The Other One, Haydee and the Flying Fish, Night Shot, Harley Queen and Los Reyes are the films that this year take part in the Spotlight section of Sheffield Doc/Fest, one of the most important promotion sections of the event being held in the UK. The Official Market Selection, meanwhile, will offer up Here, the Silence is Heard by filmmakers Gabriela Pena and Picho García. Also, the Chilean delegation plan to bring five projects to the Festival.
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Almost a month after the outstanding participation of The Mole Agent in the Academy Awards, the Chilean documentary sector continues to mark presence at important international audiovisual industry events. This year Sheffield Doc/Fest runs between June 4 and 13, an instance that integrates five national productions and six projects in development with representatives from Chiledoc, the sectoral brand of the national documentary, within the framework of market programs financed by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, coordinated by Chiledoc, the sectoral brand of the Chilean documentary, along with the support of the Chilean Documentary Corporation CCDoc and the Chilean Animation Association, Animachi.
Here, the silence is heard, directed by Gabriela Pena and produced by Picho García, is part of MeetMarket, one of the most significant documentary markets in the world. On this platform, the filmmakers present themselves to important industry agents to obtain financing, co-productions and alliances for their audiovisual projects, and also find a space to show their growth. «During the year that we have been developing it, we have been able to make it visible and strengthen it, with the experience of diverse, sincere and loving points of views, who have been interested in contributing with their knowledge» says Picho García, producer of the documentary, who also sees in this market a great opportunity. «We hope to find a window where we can present the project and increase the possibilities of concluding agreements that will allow us to move forward» he adds.
Here, the silence is heard, documentary feature by the production company Grieta Cine, originally from Valparaíso, is an exercise of memory that tells of a person who lives in the house that he once left to go into exile. In 2020, the documentary won the Best Project and Pitch Award for the Development Fund of the Open City Documentary Festival in London and has since been selected in prestigious national and international competitions. «We are extremely proud that this project participates in MeetMarket, as it is led by a young and regional team that is characterized by addressing profound issues, inspired by family stories and that reflect a warm and intimate regard» says Paula Ossandón, director of Chiledoc.
Focus on national cinema
Sheffield Doc/Fest is a festival dedicated to the documentary film and series industry, and to new media, such as virtual reality, immersive and podcast, which has given space for the participation of a wide variety of documentary projects from around the world. On this occasion, the event has an outstanding selection of five Chilean films as part of its Spotlight section, a focus that works as a fundamental space for the promotion and visibility of audiovisual productions internationally. This year, Cintia Gil, Festival Director, selected five Chilean films released between 2018 and 2020, to represent the expansive nature of Chilean narrative and audiovisual technical diversity. One of them is Haydee and the Flying Fish, directed by Pachi Bustos and produced by Paola Castillo, which tells the story of Haydee, a political prisoner in dictatorship, who has been fighting for justice for the victims of human rights violations in Chile for more than forty years, especially for her son who was murdered when she was tortured.
Harley Queen, directed and produced by Carolina Adriazola and José Luis Sepúlveda, is an audiovisual exploration through the life of a feminist strip dancer and mother, who lives in Bajos de Mena, or what is known as «Chile’s largest ghetto» and yearns to find her identity in that of a supervillain.
Night Shot, directed by Carolina Moscoso and produced by Macarena Aguiló, is another documentary made from intimacy. In it, the director tells the story of her rape, after almost a decade of the event. A diary constructed in the form of a kaleidoscope from dozens of videos that the filmmaker recorded over the years.
Los Reyes, directed and produced by Bettina Perut and Ivan Osnovikoff, seems to be the lightest documentary of this selection. In this film the protagonists are Fútbol and Chola, a couple of stray dogs who spend their days in the skate park of Los Reyes in the Chilean capital. Insects, motorcycles, donkeys and teenagers in rebellion against the adult world circulate around them.
The last film that is part of the Spotlight section is The Other One, directed by Francisco Bermejo and produced by Francisco Hervé, a documentary that hasn’t premiered yet in Chile, but already has a wide international recognition, including the Cannes Film Festival and the Swiss market Visions du Réel. The film shows two characters, very different from each other, who live isolated in a cabin by the sea. While one of them spends the day diving and hunting, the other one just wants to enjoy his time reading.
This special focus within Sheffield Doc/Fest is also highlighted by the current Director of Chiledoc, Paula Ossandón, who understands the importance of a selection of this level in one of the largest and most important documentary festivals in the world. «We are thrilled because we have a managed a focus that stands out the Chilean documentary of the last two years, represented in titles with very different themes and narratives, which shows the diversity and versatility that characterizes our productions» notes Paula Ossandón.
The Chilean delegation
Beyond the projects noted above, the delegation will also bring six projects still in development. The producer Florencia Dupont, from the production company Santiago Independiente, participates with three projects. Two of them directed by Diego Acosta and with the participation of producer Sebastián Sánchez Barrientos. Al Amparo del Cielo shelter tells about the wanderings between loneliness and the daily routine of life in the mountains of a muleteer, and The Revelation of Death, is the portrait of Mauricio Valenzuela, one of the most original and rebellious photographers of the generation that lived during the dictatorship. The third Project, by director Nicolás Superby, is El Fantasma de María, a documentary that invites to participate in a séance, where through family archives, the director makes a journey in the life of his great-grandmother, María Tupper, Chilean artist and spiritualist of the early twentieth century.
Desert Space, directed by the Atacameño filmmaker, Yerko Ravlic, and produced by Michel Toledo, from Totem Producciones, is located in the north of Chile, where a lonely guard of a mining company, who dedicates his free time to unveiling the mysteries of extraterrestrial life, organizes the first UFO vigil open to the public in an emblematic place of the Atacama desert.
Ancestral Secret VR, directed by Francisca Silva and produced by María José Díaz, from the production company Galgo Storytelling, has already achieved some recognitions such as the Best Digital Experiences Pitch of the Sunny Side of The Doc 2020 market in France. The immersive documentary, which also participated as part of the CPH:DOX delegation this year, is part of the journey through an ancient Inca prophecy where the relationship between humanity and Mother Earth is redefined.
In addition, the animated film La Copia Feliz del Edén directed by Emilio Romero and Samuel Restucci, and produced by the latter, participates in this event. This short film, from the production company The Forest Man, is a short story that tells in just a few minutes the moment when the phone rings in the president’s house, his lover cries, an F19 plane bombs La Moneda Palace and Salvador Allende commits suicide.
The online attendance to the festival and market Sheffield Doc/Fest in the United Kingdom, is funded by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, and coordinated by Chiledoc, the sectoral brand of the Chilean documentary, along with the support of the Chilean Documentary Corporation CCDoc and the Chilean Animation Association, Animachi.
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