The Sheffield DocFest has revealed its much-anticipated 30th edition lineup, boasting a variety of titles from Latin American and the Latinx diaspora. This year’s DocFest will run from June 14 to 19 in north-central England, featuring films from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, and the U.S.
The titles will screen in three competition sections—International Competition, International First Feature Competition and International Short Film Competition. Films will additionally be programmed across six strand sections—Rhythms, Debates, People & Community, Memories, Rebellions and Journeys.
Bringing the Voice / Traer la voz by Brazilian visual artist Klaudia Kemper will receive its world premiere in the International Competition section of the festival. The film follows Kempler in a search to reconnect with her aging father, who remained in Brazil after she left for Chile when she was young and has now lost the ability to speak or write. The result is a touching examination of communication, connection, and disconnection, and the filmmaker’s endeavor to return her father’s voice to him.
The International First Feature Competition section includes two South American films that will also premiere globally at the festival. In the Shadow of Light / A la sombra de la luz, by Chilean directors Isabel Reyes and Ignacia Merino, captures life in the small Chilean town of Charrúa, which is dominated by the presence of one of the country’s largest power plants. The residents of the town, plagued by recurrent blackouts and an ever-present hum of electricity, find themselves voiceless against the large-scale industrial complex and a profoundly unequal system.
Not a Bedtime Story / Cuentos para no dormir is by Ecuadorian filmmaker Lila Penagos and focuses on her father Carlos and her childhood memories of the bedtime stories he would tell her, more innocent variations on his experiences as a member of a guerrilla army. Years later, during a long car ride, she encourages her father to tell her the real versions of the stories—stories that unveil another side of his life, fighting Colombian state forces far from his home and family. The film offers a fascinating exploration of Latin American identity, the melding of harsh realities with magical realism, and an acknowledgement of how little we often know about those closest to us.
Premiering internationally in the Rhythm Section is Maestra by U.S. Latina director Maggie Contreras. The Tucson-born director and producer follows a group of female conductors from various backgrounds as they prepare to compete in the prestigious, all-women La Maestra competition in Paris. Each entrant has a singular personality and has had to face a slew of obstacles in navigating a field riddle with issues of sexism and a larger world dominated by men. Contreras’s film ultimately celebrates female camaraderie and womens’ ambition in the exciting and dramatic sphere of classical music.
In the Rebellion section is Breaking Social by Fredrik Gertten, director of affordable housing exposé Push, receiving its UK Premiere. Gertten’s documentary tackles abusive capitalism in a triptych of countries – Malta, the US and Chile – and exposes the increasing state of economic, legal and cultural inequality. Featuring interviews with experts, activists, and affected citizens, Breaking Social aims to reimagine the structure of our societies and encourage resistance against global patterns of injustice and corruption.
Two South American films will be screening in the Debates section of the festival. Bruno Jorge’s The Invention of the Other / Invenção do Outro, receiving its UK premiere, follows an expedition attempting to establish contact with the Korubo, an isolated indigenous group that lives near the border of Brazil, Peru and Colombia. Expanding from the confines of ethnographic cinema, the Brazilian director records the team’s real and human connections with the Amazonian community, offering both a wondrous record of contact with a society removed from the reaches of modern life, and a bleak reminder of the ruthlessness of our world.
All the Flowers /Todas las flores)by Puerto Rican filmmaker Carmen Oquendo-Villar is premiering globally and centers on Tabaco y Ron, a small brothel in the Santa Fe neighborhood of Bogotá. Santa Fe, known as the “tolerance zone” and designated for legal sex, is home to a large portion of the city’s trans community, who continue to face violence and discrimination in the bloodstained region. The family-run Tabaco y Ron offers an indispensable refuge for trans sex workers, and Oquendo-Villar weaves their stories into a fascinating and intimate tapestry of life.
Premiering in the UK in the People and Communities section is the Argentine film The Castle / Castillo by Martin Benchimol and Hummingbirds from Texas by Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía ‘Beba’ Contreras .
The Castle, is set in the rural Argentinian province of La Pampa and follows Justina, a domestic servant whose former owner leaves her an enormous mansion under the condition that she does not sell it. The house begins to fall into disrepair, soon overrun by all manner of flora and fauna, and Alexia, her daughter, prepares to leave to the city to pursue her dream of becoming a Formula 4 driver. Martin Benchimol tenderly captures the last months spent together by mother and daughter in a bittersweet tale that offers the promise of salvation.
Hummingbirds, shot over a few months in 2019 shortly after co-director Castaños’ high school graduation, takes place in the border town of Laredo, Texas. Two Mexican-American friends record their lives during a sweltering and seemingly endless summer, awaiting the resolution to Beba's immigration and right to work status, and also for something to happen. The film is a moving and refreshing testament to the precarity of adolescence, and deftly examines the issue of immigration along the Texas-Mexican border through the lens of the girls' friendship.
Lastly, receiving its UK Premiere in the Journeys section of the festival is Anhell69, a self-defined trans film by Theo Montoya. Neither documentary nor fiction, but rather straddling both worlds, this feature debut is a transgressive film without borders or genders that muses on the lives and deaths of a group of queer Colombian young adults in a decrepit city. Occupying a series of underground spaces in Medellín, Anhell69 powerfully laments its protagonists and represents an allegory of the uncertainty of life for Colombia’s marginalized.
