By: Miguel Ernesto Yusty

BALLAD FOR DEAD CHILDREN is a feature-length documentary directed by Jorge Navas about the literary and film-loving figure Andrés Caicedo. The film is produced by the public television channel Telepacífico, which is venturing into formats other than television with works of this kind. The film tells a biography that explores the prolific, yet short, career of the writer, without shying away from examining the fears that accompanied his life.

This is the second project in which Navas explores the work of Andrés Caicedo; the first was CALICALABOZO, from 1997. With BALADA PARA NIÑOS MUERTOS (Ballad for Dead Children), Navas connects with the trend that recognizes Caicedo as a significant figure in 1970s Latin American culture, as reflected in the writings of Elvira Alejandra Quintero. Navas's documentary evokes the horror films of mid-20th-century Hollywood, a feeling reinforced by the use of black and white and the unsettling music that accompanies the film. Through interviews with friends and family, the story unfolds of a boy growing into a young man, obsessed with writing and captive to an incurable cinephilia.

Navas manages to make a documentary about the cinema of his city, Cali, using Caicedo's life as a pretext. The documentary testifies to the connection between Caicedo, cinema, literature, and the city. Although Caicedo's work is more literary than cinematic, the influence he exerted on other figures of the so-called Cali Group, such as Luis Ospina and Carlos Mayolo, is reflected in feature films crucial to understanding the subgenre of horror known as Tropical Gothic. Therefore, Jorge Navas's documentary becomes an essential reference point for understanding the life and work of Caicedo, who ended his life at the age of 25, but whose legacy remains relevant thanks to the impact he had on his contemporaries and the power of his writing, which is read by new generations who find in it a kindred spirit with whom to engage.