Rebel Love by Alejandro Bernal
Hot Docs, Canada’s premier international documentary film festival and the largest festival of its kind in North America, has recently announced its lineup complete with a strong slate of Latin American and U.S. Latinx titles representing countries throughout the region.
This year’s edition also includes a specially-curated, four-title program dedicated to contemporary Colombian documentary, titled ‘Made in Colombia,’ featuring works by Viviana Gómez Echeverry, Iván Guarnizo, Marcel Beltrán, and Alejandro Bernal. The festival, now in its 28th year, is set to be available to stream for audiences across Canada from Thursday, April 29 through Sunday, May 9, 2021.
In the ‘Made in Colombia’ category comes Viviana Gómez Echeverry and Anton Wenzel’s Between Fire and Water / Entre fuego y agua, an exquisitely shot documentary that follows a couple from the Quillasinga people of La Cocha Lagoon in southwestern Colombia who adopt a baby from the Afro-Colombian region of Tumaco on the Pacific coast. Now a teenager, Camilo has grown up as the only Black member of the Indigenous community. Now, the directors follow the path of father and son as they begin to reconnect Camilo to his roots and place of origin and build a bridge between his two very different worlds.
Colombian director Iván Guarnizo’s The Other Side / Del otro lado follows his own family history into a dark and painful past: Iván's mother had been kidnapped by FARC-EP forces and held in captivity for 603 days. As they marched her through the jungles and mountains of the Colombian countryside, she was able to keep a diary that in great detail documented the places she was taken, her experiences and the names and descriptions of her captors. As Iván and his brother turn through the pages of her journal, they set out to recreate her journey and come face to face with her captors—and in doing so, find within them the strength to forgive.
Marcel Beltrán’s Cuban-Brazilian-Colombian co-production Option Zero / La opción cero pieces together over a hundred hours of cell phone footage taken by hundreds of Cubans who documented their crossing from Colombia into Panama in hopes of entering the US. Most selling all their possessions to afford the trip, they crossed the treacherous Darién Gap jungle, enduring harsh conditions and eluding human and drug traffickers—only to land in a new kind of nightmare. Option Zero documents their perilous journey through their own firsthand accounts.
Closing out the section is Colombian filmmaker Alejandro Bernal’s Rebel Love, a story of romance born in the midst of war as two FARC-EP combatants, Cristian and Yimarly, meet and fall in love. As the peace accords between FARC-EP and the Colombian Government begin to play out, the young couple is filled with hope at the opportunity to start a new life and a family together. But soon they come to realize that love outside of the ranks in the military is not as ideal as they imagined.
Gaucho Americano by Nicolás Molina
With documentaries by Latin American and U.S. Latinx filmmakers present in every program category, this year’s lineup is not to be missed. Check out our full roundup below:
Starting in the ‘International Spectrum’ section comes Chilean director Nicolás Molina’s latest documentary Gaucho Americano, a dramatically cinematic journey that follows two Patagonian gauchos working as sheep farmers in the American West. Set against the vast and rugged landscape of Idaho, director Molina captures the complexities of living in a foreign land as the two men meet their quirky American co-workers and attempt to navigate the difficulties of language, lifestyle and mutual curiosity.
Representing Central America in the same category is Guatemalan filmmaker Anaïs Taracena’s investigative deep-dive The Silence of the Mole / El silencio del topo, an intimate look at a moment in the1970s that a respected journalist disappeared, only to emerge as the public relations manager and close colleague to Donaldo Álvarez Ruiz, the minister of interior for one of Guatemala's most repressive and bloodiest regimes. With interviews from fellow journalists, family members and a film archivist who protects some of the last deteriorating images of the war, Taracena uncovers a deep and hidden history of Guatemala.
From Colombia comes Germán Arango’s Songs that Flood the River, a mesmerizing and hypnotic tale that traces the story of a woman who, as a young girl, learned to sing alabados, traditional funeral chants sung by Afro-Colombians on the Pacific coast to bid farewell to the dead as they return to the realm of souls. As an adult, Oneida's alabados are now sung for the millions of souls who have suffered as a result of Colombia’s Boyajá Massacre, marking the scars of her misfortune and that of her nation’s.
Rounding off the category is Brazilian director Coraci Ruiz’s moving and inspiring family portrait, Threshold / Limiar. Filmed over three years, Ruiz follows the gender transition of her teenage son, Noah. As Noah's transformation and search for identity unfolds before our eyes, Ruiz and her own mother struggle with decisions that are inevitably placed out of their hands. Combining archival home videos and deeply revealing interviews with three generations of family, Threshold is a raw and remarkable window to a family in process.
