Bogota, a city of 7 million people, is filled with people from all regions of Colombia that seem to ignore one another. In the face of overwhelming, insoluble daily problems, the city's inhabitants often lose their identity as individuals.

The training organization VARAN organized a three-month course at the Film and Television Department of the National University of Colombia. The students, all under 25-years-old, had no prior production experience. But they all wanted to become involved in filmmaking, and saw documentary creation as a necessity.

The first steps were to develop an ethic, an approach, and a taste for cinema that would take them past basic reportage, and past the conventions of local television. They then had to find their position as filmmaker, and think over the point of view that determines the narrative device.

Finally, and most importantly, each filmmaker, while shooting, confronted a "state of emergency" - an unexpected development that emerged from the subject and the characters themselves. The young filmmakers were astonished to discover a surprising reality. Their films reflect this discovery.

Titles in the series:

• Following One's Way - One young woman's struggle to succeed as a singer in Bogota, Colombia, in order to escape from the poor and dangerous environment in which she lives.

• Hair Therapy - A Colombian filmmaker questions her friends - in their twenties like her, and caught between maintaining their independence and love, relationships, and the desire to start a family.

• There's No Room For So Many People - If Edgar doesn't find work by the end of the week, he and his wife will leave Bogota, Colombia and move to the coast, leaving their daughter behind. But, only after selling all their 'possessions'...