https://player.vimeo.com/video/881503269?autoplay=1&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0

THICK SKIN

To be able to live in Bogotá, you need a skin than can adapt, that can turn reptilian when it doesn’t stop raining for weeks and that can go soft when the woman in the corner shop gives you a free morning coffee. Thick Skin is a dance film that takes the viewer through the Colombian capital high above the Andes with stylized movement that speaks of life in the bustling city.

Credits / Collaborators / Cast

Director and writer: Laura Steiner
Dancers: Improptvs Collective
Ana Contreras
Daniel Corredor
Sebastián Arenales
David Arenales
Director of photography: Soren Nielsen
Field production and styling: Juana Fernández
Original Music: Martin Vélez
Editing: Ana Alvarado
Sound Design: Lyd Estudio
Voice Over Recording: Sebastián Mejía

The story behind the film

I left Bogotá for 12 years and had made a tacit promise to myself that I was never going to live back home in Colombia. Life, of course, has other plans and some promises are meant to be broken. Four years after moving back home I’ve discovered a bustling, warm, exciting, sexy and tropical city. Bogotá has become my muse. Her people, her jarring ways, her attitude, her cold tropical weather. I love her even though to live in her means you have to constantly swap your skin: sometimes a tough skin in order to survive and sometimes a beautifully soft one to let all her life in. Thick Skin is an Ode to Bogotá, to my love for her.