Hay Festival Cartagena 2025

In a town that appears on no maps, where there is no electricity, a teenager dreams of being a boxer. When she learns that her uncle will box for the world title, and the event will be shown live on television, she and the community are ready to overcome any obstacle to see the fight, while they struggle against being forgotten. Directed by Felipe Holguín.

Duration: 83 min.

The extraordinary life and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson as she investigates the origins of injustice and uncovers a hidden truth that impacts us all. Presented by Ava DuVernay and Paula Moreno Zapata.

Running time: 103 minutes

Director: Ava DuVernay

Aurora Vergara will lead a conversation on the origins of racism, from the caste system in India to the recent history of the United States. With Ava DuVernay (United States), film director and creator of the film Origin, nominated for an Academy Award, it tells of the tragedy and triumph of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Isabel Wilkerson, author of the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. In her film, DuVernay relates racism in the United States to the caste system in India and the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. Suraj Yengde (India) lawyer of International Human Rights, professor at Harvard University, and author of Caste Matters, he is also one of the most important young intellectuals in India; he will share his research on the caste system in his home country with us.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

This year we celebrate 20 years in Colombia: two decades of conversations, debates, questions, music, film, photography and books. Through the voices of some of the festival’s most iconic guests, as well as those who make this great festival of ideas possible, we mark the date and wish a long life to the Hay Festival in Colombia through this special documentary.

Duration: 1 hour, 23 minutes

Direction: Gustavo Gordillo

Film director and screenwriter Ava DuVernay (United States) was the first black woman to be nominated for the Oscar for best director, with her acclaimed film Selma, and the first African-American director to participate in the competitive section of the Venice Film Festival, with Origin, her most recent film. She will talk with Mábel Lara about her successful film career, what it is like to work with large production platforms and about the process that led her to choose the story of the writer Isabel Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, to trace the history of an intellectual search about the origins of racism.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

This year we celebrate 20 years in Colombia: two decades of conversations, debates, questions, music, film, photography and books. Through the voices of some of the festival’s most iconic guests, as well as those who make this great festival of ideas possible, we mark the date and wish a long life to the Hay Festival in Colombia through this special documentary.

Duration: 1 hour, 23 minutes

Direction: Gustavo Gordillo

This year we celebrate 20 years in Colombia: two decades of conversations, debates, questions, music, film, photography and books. Through the voices of some of the festival’s most iconic guests, as well as those who make this great festival of ideas possible, we mark the date and wish a long life to the Hay Festival in Colombia through this special documentary.

Duration: 1 hour, 23 minutes

Direction: Gustavo Gordillo