In 2014 I travelled to Caribbean Colombia with all my filming equipment in one small bag to discover the footprints of one of my favourite writers, Gabriel García Márquez. The year before I was a scholar in a cultural journalism course organized by his own journalism foundation (FNPI). Then I spent three unforgettable weeks in the three most important cities of his Colombian life, Cartagena de Indias, Barranquilla, Aracataca and decided to return and capture with my camera what captivated me so much there.
Two weeks before my departure García Márquez had died in Mexico. This unexpected event rewrote the script which had anyway been spontaneous. I spent quite a long time with his brother, Jaime García Márquez, his sisters Aida and Lígia, his friend from early childhood, Señor Joaquín and others who had some kind of connection with the writer, or Gabo, as he is called all over Latin America.
I returned in 2017 as I felt the material wasn’t complete. Something was missing. When I realized, it was music, I went to meet musicians and other people who would talk about how vallenato, the local story-telling style inspired Gabo thourgh his life. I met new interesting characters and finally in 2019 I could finish the long journey that took me 5,5 years. The documentary is available online for a price of a cinema ticket HERE IN ENGLISH, and HERE IN SPANISH.
The documentary is now on NETFLIX in LATIN AMERICA, USA, CANADA and SPAIN. In English the title changed to What a Party! Stories About Gabriel García Márquez.
