Meeting Point by Roberto Baeza
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has announced the complete lineup for its 29th edition, taking place April 28—May 8, which includes a special spotlight on Chile, screening seven documentaries from the South American country.
The ‘Made in Chile’ program will feature the documentary films Corrupted / Los ojos del sapo by Juan Cifuentes Mera, Desert Space / Espacio desierto by Yerko Ravlic, Meeting Point / Punto de encuentro by Roberto Baeza, The Mole Agent / El agente topo by Maite Alberdi, On Suspicion Zokunentu / Bajo sospecha: Zokunentu by Daniel Díaz, Primera by Vee Bravo, and the Colombian-Chilean co-production Alis by Nicolas van Hemelryck and Clare Weiskopf.
In Baeza’s Meeting Point, having its world premiere at the Canadian film festival, a couple of filmmakers use actors and family members to recreate their fathers' deep friendship forged in Pinochet's torture camp. But as a strong social movement swells against new state repression, the generational effects of Chile's turbulent past and present manifest for everyone.
Set the desert town of Copiapó, in northern Chile's Atacama Desert, Desert Space follows a lonely security guard who prepares to make contact, both with his ex-wife who is journeying from Australia to reconcile with him and with the extraterrestrial life he's convinced exists when he gazes into the night skies.
In Corrupted, Andrea, a fictional amalgam created from real psychiatric patients' experiences, grapples with severe memory loss as a result of receiving electroshock therapy. Using distortion, tracking lines and static to evoke her fuzzy state of mind and neurological impairment, Corrupted records her struggle to remember.
In On Suspicion Zokunentu, a wrongful arrest sparks famed Mapuche artist Bernardo Oyarzún to challenge Chile's colonial past. Through Oyarzún's commanding resistance art, the director explores his uncle's legacy and impact in the search for Mapuche identity, language and culture.
From the student takeover of Santiago's metro system to a historic plebiscite, Primera follows the year-long revolutionary struggle for Chile's new constitution where everyday citizens faced down violent police repression on the frontlines. In Alis, teenage girls from Bogotá's unforgiving streets create a fictional classmate who evolves into a vehicle to reveal their own harrowing experiences. As this soulful narrative emerges, they transform both Alis's story and their own into one of transcendence and hope.
And the Academy Award nominated The Mole Agent tells the story of the octogenarian Sergio, who goes undercover at a Chilean retirement home to investigate allegations of abuse and theft. With zero experience as a spy or even operating a cell phone, he instead uses charm to crack the case—and expose another crime entirely.
The 29th edition of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival will take place April 28—May 8 in Toronto.
