Three Latin American short films had been programmed for the 2020 edition of the Telluride Film Festival, which was scheduled for early September, but was cancelled amid the growing pandemic in the United States.
Selected in the Student Prints section, programmed by Academy Award nominated Latinx director Gregory Nava, were the Colombian short Silento by Esteban García Vernaza from Columbia University, set in the beginnings of the 1950’s Colombian Civil war about a girl must protect her little sister as an armed group invades their farm; and the Brazilian film Under the Heavens / Seiva Bruta by Gustavo Milan from New York University. Winner of the DGA Student Film Award, the short film tells the story of a young Venezuelan mother who immigrates to Brazil.
The Salvadoran short film Unforgivable / Imperdonable by Marlén Viñayo had been programmed by Academy Award-winning writer, director, producer Barry Jenkins in the Great Expectations section. The film, winner of the Best International Short Documentary Award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary, tells the story of a ruthless hitman for the 18th Street gang who serves his sentence in an isolation cell in El Salvador. But in prison, Geovanny is not just guilty of crimes, but of an unforgivable sin under God and gang: being gay.
