By Larry Yepez Jr. - Blogayeto
Zoe Saldana's up coming film is titled Colombiana, is the story of Cataleya, a 9year old Colombian girl who watches her parents being killed and grows up to get revenge on her parents killers. But how appropriate is this title for this film?
Let's dissect this for a moment:
A film title is obviously very important. The title is supposed to tell you what the film is all bout usually in just one word or a short phrase. It's supposed to grab the essence, the feel, the mood of the film, it should be a catchy name, something that when movie buffs mention the name, it automatically bursts the images of the film in that person's mind. Colombiana is a good name for a title, but what do most people envision now a days when talking about Colombian women? Shakira or Sofia Vergara are the first to pop into most minds, in general its a vision of exotic beauties, veluptuous bodies, generally light skinned; and of character: definitely strong, charming and sexy females.
Zoe Saldana was born in Passaic New Jersey, her father is Dominican and her mother is Puerto Rican. Zoe has lived in the United States all her life. So why was Zoe chosen to play Colombiana? Has she ever even been to Colombia? Physically, Zoe is beautiful, we can't deny this, but she's Caribbean island beautiful, she's not a typical Colombian beauty. So Zoe's beauty is the first aspect we question that does not fit in this film.
The tagline of the film which they mention 5 times in the trailer is "Cataleya, never forget where you came from." First of all starting with the Colombiana's name; Cataleya is not a Colombian name, Catalina maybe, but not Cataleya. Second, if a loving Colombian father tells his traumatized little girl: "...never forget where you came from..." Most sure she would grow up to be a very patriotic Colombiana, loving and loyal to her country, her culture and her language, right? You would think so. But the trailer for this films shows nothing of the sort. No cumbia dancing or coffee picking in the Colombian Coffee triangle, or eloquent Spanish speaking. On the contrary, from what we see in the trailer, most of the film takes place in Chicago of all places! Lets hope we just didn't get to see the Colombian aspect in the trailer, but that it is in the film. I know I will be looking for it.
The producers of this film obviously wanted to use Colombia's 80's violent drug war reputation, to tell the story of a kick ass latin female. This story line only perpetuates the fake myth that Colombia still has a bunch of assasins running around killing people left and right, ordered by major drug kingpins. I'm not saying that drugs aren't a problem anymore in Colombia, but for sure it is not Pablo Escobar's violent and bloody 80's! We all know most Colombians to be generally happy, hard working and outgoing people, not vengeful angry assasins. And so the film seems to be, on a reality level, out of context as well.
If they wanted to do a film with specifically Zoe in mind, they could have come up with a similar storyline in the Caribbean and should have called it 'Dominicana' or even 'La Boricua'! This would have kept it true to the essence of the Caribbean culture and to Zoe's background. No doubt these would have been more believable titles. This is quite a slap in the face to latin population that hollywood is still generalizing latino stereotypes, and in a sense insulting our intelligence by portraying to the world who we really are, in a wrongful manner.
There is a handful of great, beautiful Colombian actresses that would have been a much better choice to play the role of a believable Colombiana. Here are some just to name a few: Flora Martinez, Zulay Henao, Dana Garcia, Carolina Ramirez, Maria Fernanda Yepes, Maria Adelaida Puerta, Natasha Klauss, Sharik Leon, Angie Cepeda or even Maria Full of Grace's Acadamy Award Nominee for best actress, Catalina Sandino Moreno!
I guess we will have to wait for the release of the film on September 2nd to really see how Colombian 'Colombiana' really is. Do you think that this is an appropriate title for the film? What would you have named it? Who do you think would have been a better choice to play the lead role in Colombiana?
Zoe Saldana's up coming film is titled Colombiana, is the story of Cataleya, a 9year old Colombian girl who watches her parents being killed and grows up to get revenge on her parents killers. But how appropriate is this title for this film?
Let's dissect this for a moment:
A film title is obviously very important. The title is supposed to tell you what the film is all bout usually in just one word or a short phrase. It's supposed to grab the essence, the feel, the mood of the film, it should be a catchy name, something that when movie buffs mention the name, it automatically bursts the images of the film in that person's mind. Colombiana is a good name for a title, but what do most people envision now a days when talking about Colombian women? Shakira or Sofia Vergara are the first to pop into most minds, in general its a vision of exotic beauties, veluptuous bodies, generally light skinned; and of character: definitely strong, charming and sexy females.
Zoe Saldana was born in Passaic New Jersey, her father is Dominican and her mother is Puerto Rican. Zoe has lived in the United States all her life. So why was Zoe chosen to play Colombiana? Has she ever even been to Colombia? Physically, Zoe is beautiful, we can't deny this, but she's Caribbean island beautiful, she's not a typical Colombian beauty. So Zoe's beauty is the first aspect we question that does not fit in this film.
The tagline of the film which they mention 5 times in the trailer is "Cataleya, never forget where you came from." First of all starting with the Colombiana's name; Cataleya is not a Colombian name, Catalina maybe, but not Cataleya. Second, if a loving Colombian father tells his traumatized little girl: "...never forget where you came from..." Most sure she would grow up to be a very patriotic Colombiana, loving and loyal to her country, her culture and her language, right? You would think so. But the trailer for this films shows nothing of the sort. No cumbia dancing or coffee picking in the Colombian Coffee triangle, or eloquent Spanish speaking. On the contrary, from what we see in the trailer, most of the film takes place in Chicago of all places! Lets hope we just didn't get to see the Colombian aspect in the trailer, but that it is in the film. I know I will be looking for it.
The producers of this film obviously wanted to use Colombia's 80's violent drug war reputation, to tell the story of a kick ass latin female. This story line only perpetuates the fake myth that Colombia still has a bunch of assasins running around killing people left and right, ordered by major drug kingpins. I'm not saying that drugs aren't a problem anymore in Colombia, but for sure it is not Pablo Escobar's violent and bloody 80's! We all know most Colombians to be generally happy, hard working and outgoing people, not vengeful angry assasins. And so the film seems to be, on a reality level, out of context as well.
If they wanted to do a film with specifically Zoe in mind, they could have come up with a similar storyline in the Caribbean and should have called it 'Dominicana' or even 'La Boricua'! This would have kept it true to the essence of the Caribbean culture and to Zoe's background. No doubt these would have been more believable titles. This is quite a slap in the face to latin population that hollywood is still generalizing latino stereotypes, and in a sense insulting our intelligence by portraying to the world who we really are, in a wrongful manner.
There is a handful of great, beautiful Colombian actresses that would have been a much better choice to play the role of a believable Colombiana. Here are some just to name a few: Flora Martinez, Zulay Henao, Dana Garcia, Carolina Ramirez, Maria Fernanda Yepes, Maria Adelaida Puerta, Natasha Klauss, Sharik Leon, Angie Cepeda or even Maria Full of Grace's Acadamy Award Nominee for best actress, Catalina Sandino Moreno!
I guess we will have to wait for the release of the film on September 2nd to really see how Colombian 'Colombiana' really is. Do you think that this is an appropriate title for the film? What would you have named it? Who do you think would have been a better choice to play the lead role in Colombiana?
