Carmen Paniagua from HiperBarrio

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January this year I interviewed several citizen journalists from the HiperBarrio project in La Loma, a small hillside community on the outskirts of Medellín, Colombia. The footage was to be used in a larger internet documentary about how the project is changing the community, which today still balances on an uncomfortable precipice between its violent past and optimistic future. Sadly, the administrative tasks of Rising Voices have taken up all my time and the interviews have been sitting on my hard drive for months now. I hope that the documentary will still be produced, but in the meantime, I will publish a series of 90 second shorts featuring each of the HiperBarrio participants.

Today's video features Carmen Paniagua, the lyrical poet and songwriter of the group. Carmen is incredibly shy, especially behind the lens of a camera, but her eyes and ears are always observing, keen observations about herself and her community which make their way into each of her poems and posted published frequently on h /em>. Carmen is also one of the authors of Nunca Será Suficiente, a group blog novel.

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4 comments

  • Carmen is one amazing lady I hope she wil be able pursue her litterature studies to write more great poems

    French translation done!
    We will do our best to load the rest of our videos too…wait connectivity is still depressing back in Madagascar.

  • This is a good way to give a hint on advance of what the documentary is all about. The setting, lighting and trust that the interviwer have mangaged to get from Carmen are unique.

    I agree with Jogany at Carmen is an amazing person. I was very moved by this interview.
    Great work.

  • carmen is a person with a lot of talent and it is very special, it is skilled, he/she has a lot but to give to the world, I am glad a lot them to publish this on her

  • […] You can get to know Carmen better – and discover how she came up with the idea of full moon get-togethers – in the following video from May, 2008: […]

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