JORGE MARIO BETANCUR
No hubo tiempo para la tristeza

The documentary was based on the report ¡Basta ya! Colombia: Memorias de guerra y dignidad [Enough! / Colombia: Memories of War and Dignity], created by the Colombian National Centre for Historical Remembrance [Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica]. The Centre Director is Gonzalo Sánchez, a lawyer, philosopher and the author of several books, including Guerra y política en la sociedad colombiana [War and Politics in Colombian Society, 1991) and Museo, memoria y nación [Museum, Memory and Nation, 2000].

No hubo tiempo para la tristeza [There Was No Time for Sadness] is a bitter depiction of the more than half-century-long civil war in Colombia. The main sides of the military conflict were the government, the left-wing guerrillas and the right-wing paramilitary groups. The war progressed in several stages of intensification. In the 1980s, some of its participants became involved in the drug trade. The report ¡Basta ya! Colombia: Memorias de guerra y dignidad revealed that at least two hundred and twenty thousand people died and twenty-five thousand went missing as a result of the fifty-four years of conflict. The film shows a group of people who want to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again, and who remember how much determination it took to overcome them.

The film No hubo tiempo para la tristeza was chosen by Erika Diettes.