of the messages is "Speaking on the phone or listening to music is and individual activity. Let's not disturb other passengers". How about disturbing us with all these messages from the loudspeakers?

But, I must say, I enjoy the metro of Medellin a lot. Not least because the metro in Medellin doesn't go underground. It goes on a railway up in the air. You can enjoy the view of the city all the time. Best thing ever.

Colombian Street Life

Since the last time that I wrote regularly here, I have moved to my own place in Medellin. I now live in an apartment. I have a little balcony. Fantastic! My view from the balcony is over a little street. Well one thing that I have noticed about Colombia is that street life is so much noisier than in Sweden. I guess Sweden is a very silent country. Silent people, order everywhere. Colombia is kind of the opposite. When I sit and work in my apartment, there is hardly five minutes without sounds. What are these sounds?  

Ambulent sellers. These come dragging a little wodden carriage with two weels, kind of a a wheelbarrow, and they sell fruits or vegetables. All sellers have something in common: they shout out their offers so that everybody can hear them. "Aguacaaaateeee a millll!" "Maaazaaaamorrrra!" Many of them use a little portable sound system with a microphone so that their words reach every little corner of the block.  

Dogs. It seems every Colombian family has a dog. And they bark A LOT (maybe educating your dog  is seen as rude here?). I have two neighbours that have dogs that bark at least every five minutes from 7 am to 10.30 pm. Luckily they don't bark at night. But I can tell you, there is a lot of patience needed not to get mad daytime when I try to work from home. Mostly my solution is not to stay too long in my apartment.

People shouting for other people. Somehow there always seems to be somebody shouting to get somebody out of their apartment. "Maariiaaa-Luuuuzz!" "Nicolasss!" "Enriqueeee!" It always seems they have to wait quite a bit until the person shows up on their balcony or window.

The local guardian. These are security guards hired by the community. They circulate the neighborhood dressed in security outfit, with a baton (not gun). For some reason, I guess to scare people into not commiting bad stuff, they announce their rounds audibly. Mostly they use a whistle. For a while, our local guard used a bicycle horn. You know, those little rubber ones. Quite funny.

Neighbours. There is always some neighbour you can hear. Not like in Sweden, where some  apartment houses are totally silent. In Colombia there is always someone singing,  laughing, talking or just playing music.

Cars honking. This is a common one. If you love car honking, come to Colombia. The one I resent most: people who stop outside the place of their work pal at 5 am and honk to announce their arrival. Quite disturbing to a foreigner like me. For a Colombian? Nah, they don't even hear it.

The local construction site. For some reason, at both places I have lived here, there has been a construciton site close by. I guess because Medellin is progressing. Thing is, in Sweden, the only thing you would hear, is the sounds of the actual construction and a radio playing loud the national radio station called P3. In Colombia, there are no radios playing at construction sites. But there is a constant shouting, workers shouting from the 15th floor to the ground staff and vice verse, to send that up or down. Why does that never occur in Sweden? Do they all have walkie-talkies there? I am not sure.

Parties. This is more at weekends, but especially the night before bigger holidays, there are always several parties going on on the street. Yes, not in the apartmentes, on the very street. People cook "Sancocho" soup in a big bowl right over a woodfire. And they sit around, always with some kind of music equipment that allows the whole block to enjoy the music.

Sorry...

Dear readers, Again I beg you pardon... I have been terribly bad at updating this blog. I guess living in another country makes you busy... The intention with this blog was to tell the story of me as a filmmaker around the world. And since my las post, I have been filming both in Colombia and Australia... Also, I have been in the US (not filming though). Another purpose is to comment on interesting cultural differences that I experience. Something that can be quite relieving to do also as a writer, he he. Anyway, I will do a new effort to keep this blog up. Although I don't promise anything!