Born in Quibdó, the capital of the Chocó department, Hendrix now joins a growing list of talented directors living and working in Cali, inspired by the stories they hear of the Pacific and the proximity of their city to a region so vastly misunderstood and marginalized by the rest of the country.
For Karent, both the Crab Trap and Chocó are experiments in social inclusion. Films which herald Afro-Colombian themes and cinema in the movie mainstream. Although nationally produced films have yet to earn big box office numbers, Karent feels morally and socially driven to take on roles, which exemplify the strength and dedication of Colombia’s black peoples.
Both of Karent’s starring roles have been strong Afro-Colombian mothers fighting to survive in a world dominated by men.
“We are a very mixed country,” asserts Karent, “and everyone who can consider themselves Colombian has African blood inside them.”
Introduced into the closely-knit circle of Cali-based directors, which include Oscar Navia Ruiz (Crab Trap) and Carlos Moreno (Dog Eat Dog, All Your Dead Ones), Karent came to acting after finishing her studies in Dramatic Arts at the Universidad del Valle. “In part, I wanted to become an actor because my father insisted so much that I find a profession that would offer me stability,” claims Karent. “He always had this aspiration that I would follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer.”
Despite her relatively short career in films, Karent has become a celebrity in her hometown of Timbiquí and a role model for many young Afro-Colombian women who are making critical decisions on what to do with their lives.
Juggling domestic life with machismo, Colombia’s black women are too often excluded from a society in which the color of one’s skin still weighs heavily on what opportunities are available.
Black in a multi-colored society
“There is subtle racism in many aspects of Colombian daily life,” claims Karent. “Look at the beauty pageant of Cartagena as an example where the women are white and adhere to a European standard of beauty.”
Growing up black in southern Colombia and spending several years in Cauca’s colonial capital Popayan proved to Karent first hand, that racism is persistent in every level of this country’s social structure and is something that she believes must and will change in time.
“As directors and actors take a leap of faith with making films of honest Colombian issues, we will start seeing a change in perceptions,” believes the actress.
Trying to bridge the ethnic divide in her two critically acclaimed films, Karent recently finished her third feature on the Caribbean coast, near Santa Marta. Planned for release next year, the film is a romance thriller set in the colonial port and which marks another departure for this actress who has spent the last several years on location in the Pacific.
A window to the world
“My objective is to see much more of Colombia,” claims Karent, who has been very active attending the premiers of Chocó at international film festivals, from Berlin to Vladivostok. Still in her twenties and with a growing body of work to show, Karent doesn’t hide from an honesty and desire to work overseas. Thinking Hollywood and the maybe not-so remote possibility of working one day alongside leading men such as Denzel Washington, Will Smith and Morgan Freeman, Karent is busy working on her English skills, as language must accompany onscreen talent.
Having lived up close and personal many of the social disparities which fuel the armed conflict in her hometown of Timbiquí, Karent feels that an actor must play an equally important role off screen in trying to defuse the conditions which generate violence.
Insomuch as Chocó settles the score with her gambling husband Everlides and Jazmín in the Crab Trap employs her sexual prowess to “heal” the defeated men of La Barra, Karent has been proactive in Cali in drawing attention to the conflict in Cauca by helping to organize the peace marches.
“As actors we have a social responsibility,” claims Karent after recalling the 2010 New Year’s Eve when FARC guerillas and paramilitaries decided to fight it out in the streets of
her hometown. “Bullets perforated my parent’s house. I am lucky to have them with me.” And as spectators of Colombian film, we are grateful to have Karent on the silver screen.
