Narrative Shorts Competition
The films may be short in length but not in scope. From the deeply personal to the broadly universal, each film tackles subjects and tells stories that will resonate with viewers long after their runtime ends. These films are eligible for an Audience Award.
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Made in China
A film by Ale Damiani
Uruguay, 2020
Comedy
7 min, Color
Spanish, English subtitles
US Premiere
After matching on Tinder a young couple wakes up the morning after to find out that a strange pandemic will have them in lockdown together. |
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Aburo
A film by Cecilia Otero Rivas
Cuba/Chile/United States, 2021
Drama
17 min, Color
Spanish, English; English subtitles
Texas Premiere
David (17) dreams of becoming a ballet dancer, while his twin brother Alexis plans to rob a restaurant. The brothers’ inability to relate to each other has brought them to the brink of a domestic war that erupts in a fight the night before the auditions. Their opposite paths will make them meet again in the middle of Havana. |
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Escamas // Shedding Skin
A film by Katherina Harder Sacre
Spain, 2020
Drama
17 min, Color
Spanish, English; English subtitles
Alicia is a seamstress. She works designing and making women’s clothing, but behind the fabrics she hides the secret of her own body; the nuisance and disconformity that she feels with it after having been mastectomized as a result of breast cancer. After the accidental flooding of her apartment she meets Lucia (41), a transsexual woman who is her new neighbor. Despite the tense first encounter they have, these women meet again and start spending more time together. As day and night pass, they begin to be acknowledged in each other, helping one another. With the dawn, both women will find healing and freedom in the middle of the sea.
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Espacios Vacíos // Empty Spaces
A film by Clara Stephanie Schieber Lorenesi
Guatemala/United Kingdom, 2020
Drama
20 min, Color
Spanish, English; English subtitles
Regional Premiere
www.stephanielorenesi.com/espacios-vacios
A woman that works as a housekeeper and the older woman she takes care of live alone in a big house. As the older woman’s body starts to betray her, the housekeeper sees to take care of her. This changes the boundaries of their relationship. At the same time the housekeeper faces the decision to go home and take care of her family or remain in her job far away from them. The short shows the deep division between socioeconomic classes that is still the norm in Guatemala, a vestige of colonialism. At the same time the short tries to show the difficulties of aging and working far away from those you love.. |
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El sueño más largo que recuerdo // The Longest Dream I Remember
A film by Carlos Lenin
Mexico, 2021
Drama
20 min, Color
Spanish, English; English subtitles
Regional Premiere
With systematic organized crime of forced disappearances unattended and unpunished in Mexico, widespread atrocities leave behind lingering grief and remnants of disturbed memories. Tania intends to leave her hometown where her father has been taken away from by the authorities, however, she must confront what her absence will mean to her family and their ongoing search for him. |
