In the late 1950s, Luis Ernesto Arocha evolves around the Group of Barranquilla bringing together writers, philosophers and artists which made this coastal city one of the most important intellectual centers of the Caribbean since 1940.
After his studies in Architecture at the University of Tulane (New Orléans), he began his film career in the 1960s in New York, working among others with the underground scene including Andy Warhol's Factory. He also works with the Colombian artist Feliza Bursztyn, turning his sculptures into real shifted visual symphonies.

The attraction of Luis Ernesto Arocha for carnival, masquerade and irony bring him to make the documentary trilogy La ópera del mondongo o al Mal tiempo buena cara (1973). Produced by Bolivariana Films, these three short films questioning Carnival of Barranquilla through his music, costumes and social criticism. Arocha describes a city in depression, marked by shortages of drinking water, hygiene and basic public services for which the month of Carnival seems to be the only escape from reality. This project won the India Catalina gold at the International Film Festival of Cartagena. If he continues to turn today with the same nonchalance, the same energy and the same irony (his latest project narrates the adventures of a vegetarian vampire), Luis Ernesto Arocha has also become a source of inspiration for many young Colombian artists, in Barranquilla, Cartagena and Puerto Colombia.