This summer Verité Films Producers René Veilleux and Donald Roman Lopez will begin production of a feature-length documentary on the life and works of renowned World-Music Colombian singer Totó La Momposina. “We are honored to be collaborating with an artist of such world-renowned caliber and such cultural importance as Totó La Momposina.” Says Producer René Veilleux.
Totó embodies that fertile ground where Colombia’s African, Indigenous Indian and Spanish cultures mingle to create a unique musical tradition. Her entire life she has dedicated to preserving and representing Colombia’s Caribbean coastline traditional music. Nonetheless, Sonia Bazanta, the woman, the daughter, the mother, and Colombia's musical ambassador, has a compelling past marked by countless sacrifices and critical moments of survival. Retracing her steps, she embarks on a journey filled with memories of being displaced by civil war as a child, singing in the Paris Metro as a struggling musician, and becoming the renowned world artist she is today. Parallel to her ancestral and personal journey, Totó will travel on her first European tour in 5 years and will engage on a succession of artistic collaborations as a "Cantandora del mundo" during an important creative transition in her life. And it is here, in this key moment of her international career, in the midst of challenges and triumphs, and with this documentary film that Totó is willing to open her heart and soul to reaffirm that her fundamental need is to preserve her culture and to continue being the woman that lives to sing and that sings to live.
“Exploring in depth the circumstances that have come together to create someone like Totó, is in part a search I’ve been in my whole life trying to understand my own cultural identity.” Says Producer and Director, Donald Roman Lopez. “Totó is an exceptional story of identity preservation within the context of globalization that not only concern Colombians or Latinos but any citizen of the world,” he adds.
Verité Films is pleased to be working on the film with the full co-operation of Totó and her management and production company Astar Artes and Artistic Director John Hollis. Other producers collaborating on the project include, award-winning documentary producer Lori Cheatle (51 Birch Street, The Kids Grow Up, The Age of Dreaming), and Sarah Anthony executive producer of Last Play at Shea, the story of Billy Joel's final concert at historic Shea Stadium, and the Untitled George Harrison project, directed by Martin Scorsese and due to be released in 2011.
For more information on the project go to www.indiegogo.com/TotoLaMomposina.