• Artificial Clouds (Mimbre Films) and A Troop of Bears (Errante) are among the eight projects selected in the Pitching Documentary section. At the same time, Becoming a Man (We Are South); Escazú Souls (CUBHO Audiovisual); and I Don´t Want to Say Goodbye (La Ventana Cine) are selected within the new Series Doc section, made in collaboration with SANFIC Industria.
• The acclaimed documentary directed by Maite Alberdi, The Eternal Memory, will open Documentary Week.
• Bastard. The Inheritance of a Criminal; Earth Community; The Robert´s Way; and Lonko, are the Chilean projects selected in the online Meetings.
DocMontevideo is one of the main events for the Latin-American documentary, where every year, hundreds of audiovisual professionals gather to participate in diverse market and industry instances, as well as other training activities, such as seminars and laboratories, including spaces open to the general public, such as the exhibitions during Documentary Week. This year, the event celebrates its fifteenth anniversary and will be held in a hybrid format from July 24th to 28th.
«Chile’s participation in DocMontevideo continues with our strategy of promoting the internationalization of our creative economy through public-private collaboration with the sectoral brand Chiledoc and supporting production companies attending this important event, which stands as one of the most significant markets for documentaries in South America. These actions reinforce our commitment to diversification and the creation of value and quality in our exportable supply, recognizing the importance of Latin America as a key region in the audiovisual and documentary field,» said Raúl Vilches, Head of ProChile’s Creative Economy department.
Five projects in development are participating in the market’s official selection, which will be held in a hybrid format. Three of these projects are part of the new Series Doc section, co-organized by DocMontevideo and the Santiago International Film Festival SANFIC industry area. Another instance in which Chile participates with selected projects is Documentary Pitching, focused on individual works, where the filmmakers can connect with decision-makers and international sales agents.
«We thank DocMontevideo for the impulse it has always given to Chilean documentaries, serving as an extraordinary bridge that seeks a place not only in the Latin American market but also worldwide. Once again, this year, the Chilean presence stands out, reaffirming the strength of our productions and the echo it has at a global level,» says Paula Ossandón, Director of Chiledoc, the brand that promotes documentaries internationally.
Uruguayan premiere of The Eternal Memory
The internationally acclaimed film directed by Maite Alberdi, The Eternal Memory, will open Documentary Week, DocMontevideo’s exhibition space, on July 24th.
The documentary produced by Maite Alberdi, Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, and Rocío Jadue portrays the profound love story of Augusto and Paulina, who have been together and in love for over 25 years. Eight years ago, their lives changed with Augusto’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. In a story about individual and collective memory, Augusto, a prominent cultural journalist on Chilean television, and Paulina, a renowned actress and former Minister of Culture, dialogue between the reconstruction of memory and identity while simultaneously keeping alive that unbreakable complicit love. Day by day, the couple reinvents their way of relating to each other, relying on affection and a sense of humor, which, remarkably, always remains intact.
Documentary Pitching
This section, which offers a training path for the projects that participate in it, aims to boost their creative possibilities and provide opportunities for financing and positioning in the international market. This year, the selected projects come from Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Uruguay, and Chile.
Among the Chilean titles is Artificial Clouds, directed by Josefina Buschmann and produced by Daniela Camino (Mimbre Films). It was recently selected for Sheffield DocFest’s Meet Market and follows a data cloud’s journey from its mineral origin to its electronic ruins. Along the way, the cloud encounters beings and communities that live alongside it or resist its presence, observing the planetary damage its existence generates while asking: Can technological development exist without the sacrifice of ecologies and communities?
The other Chilean project in this section is A Troop of Bears, directed and produced by Christian Martinez, Paola Castillo Villagrán, Pachi Bustos (Errante). The story revolves around Christian, the son of Agustín, who was detained and disappeared on January 1st, 1975. Christian was only one year and seven months old when he was kidnapped alongside his father. A fellow militant had betrayed him, marking his destiny. Whom would this traitor be? This doubt and his father’s absence accompanied Christian all his life until one day, he finally meets Manuel, the informer.»
Series Doc
DocMontevideo reaffirms its commitment to serialized works with this new section, providing a dedicated space for training, acceleration, and internationalization of documentary series projects in the development stage. The section will include two instances: a formative one at DocMontevideo and another for acceleration and meetings with decision-makers at SANFIC INDUSTRIA. Three Chilean projects have been selected for Series Doc, alongside three others from Brazil, Ecuador, and Uruguay.
From Chile comes Becoming a Man, directed by Miguel Soffia and produced by Camila Maureira (We Are South). This documentary series explores the effects of the feminist revolution in Ibero-America on men and addresses key questions about masculinity and men’s responsibility in social change: How are they affected by a system that supposedly benefits them? A revealing look at the evolution of gender roles.
Also representing Chile is Escazu Souls, directed by Nicholas Hooper and produced by Isidora Fajardo (CUBHO Audiovisual). The documentary portrays eight grieving souls of environmental activists who have died in suspicious circumstances in different Latin American countries. These souls seek to resolve what was left pending in their earthly lives through a heartfelt dialogue with their loved ones: existential doubts, family dilemmas, and the eternal battle for the injustice that exists in the defense of territories.
I Don´t Want to Say Goodbye is the third Chilean project selected in Series Doc. Directed by Marcela Said and produced by Carola Fuentes and Rafa Valdeavellano (La Ventana Cine), the documentary revolves around the shocking suicide of a 16-year-old singer and how, after this tragic event, her parents are immersed in a search for answers. A farewell letter reveals clues about the cyberbullying she suffered at her school and possible culprits. The defendants refuse to go to trial and blame the parents. Anonymous confessions, a school of billionaires, songs with coded information. Why did Katy commit suicide?
Meetings
DocMontevideo Meetings is a space for the commercialization and international positioning of finished content or work in progress for television and/or festivals in unitary or series format.
This year, it is being held online, and four of the 26 projects from Chile are participating. The projects are: Bastard. The Inheritance of a Criminal, a co-production between Chile, Italy, and Sweden, directed by Pepe Rovano and produced by Kamila Veliz; Earth Community, directed by Paulina Ferreti and Juan Tamayo and produced by Guillermo Migrik; The Robert´s Way, directed by Raúl Cruz Gabe and produced by Francia Aranda; Walkatjurra, coproducción entre Chile y Francia, dirigida por Francisca Silva, co-dirigida por Carole Risler y producida por Alessandra Cristina, and Lonko, directed by Jota Loyola and produced by Juan Ramírez – the winner of the Docmontevideo award at Conecta 2022.
Conecta Award
Thanks to a long-standing alliance, an additional prize will be awarded during the Uruguayan event. The prize consists of the direct selection of a project, among those participating in the DocMontevideo Documentary Pitch, for the Conecta International Documentary Industry Meeting organized by the Chilean Documentary Corporation CCDoc.
Diego Pino, Executive Director of the Chilean Documentary Corporation CCDoc, comments: «In the last seven years, the alliance between Conecta and DocMontevideo has helped to strengthen a South American pole of documentary creation and production, allowing multiple projects in the region to find new forms of financing and commercialization, which may not have existed on the radar before or were not within everyone’s reach. For this reason, in the celebration of DocMontevideo’s 15th anniversary, we also celebrate the networking that has allowed Latin American non-fiction to position itself more and more strongly.»
This year, ProChile is financing the participation of five producers in DocMontevideo, in addition to networking and industry activities, which are coordinated by Chiledoc, the sectorial brand of the Chilean documentary.
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