Juanita Onzaga

Colombian filmmaker and visual artist currently based between Bogotá, Brussels and Mexico. In her films, Juanita combines fiction and non-fiction elements, touching the importance of memory, death and imagination, creating poetic tales that reflect different ways of perceiving reality within strong political contexts. Her work explores the crossroads between mysticism, ancestral knowledge, transformation of trauma from violent conflict, the dreamworlds, animism, futurism, technology and dance.

Her first short film THE JUNGLE KNOWS YOU BETTER THAN YOU DO premiered at Berlinale Generation 2017, where it won the Jury Prize for Best Short; the film was also selected at San Sebastian, Busan, and more than 40 festivals, obtaining the VAF wildcard and multiple awards.

In 2018, her second short film OUR SONG TO WAR premiered at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Cannes and was selected for more than 80 international festivals, such as Clermont Ferrand, IDFA, and DokLeipzig, winning multiple prizes.

Her recent short film TOMMORROW IS A WATER PALACE premiered at IFFR 2022 as part of the Ammodo Tiger Competition and screened at the Museum of Modern Art of New York as part of Movies from Earth.

Filmography

Features

In development:

Shorts

2023: Sanctuary
2023: Floating with Spirits
2022: Tommorow is a Winter Palace
2018: Our Song to War
2017: The Jungle Knows You Better Than You Do