● Chiledoc, the Chilean documentary sector brand, is attending the CIFF Camden International Film Festival for the first time. Celebrating its twentieth edition, the festival will take place from September 12 to 15, with its industry meeting hosted by the Points North Institute, the CIFF organizer.
● Three Chilean productions will be part of the CIFF competitions: the feature film Oasis (Mafi.tv), making its North American premiere, and the short films Familia (Grieta Cine) and Meditations on Silence (Sebastián Quiroz), both having their international premieres.
● The Chilean project Burning Daddy, directed by Tana Gilbert and produced by Errante and Dirk Manthey Film, has also been selected for the Points North Institute’s activities.
Chiledoc, the Chilean documentary sector brand, is attending the Points North Institute and its 20th Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) for the first time. The CIFF is recognized as an American platform for new talents and emerging generations of non-fiction storytellers and filmmakers, and it has already featured Chilean documentaries in previous editions. The festival will take place in two phases: in-person from September 12 to 15 in Camden, Maine, United States—a key target area for Chiledoc—and virtually from September 16 to 30 of the same month.
Paula Ossandón, the brand’s director, notes that «Chiledoc is attending Points North and the Camden Festival to forge new connections and support the three premieres we will have at the festival, of which we are very proud. Our goals are to better understand the documentary ecosystem in the United States, build trust, enhance co-productions, and explore new avenues for financing, distribution, and commercialization for Chilean documentaries.»
Chiledoc is attending Points North as one of the festival’s sponsors, following its participation last April in Getting Real, the most significant meeting for documentarians in North America. These actions are part of a sustained initiative over recent years to engage more deeply with an audiovisual market with substantial business potential due to its size, reach, Spanish-speaking population, and the presence of an educational sector that acquires documentary productions.
Chilean Presence
In the Official Selection of CIFF, Chile makes its mark with three documentary films in competition. One of them is the feature film Oasis, directed by Tamara Uribe and Felipe Morgado and produced by Alba Gaviraghi and Diego Pino from MAFI Mapa Fílmico de un País. Oasis will have its North American premiere in the Harrell Competition.
Oasis explores the moment when Chile decided to draft a new Constitution following an unprecedented social uprising. A diverse assembly will be tasked with putting on paper the dreams of dignity and social justice of an entire people. What could possibly go wrong?
In the Shorts section, two works have been selected for their international premieres. The first is Familia, directed and produced by Gabriela Pena and Picho García from Grieta Cine.
This short film portrays Picho coordinating with his friends via WhatsApp to get a profile picture representing him. Meanwhile, a crisis unfolds in the family chat: the demand to be present during the rapid loss of autonomy of his grandfather, the family patriarch. Amid missed calls and a barrage of images, emojis, and stickers, we delve into the digital intimacy of a young man grappling with the expectations of others and his own.
Also featured is Meditations on Silence, directed and produced by Sebastián Quiroz from Autoluminiscente Cine. This short film is a sensory essay that explores the overlooked case of torture that occurred at the Baquedano subway station during the October 2019 uprising. Using various materials, it tensions the fibers of history and reality with a dynamic flow of images and sound.
But that’s not all. The latest documentary project directed by Tana Gilbert and produced by Paola Castillo and Dirk Manthey (the same team behind Malqueridas) will participate in the industry section of Camden at the Points North Fellowship. The project, Burning Daddy, is a Chilean-German co-production with Errante and Dirk Manthey Film. This intimate documentary explores the director’s fragmented family life due to the violence inflicted by her father as she attempts to piece together her memories.
About Points North and CIFF
The Points North Institute and its Camden International Film Festival have become a space that fosters innovation by bringing together a unique interdisciplinary community of filmmakers, artists, journalists, industry leaders, and local audiences. It serves as a creative hub where significant exchanges of ideas and projects occur, providing space for new stories and collaborations.
The festival hosts over 400 one-on-one meetings, project consultations, and screenings with industry representatives each year. Of the total projects selected to participate in their artistic programs, 75% are directed or co-directed by filmmakers of color and 77% by women or non-binary filmmakers. More than a quarter of the funded projects are created by filmmakers from the Global South.
Additionally, they receive support from YETI, National Geographic Documentary Films, RandomGood Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The DeNovo Initiative, Kanopy, Luminate, LEF Foundation, Netflix, ESPN Films, Perspective Fund, and the Media Courthouse Documentary Collective.
About Chiledoc
Chiledoc promotes the talents of Chilean documentary filmmakers and their films and series worldwide. Our commitment lies in fostering the sector’s expansion through strategic promotion, creating and strengthening networks, and promoting associative practices. We are a collective force.
Chiledoc is a public-private organization supported by ProChile under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Chilean Corporation of Documentaries (CCDoc).
Press Contact: Natalia Raipan | periodista@ccdoc.cl
internacional@chiledoc.cl
@copyright Corporación Chilena del Documental CCDoc
