Shorts in Competition – Program 2
Water, access, being on the map, the first love, pleasure, history, and community are themes addressed in this collection of short films that illuminate various facets of the infinite and multiple realities that make up the experience of Latin American people. Through these narratives, the complexities and nuances of daily life are explored, highlighting the struggles and joys that define and recreate the region’s communities and individuals. These works invite us to delve into deeply human stories and recognize the diverse truths of Latin America, offering a window into the resilience and creativity of its characters and filmmakers, who with their unique voices and visions inspire us to reflect on our own place in the world.
Agua, acceso, estar en el mapa, el primer amor, placer, historia y comunidad son temas abordados en este conjunto de cortometrajes que iluminan distintas facetas de las infinitas y múltiples realidades que componen la experiencia de personas latinoamericanas. A través de estas narrativas, se exploran las complejidades y los matices de la vida cotidiana, destacando las luchas y las alegrías que definen y recrean a las comunidades e individuos de la región. Estos cortometrajes nos invitan a adentrarnos en historias profundamente humanas y a reconocer la diversidad de verdades de América Latina, otorgándonos una ventana a la resiliencia y creatividad de sus personajes y cineastas, quienes con sus voces y visiones únicas nos inspiran a reflexionar sobre nuestro propio lugar en el mundo.
Thursday, Sept 12 at 4:00 PM
Cineworks
Running time: 99 min
VLAFF Membership required
WATER
Ajá
Dir. Dennis Noel López Sosa
Mexico, 2023 | Spanish with English subtitles | 5 min
Ajá in Oaxaca’s chontal language means water. This essay makes an exploration and reinterpretation of the chontal people’s mystic ceremony of rain pleading. We offer this audiovisual to Simitrio, my uncle, curandero (medicine man), musician and prayer, who recently passed away. He alongside Martin, prayer and spiritual bearer, guide us with his narration.
Dennis Noel López Sosa is a documentalist, editor, and audiovisual artist. Born in 1979 in Mexico City, he is noted for his exploration of the connections between memory, territory, and identity. His approach is enriched by his heritage as the son of Chontal migrants from Oaxaca, blending experimental practice and documentary work using a combination of analog and digital media.
BLACK CROWNS
Coronas Negras
Dir. André Lô Sánchez
Mexico, 2022 | Spanish with English subtitles | 15 min
What does it mean to live your own identity with freedom in an environment of invisibility? The hairstyles of four Afro-descendant people from Mexican – Senegalese families, represent the starting point to reflect, through memories that emerge from their past and present, what it is like to live in México wearing a Black Crown and the consequences that implies. Because, in the face of this racist system, self-love is also resisting.
André Lô Sánchez is a Mexican Afro-descendant, Chilampaneco (Mexico City – Chiapas) who got his formation through the study and influences of social narrative and participatory documentary. He is currently working on exploring the theme of identity visibility and empowerment through audiovisuals in Afro-descendant populations in Mexico, as well as directing the anti-racist artistic creation project “Cardumen Lab”.
WE ARE ON THE MAP
Estamos en el mapa
Dir. Santiago Rodríguez Cárdenas
Colombia, 2023 | English and Spanish with English subtitles | 10 min
What does it mean to be on the map?
The people who built La Estrella neighborhood and still live there hang out to share and remember stories: the origins, the building, the organizational processes around basic needs and the dynamics of “social cleansing” are some of the milestones that neighbors collectively rebuild and reflect the history from many other Ciudad Bolívar hoods.
Santiago Rodríguez Cárdenas is a director and producer at ‘Resonancias Producciones’. Professional in Film and Television from Jorge Tadeo Lozano University. He has directed four award-winning short films and also worked as an academic programmer for the EUREKA University Film Festival. He currently works in the production and direction departments for projects on platforms like Netflix and Apple TV.
RAGE
FIERAS
Dir. Andrés Felipe Ángel
Colombia, 2023 | Spanish with English subtitles | 20 min
Fabián, a preteen who lives in the marginalized outskirts of Bogotá, is forced to walk the streets with the group of friends of his older brother led by the most developed of the guys, nicknamed “La Comadreja”. It rains and the boys bury a dead dog, Meanwhile, Fabián finds himself alone with an unknown impulse; the first bud of his desire provoked by another man; the leader of the group.
Andrés Felipe Ángel is a Colombian film director and visual designer in Bogota’s drag scene who, through the observation of his own memories, explores his personal imaginaries of family, gender identities and queer childhoods’ experiences regarding the territories he has inhabited: the land, the home and the body.
THE NIGHT OF THE MINOTAUR
La noche del minotauro
Dir. Juliana Zuluaga Montoya
Colombia, 2023 | Spanish with English subtitles | 11 min
Content Forecast: Nudity, Explicit Sexual Content.
People wonder where the birds go to die. My grandmother’s village had a lighthouse among the mountains, a forest full of creatures and an echo that sounded at night like the warm wind. That’s where the birds went to die. THE NIGHT OF THE MINOTAUR is a fantastic tale that uses archival material to construct the story of Luz Emilia García, the precursor of porn cinema in Colombia.
Juliana Zuluaga Montoya Antispeciesist and feminist activist. Master in Documentary Film. Interested in the body, interspecies relations and post-porn, from a transfeminist, decolonial and poshumanist stance. Her work includes the short films UNDER YOUR SHADOW, PRESAGE, SODOMA THE MOON WOMAN and THE NIGHT OF THE MINOTAUR, as director, and as producer the short film THE THIRD WORLD AFTER THE SUN, BIRDS FLY TOGETHER, PARADISE and WORLDS BURN IN THE SHADOWS. She is currently developing THE WOMEN OF THE KINGDOM, her first feature film as director, winner of the Fondo para el Desarrollo Cinematográfico (FDC).
THE PLEASURE IS ALL MINE
O PRAZER É TODO MEU
Dir. Vanessa Sandre
Brazil, 2023 | Portuguese with English subtitles | 19 min
Content Forecast: Nudity, Explicit Sexual Content.
Amélia is retired and lives a quiet life within a heteronormative marriage that has lasted more than five decades. But everything changes when she discovers that she has never had an orgasm. Amélia begins a journey of self-knowledge, rebellion and pursuit of her own pleasure.
Vanessa Sandre is a filmmaker originally from Brazil and based in Toronto, Canada. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Film and a Master’s degree in Literature focused on Women and Gender Studies. Vanessa has cultivated a diverse career as a screenwriter, producer, director, and performer for the last 14 years. As a Latina immigrant and artist, she finds inspiration in crafting narratives that amplify underrepresented voices through a decolonial and intersectional feminist lens. “O Prazer é Todo Meu” (The Pleasure is All Mine, 2023) is her latest fictional short film and addresses the taboo subject of female sexuality in old age. Filmed in Brazil, it has been selected for 30 festivals worldwide and has won 15 awards.
MUTE UTOPIA
Utopia Muda
Dir. Julio Matos
Brazil, 2023 | Portuguese with English subtitles | 20 min
The struggle to democratize the media in Brazil through the history of Radio Muda, the longest-running free radio station that challenged the system to defend freedom of expression.
A first-person narrative, the film is based on archive material from the director himself, who was an activist for Radio Muda at the beginning of the 21st century.
Julio Matos has been a director and producer since 2003, when he was part of the founding of the documentary production company Cisco Lab. His first feature film, Letters to Angola (2012), won awards in Brazil, Angola, Portugal and Belgium; his second, Blooming on the Asphalt (2022), was shown in several countries and won fifteen awards in Brazil and abroad. He has a degree in Sociology from Unicamp and a Masters in Communication from Goldsmiths University of London.