Mercedes Gaviria Jaramillo grew up in Columbia, often behind the video camera of her father, the famous director Victor Gaviria (The Rose Seller). An insightful filmmaker herself, Jaramillo saw an opportunity with her father’s request that she assist with his production of The Animal’s Wife. The Calm After the Storm (Como el Cielo Después de Llover) is Jaramillo’s critical response to the exclusionary world of cinema, and a behind-the-scenes look at both The Animal’s Wife and Gaviria’s home videos.
The documentary cuts back and forth between Jaramillo’s current-day footage of the feature film’s production and her father’s home videos of her mother, brother, and herself. Jaramillo’s narration consistently overlays the two and is strikingly poetic, albeit too heavily relied upon to create meaning. In one scene, Gaviria insists to his daughter that the explicit abuse sequences in The Animal’s Wife are necessary for the sake of “hyper-realism.” He admits to knowing the female cast members regularly mix Clonazepam and alcohol in order to forget the scenes they have filmed.
Jaramillo’s commentary on the interaction is simple, but potent; critical, but not quite indicting–consistent with the tone of the documentary as a whole. She contemplates “the contradiction of filming a rape scene, being the privileged gender.” It’s a gentle nudge for viewers to look more closely at another prevalent contradiction in the film industry: that commentary on real-life often ignores the immediate reality behind the scenes.
This is not Jaramillo’s story of coming out from under her father’s shadow to prove her own worth as a filmmaker (though she certainly does this). She creates something more complex than an inspiring feature film. In pouring back over home videos, she fixedly studies her father, looking at him look at her through his own camera lens. She rescues his old family footage to refocus on the women in his life, and so strikingly juxtaposes the beautiful and laughter-filled moments with the inequality sometimes displayed in her parents’ relationship. By incorporating these moments into The Calm, Jaramillo brings her father’s first videos to a full circle and highlights a fascinating contrast between his way of looking at the world and her own.
Intimate and brave, if somewhat meandering, The Calm After the Storm is a meaningful feminist debut for Jaramillo and a relevant watch for those with a longtime interest in Victor Gaviria. Recommended for documentary and world cinema shelves.
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