In the ‘World Showcase’ section comes Isabel Vaca’s delicate Mexican documentary Becoming / Temporada de campo. Summer has begun, and for 11-year-old Bryan, that means only one thing: working in the picturesque Mexican countryside raising fighting bulls. His family has been breeding bulls for four generations, and he longs to emulate the cowboys in his family—uncles who he looks up to as father figures. With artful cinematography, Vaca captures the understated process of a boy facing the reality that every summer comes to an end.
Bringing contemporary indigenous rights to the fore is Brazilian director Luiz Bolognesi’s The Last Forest / A Última Floresta, a timely and poignant documentary following Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, a shaman and activist who has spent a quarter century leading a powerful international campaign to protect Yanomami land rights. But since Jair Bolsonaro took presidential office in 2019, he has reversed this progress, allowing the Amazon to become open for the taking once again. With beautifully realized scripted sequences, Bolognesi and Kopenawa Yanomami bring traditional stories to life about the ongoing struggles the Yanomami people face in their fight to preserve the Amazon and their culture.
Secrets from Putumayo by Aurélio Michiles
Also representing Brazil is Aurélio Michiles’ Secrets from Putumayo / Segredos do Putumayo: in 1910, the British Consul General in Rio de Janeiro, Roger Casement, undertook an investigation into allegations of crimes against Indigenous communities committed by the British-registered Peruvian Amazon Company. Narrated from his journals, the documentary recounts the horrific treatment he uncovered there: an industrial-extractive system based on killings and slave labour in the midst of the Amazon jungle, "a real green hell."
A Swiss-Paraguayan co-production, Arami Ullón’s Nothing but the Sun / Apenas el sol details the history of the forced removal in the 1960s of Paraguay’s Ayoreo communities from their rich and vast forested ancestral homes to the arid and desolate Paraguayan Chaco region. Since the 1970s, Mateo Sobode Chiqueno, also Ayoreo, has been recording the stories, songs and experiences of the people within his community who experienced the relocation. As the population ages and people become more disassociated with their language and culture, Mateo's work becomes ever more pressing as he attempts to preserve the fragments that are left, in hopes that from the memories, a resurgence will bloom.
From Argentina comes Darío Doria’s hybrid docu-animation Vicenta, an innovative approach to documentary filmmaking that uses Plasticine models interspersed with live-action news clips to detail the harrowing human rights story of Vicenta, a woman who discovered that her 16-year-old daughter Laura, who is mentally and physically disabled, has been raped by her uncle and is now pregnant. With few resources, Vicenta attempts to navigate a political system with extreme views against abortion. With subtle shifts of light and controlled camera movements, Doria powerfully conveys the deep emotion of the characters in this poignant story of human tragedy and political scandal.
In the ‘Persister: Women speaking up and being heard’ section highlighting female narratives in documentary comes Swiss-Salvadoran director Celina Escher’s Fly So Far / Nuestra libertad. In 2008, Teodora Vásquez was convicted of aggravated homicide and sentenced to 30 years in prison for having had a late-term miscarriage. Her widely publicized case was brought to El Salvador's highest court, where it became a symbol of the extremism in the criminalization of abortion and the cruelty directed towards women in the Salvadoran legal system. A truly empowering story of resilience and solidarity, Fly So Far is an unforgettable portrait of a reluctant activist determined to speak up and be heard, not only for herself but for all her sisters in the struggle against oppression.
U.S. Latinx filmmaker Emily Cohen Ibañez’s Fruits of Labor follows California high schooler Ashley Solis who works in agricultural fields to help her family survive. Ashley's resilience, optimism and commitment to building a better life for herself and her family is told with great nuance and compassion by director Emily Cohen Ibañez, who utilizes Ashley's own words to share the story of a young woman of colour stepping into her power and potential.
Winner of the Audience Award at DOC NYC, Rachel Cepeda’s La Madrina: The Savage Life of Lorine Padilla follows matriarch and healer Lorine Padilla, once the former "First Lady" of the Savage Skulls gang, now an activist in her Bronx community. Through intimate interviews and five decades of never-before-seen footage, Lorine's formidable story emerges against a rich backdrop of Bronx history, from her early experiences of single motherhood and navigating the complicated role of women in gangs to her activist work to right the wrongs of gentrification and fight for a better future for the youth in her neighborhood.
