Colombia made the news in a spectacular way last month after CIA operatives got caught with their pants down while preparing for Obama’s visit to the troubled yet beautiful South American nation. Lost in the hype was a film about racism.

Directed by Juan Andrés Arango, and titled ‘La Playa D.C.,’ the film centers on Tomas, an Afro-Colombian teenager struggling with the difficulties of growing up in a city (Bogota) of exclusion and racism against those who look like him. When his younger brother disappears, Tomas is forced to leave his home to look for him. With the help from his older brother Chaco, Tomas roams the city’s streets, as his search becomes more of a journey in which he’s forced to face his past, and to leave aside the influence of his brothers in order to find his own identity, all with the vibrancy and instability of a city in flux as the film’s backdrop.

The film showed at  Cannes under the In Certain Regard section but did not win distribution.

When ‘La Playa DC’  hits NYC, and we’re certain it will, I will definitely check it out.

Indiewire