Bila Burba

Duiren Wagua – Director’s Statement

The inspiration for BILA BURBA came from my ardent regard and appreciation for the narratives of my Gunadule nation, a group of people to which I am glad to belong. It was inspired by my childhood memories and by snippets of others I have crossed paths with on this journey. Snipets of their grandparents memories about the incident in 1925 when fed up with being beaten and mistreated by the Panamanian police, decided to take their arms and fight.

BILA BURBA is a compilation of stories from the sons, daughters, and relatives of those rebellious grandparents, that shared their truth about the ‘Dule Revolution’ and its events.

In my culture, so that there is harmony and respect amongst the ones that inhabit this earthly space, exist the ‘Galus’, a spiritual enclosure where different beings live; it could be animals, diseases, or either a creative space. BILA BURBA, for me, is a galu, my sacred precinct, in which I seek to express the historical reality in which I grew up. It is my community. It is the space where I honour the heroes of 1925, especially my grandfather Olodibagdigiña, who also participated in the war, and unfortunately, I only learned about at the end of the film. Honour to my guerrilla grandfather!

“I want the culture of my race to endure within the universal framework of the culture of the people of the world. Because only in the cultural expression of a nation is the inescapable seal of the essence of their freedom, their dignity, and their respect as people.”