Short-films

Documentary-Fiction, 2015

Mi Akuario is a documentary that tells the story of the fish aquarium that I left at my house in Colombia. After a year when I returned, my aquarium was much more beautiful than before, it had new fish and new objects. In a conversation with my father, I asked him how the process of caring for the aquarium was while I was away, and he told me all the details very rigorously:

"So everything was bought for the aquarium, new filters and a thermometer for the water to be warm, And we also buy two scoops, because they are the only ones that keep the aquarium clean most of the time (...) and for the maintenance of the aquarium we buy, anti-algae, anti-fungus, anti-chlorine and gentian violet

Exhibit in KINOSHERYL at ELO KEVÄTNÄYTÖS 2015, Film School Helsinki, Finland 22.5.2015

THE JOURNEY OF A BROKEN BIRD

Ye Yint Thet Zwe is a poet who left his country (Burma) for political reasons 20 years ago. He has lived in countries like Japan and Finland. The return home is something that is forbidden for he and his family.

His poem "The Journey of a Broken Bird to his Land " expresses his feelings and love for Burma. The documentary shows us through his poem, images that relate his current space (Finland) with his desire
to return to the prohibited destination.

Directed and Edited by Paola Guzmán Figueroa

I SEE MY EYES
Shortfilm 2020

My interest in working with my eyes came some time ago when I had laser eye surgery to treat my myopia. Myopia means that distant objects look blurry. It all started when I was ten, I used to have glasses, but I remember how difficult it was for me not to lose them since I was always playing various sports at my school.

Consequently, my parents decided that I could wear contact lenses. Over the years, myopia and physical contact with my eyes increased steadily. I felt I was no longer sensitive, and the thought of touching my eyes with my fingers didn't bother me at all.

Directed and edited by Paola Guzmán Figueroa
Sound Design by Theo af Enehielm

Animation in progress

My work focuses on my grandmother. Since I arrived in Finland, in 2013, I have initiated a project concerning Ms. Nohemy Figueroa García, an 83 year old lady living in Bogota Colombia, my dear grandmother or “nanita” as my siblings and I call her since we are children. During the last seven years, I have filmed her every time I go back home, and I have compiled audiovisual material that I want to transform into an animation film.

This film serves as a tool to connect and play with memories. My grandmother and I are separated by the distance but with the memories represented in my animation, we get to be closer again. In this project, I am exploring longing emotions and the physical and mental state of time and space between us.

The bar room is an installation made by Paola that was part of the "Expanded Cinema" exhibition. The installation aimed to produce a daring cinematic landscape that redesigned the architecture of the gallery space with the combination of accessories and video art. All these aspects provoke and inspire to reimagine the aesthetic and affective parameters of the kinematics. The audience is invited to interact with the bar, they can sit and experience it freely.

During the installation, Paola made a documentary that works as an installation window. Paola invites her friends to enter the bar and share a Colombian soup, in the documentary we can see how the work is also seen by the audience that comes to see the gallery. Is the bar real? or a fictional piece?

THE BAR ROOM
Documentary 2020

Dance Film, 2018

Mounou, in the language of the West African dioula means hiking, walking around. The work is inspired by the Finnish Sámi who are shepherds like Sibiry was when he was a child. The work tells the story of two animals, one human, and one animal, and they travel together in the world. At the end of the journey, the man decides to take power because he feels stronger and smarter than the animal.

As a child, Sibiry was a shepherd and felt that it was like dancing and communicating with animals. He returns to his childhood and brings the story of a little shepherd to a city called Helsinki in Finland. He seeks the return of human and animal coexistence, in a world that has forgotten the old ways of working together.

Directed and filmed by Paola Guzmán Figueroa
Dancer: Sibiri Konaté
Cello: Sergio Castrillón

When I came to Finland in 2013, I left an aquarium at my home in Colombia. Since then I have been cutting and collecting my hair occasionally. Over the years of my trip to Finland, the aquarium has been following me in spirit, it has been navigating in my life, dreams, and subconsciousness. With no reason, I started to notice my hair had a connection to the fish I had in Colombia. In this film, I will explore the emotions of longing and the physical and mental state of time traveling from my home country Colombia, to Finland.

Time travel film was part of the Installation where the real/physical aquarium was also presented.