The Spokeswoman by Luciana Kaplan
Director Luciana Kaplan returns to Hot Docs to premiere her highly anticipated story of María de Jesús Patricio (Marichuy), the first Indigenous woman to run for the presidency in Mexico's 2018 election, in The Spokeswoman / La Vocera. Deeply embedded within Marichuy's campaign, Kaplan is up close and personal throughout her journey as she travels across Mexico to gain support for her election and unify a country around Indigenous rights, the environment and status of women.
Three Latin American docs are screening in the ‘Systems Down’ section, starting with Irene Vélez-Torres and Sjoerd van Grootheest’s Colombian production Bajo Fuego / Under Siege. In 2016, the FARC-EP guerillas and the Colombian government signed what was believed to be a revolutionary peace agreement. Built into the negotiations were guarantees to provide land to the poorest farmers, as well as financial and technical support to transition cocaine and marijuana crops to alternative sustainable production. But in the North of Cauca, farmers who are dependent on the illicit crops have seen only broken government promises as they struggle to survive. As their community leaders are threatened and killed and body counts rise, they fear that the region is heading back into conflict.
From Brazil comes director Caio Cavechini’s incredibly current Sieged: The Press vs. Denialism / Cercados: A Imprensa Contra o Negacionismo na Pandemia, a documentary taking viewers behind the scenes, into the newsrooms, behind the cameras and into the press scrums for a deeper view of the political turmoil and corruption being brought to light as COVID-19 hits Brazil. This immersive documentary rolls back the clock to when the pandemic first started, telling the story of Jair Bolsonaro’s propaganda and unchecked bravado and the frontline journalists who were desperate to warn the country of an impending public health disaster.
Also from Brazil is You Are Not a Soldier / Você Não É Um Soldado by Maria Carolina Telles. Her father having been a dedicated soldier drawn to the complexities of war, Telles attempts to understand what drove his desire to be on the frontlines by diving into the story of award-winning war photographer André Liohn. Having witnessed immeasurable suffering and fear, Liohn begins to question his motives for placing himself in such danger and examines the disturbing but fine line between the life and death he has witnessed and to what end he will go to reveal those truths.
Representing Latin America in the ‘Artscapes’ section is legendary award-winning filmmaker Heddy Honigmann’s No Hay Camino / There Is No Path. Recipient of the Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award in 2007, the Peruvian-born Dutch director returns with her most personal film to date. Facing her own truths and the realities of her terminal illness, she embarks upon a spiritual journey in this farewell film. Accompanied by her friend and companion Hussein, who is a refugee from Iraq, they travel to her country of birth, Peru, and throughout Europe to revisit some of the most important places and moments of her life
The latest film from Mexican-American director Natalia Almada, Users, finds its place in the ‘Markers’ category — a designated space for films pushing the boundaries of the documentary form. Almada won her second Documentary Directing Award at Sundance with this stunning visual essay about the place of technology in our lives. Intimate in scope yet epic in scale, and featuring an impressive score by the Kronos Quartet, Users invites us to question how the machines we use every day may end up changing the planet, and us, forever.
Wrapping up the feature film programs in the ‘Special Presentation’ section are Brazilian director Pedro Kos’ Rebel Hearts, a beautiful archival tribute to the nuns that became the most (in)famous archdiocese in 1960s Los Angeles by responding to the Civil Rights Movement, marching on on Selma, committing to feminism, and demanding pay cheques, and denouncing the war in Vietnam; and Afro-Latinx filmmaker Loira Limbal’s timely Through the Night, a moving portrait of the children, parents and caregivers of a 24-hour child care centre in upstate New York.
Finally, in the Shorts section are the Canadian/Peruvian co-production Load Cycle / Cicle de carga by Daniel Martínez-Quintanilla, a visual trance following the daily odyssey of men who toil under the sun at the Port of Masusa, relocating resources from the Amazonian jungle to the mainland without the help of wheels or cranes; Shenny De Los Angeles and Maria Marrone’s The Ritual to Beauty, following three generations of Dominican women and their relationship to relaxing their hair; and U.S. Latinx filmmaker Maya Cueva’s Ale Libre, telling the story of Alejandra Pablos who came to the United States as a baby but is fighting for her life as she petitions her deportation case and tirelessly advocates for immigrant rights.
Hot Docs 2021 opens on Thursday, April 29 and runs through Sunday, May 9, 2021. Access Pass holders can now use their packages to get tickets; single tickets are open to the public starting Tuesday, March 30. Check out the full lineup at www.hotdocs.ca.
