I am Gerylee Polanco Uribe

Feminist Filmmaker | Teacher and Researcher | Cultural Manager

MY TRAJECTORY IS A RHIZOME OF KNOWLEDGE

Over the years, I have navigated different territories of cinema. I have been a film producer for 10 feature films, a university teacher, a researcher with a gender perspective; I directed the Cinemateca of La Tertulia Museum and today I am Director of the International Film Festival of Cali.

From my production company OjoAgua Cine and its ecosystem for women—the Killary CineLab laboratory—I continue exploring the ways cinema can connect.

Cinematographic DNA

Art as memory.
Cinema as territory.
Woman as creator of light.

I grew up in a family deeply connected to culture, art, and education. From my father, I inherited a photographic gaze, and from my mother, the vocation for teaching.

The camera was my first love: it taught me to observe, to pause, and to find meaning in the everyday.

Over time, I understood that looking is also a way of relating to others. That is how I arrived at cinema, teaching, and writing: spaces where the personal and the collective meet.

My Paths in cinema

A story in five moments

From photography to production, from teaching to research, from production to cultural management, from auteur cinema to feminist cinema. Each moment has allowed me to understand art as an act of resistance, care, and transformation.

Origin and training

From a very young age, I was interested in the image and its ability to tell stories. Photography taught me to look differently and was my gateway to cinema, where I discovered that an image can also build memory.

Contravía Films

Together with a group of colleagues, I founded this production company, with which we made films such as El vuelco del cangrejo, La sirga, Los hongos, and Siembra. Those were ten intense years in which I learned that producing is also about caring for a story.

Teaching and research

Teaching has been another way of learning. I have accompanied community processes, worked with women and young people, and led projects such as Rostros y Rastros, focused on the preservation of audiovisual archives and the country's memory.

Cinema and feminism

Directing my documentary Entre Vientres was a turning point. It allowed me to recognize myself as a feminist filmmaker and to understand that creating can also be a way of healing.

Killary CineLab

I founded this space as an ecosystem of creation, research, and support for women in cinema. Here we share knowledge, strengthen our voices, and accompany each other on our creative journey.

Films that build memory

Stories that cross borders

Cinema has been my way of connecting with others and engaging in conversations about stories. From Contravía Films to OjoAgua Cine, I have produced and accompanied films that dialogue with realities.

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Years of experience in film, management, teaching, and research.

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Feature films and short films produced or accompanied.

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International film festivals where my films have circulated.

OjoAgua Cine

I founded OjoAgua Cine as a space where stories could flow freely.

From there, I produce intimate and honest films, such as En Tránsito, La marcha del hambre, and El nido de las alas. These are narratives about the body, memory, and freedom, told with sensitivity and coherence.

Killary CineLab

Killary means “light of the moon at dawn”.

I created this laboratory as a space for creation and also for research, because understanding the place we women occupy in cinema is essential. From here, we conducted the first study on gender gaps in Colombian cinema, and today we continue this path with new research on festivals, female participation, and the trajectories of filmmakers in the country. Killary is, for me, a place where women think, create, and transform together.

Recognition

A Trajectory that connects creation, territory, and education.

Throughout my trajectory, I have worked in audiovisual production, management, training, and research with a clear purpose: to contribute to culture, strengthen female voices in cinema, and build memory through images.

These recognitions have come as a result of that path, and I receive them as a responsibility to keep creating, supporting, and researching.

I make film with the conviction that every story matters. Every story we tell allows us to live in narrative sovereignty.

I am Gerylee Polanco Uribe

MY TRAJECTORY IS A RHIZOME OF KNOWLEDGE

Art as memory.
Cinema as territory.
Woman as creator of light.

My Paths in cinema