Bogotá, May 11 (Prensa Latina) Colombian-German filmmaker Jennifer Steffens presents The Politics of Love, a documentary about the intimate and family life of Historic Pact candidate Gustavo Petro, today’s favorite to win the May 29 elections.
In the presence of former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and a full house, Steffens celebrated the premiere of the feature film last night at the Astor Plaza Theater in Bogotá, where Petro’s family was also present.
“I have been pursuing this goal for almost a year. I am a supporter of the politics of this country and I have followed the events very closely, and in particular Gustavo Petro Urrego,” said the director and actress.
He assured that his life and political thinking about Petro caught his attention and that’s why he felt the country deserved to know his private life.
“I asked him and Verónica Alcocer to allow me to enter their house with a lens,” said Steffens, who highlighted the generosity of the presidential candidate and his family, who opened the doors to his intimate life, a space around which people care very much .
“I was very jealous of my private life, but in this work I was very respectful because my thing isn’t sensationalism or ‘rating’. I wanted to show the human side of someone who contributes a lot to the country,” he said.
Steffens revealed the enormous challenge of shooting this documentary in the middle of an election campaign where the main obstacle is time.
The documentary begins with Petro’s childhood, with his stroll through the salt mines, his fondness for aimless wandering in the mountains and the colonial streets of Zipaquirá, a town in the department of Cundinamrca, where he formed his character.
His wife Verónica Alcocer used in the presentation a ruana woven in Sonsón (Antioquia) by women who have been victims of violence and are part of a project that aims to preserve ancestral knowledge.
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