Venezuelan cinema is a cinema of resistance. Because it is not limited to the elites, and it is not indifferent to what is happening around it. In a country that has experienced too many economic and social crises, Venezuelan cinema serves the collective memory and never escapism. This section is dedicated to those Venezuelan filmmakers who did not leave the country and continue to tell their stories.
OFFICIAL SELECTION 2023
FROM THIS SIDE
PUNCH OF LIFE
Luís & Andrés Rodríguez | 25min | DOCUMENTARY
Venezuela
Former boxer Gregory Canelón dedicates himself to the demanding task of training a diverse group of boys and girls from different communities of the city of Caracas in the arduous boxing discipline.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
Zoum Domínguez Blanco | 20min | DOCUMENTARY
Venezuela
This documentary highlights the photographic journey of Juancho Domínguez, who at the age of 70, discovers photography as a means of expression.
DANCING IN THE MUD
Omar Arteaga | 13min | FICTION
Venezuela
A boy from a struggling family finds a bag full of money with a phone inside.
RETURN
Gerardo Arias | 12min | FICTION
Venezuela
Juan goes to visit his mother after a long time working but his sister prevent him from seeing her.
OUR FLESH
Luis José Glod | 8min | FICTION
Venezuela
A butcher keeps his business running despite the serious economic crisis that affects his country.
LA NUBE
Andrea Fabiani Estrella | 2min | FICTION
Venezuela
A man contemplates the sea, some natural disaster does not allow to be there, he is in The Cloud.
FROM THAT SIDE
In Venezuela, 7 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2002, bringing broken individuals and intergenerational trauma. But also, a community of artists that cultivates Creole talent around the world. Venezuelan filmmakers abroad talk about the reality they left behind but still carry within them. In these stories we will find that other country.
CHICHO
Arlen Aguayo Stewart | 8min | FICTION
Venezuela in Canada
Gustavo Bruin, also known as Chicho, is a bundle of enthusiasm, perfectionism and gay panic.
WE HAVE HOMELAND
Mikel Garrido | 20min | FICTION
Venezuela in Spain
A premature birth amidst the darkness of the 2019 national blackout in Caracas, Venezuela.
PUZZLE
Ricardo Muñoz Senior | 15min | FICTION
Venezuela in Mexico
In a dystopian society, Albertini must face an abusive and indifferent administration just to complete a simple puzzle.
RETROSPECTION OF A HOME
Sebastian Marcano-Perez | 10min | DOCUMENTARY
Venezuela in United States
A personal essay film dive into the collective memory of a family and their home in Venezuela they had to leave behind years ago.
UNINTENDED COUNTRY
Alfredo Hueck | 15min | DOCUMENTARY
Venezuela in United States
An absurd show of improvising clowns tests the patience of an increasingly exhausted audience. Any overlap with politics, it’s not improvised at all.
FROM THE OTHER SIDE
Venezuela, the last Caribbean country, has a curious relationship with Caribbean countries. Especially those where Spanish is not spoken, they seem to live in the shadows. Very little culture reaches us from our neighbours across the sea and that is why we want to build a bridge through cinema, with this selection that celebrates Caribbean and Latin American cinema.
STICK IS LIFE
Miquel Galofre | 10min | DOCUMENTARY
Trinidad and Tobago
In 2022 the ‘Moko Jumbie’ community of Trinidad gathered for the first time in the south of the country to share a Jab circle in the town that is the home of the first known Moko Jumbie in Trinidad, Dexter Steward.
ANOTHER ORANGE
Johnattan Báez | 10min | FICTION
Dominican Republic
In a neighborhood of Santo Domingo, a man is about to commit an unforgivable crime. Multiple events will collide as the suspect desperately drives in the direction of his target.
DORLIS
Enricka MH | 25min | FICTION
Martinique
Nora, a 15-year-old Martiniquan teenager, has to follow her mother and 6-year-old little sister, Mélissa, to the north of the island, to live at Henri’s, her grand-father, paralyzed since a recent stroke.
LA ÚLTIMA ASCENSIÓN
Kevin Osepa | 23min | FICTION
Curaçao
Rowin, a 22-year-old fisherman from Banda Abou (Curaçao) has little luck catching fish at his fishing spot. He goes there everyday despite the disapproval of his mother. One day, on the coastline where he fishes daily, he encounters a mysterious young man who will change everything.
LA TUMBA MAMBI
A. Boudreault-Fournier & DJ Jigüe | 20min | DOCUMENTARY
Cuba
Through the Society’s youngest member, Flavio, who is gathering information about the Tumba Francesa for a school project, we meet his grand-mother Andrea and mother Queli, two charismatic knowledge keepers of their rich cultural traditions.
BESTIA
Hugo Covarrubias | 15min | ANIMATION
Chile
Based on true events, “Bestia” explores the life of a secret police agent during the military dictatorship in Chile. Her relationship with her dog, her body, her fears and frustrations reveals a grim fracture of her mind and of the country.
FINDING HOME
Maria Stanisheva | 8min | DOCUMENTARY/ANIMATION
Brazil
A climate refugee forced to move from her home village to the big city in order to take care of her newborn baby as it struggles with microcephaly.
PARIBA
Aramis García González | 16min | FICTION
Aruba
As per tradition, Julie and Xiomara spend the day of Lighting Parade in Pariba together. They do the things they always do, like going to Taco Bell, talking about other people’s instagrams, and brainstorming outfit ideas.
GOD'S FLESH
Patricio Plaza | 21min | ANIMATION
Argentina
In the XVII century’s Latin America, a sick christian priest will have to endure in his own body the rituals done by the native cultures that he and the Holy Inquisition have been hunting down.