With My Heart in Yambo

(Con mi corazón en Yambo)
María Fernanda Restrepo | Documentary

2012 | 137 minutes | Ecuador

In 1988, director María Fernanda Restrepo's two brothers—then 14 and 17—vanished without a trace. Decades later, Restrepo embarks on the painful journey of recounting her family’s story.

Synopsis

In 1988, when director María Fernanda Restrepo was only 10 years old, her life changed in the cruelest of ways: her two brothers—then 14 and 17—vanished without a trace. Only later did the family learn that the boys had been illegally detained, tortured, and murdered by the Ecuadorean police. Now, decades later, with her brothers’ remains still missing, Restrepo embarks on the painful journey of recounting her family’s story. In the process, she comes face to face with the suspects, and documents yet one more search in Lake Yambo, where the boys’ bodies were dumped. “Giving up is the only way to lose a battle,” says Restrepo’s father, still asking for clues and protesting in Quito’s Presidential Palace Square every Wednesday against the lack of answers. The film portrays one of the darkest political episodes in Ecuador and provides an insider’s look to the recent history of this country. — HotDocs

Reviews

"... With My Heart in Yambo interweaves archival footage and interviews, coming across as a nightmarish collage, with haunting tracking shots of the boys' untouched rooms alternating with clips of old news conferences, and poignant recollections that are set against excerpts from home movies... Highly recommended." — Video Librarian

"While many books have told the story of the disappeared children before, With My Heart in Yambo, provides an intimate picture of the effect of the disappearance on the family." — Irene Caselli, BBC

"Since it opened at cinemas in Ecuador in October it has been seen by more than 160,000 people, making it the most successful documentary in the country's history. Such has been its impact that the interior ministry has promised to show it to police officers as part of their human rights training, and the attorney general has begun a new investigation." — Irene Caselli, BBC

"With My Heart in Yambo is a documentary that that, more than fighting against social amnesia, helps us understand what happened so that we can confront policies that not only are repeated in Ecuador but have become a State behavior: the decisions taken in the high ranks of the executive power are performed with cruelty and cynicism by that chain's lower strata." — Eduardo Varas, La Republica

Citation
Main credits

Restrepo Arismendi, Fernanda (film director)
Restrepo Arismendi, Fernanda (narrator)
Krarup, Randi (film producer)

Other credits

Cinematography, Francois Laso; editors, Iván Mora, Carla Valencia; music, Iván Mora M.


Citation
Cataloging
Keywords
police, disappeared, justice, Restrepo, Velasco, dictatorship, Guillermo Rodriguez, Bombita, spanish, spanish language, latin america, latin american cinema, latin american film, ibero america, latin, latinx, latino, latina,,latin american studies, caribbean american studies, island studies, latin american culture, latin american history, latin american politics, caribbean american culture, caribbean american history, caribbean american politics, latin american languages, latin american and caribbean studies, hispanic american studies, hispanic people, hispanic culture, hispanic politics,human rights, public rights, equal rights, freedom of expression, basic human rights, united nations, activism, human rights activism, human rights council, human rights commission, universal human rights, universal rights,authority, authoritarianism, dictatorship, military regime, military government, fascism, repression, oppression, political oppression, political repression, far right, far right wing, modern fascism,criminal justice, crime, judiciary, police reform, corrections, criminal law, judicial system, justice department, prosecution, judgement, criminal law, courts and corrections, corrections institutes,family, kin, fellowship, household, immediate family, extended family, multigenerational family, multigenerational household, kinfolk, family tree, genealogy, nuclear family, modern family, family tree,south america, south american countries, countries in south america, argentina, bolivia, brazil, chile, colombia, ecuador, guyana, paraguay, peru, suriname, uruguay, venezuela, south american politics, south american culture, south american cuisine, south american education, south america in media, south american languages, south america history,sociology, anthropology, psychology, sociological, sociological perspectives, conflict theory, human conflicts, sociological thinking,conflict perspective, topics in sociology, sociology topics, sociology studies, social studies, people and cultures, human relations, human relationships, cultural studies, culture studies ,ecuador,Yambo,con mi corazón en yambo,con mi,Que tan lejos,From my heart in yambo,history of ecuador,History And Memory,With my Heart In Yambo,latin america in spanish,mi corazon en yambo,personality disorder,my heart in yambo,my academy award winners,with my heart,camera person,mexico,indigeneity and ecuador,wit,Momma's Man,¿Qué tan lejos?,biography,crime true crime,My life without me,Recent French movies,social history,WOMEN ECUADOR,fernanda montenegro,restrepo,ufo recent,cantinflas,mining in ecuador,"mexico" AND "women" AND "murder"; "With My Heart in Yambo"; Pragda Films
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Festivals

Havana Film Festival - Second Coral Award for Documentary
DocsDF - Special Mention of the Jury; Best Ibero American Film
UNASUR Film Festival Argentina - Best Documentary, Jury Mention for Direction
NEFIAC Latin American Film Festival - Best Documentary
Flandes Latin American Film Festival of Festival - Best Human Rights Documentary
Isla Margarita Film Festival - Best Documentary

DIRECTOR: María Fernanda Restrepo

NATIONALITY: Ecuador

YEAR: 2012

GENRE: Documentary

LANGUAGE: Spanish

COLOR / B&W: Color

GRADE LEVEL: High School, College, Adults

SUBTITLE/CC: AVAILABLE

AUDIO DESCRIPTION: NOT AVAILABLE

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