PROGRAMME 2024
19:00pm in Niessen Cinemas
MONDAY 9
Those Next to Us
Title: Those Next to Us
Direction: Bernhard Hetzenauer
Duration: 30´
Subject: Migration
Country of production: Mexico, Austria, Germany, Switzerland
Original language: Spanish
Germán López Rosales, from Mexico, recounts his experience during a human smuggling operation from the border city of Laredo, Texas, to San Antonio. Locked in a tractor-trailer, eight of the 39 immigrants died that day next to Germán from the extreme heat and lack of water. Two others died later in the hospital. Distant wide-angle shots of Texas suburbs and highways and the film’s slow editing rhythm help place Germán’s testimony at the center of the film.
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Innsbruck 1981. He studied Scenography at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Film at the HFBK Hamburg, Documentary Film at the FUC Buenos Aires and Gestalt Therapy in Quito. He works as a filmmaker, writer, DOP and producer. His work focuses on issues of subjectivity, representation and the construction of memory. His films have been shown in exhibitions, festivals, and on television in 38 countries. La sombra de un dios (A God’s Shadow) was invited to Viennale, Max Ophüls Preis, Ann Arbor, Sheffield Doc Fest, Message to Man, Morelia, Cartagena, Guadalajara, among 55 other festivals. The Birthmark, co-directed with Pia Ilonka Schenk Jensen, won the Latino Film Festival at Yale. Those Next to Us is the third part of his Mexican trilogy. He lives in Mexico, Germany and Austria.
Indarkeriaren Oi(h)artzunak
Title: Indarkeriaren Oi(h)artzunak
Direction: Amaia Merino, Ander Iriarte
Duration: 60´
Subject: Political violence
Country of production: Spain
Original language: Spanish, basque
Forty years after ETA kidnapped her family and the State tortured and murdered her father, Tamara Muruetagoiena throws herself into the indefatigable search for the truth and justice, while personally telling us about her family tragedy: the revolutionary tax, the fact of her 17-day kidnapping by ETA, her family’s falling apart, the State harassment and the political pressure they suffered, the trial, the arrest of her father and mother, the torture endured, the murder… but also her own path, that of knowing the truth and recognising it and of the use of dialogue as the principal means of resolving conflicts.
Amaia Merino, Ander Iriarte
Amaia Merino (San Sebastian, 1970) joined Aitor Merino to co-helm the feature-length documentary Asier ETA biok (Asier Y yo) / Asier and Me (2013), Irizar Award in San Sebastian, to which she returned in 2020 with Non dago Mikel? / Where is Mikel?, co-directed with Miguel Ángel Llamas, recipient of a special mention under the same award. Ander Iriarte (Oiartzun, Gipuzkoa. 1986) studied at the ESCAC, where he participated in the anthology movie Los inocentes (2013), premiered at Sitges, and directed the documentary Echevarriatik Etxeberriara (2014). He has directed short films, documentaries for television and the feature films, also documentaries, Bihar dok 13 (Culinary Zinema, 2018) and Karpeta Urdinak / Blue FIles (Zinemira, 2022). Indarkeriaren Oi(h)artzunak / Let it Know screened at the San Sebastian Human Rights Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award.
Audience Award “Ion Arretxe” for Best Feature Film
TUESDAY 10
Zona Wao
Title: Zona Wao
Direction: Nagore Eceiza
Duration: 25´
Subject: Ecology
Country of production: Spain
Original language: Spanish
For more than 50 years, national and international oil companies have been extracting oil from the Amazon with the greatest biodiversity on the planet, threatening the lives of indigenous communities with the complicity of the Ecuadorian Government. They are the so-called: Sacrifice zones.
Nagore Eceiza
Nagore Eceiza is a director, editor, director of photography and colourist. She founded El Santo films, from where she produces documentaries and offers technical services in audiovisual productions, cinema and series. Strongly identified with the social documentary genre, she has participated in film productions in Newfoundland, the Ecuadorian Amazon, Cape Verde, Paris, Algeria, Israel, Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique, Mexico, India and Puerto Rico.
- Juanmi Gutiérrez Laboratory Grand Prize
- Audience Award “Ion Arretxe” for Best Short/Medium Film
Emilia
Title: Emilia
Direcrion: Rafa Arroyo
Duration: 20´
Subject: Migration
Country of production: Spain
Original language: Spanish
The fractures in the reception system of the Spanish State leave thousands of undocumented immigrants on the streets every year when they reach the age of majority. Emilia Lozano, an unwavering activist for human rights and the feminist movement, in her ongoing struggle for social justice, redefines the concept of family for many of them through love, empathy, and solidarity.
