ANTOINE Laura BariCanada / 82’ / 2008
A sensitive portrait of the real and imaginary life of Antoine, a boy detective who runs, drives, makes decisions, uses a mini-boom microphone to discover and capture the sounds surrounding him. Antoine, who is of Vietnamese origin is 5 years old and blind.
DIARIO DEL FIN (Diary of the End)Juan Alejandro Ramírez Peru / 24’ / 2009 / 16mm
A woman facing a bleak future recounts her life in sketcky, seemingly random episodes. One by one the scars and despair left by a life ridden with just burden and sacrifice, but little joy, inevitably emerge. Diario del Fin is a visceral and moving account filled with brutally honest, yet liberating, confessions. It is permeated by a profound introspection and clarity of perception which seem to surface only in extreme, point-of-no-return situations.
FORGETTING DAD Rick Minnich Germany / 84’/ 2008
One week after a seemingly harmless car accident, a 45-year-old man suffers total amnesia. Christening himself the “New Richard,” he embarks upon a new life with a new wife far away from his family. Sixteen years later, his oldest son returns with a camera to investigate why his father’s memory never returned.
HAVANYORKLuciano Larobinaexico / 90’ / 2009 / BetaSP
The rebellious and contestatory discourse of the musicians invites us to reflect on the counterculture and the parallel realities that arise in every government system. From the neighbourhoods of Havana and New York the camera portrays, with a participatory vision, the reflections that the musicians of both cities have elaborated in relation to their roots, the evolution of the drum and to the soul of hip-hop.
HÉROES FRÁGILES (The Conspirancy)Emilio PacullChile / 85’/ 2008/ MINI-DV
On September 11th 1973, Augusto Olivares, Salvador Allende’s closest collaborator, committed suicide a few minutes before Allende himself put an end to his life. Emilio Pacull, Olivares’ stepson, revisits the Chile of today and through survivors moving witness accounts and with the use of the cinema as an instrument of reflection and condemnation, he analyses this event as an exemplary case of brutal suppression of a utopian possibility.
HOLLYWOOD CONTRA FRANCO (A War in Hollywood) Oriol Porta Spain / 92’ / 2008 / DVC Pro HD
Hollywood used the Spanish Civil War as a subject in more than 50 films. The defeat of the Democratic Spain let an “open wound” in the heart of liberal actors, directors and screenwriters who used affection towards democratic Spain as a symbolic feature to define the romantic spirit of their characters. This sympathy, however, was shaped according to American political tendencies of each period. This evolution is narrated through the personal story of Alvah Bessie, a Hollywood screenwriter who fought as a member of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War.
LOS QUE SE QUEDAN (The Ones who Remain) Juan Carlos Rulfo, Carlos HagermanMexico / 130’ / 2008 / XDCAM
Los Que se Quedan is a film about the families of those who have crossed the border to the United States in search of better opportunities. A film that explores the melancholy, memories and identity of those who remain, who continue to wait, to love and to dream. A film about absence, about the families whose lives are defined by the voids emigration has created.
ms and sounds to reconnect man and nature to the primordial and divine.
MUNDO ALASLeon Gieco, Sebastian Schindel, Fernando MolnarArgentina / 90’ / 2009 / 35mm
MUNDO ALAS is a road movie. A journey of initiation by a group of new young artists who present their works, accompanied by the voice, talent and experience of León Gieco (Argentina's most important folk-rock singer and songwriter), while on a tour through several Argentinean provinces. A unique film that intends to include everyone. A wonderful musical experience about overcoming difficulties and about love, that begins to identify and recognize people by their abilities.
NUESTROS DESAPARECIDOS (Our Disappeared) Juan Mandelbaum USA / 99’ / 2008
Through a casual Google search director Juan Mandelbaum finds out that Patricia, a long lost girlfriend from Argentina, is among the thousands who were kidnapped, tortured and then “disappeared” by the military during the 1976-1983 dictatorship. Juan embarks on a journey to find out what happened to her and others he knew who disappeared and re-examines his own choices. As he shares dramatic stories told by parents, siblings, friends and children of the disappeared, Juan grieves the tragic losses and shows that when brutal regimes attack the fabric of a country with great impunity, the suffering lasts for generations.
SIETE INSTANTES (Seven Instants)Diana CardozoMexico / 90’ / 2008 / 16mm
Is the story of women that were guerrilleras in Uruguay at the beginning of the 70´s. Under an intimate focus, the film shows the moments of decision and the personal crossroads that it involves. The documentary searchs the experience and the look of common individuals in exceptional situations and goes to the bottom of the load of tensions, fears, contradictions and personal costs that those labor instants of the History have.
SOUS LA CAGOULE, UN VOYAGE AU BOUT DE LA TORTURE (Under the Hood, A Voyage Into the World of Torture)Patricio HenriquezCanada / 107’/ 2008
September 11, 2001 saw the birth of a new world order. The war against terror now allows institutionalized violence to be exercised with full impunity. Under the Hood, a Voyage into the World of Torture retraces the stories of several people who were illegally tortured by democratic countries convinced of their absolute right to do so. It tells the unknown stories of the victims of a new barbarity and gives a human face to the suffering. Henríquez looks back at the history of torture, which was systematized by the Catholic Inquisition, as well as at the shameful history of American complicity with torturers, and calls for vigilance. Unless we believe in our collective values, we may be pushed to self-destruction by a new totalitarianism.
TAPOLOGOGabriela y Sally Gutiérrez DejarSpain / 88’ / 2008 / Digibeta
In Freedom Park, a squatter settlement in South Africa, a group of HIV-infected former sex-workers, created a network called Tapologo. They learn to be Home Based Carers for their community, transforming degradation into solidarity and squalor into hope. Catholic bishop Kevin Dowling participates in Tapologo, and raises doubts on the official doctrine of the Catholic Church regarding AIDS and sexuality in the African context.