Two Latin American filmmakers were among the winners at the 31st edition of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival: Colombian-born director Pablo Álvarez-Mesa was the winner of the the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award for his feaure film The Soldier’s Lagoon, while Mexican Indigenous director Ismael Vásquez Bernabé, director of The Weavers’ Songs, received a Special Mention in the Emerging International Filmmaker Award competition.
The Soldier’s Lagoon explores the misty Páramo region to offer an elusive living archive that navigates the dense fog separating Simón Bolívar’s past and Colombia’s present. In a statement, the jury said “The Soldier’s Lagoon retraces Simon Bolivar’s journey across the Colombian marshlands while searching for glimpses of his ghost still present in this historically contested land.
“Melding a myriad of issues from post-colonial legacies including environmental, land and military destruction, this complexity is mirrored in the film’s strong artistic vision—a commitment to astonishing cinematography, to 16mm film, to an evocative and meditative sonic world. Pablo Álvarez-Mesa is a director, producer, editor, composer in charge of his material. Sometimes we need artists to follow their hearts and guide us out of the fog.” The award comes with a $10,000 cash prize.
Álvarez Mesa is a filmmaker and cinematographer working mainly in documentary. His films have played at international film festivals including Berlinale, IFFR, Venice, Visions du Reel, and Anthology Film Archives. His interest in documentary lies in the relationship between fact and fiction; between what is recalled and what is inevitably constructed. His films all touch in one way or another issues of displacement, history and collective memory. He is an affiliate member of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University, an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canadian Film Centre and is artist in residence at Fogo Island Arts (2022). Some of his previous films include Bicentenario, La pesca (co-directed by Fernando Lopez Escriva), and Jelena’s Song.
In the Emerging International Filmmaker category, the jury also acknowledged Vásquez Bernabé, who explores life in San Pedro Amuzgos, Oaxaca, where weaving transcends mere livelihood to become a vital economic backbone. Jury statement: “As honourable mention, we recognize the international feature film The Weavers’ Songs. This film approaches the story in a humble and pure way, gentle in its authenticity for emerging director Ismael Vásquez Bernabé. Quietly capturing this less known community at risk is gentle in stature.”
Vásquez Bernabé is an Indigenous filmmaker born in San Pedro Amuzgos, Oaxaca in 1989 who currently resides in Mexico City. In 2007 he began his undergraduate degree in “Language, Culture and Memory” at the Universidad Intercultural de los Pueblos del Sur (UNISUR). In 2016, he directed the short documentary Nkwí Nayà Tónko: A Man of his Word, which participated in numerous national and international film festivals. A year later, he began the initial work of researching and developing his first feature-length documentary project, The Weavers’ Songs for which he received the Early Career Grant from National Geographic. In 2018 he received a grant for project development from the Mexican Institute of Film, IMCINE.
The 31st edition of the Hot Docs Film Festival took place April 25-May 5 in Toronto, Canada.
