Alma - a Child of Violence

Isabelle Fougère, Miquel Dewever-Plana
France | on-linear www + app | OmeU

I was fif­teen when I wanted to join a gang.” And to join the gang, Alma had to commit murder - there were no two ways about it. For five years, Alma was a member of the Maras, one of the most vio­lent gangs in Guatemala. Pho­tog­ra­ph­er Miquel Dew­ev­er-Plana and jour­nal­ist Isabelle Fougère allow Alma to tell her story on var­i­ous plat­forms. In the inter­ac­tive web ver­sion the user has the option to switch back and forth between two image streams, pre­sent­ed one above the other. The bottom screen shows Alma against a black back­ground, telling her story - from her ini­ti­a­tion to her vio­lent strug­gle to leave the gang. The second screen, which is accom­pa­nied by an immer­sive sound mix, con­tex­tu­al­izes Alma’s story (which con­tin­ues in voice-over) through Dew­ev­er-Plana’s pho­tographs and draw­ings by Hugues Mìcal.