'El Beat', the documentary presented at Ficci 61 that exalts the struggle of Benkos Biohó and the music of palenque

A brief review of the history of Colombia: “A palenque was the palisade built by slaves who had escaped from their masters. There they were hiding in order to be captured again. The one in San Basilio was founded in the 17th century by a group of black maroons under the command of Benkos Biohó. It is located 60 kilometers from Cartagena, which in times of rain becomes impassable. Perhaps because of the isolation in which they have lived since their origins, they preserve the traditions of their African ancestors,” Salcedo Ramos' pen highlighted in his chronicle 'A Sunday in San Basilio de Palenque', one of the best-known accounts of this people who were the first with a black population to break free from the Spanish yoke.

Since the 1600s (when the tyrant commanded the streets of Cartagena, as the verse of Joe Arroyo's' Rebellion 'proclaims), this Bolivian land managed to free itself from the rule of the conquistadors, which also meant that the inhabitants of San Basilio de Palenque had to make every effort to maintain their traditions, both raizal and cultural, including their music.

Precisely, this element (like all the people in general) is exalted in the documentary 'The Beat', which, in principle, was born under the idea of mixing history with fiction, all around the music of the municipality. However, the life and work of Benkos Biohó shone in the face of other mitigating factors, and it shone brighter with its launch at the 61st edition of the Cartagena International Film Festival, just on 17 March, the day when 401 years of his death were commemorated.

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The drums, musical and wrestling instruments typical of San Basilio, set the short film that not only claims the struggle of the slaves told through the current generations of already free palenqueros, but also highlights the valuable contribution of music in this Bolivian people and which has a direct connection to the roots african.

According to Irene Dimaté, director of 'El Beat', all this accumulation of elements, highlighted in the municipality and in the footage itself, is worthy of showing in schools within the teaching of Colombian history, since Biohó's contribution to America must be known in the same way that Simón Bolívar's teaching is imposed.

Similarly, the filmmaker said on National Radio that she hopes that in the not distant future, the inhabitants of San Basilio will arm themselves with cameras and manage to create their own productions that will serve to feed the history of their region and of national cinema.

With regard to the documentary released on the 17th, it was screened again on Saturday 19th at the Clock Tower. Regarding the production, it had the participation of Carolina Del Mar Fernández, who with Dimaté arrived in Palenque to collect the stories about the life and footprint of Biohó, as well as the production of Tatiana Villacob and the photograph by Mauricio Reyes.

'El Beat' had already had a preview in the town of Bolívar, but its directors went further by premiering it in Cartagena de Indias, where just the Spanish crown had betrayed the peace agreement made with the negritudes and the slaves, leading to the death of Benkos Biohó himself, which ignited the fuse of the continuity of the struggle for independence of the Maroon peoples.

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