LA SELVA INFLADA
The Inflated Jungle

An isolated population in the Colombian Amazon region has suffered a series of suicides amongst its younger inhabitants, both male and female, between the ages of 14 and 25, all born in indigenous families and all having education. In these deaths we can see the contradiction that the current generation of the Vaupes jungle face. After finishing their western style education they must journey back to their aboriginal communities, where the limits that they inhabit in are clear. With The Inflated Jungle Alejandro Naranjo shows the thin and frictional border between the vanishing pre-hispanic populations and the modern world.

Alejandro Naranjo is a Colombian filmmaker born in Bogota in 1985. Naranjo graduated in journalism from Javeriana University (Bogota, 2008) and as Director of Photography from CFP SICA – Sindicato de la Industria Cinematográfica Argentina (Buenos Aires, 2012). His first documentary short film, Cebolla en Fiesta(2010), was selected for the Cine Pobre Film Festival in 2010 and for the San Fermi?n Film Festival in 2011. In 2008 he created the collective DirtyMacDocs with other young local filmmakers, for the production of ethnographic documentaries. Together they have made several films, for example “Four Men alone”, which has obtained awards as “Best National Documentary” in the Villa de Leyva International Film Festival in 2009, and “Best documentary of the state” by the Tolima Film Council in 2010. His latest documentary La Selva Inflada has been shown internationally at festivals It was also selected in events sponsored by Ibermedia: Mirada de dos mundos (Cali, 2011) and IBERDOC (Merida, 2013).