Runa Simi by Augusto Zegarra
The 32nd edition of the Sheffield DocFest on the United Kingdom starts today and runs through Monday, June 23, featuring an astounding 17 feature-length productions and co-productions from Latin America and the Latinx diaspora. Running from June 18 to 23 in north-central England, the festival will showcase documentaries from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, and Latinx USA.
The Latin American and Latinx films are presented across the festival’s competition sections—including the International Competition, International First Feature Competition, and International Short Film Competition—as well as its thematic strands: Rhythms, Debates, People & Community, Memories, Rebellions, and Journeys.
In the International Competition, Yanuni by Richard Ladkani will receive its international premiere. A love story and urgent call to action, the film follows an Indigenous couple who risk everything to defend the Brazilian Amazon and the future of their unborn child. At its heart is Indigenous chief Juma Xipaia, who has survived six assassination attempts due to her unrelenting fight to protect her people’s land. Yanuni is a gripping portrait of courage, resistance, and love, set deep in the heart of the rainforest.
In the International First Feature Competition, several films will have their world premieres. From Ecuador, The Broken R / Rotacismo by Ricardo Ruales Eguiguren is an intimate journey of self-acceptance. Ricardo, a 24-year-old born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, has struggled to pronounce the letter “R” since birth. The film is a poignant reminder of how cinema can be both a tool for documentation and an act of self-discovery.
Also from Ecuador, Carmela and the Walkers / Carmela y los caminantes by Luis Herrera and Esteban Coloma follows Carmela, a fearless Afro-Ecuadorian woman who offers food and shelter to Venezuelan migrants arriving on foot. Strikingly captured in black and white, the film is a vivid portrait of hardship, hope, and solidarity in morally complex times.
Comparsa by Vickie Curtis and Doug Anderson centers on two fiery sisters in a Guatemalan town who channel their grief and rage into street performance as protest against gender-based violence. The film revisits the 2017 tragedy in which 41 girls perished in a state-run children’s home fire. Told from the perspective of survivors, Comparsa is a powerful ode to the pain, power, and resilience of girls.
In the Debates program, Apocalypse in the Tropics / Apocalipse nos Trópicos by acclaimed Brazilian filmmakers Petra Costa and Moara Passoni will have its UK premiere. Five years after The Edge of Democracy, Costa returns to examine Brazil’s slide toward theocracy, exposing how evangelical leaders—via unprecedented access to figures like President Lula, ex-President Bolsonaro, and televangelist Silas Malafaia—have redefined the country’s political landscape.
Also from Brazil, Marcelo Gomes’s Creatures of the Mind / Criaturas da Mente will have its world premiere. A reflection on dreams and their cultural interpretations, the film began when Gomes stopped dreaming during pandemic isolation. Drawing on ancient and modern understandings of the unconscious, the film becomes a hybrid meditation on science, myth, and the interior world.
From Mexico, Para Vivir: The Implacable Times of Pablo Milanés / Para vivir: El implacable tiempo de Pablo Milanés by Fabien Pisani will premiere internationally in the Rhythms section. A tribute to the Cuban artist and co-founder of Nueva Trova, the film weaves archival footage with interviews from artists including Joan Manuel Serrat, Chico Buarque, Harry Belafonte, and Fito Páez. Milanés, frail in his final years, reflects on the fading utopias of the Revolution and a lifetime in song.
Billy Idol Should Be Dead by Jonas Åkerlund will also screen in Rhythms. This Mexican co-production dives into the tumultuous life and career of the punk icon, featuring candid reflections from Idol, his family, and collaborators. The film offers a witty and raw chronicle of the rise, fall, and reinvention of a rock legend.
Casas Muertas by Rosana Matecki will have its world premiere in the People & Community section. A co-production between Venezuela, Ecuador, and Canada, the film profiles five individuals who remain in Venezuela despite the country's collapse. Poetic and visually haunting, the documentary offers a portrait of dignity and endurance amid national devastation.
In the Journeys section, the Colombian-Brazilian co-production Soul of the Desert / Alma del desierto by Mónica Taboada-Tapia will have its UK premiere. The film follows Georgina, a 70-year-old transgender Wayúu woman, as she crosses the desert to reclaim her identity and reconnect with the family who once rejected her. A moving story of resilience and justice, the film is a rare depiction of Indigenous trans experience.
Unwelcomed / Si vas para Chile by Amilcar Infante and Sebastián González M. examines the Venezuelan migration crisis and the resulting xenophobic backlash in Chile. As violence escalated—tents burned, children attacked—the film documents a social fracture too often ignored. Through personal testimony and powerful imagery, it delivers a damning portrait of rising fascism and racism.
Also in Journeys, Niñxs by Kani Lapuerta follows Karla, a transgender teen in the Mexican town of Tepoztlán. Joyous, anarchic, and deeply personal, the film allows Karla to tell her story on her own terms. Her vibrant presence commands the screen in this genre-defying portrait of trans adolescence.
In the Memories section, Under the Flags, the Sun / Bajo las banderas, el sol by Juanjo Pereira examines Paraguay’s 35-year dictatorship under Alfredo Stroessner. Using surviving and international archival materials, Pereira unearths how authoritarianism was built and how its ghost lingers today. The film is both a historical excavation and a warning for the present.
Also in Memories, The Panama Canal Treaties – Son of Tiger and Mule / Hijo de Tigre y Mula by Annie Marie Canavaggio receives its international premiere. This gripping documentary reveals the behind-the-scenes struggle that led to Panama’s reclaiming of the canal from the United States—an epic tale of diplomacy and sovereignty.
In Rebellions, Runa Simi by Peruvian filmmaker Augusto Zegarra follows Fernando, a single parent and Indigenous voice actor, who sets out to dub The Lion King into Quechua. A viral sensation for his Quechua dubs, Fernando’s joyful and spirited mission is a reminder of how language and culture can be reclaimed and empowered through art.
From Mexico, I Died / Li cham by Ana Ts’uyeb is an intimate, collective portrait of three women—including the filmmaker—who turn to the land and Zapatista principles after losing loved ones to patriarchal violence. Quiet yet profoundly hopeful, the film is a lyrical reflection on community, grief, and autonomy.
Finally, Colossal / Colosal by Nayibe Tavares-Abel will compete for the Tim Hetherington Award. When the young filmmaker reads about her grandfather—disgraced judge Froilán Tavares—in a schoolbook, she begins a personal investigation into the 1990 Dominican elections. Her journey, both archival and emotional, unearths family secrets and national wounds in this complex and riveting debut.
Rounding out the Latin American presence at the festival are the following short films: the Cuban Presa by Manuel Ojeda, the Honduran Oscurana by Violeta Mora (co-produced with Hungary, Portugal, and Belgium), and the Belgian short filmed in the Andean Patagonia From the Mountain We See the Mountain by Julian García Long.
