Colombia is a nation rich in natural beauty and untouched places. Untouched by modern life and untouched by tourists. This is true, in part, due to decades of civil war in the country. Thankfully, on 23 June 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels signed a historic ceasefire deal.
According to a study by Colombia’s National Centre for Historical Memory, 220,000 people died in the Conflicto armado interno de Colombia between 1958 and 2013, most of them civilians, and more than five million civilians were forced from their homes between 1985 and 2012, generating the world’s second-largest population of internally displaced persons.
The following program from Chevrolet and Commonwealth / McCann does not shy away from the impact that the war has had on the people of Columbia. It also shows the people working together to make something better and to make spaces where peace and new prosperity can take root.
Featuring journalist María Alejandra Cardona, the documentary FINDING THE NEW ROADS OF COLOMBIA premiered on Discovery Channel across Latin America. During the production, the film crew travels to Caquetá, a Columbian state that is nearly the size of Portugal. It’s also one of the most biodiverse and least explored regions in the country.
“We proposed that Chevrolet effectively break new ground here, and meaningfully tell this story that takes us to places practically unknown geographically and emotionally”, says Samuel Estrada, President of McCann’s Creative Leadership Council in Latin America and Director of Commonwealth / McCann South America West.
Breaking new ground is an interesting admission from Estrada, intentional or not. The narrative beneath the narrative here is BUY CARS and drive them into the Amazon.
While adventure travel is a thrill for the eco-tourists from far away places, what about the local people and what they need to live and to prosper? Do the locals need to open a guide service that takes people to secret waterfalls in the jungle? Or do they need to protect their natural resources and raw beauty from the ravages of modernity? It’s a question unasked and therefore unanswered in this brand-sponsored documentary.
