Abyssal by Alejandro Alonso
Two Latinx and Latin American short films were awarded at the 26th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, which was held online in 2022: Abyssal by Cuban director Alejandro Alonso was the winner of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Award, given to a short film that highlights documentary as a formally inventive artistic medium; while No Soy Óscar by Salvadoran-American director Jon Ayon was presented with the Full Frame President’s Award for best student film.
Abyssal tells the story of Raudel, who has been haunted since childhood by the sight of a strange light. Now, at the age of 27, he dedicates himself to scrapping ships in Bahia Honda, Cuba, a place where the line that separates the living from the dead is almost invisible. No Soy ´Óscar follows a first-generation Latinx father who journeys through unrecognizable, unceded lands in the border regions between the U.S. and Mexico in search of the place where Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his young daughter Angie Valeria drowned.
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an internationally recognized, Academy Award–qualifying event that proudly presents the best of nonfiction films on the festival circuit each year. Based in Durham, North Carolina, the annual festival gathers thousands of enthusiastic fans from around the globe to celebrate the documentary art form, engage in meaningful conversation, and experience the impact of exceptional nonfiction cinema firsthand. The 25th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival took place virtually April 7–10, 2022.
