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The Vampires of Poverty
Agarrando Pueblo
A TV film crew is shooting in the streets of Cali, searching for poor people, bums, whores, street kids, in order to build a mise-en-scene of misery. The Vampires of Poverty is an action film masquerading as a documentary about filmmakers who exploit poverty for profit, with a touch of black humour, but most of all a scathing critique against ‘misery porn’ and the opportunism of those filmmakers who make ‘socio-political’ films in the Third World to make money and win prizes in Europe.
Bio Carlos Mayolo
Colombian Carlos Mayolo (1945–2007) began his career as a documentary director and occasionally as an actor. In 1974, he created the documentary ¡Chile no se rinde, carajo! together with Jaime Osorio, which focused on Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship and the protests. The Vampires of Poverty (1978) was produced together with Luis Ospina.
Bio Luis Ospina
Luis Ospina (1949-2019) studied film at UCLA and has made many short and feature-length films, including Capítulo 66 with Raul Ruíz. From 2007 until his death in 2019, he was the Artistic Director of the Cali International Film Festival.
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- This film was #20 in the “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025