Filmmaker Declan Lynch reveals the story behind his documentary film Atlantis: 25 Years Of Solitude, shot in 1996 and receiving its belated premiere at this year's IndieCork Film Festival.
July 30th 1996, I turned 24 and landed in Bogota, Colombia on a flight from Panama City with my fellow backpacker and Tipperary man, Johnny Coffey. Our plan was to shoot a documentary based on a book we had read called Born To Die In Medellin, an account of the violent young gangs in Columbia's drug capital.
We booked into a small hostel called Platypus in the historic la Candelaria neighbourhood in the city's downtown district. No amount of cautious tales from fellow travelers concerning the potential perils of Bogota were going to stop us for marking the occasion. We went out and celebrated, and met many a local in the process. The city and its people welcomed us, and that set the tone for the months to follow.
On the documentary front, luck opened up another path, in our hostel, we happened across diary entries from people who had visited a commune in Caqueta, the South Eastern region of the country. Various backpackers had written about a colourful eco-friendly and unconventional tribe; the stories were intriguing, and we were curious. We started to feel our Medellin story was beyond us - we were young, first-time film makers and truth be told, we felt we couldn't do it justice.
Five hours into the trip, we hit our first FARC checkpoint and started to understand first hand the caution suggested by friends back in Bogota.
So here was another story. We learned that the commune, known locally as ‘Atlantis’, had a past - in Donegal of all places. Back there, they had been known as 'The Screamers’. We researched what we could locally, and asked friends at home to send us more info. Filled with youthful bravado, a few weeks later we were ready for production - or so we thought. In 1996, broadcast documentaries were not made on cameras affordable to idealistic young filmmakers. We contacted a local production company and did a deal. Five hours into the trip, we hit our first FARC checkpoint and started to understand first hand the caution suggested by friends back in Bogota. The crew were nervous. We were confident - we were open about our reason to be there, and the story held up. We are shooting a documentary - what harm? We arrived in the small town of Rovira some hours later, and stayed the night in rooms at the back of a local bar. The next morning, we hiked half a day into the mountainous cloud forest, where we finally met the Atlantis community. They welcomed us, fed us and were open about their past in Ireland and their ongoing mission in Colombia.
Caqueta at the time was a FARC-controlled region, with a thriving trade in heroin production. The Atlantis commune were buying land with money raised in Europe, farming what land they could and simply conserving the rest. Their message to local farmers was one of sustainable agriculture: why cultivate poppies or grow coca leaves to buy food, when you can grow your own?
We shot a lot of footage. Our inexperience and curiosity took us down the many paths the story offered. Over time, we returned later to film at the farm in Caqueta and a second farm owned by the Commune. We also spoke to farmers, political figures, ecologists and Bogota residents. Months passed. Our money ran out. We worked what jobs we could find, shot what we felt was needed and eventually returned to Ireland to find work and fund post-production - a process that took another two years.
Our time in Colombia was a mixture of work and socialising. Filming took us to places we would not otherwise have seen, and led us to adventures we would never forget. We were held by the FARC while they ‘interviewed’ us and sought to corroborate our documentary story, shifting through multiple hours of footage in detail while we were both detained (but well fed). The wildlife presented its fair share of threats too, from poisonous snakes, to scorpions napping in sleeping bags. While not shooting or planning production we explored the country. On one of these many adventures, Johnny met a Columbian student, Margarita, and another new and lasting adventure began.
Filming took us to places we would not otherwise have seen, and led us to adventures we would never forget.
We discussed, argued, edited and re-edited until we completed the documentary in 1998. We tried in vain to get it broadcast, but as we eventually and reluctantly conceded, it wasn’t to be. So instead it became a great story that we told new friends for a while, one less mentioned over time. We chalked it up as a great experience, and both moved on. Johnny and Margarita now live with their children in Columbia, and I started a family in Ghent, Belgium. The documentary never screened. And the wild story of the Atlantis community, and their journey from Donegal to Columbia remained untold.
An email in September from the IndieCork Film Festival sparked a distant memory. 'We’d like to show your documentary Atlantis: 25 Years Of Solitude' read the email. 'Great’ - our reply.
So some 20 plus years later, our film finally gets its premiere. It took a bit of time.
Atlantis: 25 Years Of Solitude screens at the IndieCork Film Festival on Tuesday, October 10th - view the festival programme here. John Oliver Coffey can be found being a digital guru @johnthunder and Declan Lynch is still making films @lildec. They still argue about the final edit of their documentary.
