Domestic violence in Colombian film: Libia Gómez’s “Ella”. Exploring feminist film for social transformation through a case study methodology

In line with a global landscape in which domestic violence is amongst the most prominent gender-based problematics in contemporaneity, this project is concerned with the mediatized discourses of domestic violence in Colombia. Specifically, it departs from the scarce treatment that Colombia’s film industry has given to this hardship, considering that cinema has proven beneficial to assist in alternative socio-cultural transformation processes (Cupples, 2015; Roncallo & Arias-Herrera, 2013). Against a national film industry in which men have directed most fiction productions about domestic violence, Libia Gómez’s film Ella (2015) arises as an exceptional case in which female authorship meets the public discussion of domestic violence against women. In this sense, this document aims to explore this film to account for the representational, personal, and industrial dynamics that may arise when female filmmakers represent domestic violence in Colombia. To address this issue, three sub-questions are posed. First, the study evaluated how domestic violence was represented in Ella. Second, it inquired the role Ella’s filmmakers assumed when producing a film about domestic violence. Third, the study investigated what opportunities and challenges these artists negotiated in agreement with their perceived roles. To accomplish this goal, the researcher conducted a case study through a multi-methodological approach. For this purpose, a character analysis methodology (Pérez Rufí, 2017) was combined with in-depth interviews with Ella’s director and four ex-students who participated in the film’s production. The findings underscored that domestic violence was represented in potentially transformative ways in Ella, since the film offered an alternative to blockbuster portrayals of household violence. Additionally, the research findings show how female filmmakers in Colombia deem that cinema is a compelling format to denounce domestic violence, learn from vulnerable individuals, and implement new industrial methodologies based on female subjectivities, care, and pedagogical approaches. Finally, the study also identified that female filmmakers encounter multiple gender-based disparities, financial obstacles, as well as emotional and physical challenges in their attempt to address domestic violence against women. Howbeit, these artists also saw the industry as a scenario for academic and personal growth, and the potential to increase the credibility of women as industrial workers and agents of socio-cultural transformation.