Rafa Arroyo
Rafa Arroyo is a director and cinematographer from La Mancha who previously used to work as a telecommunications engineer until he decided to quit it for his passion and dream, which is working in the world of cinema. He started by directing his short films and working in the advertising industry. Recently, he produced his documentary short film «Soul Lines» (2021), a tribute to his mother’s life, which was nominated at the 2023 GOYA Awards. Now he presents his new short film, «Emilia» (2024), a documentary about love and the unchosen family.
La caravana
Title: La caravana
Direction: Núria Clavero, Aitor Palacios
Duration: 72´
Subject: Migration
Country of production: Spain, Mexico
Original language: Spanish
Eight months pregnant, Yuri, her son Santi, and her partner Mike, flee Honduras with the first migrant caravan. Determined to give birth in the United States, they escape the poverty and violence that proliferates South America along with 7,000 others. Full of hope, they face a dangerous journey of 5,000 kilometers to reach one of the most heavily defended borders in the world.
Núria Clavero, Aitor Palacios
They are the co-directors and producers of La Caravana, their debut feature film. They have participated in several workshops and festivals, including DocsMx ImpactLab, MestizoLab, and the Carlos Velo Workshop. They won the Coral Award for post-production at the Havana Film Festival and also secured the Int’l Buyers Screenings at MIPDOC in Cannes. In June 2023, they premiered their feature film La Caravana at the prestigious Shanghai International Film Festival and were nominated for best international documentary at the DOCNYC festival. The Latin American premiere took place at the prestigious Havana Film Festival, Cuba.
WEDNESDAY 11
Puzzleak
Title: Puzzleak
Direction: Kote Camacho
Duration: 15´
Subject: Sexuality
Country of production: Spain
Original language: Basque
A young woman, upon discovering that certain images from when she was young are circulating on the Internet, of which she had no notion, is forced to reconstruct hard moments of her life, which her mind had covered up. She has no choice but to face the situation.
Kote Camacho
1980, is a Basque cartoonist, animator and filmmaker. He graduated in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country, with honours in animation. He was drawing at Napartheid when he entered the film industry as a storyboard artist for Julio Medem in Madrid, and in London for Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and Alex Garland. He is a member of the EFA, a distinction he earned with his mind-blowing film La gran carrera, which won 72 international awards. In each film he seeks and develops an original style and has introduced short films in Basque on the international festival circuit. He currently runs his own animation film studio Komiki Films, teaches at Digipen and directs the Labo section of Animadeba.
Azadi
Title: Azadi
Direction: Lily-Eileen Baker Föhring, Juan Luis Ortega Navarrete, Luciana
Duration: 21´
Subject: Feminism
Country of production: Spain
Original language: Farsi
Sarah, an Iranian woman banned from her own country, participates from afar in the women’s liberation movement. Through phone calls, she speaks with her loved ones and learns about the harsh reality of the conflict in Iran.
Lily- Eileen Baker Föhring, Juan Luis Ortega Navarrete, Luciana Espinoza Hoempler
Lily – Eileen Uxia Baker Föhring is a filmmaker from Galicia with a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the University of La Coruña and a Masters in Theory and Practice of Creative Documentary. The projects she has made so far share a social and feminist theme. Juan Luis Ortega Navarrete is a documentary filmmaker with festival experience. He graduated in Audiovisual Communication at the University of Seville and in the Master’s Degree in Theory and Practice of Creative Documentary. Luciana Espinoza Hoempler is a Peruvian filmmaker who graduated from the MA in Alternative Cinema at the EICTV and the MA in Theory and Practice of Creative Documentary at the UAB. Currently, she focuses on projects around mental health, memory and women.
Donde vamos a vivir
Title: Donde vamos a vivir
Direction: Georgina Cisquella
Duration: 60´
Subject: Dwelling
Country of production: Spain
Original language: Spanish
In evictions, in neighbourhood assemblies, women are always at the forefront. They are the most vulnerable, but also the most activist when it comes to defending a roof over their family’s head. They are the protagonists of the film, shot over three years in Madrid. The documentary follows the social movements fighting for the right to decent housing and denounces the serious consequences of the mortgage crisis, the abusive increase in rents, the control of the market by vulture funds and the lack of public housing.
Georgina Cisquella
Journalist with a long career in TVE. She has been diplomatic correspondent, presenter of news programmes and specialist in the cinema area of the news programmes. Between 2004 and 2008 she was director and creator of new formats for TVE’s La 2. She also directed ‘La2 noticias’ for a year. In parallel to her journalistic activity, she has participated, among others, in the following film projects: ‘Subcomandante Marcos, viaje al sueño zapatista’ (1996); ‘Me estoy quitando’ (2000); ‘El efecto Iguazú’ (2002); ‘En el mundo, a cada rato’ (2004); ‘Oxígeno para vivir’ (2011); ‘El tren de la libertad’ (2014); ‘Hotel Explotación: Las Kellys’ (2018) and “Málaga: La alfombra roja del cine español” (2018).
