Our own, proudly our own

The Colombian Pacific is the cradle of men and women who have written important chapters in different areas of the country's contemporary history. For the Quibdó African Film Festival, they are a living heritage for new generations. A legacy that allows us to affirm that the region is full of magical characters and stories. Protagonists of subjective films that do not need the big screen to shine and leave their mark.

Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza

So Hendrix, but he is also Hinestroza Barrios.

Quibdó, an afternoon in 1980. As he leaves his homeland behind, sitting on his mother's lap, a little five-year-old boy naively admires the faces and places that cross his path. His eyes feed his childish curiosity with the natural beauty of the surroundings, the contagious laughter and the emblematic smells of Chocoan cuisine. Suddenly, an older woman washes her clothes on the riverbank and sings to her ancestors to commend herself to them. The little boy memorizes even the smallest of her gestures, until he loses sight of her and officially begins the journey to Pereira, his new home.

It is inevitable to talk about director Jhonny Hendrix and to think with a certain ingenuity about the first scene of his subjective film. In this creative and daring exercise, the Colombian pacific must take the honors. If the scene revolves exclusively around him as an insistent observer, a habit that has been vital in his journey as a filmmaker, it loses meaning. And that is something that Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza Barrios, the human being proud of his roots, the first Chocoano who shines with his own light in Colombian cinema and who day by day turns the power of achieving dreams into a living heritage for the adolescents and young people of a department embraced by shortages and state oblivion, would not forgive those who dare to write the script of his story of struggle, perseverance and challenges.

Many people often confuse Jhonny Hendrix with Jimmy, the legendary musician. In fact, they are unaware that Hendrix is his middle name and often confuse it with his first surname. Commercially, it is a success. Impossible to resist this sound combination that does not go unnoticed.

So Hendrix, but he is also Hinestroza Barrios.

In that vein, there is a key scene in this intimate film: Pereira, one morning in 1984. Nine years old, taller, with the same curious look, the little boy must endure the bullying of his classmates because of his skin color. The taunts are merciless, but they do not succeed because the boy from Chocó loves himself intensely and proudly embraces his roots.

Yes, racism is part of the plot. But our protagonist turns it into a power that endows him with a certain emotional immunity so as not to indulge in pitiful speeches or defeats along the way. It is much more empowering to transform the bad moments into unconditional allies who are there to remember the steps taken and those yet to be taken. Sacred teaching of his parents in those lunches dressed in typical pacific gastronomy and unconditional affection.

The image of his father taking him to the movies when he was six years old sneaks in without permission and a masterful scene has to be released to create another one: an afternoon in 1981 in the new city. Full house in the small theater. The child stares unblinkingly at the big screen. Fleeting laughter. An ebony Totò, worthy of starring in Cinema Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian classic. The insistent observer of the first scene is present. He memorizes even the tiniest detail of this fantastic world that is laid out before his eyes.

It's time for a temporal leap. Years later, the adult Jhonny Hendrix is traveling on a bus bound for Quibdó. He doesn't take his eyes off a couple of women who are talking discreetly. One of them confesses that the father of her three children is also her abuser. The gestures on her face are exactly the same as those of the little five-year-old in the first scene. He memorizes with the speed of a hare faces, dialogues, expressions, emotions released. Incidentally, he uses the fateful confession as a pretext to timidly outline the narrative foundations of Chocó, one of his most acclaimed films, released in 2012.

After such an abrupt change of scene and context, the reader has the right to ask about the previous years. After finishing his high school studies in 1991, madly in love with the seventh art but without any university that offered the possibility of doing so, he decided to study social communication and journalism because of the proximity to the audiovisual.

Both in those days and today, education has always been a priority for the Hinestroza Barrios family. For his father, knowledge is the best legacy a human being can receive. Although the young man does not finish his university studies, the words of his father engraved in his mind, changes the route in the search for learning that the classroom does not provide. In his biopic, he becomes an advertising announcer and production assistant in a commercials company. He even picks up cables. Every experience is welcome in order to advance and reach his goals, a sacred teaching from his mother.

Therein lies the value and meaning of belonging to a home forged with family values, ancestral cultural traditions, love of work and the desire to get ahead. Better yet, to carry two surnames dressed in the strength legacy of their ancestors, men and women born and raised in a region accustomed to resist the onslaught of poverty and lack of opportunities.

The turning point takes place in Cali in 2003. At the age of 28 and with an accumulation of ups and downs, the disciplined Jhonny Hendrix, a man of discipline and a friend of challenges, raised in the culture of clean struggle and the hard-won path to fulfill his dreams, opened the doors of Antorcha Films, a business project for film and television production. From this point on, the story of the Chocoano is made up of scenes where challenges and triumphs form an exciting duo.

With a slow but steady walk, the echo of his talent reverberates in the audiovisual guild of the capital of Valle del Cauca. Jhonny Hendrix opens his wings to fly in a sky of his own, where the impossible flutter like butterflies. Yes, so Hendrix. He is also Hinestroza Barrios and those surnames deserve praise and thanks. They symbolize the innumerable efforts of an Afro-descendant couple to raise their children, the purpose of many Pacific families who migrate from rural and urban areas of the region to other cities in the country in search of a prosperous future.

Another key scene of his subjective film must be imagined and narrated: Cali, a 2006 afternoon in a downtown street of the Sultana del Valle, during the making of Perro come Perro, directed by Carlos Moreno. While Moreno ties his soul to the camera, he, in his role as producer, with his peculiar gaze, penetrates to the depths of the fictional atmosphere. As a result of his discipline and perfectionism, his name was heard at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008.

That same year, he obtained a grant from the Carolina Foundation to finish the script of Saudó, another of his audiovisual gems, released in 2016, a dense journey to the most intrinsic part of the spirituality that inhabits Cértegui, a municipality he visits with his father at the age of 11. That journey, merits imagining a night scene in 1986 Chocó: sitting next to his progenitor, the preteen Jhonny Hendrix listens to stories of witches, rituals and myths. The eyes are the mind: they store the information without letting out a sigh.

The character of Sixta, the blind old woman who helps the protagonist find the cure for her son's illness, resembles the old woman who sings to her ancestors in the imaginary scene in the first paragraph. Surely, that woman is also part of the Cértegui of that time.

Between the premiere of Chocó and that of Saudó, there is a chronological distance of four years. Four years in which Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza Barrios, the human being behind the film director, continues with his subjective film, the one that does not need the big screen to captivate others. He does not fail to highlight scenes where the pride of being Afro-descendant, his triumphant attitude and the victories achieved pay tribute to the self-esteem of this child who lives racism in Pereira in his own flesh.

Introspective childbirth allows him to bring to the world in 2018 Candelaria, a love story set in Cuba in 1994. The great Jhonny Hendrix triumphs in Venice, his name makes history and becomes a trademark. But the most exciting story will always be the one that dwells in his two surnames, the memories of the child growing up in the coffee-growing region and the memories of those lunches dressed in typical gastronomy and laughter in unison. Scenes from a subjective film that is an example of life for the teenagers and young dreamers of the Pacific..

Yes, so Hendrix and famous. But he is also Hinestroza Barrios.