Premieres Monday, July 7, 2025 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV / PBS app
POV presents "Igualada: Refusing to Know Your Place," directed by Juan Mejía Botero ("Death by a Thousand Cuts"), which chronicles Francia Márquez’s extraordinary journey from rural grassroots activist to history-making presidential campaign in Colombia.
Filmed over 15 years, Mejia was granted unprecedented access to capture Márquez’s transformation into a powerful force for change, inspiring millions to reimagine their nation's future and their place within it. In a time when many find themselves disillusioned and alienated by traditional politics, Mejia’s empowering story of a Black woman who dares to challenge the status quo of racial and socio-economic disparities results in an uplifting portrait of resistance, resilience, and transfiguration.
Filmmaker Quote:
Juan Mejía Botero, director of "Igualada: Refusing to Know Your Place" said: “When Francia called me in 2020 to say she was launching a presidential campaign. I thought she was joking—a Black woman from a rural community, aspiring to lead in a country built on racism, elitism, and misogyny? But she was serious. I told her: ‘If this is real, we need to document it—it’s going to be historic no matter how far it goes.’ She hesitated, then said something I’ll never forget: ‘They don’t make films about women like me or communities like mine… so go for it.’
“Igualada: Refusing to Know Your Place" is a film about hope—and belief in democracy. And wow, do we need that right now. If Francia’s unimaginable campaign—and her becoming Colombia’s first Black Vice President—was possible in a country like ours, then it’s possible almost anywhere. We have to believe that. We have to allow ourselves to dream again. And we can’t get tired of fighting.”
Shot in a cinéma verité style, Mejía Botero’s film follows Márquez’s rise from a local leader in La Toma, a small rural town in Colombia’s Pacific Southwest and home to over a quarter-million descendants of enslaved Africans. Rich in natural resources, the region is frequently targeted by multinational corporations and paramilitary groups. It was during a 2020 funeral for five murdered sugarcane workers that Márquez decided to launch her unlikely campaign.
The film begins in 2009, when Mejía Botero first began documenting Márquez’s efforts as a young land defender. The resulting footage reveals a rare, long-term portrait of a movement and a leader in the making—culminating in a watershed moment in Colombian history.
With the support of a small, tireless team, Márquez’s grassroots campaign—originally intended to spotlight the struggles of Afro-Colombian, rural, and Indigenous communities—quickly grew into a national movement. Her motto, rooted in African roots, declared: “I am because we are.”
Despite threats to her life, Márquez defiantly reclaimed the term "igualada"—a pejorative used to belittle those who demand rights seen as above their “place”—and she catapults the struggle for a more just Colombia into the upper echelons of power, rose to become a leading candidate in a broad progressive coalition led by Senator and former guerrilla fighter Gustavo Petro.
Echoing Knock Down the House and Mandela, Mejía Botero’s documentary deftly traces the rise of a global icon in the making, capturing the thrill and magnitude of Márquez’s historic presidential campaign from an intimate vantage point. An engrossing David vs. Goliath story—featuring original songs by award-winning singer-songwriter La Muchacha—"Igualada: Refusing to Know Your Place" is a dynamic portrait of a woman who refused to back down, making history along the way.
Watch On Your Schedule: "Igualada: Refusing to Know Your Place" will be available to stream through October 5, 2025, at pbs.org and on the PBS app. Watch the best of PBS anytime, anywhere on the free PBS app. Stream your favorite PBS shows on-demand and livestream shows from your local station, all from your favorite device.
Credits: A Human Pictures co-production with No Ficción. The director is Juan Mejía Botero. The producers are Juan Mejía Botero, Juan E. Yepes, Daniela Alatorre Benard, and Sonia Serna Botero. The cinematography is by Gómez, and the editing is by Andrea Chignoli. Music is by Richard Córdoba. The executive producers are Felipe Estefan, Juan Pablo Ruiz, Paola Mendoza, POV alum Marco Williams, and for American Documentary, Erika Dilday and Chris White.
