The Brazilian film The Trial by Maria Ramos, was the top winner at the 15th edition of DocumentaMadrid—one of Spain's top documentary film festivals—receiving the award for Best Film in the international competition. A second Brazilian film, Bixa Travesty / Tranny Fag by Claudia Priscilla and Kiko Goifman, was the winner of the Special Jury Mention.
Fresh off its similar win at Visions du Réel, The Trial follows the impeachment process of President Dilma Rousseff, which was kickstarted by the speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, charged for pocketing at least 40 million dollars in a plot at the state-owned oil company Petrobras. Cunha, with the help of Michel Temer, acting president of Brazil, started the impeachment process after the decision made by government allies that they would not prevent investigations in the Congressional ethics committee that could lead to his ousting.
Rousseff, daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant, was the first woman democratically elected to hold the Brazilian presidency. Jailed and tortured from 1970 to 1972 under the military dictatorship, she has become a symbol for the quest of democracy of the Brazilian people.
Other Latin American winner was the Colombian-Cuban short film Moriví by David Aguilera Cogollo, which was presented with a Special Jury Mention in the international short film competition.
The 15th edition of DocumentaMadrid took place May 3-13 in Spain.
