Dinner with the Anderson Cooper of Switzerland

I somehow found myself at a nice restaurant in Medellin eating dinner with a famous TV host from Switzerland and his documentary film crew. This is all because of a friend of a friend of a friend in Switzerland.  One of my foreigner friends in Medellin who has since gone back to Switzerland once again set me up with this cool opportunity just as he did when I attended a Colombian high society party

with beauty queens, liquor board president’s, military commanders, and rich people. Apparently he gave the TV-Journalist a handful of contacts to call up once in Medellin.

In the early evening the Swiss TV presenter, Reto Brennwald

, called me up to invite me out to dinner with him and his film crew.

Reto Brennwald (born April 19, 1963 in Winterthur [1]) is a Swiss television presenter. From April 2008 until the end of 2010 he hosted the political talk show arena for Swiss television.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prew3Zi-qIQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sz_1r4qPbg[/youtube]

Since 2011 he works for the editorial mission of Doc as a reporter in the documentary field. [2]

Brennwald grew up in Winterthur and made the Matura. His journalistic career began in 1988 as an editor at the journal Regional Zurich-Schaffhausen in the Swiss Radio DRS. 1991 Brennwald editor and presenter on radio station DRS third In 1993, he worked for Radio 24 as moderator and editor of music and talk shows. In 1994 he became a video journalist at the regional television TeleZüri moderated and there the programs Steinfels Live and Sunday Talk. Since 1997, fuel wood is the Swiss television. By 2008 he was host of the program has moved here.

They had arrived by boat from Panama that morning and after a full day of shooting were going to end the day with a quick dinner before moving onto Peru the next night.  Rather than watch television for the night I changed plans and took a taxi to Poblado to meet them. Unlike all other foreigners who find a nice restaurant in the center of Poblado, Parque Lleras, Beto and his crew settled in a nice Italian restaurant block away from the action. Of course I got lost trying to find the place. By the time I arrived Beto was waiting for me outside of the restaurant.

We shook hands and once at the table I met the rest of his crew – the producer, cameraman, and translator. Reto told me that my friend had given him about 5 contacts in Medellin but he was interested in meeting me after reading a little of this website. Hello Reto if you’re reading this!

He and his crew are filming a travel show

from Central America to the tip of South America ending in Tierra del Fuego. The show will eventually appear on the Swiss Radio and Television network

.

If it weren’t in Swiss-German I would really like to see it. Before meeting me they had spent the day with an ex-FARC who quit the organization after finishing his 14 year prison sentence. Now the guy helps others wanting to do the same. The next day they planned to show the nicer side of Medellin filming from the metro.

What was really interesting to me was that the the photographer had done a year long backpacking trip with time spent in Colombia 2o years ago.

During the dinner we talked a lot about Colombia. As always I tried explaining why I keep coming back. I gave an example that when walking inside and elevator here people always greet each other unlike in many other countries. But they were quick to correct me that they also do the same in Switzerland. Maybe a visit to Switzerland someday soon? We discussed Colombia and I tried to explain in a nice way that by this point the way Colombia is portrayed is so overdone. Whether its bloggers, journalists, or documentary makers its typically told in the same narrative. That Colombia used to be a chaotic place with violence, crime, drugs, and Pablo Escobar. By the end of the story it will be explained how Colombia has overcome so much and is still struggling to find its identity. I think their documentary will follow a similar narrative but will still have an interesting take considering their story of the ex-FARC and the unique perspective from Medellin’s metro.

The dinner went very quickly and after they paid the bill the crew offered to drive me back home in their van. It was very nice of them but completely out of the way.  This meetup is absolutely the last thing I envisioned doing on a Monday night but what an interesting night it was.