This July 7th the twelfth edition of the Gabo Festival, event organized every year by the Gabo Foundation and which for the third consecutive time took place in Bogota. More than 1,000 people met at the Gimnasio Moderno alone. 13,000 attendees, which represents an increase of 44% compared to the 2023 edition, pending full registration in the rest of the venues: ten public libraries of BibloRed (Bogotá Public Library Network of the Ministry of Culture), the Cinemateca Distrital, Compensar headquarters and the National Museum.
More than 170 guests from 20 countries were invited to the most extensive programme ever seen at the event, which opened this year with a play about freedom of expression and ended with a performance featuring stories from the war in Ukraine.
He journalism, literature, cinema, music, photography, video games, podcasts and other formats and creative manifestations were part of the thematic agenda, focused on the challenges of our time in the social, cultural, informational and geopolitical spheres.
Visitors of all ages visited the exhibition with previously unpublished images from the filming of the series based on ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’, which will be released this year on Netflix; as well as ‘Melquíades’s Room’, an experience made for boys and girls; talks, workshops and master classes on artificial intelligence, the legacy of García Márquez ten years after his death, the digital world, the future of journalism, the rise of misinformation, among other topics.
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Every night there were concerts on the stage and even the passage to the semi-finals of the Colombian team was celebrated on a giant screen. America Cup. The events held in the Auditorium of the Gimnasio Moderno were broadcast live on Canal Capital and are available on the Youtube channel from the Gabo Festival.
Gabo 2024 Ceremony and Award
Within the framework of the event, the twelfth ceremony of the Gabo Awardswhich made an emphatic call for freedom of the press and urged the immediate release of Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora, detained for the exercise of his profession in a prison in his country. Jose Carlos Zamorason of José Rubén Zamora and also a journalist, received on behalf of his father the Recognition of Excellence of the Gabo Award, which was granted to him for his bravery, courage and investigations of corruption cases in his country.
The awards ceremony took place at the emblematic Jorge Eliecer Gaitán Theater. At the gala, awards were also given in the categories of Audio, Text, Coverage and Image.
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For the first time, a work was awarded twice: ‘The Night of the Horses: South America’s Largest Equine Rescue’, published in Gatopardo Magazine by Diego Fernandez Romeral (Argentina) took the award in the Text category, while Anita Pouchard Serra was the winner in the Photography category for the same project.
The Brazilian documentary ‘Vale dos Isolados – The Murder of Bruno and Dom’, Published by TV Globo/Globoplay and directed by reporter Sônia Bridi, it won the award in the Image category.
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For its part, the work done in alliance by InfoAmazonia, La Liga Contra el Silencio and Armando.Info, entitled ‘Amazon Underworld’won the Gabo Award in the Coverage category.
One of the most applauded moments of the ceremony was the presentation of the award in the Audio category for ‘Brave women: Guií chanáa’a podcast by Nayelli Lopez Reyesbelonging to the indigenous community of San Martín Itunyoso (in the northwest of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico). His program is published by Spotify Studios and Oronda Studio.
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Raising citizen awareness
Under the motto ‘Stories to wake up’, the Gabo Festival once again brought together stories and narrators who rely on the journalistic method to investigate and tell the reality, and who contribute to generating citizens who are aware of the time and place we inhabit. “Information is what allows an individual to become a citizen. Without information, the individual cannot exercise his or her conscience as a citizen. That is why, many times, the de facto regimes target journalists and information: without citizens there is no democracy,” said the French essayist. Bruno Patino during his talk at the event.
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For her part, the chronicler Leila Guerriero presented his most recent book, ‘The Call’, and the Spanish doctor Juan Valentín Fernandez de la Gala launched ‘The Doctors of Macondo’, a work published by the Gabo Foundation. The El Tunal Library exhibited the book Gabo treea creative matrix that displays the various branches of the Colombian writer’s life and work. García Márquez’s presence also materialized in talks about the Arab influence in his work, music in his stories and the perspectives of his legacy by new generations of authors.
During the three days, attendees at the Gabo Festival 2024 They witnessed these and other reflections in the voices of professionals and artists from all fields. The climate emergency, current wars, corruption, the violation of human rights, as well as narrative and investigative proposals to rethink approaches to podcast coverage, cultural journalism, and LGBTIQ+ issues were also part of the agenda.
He 12th Gabo Festival once again demonstrated how the legacy of excellence of Gabriel Garcia Marquez lives on and inspires generations of storytellers and artists around the world.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
