American Premiere of Life's Roulette

On Saturday, October 30, the CCA ion Santa Fe will host the American premiere of "Life's Roulette", the world's first fictional feature film made by former child soldiers.  The young men and women who had fought on both sides in the Colombian civil war use the metaphor of urban life to tell the story of their own lives, making what some critics have called "a true work of art".

Though the movie deals with difficult stories, don't fear that it is a downer, or something to inspire a guilt-trip in the viewer.  In addition to moments of comedy, the film ends happily, reflecting the positive turn that the kids felt they had made as they learned cinema and other skills to help them make their way in the world.  One of the young filmmakers expressed his hopes in this way:

“As we show this film, I think that the way people think will change.  They’ll look at us in a different way. They’ll see that we have these difficulties, but also these qualities that matter more than what’s bad. What’s good about every human being is that we have bad qualities,  but we also have good qualities that overcome the bad.” 

The film doesn't hide the fact that the camera-men and -women had guns, and not cameras, in their hands, only weeks before they began filming.  It is often rough, often shaky, but always compelling, as teenagers who had been child soldiers show that they can be something else.

Life's Roulette: at the CCA, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, in Santa Fe, at 1 PM on Saturday, October 30.  $5 donation in lieu of tickets.  After the showing, several of the young filmmakers and former child soldiers will join us from Colombia through internet video-conferencing.