OPEN SKY
Cielo abierto

Thursday, Sept 12 at 2:00 PM
Cineworks

Screens with THE VAMPIRES OF POVERTY

Saturday, Sept 14 at 4:15 PM
The Cinematheque

Director Felipe Esparza Pérez in attendance on Sept 14!!

Director: Felipe Esparza Pérez
Perú | 2023 | Spanish, English with English subtitles | 61 min | Hybrid Documentary

Sliding Scale Tickets:
$13 / $15 / $18 / $21

Plus $3 VLAFF Membership required


A Peruvian father labours patiently, chipping at the white volcanic stone that forms an extraordinary landscape. His son is part of the modern world: he uses cameras and drones in order to create the digital model of a church on a computer. Separated by the mysterious death of the wife/mother figure in the family, these men do not connect. And yet their paths cross in a ghostly manner, as do their professions: each in their own way works with textures and volumes, sensations and perceptions. Can the realm of digital art recreate and revivify the old world? Can it also awaken hearts grown lonely and cold?

Un padre peruano trabaja pacientemente, picando la piedra volcánica blanca que forma un paisaje extraordinario. Su hijo forma parte del mundo moderno: utiliza cámaras y drones para crear el modelo digital de una iglesia en una computadora. Separados por la misteriosa muerte de la figura esposa/madre de la familia, estos hombres no conectan. Y, sin embargo, sus caminos se cruzan de manera fantasmal, al igual que sus profesiones: cada uno a su manera trabaja con texturas y volúmenes, sensaciones y percepciones. ¿Puede el ámbito del arte digital recrear y revivir el viejo mundo? ¿Puede también despertar corazones que se han vuelto solitarios y fríos?

Felipe Esparza Pérez’s directorial debut is a quiet masterpiece that embraces the spirit of slow cinema, a Frederick Wiseman meets Pedro Costa. This film isn’t a conventional documentary nor a pure work of fiction. Dispensing with conventional plot structures, it relies on a delicate aural design instead of a traditional soundtrack. Through its lens, we are sensitized to the rhythmic dance of day and night, the ethereal beauty of a solitary human voice singing, and the boundless expanse of the open sky. Cielo Abierto is a sensory meditation, an ode to the cyclical nature of existence and the delicate interplay of human emotions.

– Chico Peres Smith

Cielo abierto sensitises us to the cyclical alternation of day and night, the beauty of a human voice idly singing, and the open sky.

Adrian Martin, International Film Festival Rotterdam

Best Peruvian Film, 27th Lima Film Festival, 2023 (Peru)
Best Sound Design at Cine Ceará Film Festival (Brazil)
52nd Festival du nouveau cinéma – New Alchemists Prize – Honorable Mention (Montreal)
Special Jury Mention InLaguna Film Festival (Italy)


FELIPE ESPARZA PÉREZ

(Talara, Perú, 1985). Felipe graduated with a Master’s degree from Centro de la Imagen (Lima) and Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains (France). His work creates dynamic links and tensions between film and visual arts, with a strong interest in rituals, faith and its symbolic derivations and the relationship between image and time, image and history, and image and truth. He is currently a fellow at the Film Study Center at Harvard University.



This film qualifies for the People’s Choice Award, presented by