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THE KIDNAPPING OF INGRID BETANCOURT Rating: NNN
Ingrid Betancourt quit Colombia’s Liberal party in 1998, disgusted by politicians in the pockets of drug lords. Articulate, appealing and driven, she launched her own Oxyen Green party and ran for president four years later. This documentary might have been a simple chronicle of her people-power campaign, but then she was kidnapped.
American filmmakers Victoria Bruce and Karin Hayes follow Betancourt’s story both before and since her abduction by Colombia’s leftist FARC guerrillas, one incident in a cottage industry that sees thousands kidnapped every year to finance the ongoing conflict.
This is a solid backgrounder to a story that barely made the mainstream media in North America. Hayes and Bruce will attend this screening, part of the Hot Docs festival’s Doc Soup series. They’ll also screen Held Hostage In Colombia, the story of three kidnapped Americans. (December 10, Bloor)