Songs that Flood the River
(Cantos que inundan el río)
Germán Arango Rendón / Colombia / 2019 / 72 min
Camden International Film Festival
Honorable Mention by the JuryTrue/False Film Festival
Cinélatino | Rencontres de Toulousse
Best DocumentaryHot Docs
Pricing
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Spanish with English subtitles
Oneida grew up in a small Afro-Colombian village where she learned to sing alabados, sacred chants that guide the dead on their journey to purgatory. As a child, she witnessed the songs’ power to carry grief and hope, but her life soon became marked by tragedy. After losing her leg to a snake bite and enduring the relentless violence of Colombia’s decades-long conflict, Oneida transformed her pain into artistry. She began composing alabados infused with both personal resilience and a collective yearning for peace.
Today, her voice resonates beyond her community, uniting millions in a country scarred by one of the longest wars in history. In Germán Arango Rendón‘s hypnotic documentary Songs that Flood the River, Oneida’s music becomes both a lament and a plea—a call for healing and reconciliation along Colombia’s Pacific coast, where melodies rise like a river, carrying the weight of memory and the hope for a peaceful future.
Related Subjects
About the Director
Germán Arango Rendón, also known as LUCKAS PERRO (Colombia, 1981), is an anthropologist and a filmmaker with a Master’s degree in Visual Anthropology at FLACSO in Ecuador.
He has been a professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Communication at the University of Antioquia. He has directed eight documentaries and twelve hip-hop video clips. He has also worked in TV stations as Señal Colombia and Teleantioquia.
He is currently developing several film scripts. Songs that Flood the River is his first feature-length documentary.
Press
“Mesmerizing and hypnotic, director Germán Arango, together with Oneida, weave a melodious tale marking the scars of her misfortune and that of Colombia’s, to realize a healed future.” – Heather Haynes, Hot Docs
“...a sort of silent visual poetry.” – Piers Merchant, The Arkansas Democrat Gazette
“One of two of my favorites…the story keeps a focus on the village community, its creative leaders, and the long struggle for justice.” – Patricia Aufderheide, International Documentay Association
“The film ‘Songs that Flood the River’ (2021) tells in parallel the story of Oneida, ‘alabadora’ from Bojayá, and the reality of the municipality during and after the signing of the Peace Agreements. Interview with director Germán Arango, known as Luckas Perro.” – María Paula Lizarazo, El Espectador
“The formal eeriness ultimately enriches the community’s cultural vibrancy, illustrating how the alabado emanates from a place of strength. People like Oneida channel their considerable pain into a rich artistic tradition that serves to process those emotions and honor those who have passed...” – Vikram Murthi, Roger Ebert.com