A Dot in the River (Un Punto en el Rio)
Global Studies Presents:
A Dot in the River (Un Punto en el Rio): A Documentary by Oscar Pedraza and Plano Negativo
In 2021, the Transitional Justice Tribunal of Colombia ruled that the Cauca River was a victim of war. This decision resulted from the efforts of Afro‑Colombian communities before the court and follows earlier precedents in Colombia that recognize rivers as subjects of rights. `But what is the extension of these claims? Are they restrained to the limits of a community, or could they the rights of nature become an intervention on how we see the relation between war and the environment?
These Afro-Colombian communities have articulated an environmental theory of war, challenging traditional understandings of nature as a theatre of operations or as war booty. Instead, they show that the river is a web of life extending across vast territories, which was hijacked during war and transformed into a web of death to impose a new mode of existing in the territory. The river is a victim because its sediments, shores, waters, and movement became agents in the disappearance of human bodies, and the river that once produced life became a river of death and fear.
In collaboration with the communities involved and a group of scholars in Colombia, the visual investigations studio Plano Negativo conducted a multimodal visual exploration of what makes the river a victim, combining data mining, GIS, archival research, interviews, video, 3D modelling, and photography. The result is in this experimental documentary.
Oscar Pedraza is Research Associate in the Department of War Studies at King's College, London, where he works on the ERC Advanced and UKRI project Mapping Injury led by Prof. Vivienne Jabri. This project investigates ‘injury’ in multiple sites and manifestations in the Global South, and its impact on political agency and global mechanisms of response. Dr. Pedraza’s research for the project focuses on Colombia, studying terraforming as a material struggle between diverging modes of existence.
This event is part of the 2026 Global Mobilities and Infrastructures Lecture Series and is supported by the Haines-Morris Endowment, with a co-sponsorship from the Department of Anthropology. Food and beverages will be served in the Auditorium lobby.