La buena vida – The Good Life
Jens Schanze, doc, 97 min., GER/CH 2015
Bavarian Film Award 2015
Jairo Fuentes is the young leader of Tamaquito, a village in the forests of Colombia. Here, nature provides the people with everything they need. For centuries, the Wayúu have hunted in the mountains, foraged for fruit and reared their animals.
But the Wayúu community’s way of life is being destroyed by the vast El Cerrejón coal mine. Every day, the pit gets deeper, gnawing away at the unspoilt landscape. The coal from El Cerrejón feeds power stations around the world, which generate the electricity to keep our lives fast-paced, bright and warm.
Determined to save his community from forced displacement, Jairo Fuentes sets out to negotiate with the mine’s operators who are backed by powerful companies such as Glencore, Anglo American and BHP Billiton. The villagers are promised the blessings of progress, but the Wayúu place no value on modern, electrified houses – on the so-called better life.
Instead, they embark on a fight to save their life in the forest, which soon becomes a fight to survive.
Festivals & Awards
Best Documentary, Bavarian Film Award, 2015, Germany
Nominated for the German Human Rights Film Award, 2016, Germany
Doc Selection 2015, European Film Academy
Shortlist German Film Award, 2015
Best Film, Naturfilmfestival Neusterlitz, 2015, Germany
Best Documentary, Boston International Latino Festival, 2016, USA
Best Film Sustainable Development, Festival du Film Vert, 2016, Switzerland
Best Documentary Feature Film, Golden Tree Int. Documentary Film Festival Frankfurt, 2016, Germany
Best Film, Festival du Film, Recherche, Développement Durable, FReDD, 2016, France
Main Award, 14th Gdańsk DocFilm Festival, 2016, Poland
Audience Award, Festival des Umwelt- und Naturfilms, Ökofilmtour, 2016, Germany
Jury Award, Robert Geisendörfer Award, 2017, Germany
Nominated for the Marler Media Award Human Rights, 2017, Germany
DEKALOG Film Award related to the 7th commandment, Guardini Stiftung, 2016, Germany
Special Mention, Festival Internacional de Cine Ambiental, FINCA, 2016, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Berlinale, 2015, Germany
Visions du Réel, 2015, Nyon, Switzerland
Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, 2015, Havana, Cuba
Dokfest München, 2015, Germany
San Diego Latino Film Festival, 2016, USA
Human Rights & Arts Film Festival, 2016, Australia
Festival – Film, Recherche et Développement Durable Toulouse, 2016, France
Nonfiktionale, Bad Aibling, 2017, Germany
Go Future Festival, Charleroi, 2017, Belgium
Festival du Film Vert, 2016, Switzerland and France
Millenium International Documentary Film Festival Brussels, 2016, Belgium
Festival Internacional de Cine de Barranquilla, 2016, Colombia
International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights Geneva, 2016, Switzerland
14th Verzio, International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Budapest, 2017, Hungary
Escales Documentaires, Documentary Film Festival, La Rochelle, 2017, France
Doc Feed Film Festival Eindhoven, 2016, Netherlands
Boston International Latino Festival, 2016, USA
Ekofilm Festival, 2015, Czech Republic
CinemAmbiente Environmental Film Festival Turin, 2015, Italy
Latinodocs Festival Toulouse, 2015, France
Docs Barcelona+Medellin, 2015, Colombia
FICCI, Cartagena International Film Festival, 2015, Colombia
Environmental Film Festival, Washington D.C., 2016, U.S.
Festival Latino, Mannheim, 2015, Germany
Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival, 2015, Ireland
Crossroads Festival Graz, 2015, Austria
Festival des neuen Heimatfilms Freistadt, 2015, Austria
Kinofest Lünen, 2015, Germany
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY
«This documentary is touching, illuminating, and enraging.»
Thomas Klingenmaier, Stuttgarter Zeitung, Germany
«A film like a battle scene painting and a lesson on the global economy.»
Johannes Bluth, critic.de
«A film of rare authenticity.»
Bianka Piringer, kino-zeit.de
«Brilliant and immensely upsetting.»
Björn Schneider, programmkino.de
«The film empathetically depicts the struggle between the powerful and the meek.»
Greenpeace Magazin, Germany
«A disturbing and touching film.»
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, Germany
«Jens Schanze’s film is a cinematically complex and vivid account of the corporate practices used to destroy the livelihoods of local people and how the “mediation process” is effectively organized.»
Betty Schiel, trailer-ruhr.de
The film’s Official website
Production: Mascha Film, Munich, & soap factory GmbH, Basel, in co-production with ZDF/3sat
Writer, director: Jens Schanze
Original version in Spanish, Wayùu, English and German with English, German, Spanish and French subtitles, DCP, 97 min.
World rights: Mascha Film & soap factory GmbH
World sales: MAGNETFILM GmbH
Distribution Switzerland: cineworx
Distribution Germany and Austria: Camino Filmverleih GmbH
Crew
Producers: Jens Schanze, Judith Malek-Mahdavi, Mascha Film
Frank Matter, soap factory GmbH
Writer, director: Jens Schanze
DOP: Börres Weiffenbach
Assistant camera: Helge Haack
Location sound: Carlos Ibañez Díaz, Jesús Casquete González, Thorsten Czart, Markus Seitz
With: Jairo Dionisio Fuentes Epiayu, Henrys Ureche Epiayu, Ingris Yohana Ureche Epiayu, Lenis Alfonso Ipuana, Alfonso López Epiayu, Edgar Sarmiento, María Teresa Roméro, Jairo Vergara, Juan Carlos Restrepo, Claudia Salazar, Tony Hayward
Editor: Bernd Euscher
Music: Victor Moser, Rainer Bartesch
Assistant director: Etienne Boussac Marulanda
Line producer: Frank Matter
Supervising producer: Judith Malek-Mahdavi
Editors ZDF/3sat: Margrit Schreiber-Brunner, Udo Bremer
Production managment Colombia: Liliana Rincón L.
Productions office: Loredana-Nastassja Fernández
Production assistants: Stephanie Olthoff, Timo Linus Posselt
Postproduction supervisor, VFX: Christoffer Kempel
Color grading: Yvonne Tran, Arri Film & TV Services GmbH
Sound design: Marc Parisotto, Daniel Dietenberger
Foley artist: Michael Stancyk
Foley recordings: Tom Geldhauser
Sound mix: Michael Hinreiner
Titles: Klaus Affolter, bytes & bones
Financial Support
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern
Filmförderung des Bundes BKM
Deutscher Filmförderfonds DFFF
Film- und Medienstiftung NRW
ZDF/3sat
Kirchlicher Entwicklungsdienst durch Brot für die Welt – Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst
Evangelisches Zentrum für entwicklungsbezogene Filmarbeit EZEF
Misereor e.V.
Lufthansa AG
Oxfam Deutschland e.V.
Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung e.V. Cono Sur
klima-allianz deutschland
Bundesamt für Kultur (EDI), Schweiz
Fachausschuss Audiovision und Multimedia Basel-Stadt/Basel-Land
éducation21, «Filme für eine Welt» mit Unterstützung der Direktion für Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit DEZA
Ernst Göhner Stiftung
george foundation
Reformierte Kirchen Bern-Jura-Solothurn, Bereich OeME und Migration
Verein Zukunft statt Kohle
Verein myblueplanet