Ventana Docs Portray Mafalda Creator Quino, Intolerance, Intimacy

“Quinografía,” a portrait of the famously timid Mafalda cartoonist Quino, and “Habana Libre,” a take on rebellious youth in Cuba, look like potential standouts at Ventana Docs, a selection of 12 doc features from across Latin America and Spain.

A notable number have been developed at prestigious labs, whether Sundance Festival programs (“Bleeding Heart,” “Violent-House-Fiction”) or Spain’s Pompeu Fabra University. Two tell trans stories (“I Believe,” “Yren”) and with it, chart resistance and intolerance, main banes of other Ventana Sur titles.

Many are intimate stories, of the director’s battle with HIV (“How to Live With…”), or reconnection with his father (“Capitan”), or battle to accept his father’s suicide (“The Curve”). Some mix the personal and a larger political canvas, as in “Violent-House-Fiction” and “Family Politics” where the director reconnects with his family as his father battles for office representing ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori’s far right-wing Cambio 90 party.

At least a third of the doc features are co-produced with Spain, rapidly emerging as a go-to-partner for Latin American titles, whether fiction or non-fiction.

A drill-down on titles:

“Bleeding Heart,” (Antonio Romero Zurita, Ecuador)

The film uses personal archives and testimonies to reconstructs the memory of Elena, a woman who died of AIDS in 2013, addressing family silences and societal stigma surrounding her illness and death. Produced by Runga Arte Experimental, backed by the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund (2020), IFCI Screenplay Fund (2020), a Walden Residency (2022) and Bolivia Lab (2019).

“Capitan,” Laura Otálora Pardo (Colombia, Spain)

Playlab Films and Tomato Content produce this documentary about Efrén, a lifelong mariner who now spends his days in a residence for Alzheimer’s patients. Efrén is also director Laura Otálora Pardo’s father, and this film is their story of reconnection. Previous honors as a project include the FDC Development Grant in Colombia, best project at DokLab Nabarra and the public award at Punto de Vista Pitch. Next stop is the Miradas Festival in Medellín, kicking off today.

Capitan
Credit: Ventana Sur

“The Curve,” Agustin Flores, (Uruguay, Spain)

Structured as a co-production between Uruguay’s Trapecistas Producciones and Spain’s Zona Cielo Films and Insumisa Films, a doc interweaving the story of Jorge Firpo, a legendary horse trainer who retires after a life dedicated to creating champions, and the story of the director, confronting the pain of his father’s suicide. Selected for the Laboratory for Editorial Support of Creative Documentaries (LABED) of Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University, Spain’s gold standard for doc development.

“Emergency Measures,” (André Bomfim, Brazil)

A doc feature depiction of the Maria da Penha Patrol in Brazil’s In Maceió which battles to break the cycle of violence against women, protecting victims, some at life-threatening risks. Bomfilm comments that under female command, the Patrol has never lost a woman. “However, maintaining this goal is an enormous task in a society and institution riddled with sexism,” he adds. Set up at São Paulo’s Mirafilmes, part of DocSP 2023, where it won the Chile Conecta Award.

Emergency Measures
Credit: Ventana Sur

“Family Politics,” Martín Rebaza Ponce de León (Peru)

Co-produced by La Unión Cine and Animalita Cine, this film tells the story of Martin, a Germany-based filmmaker who returns to the Peruvian Amazon to reconnect with his family during his father’s campaign for office as a representative of ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori’s far right-wing Cambio 90 party. The feature was financed with backing from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture and won the FICVIÑA Award at the Lima International Film Festival in 2023.

“Habana Libre,” Lina María Rivera (Colombia)

This mixed-media doc features three young skateboarders in Havana, Cuba who search for freedom and personal fulfillment by redefining socialist monuments as skate parks. Its story examines the frustrated dreams and daily personal revolutions that defy social and economic constraints in Cuba. Cineopia Art House, which focuses on mixing genres and formats, produces the documentary, which promises to be anything but conventional.

Habana Libre
Credit: Alejo D

“How to Live With…,” (Luisa García Alva, Peru)

A project with a long history, with García Alva first mentored on it by Hernán Musaluppi back in 2016 and presented recently at the Lima Fest’s Mañana WIPs. Autobiographical, it traces the director’s odyssey from her HIV diagnosis to her experience of living with HIV in a modern world. The first feature title from Projazz, a young Peruvian production company.

“I Believe,” Florencia Wehbe (Argentina)

In largely catholic Argentina, the Virgin of La Rosa Mística manifests herself in the home of María Belén Ochoa, a trans woman from a village in Córdoba who became the first trans mother in Argentina in 2010 after being visited by the Virgin in a dream. María Dolores Chaig and Darío Mascambroni produce for Lumina.

I Believe
Credit: Ventana Sur

“Quinografía,”(Mariano Donoso y Federico Cardone, Argentina, Spain)

Oneof the biggest commercial packages at Ventana Docs, a portrait of the famously timid cartoonist Quino, creator of the Mafalda comic strip, translated into 30 languages, which is shot in six languages and four countries. Produced by Argentina’s Curandero Producciones And Spain’s El Gatoverde Producciones and picked up by Spanish pubcaster TVE, the doc feature has “a series of open lines and conversations for broadcast on platforms in Latin America,” says producer Ciro Néstor Novelli.

“Vicissitudes of Light,” Marcel Beltrán (Cuba)

Beltrán’s disturbing view of Cuba during the revolution has received backing from Go Cuba! World Cinema Amsterdam, the Norwegian Fun for Cuban Cinema, Miradas Doc in Spain and DocsMX in Mexico. Expressed through the genius, censorship and delirium of Chinolope, a photographer loved and hated by the Cuban establishment, the film documents the encounters and misunderstandings inside the artist’s claustrophobic home as the revolution he knew collapsed outside its walls.

Vicissitudes of Light
Credit: Ventana Sur

“Violent-House-Fiction,” María Ruiz García, (Venezuela, Spain)

A creative hybrid doc blurring the lines between reality and fiction to portray the loss of the director’s grandparents’ house in Caracas—an event marked by violence, intimidation, police abuse and extortion. Produced by Dos Margaritas, based on Margarita Island, Venezuela, and

Una caza en el abismo in Valencia, Spain, and put through a Sundance Collab Workshop headed by David Finch and Maya Cueva.

Violent-House-Fiction
Credit: Ventana Sur

“Yren,” Tania Cattebeke Laconich (Paraguay)

Pororó Films produces this story of trans activist Yren Rotela in conservative Paraguay, where the life expectancy for a trans person is approximately 35 years. Yren and her peers work to establish self-sustainability for the Casa Diversa, the only TLGBQ+ home shelter in the country. As a work in progress, this year the film has already screened at Malaga, the Latino GuadaLAjara Film Festival and the Austin Film Society.