Josef Wladyka’s “Manos Sucias” made its North American premiere at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival on Apr. 17. Headlining the list of red carpet guests was executive producer Spike Lee.
The “Jungle Fever” director was more than an executive producer for “Manos Sucias”; he also served as a mentor to Wladyka, an NYU graduate who won a fellowship named after Lee. Wladyka, who partially financed the film through Kickstarter a year ago, set his film in Colombia, focusing on its drug trade.
“We documented numerous accounts of daily confrontations with paramilitaries, guerrillas, and criminal drug traffickers,” Wladyka said on his movie’s Kickstarter page. “I asked a man from Tumaco if he could see an end to the turmoil in Colombia and he responded, “Yes…but only in my dreams.””
all photos by Shelly Xu / Meniscus Magazine
