Nada

NADA is a dramatized story based on the lives of people living in the shanty towns which encircle the city of Bogota, capital of Colombia. The people themselves s are the actors and the story they tell is of a woman called Nada (the Spanish word for “nothing”) struggling to find her two missing teenage children and to build a better life for her family. Despite impoverished living conditions the actors portray their lives with pride and dignity.This prograrmme is of particular interest because of the way in which it was made. Writer Barry Collins spent several weeks in Bogota talking to people in the shanty town and recording hours of conversation from which he formed the basis of his script. He and director David Wheatley then traveled together to Bogota to spend more time with the subjects of the film before the film crew joined them. They felt very much that the success of the film was the result of the very close collaboration between film-makers and the people of Bogota themselves. Nada and her fellow ”actors” were happy to portray their lives through Barry Collin’s words because they felt a commitment to the making of the film, and wanted other countries to know more about their lives and struggles.