The Making of
“En la Lucha”
NEXT
Welcome to the making
of ‘En la Lucha’
You are about to enter
my personal space,
my thought process,
my experience,
my struggles,
and my achievements.
I hope you enjoy the process and be inspired to create your own project.
‘En la Lucha’
is the story of Maria
A single mother of 3 kids, who as a Venezuelan migrant living in the border city of Cúcuta-Colombia, struggles to make ends meet and ascend the socioeconomic ladder. The film explores how migration affects intergenerational mobility through the day to day of a family who tries to adapt to a new country with other rules, other laws and above all, away from home.
In this exhibition you will ride through my process of making this film, from the pre-production of going to the fieldsite to start researching, traveling to the field, coming back, and going again, until the post-production of the film, which is still in process.
Jan 1st – 30th, 2020
Feb 11th – Mar 6th, 2020
PASSWORD for VIDEO: enlalucha
🗓 Apr 2020
In this period of time, I felt like most of my peers, unmotivated to continue. The pandemic slowed us down and for many of us, it meant we couldn’t go back to our fieldsite and continue our research.
After many weeks of uncertainty and feeling lost within the project, I decided I had to find a solution to continue. Because I couldn’t travel, I turned to doing my fieldwork over Whatsapp and asked my participant to share voice notes and videos.
The way I did was by sharing first a video myself, then asking her to share about her life and to be honest this was exciting at the beginning but didn’t really worked.
When you are not in the field, you have no idea how is the life of your participant and this means balancing your needs with theirs, your purpose with their life and knowing how and when to ask time from them.
May 2020 – Sept 2020
PASSWORD for VIDEOS: enlalucha
💡 You get the idea.
That awesome back and forth didn’t work as much as I wished.
Reality was that asking Maria to record her life demanded much more time and energy
than she had and although we continue to communicate with messages and voice notes, the videos stopped and I soon realised, that idea wasn’t going to develop. So I had to work with what I got, and you know what, I couldn’t.
I stopped thinking about the visual, and focused on the theory. Here is some of the literature.
Jan 2021
PASSWORD for VIDEOS: enlalucha
Part of the process of feeling “The fieldsite” was going there virtually and
listening to the music that was playing through the website WorldRadio.
⌛️ Time Passed
And in a turn of events at the beginning of 2021 I found myself with the possibility of
traveling back to my fieldsite and to Maria and her family.
This was not only uplifting but truly an expression of sending the energy of what one wants
and getting the answer YES, It’s time.
I prepared my equipment, contacted all the people I met on my first trip and booked my
flight to Colombia.
Mar 25th, 2021
This is the moment where I explain to Maria the logistics of the film, the idea
behind and gladly, have her permission and enthusiasm to make it happen!
Mar 28th – April 8th 2021
To find out about the film,
follow me on social media
with @rominahendlin
For any inquiries, comments,
feedback, please reach out
rominahendlinphoto@gmail.com
Q&A
My visual work for the past 11 years has been an exploration of the human condition through the exchange of conversations and photography. The projects I make are grounded on a sensitivity to the social and economic disparities of the world. Formed as a documentary photographer and a visual anthropologist, my main interest is to talk about resilience, informal economy, migration and the struggle to make ends meet. It is not just about showing a reality that doesn’t change, that is systematic, but to generate spaces to discuss and reflect on it. I believe through photography, film and words we enable that space.