Shorts in Competition – Program 2

Selected from over 140 submissions, 15 finalists by filmmakers from across Latin America and the diaspora will compete for the Best Short Film Award. This section explores identity, memory, injustice, grief, love, and the body. Pushing the boundaries of cinema through fictions, documentaries, archival and experimental works, we encounter daring characters, unique stories, and incredible visuals.

Curated by Ana Tonso & Dani Rodríguez Chevalier

Available for viewing ONLINE from anywhere in Canada from August 25 – September 4.


THEY DON’T COME IN PEACE 
Eles não vêm em paz

Dir: Pedro Oranges, Victor Silva
Brazil
2021
Portuguese with English subtitles
4:07 min

As two brothers watch a news cast about extraterrestrial beings, the older brother uses the opportunity to make an analogy about their world being invaded by unwelcome visitors.

TWO-SPIRIT

Dir: Mónica Taboada-Tapia
Colombia
2021
Wayuunaiki and Spanish with English subtitles 
15:35 min

For Georgina, an Indigenous transgender woman, life in the desert is lonely and cruel. In her small village, no one understands who she is.

ANOTHER ORANGE
La otra naranja

Dir: Johnattan Báez
Dominican Republic/Estonia
2022
Spanish with English subtitles 
10 min

In a Santo Domingo neighbourhood, a man is about to commit an unforgivable crime. Multiple events will collide. A middle-aged woman walks back home after grocery shopping, a fruit seller chants Christian words as he rides his loaded tricycle, and the suspect drives desperately in the direction of his target.


BIRTHDAY BOY
Vuelta al sol

Dir: Judith Corro
Panama
2020
Spanish with English subtitles 
7 min

It’s César’s birthday and his parents expect him to wear clothes that make César feel uncomfortable. Now he has to make a decision: Continue to please his family’s expectations or be true to his identity as a trans man.

FLESH
Carne

Dir: Juan Diego Aguirre Gómez
Colombia
2022
Spanish with English subtitles
15:57 min

Jairo, a 50-year-old gay sex worker in a Colombian club, cannot conceive of another life outside of that which he knows, an underworld of illegality, marginality, and lust. Until the day Helda, his boss, warns him that his time in that world has ended.

Content warning: Violence, mutilation, blood.

Y (WATER EN GUARANÍ)
Y (Agua En Guaraní)

Dir: Cris Arana
Paraguay
2021
Guaraní and Spanish with English subtitles
12:22 min


Basilio has become accustomed to the lack of water, to the abuse of authority, to the suffering and loneliness that corruption generates. He is trapped, like many others, in the system that reigns where he lives.


CIRCADIAN
Circadiano

Dir: Carlett Decker
Ecuador
2022
Spanish with English subtitles
14:59 min 

In the midst of a health crisis, in which there is vehicle restriction, a curfew and services are collapsed, Laura (18) needs to get as soon as possible, a pill that interrupts an unwanted pregnancy in a country where it is illegal. As days go by, Laura witnesses her body slowly transforming, exacerbating her anxiety. Despite seeking help, this cycle is lived in an isolation that seems to be perpetual.

Content warning: Sexual abuse, unwanted pregnancy

SIDERAL
Sideral

Dir: Carlos Segundo
Brazil/France
2021
Portuguese with English subtitles
15 min 



In Natal, in the north of Brazil, the historic first launch of a Brazilian rocket is about to take place. A couple lives with their two children near the space centre. He is a mechanic and she is a cleaning lady, but she dreams of other horizons…