Ingrid Betancourt

THE KIDNAPPING OF INGRID BETANCOURT

Documentary • 76 minutes

The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt is the story of a Colombian presidential candidate held hostage by leftist guerrillas and her family's desperate quest to free her and keep her campaign alive.

On May 26, 2002, we watched the Colombian presidential elections from Bogotá’s regal Plaza de Bolivar. We had come to Colombia to document the campaign of controversial presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt. But on Election Day, Ingrid never arrived. Instead, the candidate appeared in the Plaza as a cardboard torso—carried in the arms of her husband, Juan Carlos Lecompte. As Juan Carlos and Ingrid’s mother, Yolanda Pulecio, pleaded with the Colombian people for solidarity, Ingrid spent Election Day deep in the Colombian jungle—a hostage of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and one of the thousands of victims of Colombia’s 40 year-old civil war.

In The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt, Ingrid Betancourt tells her own life story including how, since the beginning of her congressional election in 1994, she risked her life by denouncing Colombian politicians who have been linked to drug cartels. The film continues after the day she is kidnapped on February 23, 2002, and documents her family and her political party, thrown into upheaval, as they struggle to free her and to keep her presidential campaign alive.

BUY NOW Related Book & Film


Awards

duPont — Columbia University Award
Broadcast Journalism

Top 20 Films in 20 Years
IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Audience Award
Slamdance Film Festival

Jan Karski Documentary Film Award
Foundation for Moral Courage

Imagen Award for Best Television Documentary
Imagen Foundation, Los Angeles, CA

Best Documentary
Festivalito Film Festival, Canary Islands

Orson Welles Award — Best First Film
Tiburon International Film Festival, Tiburon, CA

Award of Merit in Film
Latin American Studies Association & LASA Film Festival

Amnesty International-DOEN Award — Special Mention
IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Contact Us

VICTORIA BRUCE
Director & Producer
info@urcuninafilms.com

KARIN HAYES
Director & Producer
info@urcuninafilms.com