Review of The Vampires of Poverty

"Agarrando pueblo" or "The Vampires of Poverty" is a Colombian documentary from 1977, so this one has its 40th anniversary this year. It runs for a bit under half an hour only and was written and directed by the late Carlos Mayolo. But is it really a documentary? Nope. It is a comedy movie like an old short version of Tropic Thunder that shows us how filmmakers exploit poverty in certain countries to make pseudo-important films about the people and living conditions there while staging and scripting their documentaries from start to finish. The make-believe of authenticity if you want to say so. It's a subject that is also still more than partially true today, which shows how far ahead of their time Majolo and his crue were back then. Still it may be slightly overrated here on imdb. 5 minutes less could have been okay and the switching between b&w and color felt also a bit random and annoying at times. Nonetheless the good certainly prevails here. This was a really interesting project that offers depth, contemporary relevance (especially now in the age of refugees/immigration) and comedy and all three of these are something that you don't really find that frequently in movies, especially short movies. This is a work that's certainly not for everybody. But if you end opening yourself to it, then you will have a pretty good time watching. A thumbs-up for this one here. I recommend checking it out.