THURSDAY 12
16060 egun
Title: 16060 egun
Direction: Iñaki Alforja, Iban Toledo
Duration: 22´
Subject: Armed conflicts
Country of production: Spain
Original language: Basque
In 1980, the Spanish Basque Battalion group kidnapped and made Jose Miguel Etxeberria disappear. His brother Eneko was 15 and has been searching for his body for 44 years. A police mercenary has given information that locates the body in an oak grove near the French town of Mont de Marsan. Eneko. Could it be true? This documentary raises questions: How long would you look for the body of a family member? When hope is lost?
Iñaki Alforja, Iban Toledo
Iñaki Alforja is an independent filmmaker with 30 years of experience. Director of the Navarrese production company Sagone films. He specialises in the documentary genre, although he also produces commercials, corporate videos, films and video clips with a marked social outlook. He has worked for production companies such as Arena Comunicación, Kanaki films and 93 metros. Iban Toledo has a professional career spanning two decades in the audiovisual field, where he has worked as a television news producer, camera operator and director of photography in documentaries. Between 2009 and 2015 he worked for a communications company making corporate, institutional, advertising and documentary videos. In 2015 he set up the production company On Produkzioak. In recent years he has participated in several documentary films.
Special mention
Las que sobrevivimos
Title: Las que sobrevivimos
Direction: Itxaso Díaz
Duration: 25´
Subject: Feminism
Country of production: Spain
Original language: Suahili
Six intertwined life stories that exemplify the strength and determination of these survivors to defend their dignity, overcome and rebuild their lives. Six stories that challenge us to take forceful and effective measures to eradicate sexual violence, which women and girls experience systematically in war contexts. Because given the impunity of the aggressors, brutality settles in society and becomes part of everyday life. How long will we allow this to continue to happen?
Itxaso Díaz
Graduate in Fine Arts and doctoral student in Art and Technology from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of the Basque Country. Filmmaker, documentary filmmaker and audiovisual curator. Specialized in the design of life stories, narrative and audiovisual literacy. Her latest documentaries address social issues linked to gender, aging and functional diversity. Since 2004, she has also been dedicated to cultural management through the design, coordination and curating of projects linked to audiovisual exhibition. Currently directs and coordinates LAN Working Class Film Festival.
Aamelat. Jornaleras de la guerra
Title: Aamelat. Jornaleras de la guerra
Direction: Eva Parey
Duration: 60´
Subject: Feminism
Country of production: Spain
Original language: Arabe
Since the outbreak of the war in Syria there are women refugees who have spent years working as day laborers in the Bekaa Valley under exploitative conditions. Her newborn daughters upon entering Lebanon also work in the fields to this day. Their future it’s uncertain. They cannot prosper in Lebanon because it does not recognize them as nationals, nor their refugee status or protect their basic rights. They cannot return to Syria while there is war. “Aamelat. Day Laborers of War” exposes the survival situation experienced by these Syrian women and girls who are refugees in informal settlements on the outskirts of Bar Elias and puts de media spotlight on it to unveil their reality. An author documentary that narrates their life conditions and their power of resilience.
Eva Parey
Barcelona, Spain, 1971. Photojournalist and filmmaker. She is the co-director, screenwriter and DOP of the documentary film Arrels Fondes (Deep Roots) co-directed with the journalist Pep Martínez and co-produced by the Balearic Islands Television IB3. The documentary is about the historical memory of the island of Formentera based on the way of life of a group of retired farmers, born during the interwar period, between 1920 and 1945. In November 2020, IB3 broadcasts the documentary Arrels fondes on television. It is also available on Filmin and has been screened in several theaters in the Balearic Islands.
FRIDAY 13
Is this the mansion I will live in?
Title: Is this the mansion I will live in?
Direction: Rafaelle Fillastre
Duration: 6´
Subject: Sexuality
Country of production: Belgium
Original language: English
The safest LGBTQ+ countries in Europe’ into Google, and Belgium pops up at the top. For many queers who are about to be forcedly displaced from their country of origin, this becomes a determinant in the decision-making of where to go. However, contrary to the internet portrayal, the reality for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in Belgium often starts with discrimination and oppression, sometimes even more severe than what they had been experiencing before.
Rafaelle Fillastre
Rafaelle Fillastre is animated film director, art director and illustrator. She worked in graphics design, illustration, computer graphics and animation as a freelancer on eco-conscious projects, feminist, queer as well as mental health and migrations projects.
El caso Freytter
Title: El caso Freytter
Direction: Tonio Hecker
Duration: 85´
Subject: Political violence
Country of production: Spain
Original language: Spanish
After 17 years in exile, Jorge Freytter Florián returns to Colombia to investigate the murder of his father. Professor, lawyer and trade unionist Jorge Adolfo Freytter Romero was kidnapped in Barranquilla on 28 August 2001 and found dead a day later with signs of torture. The circumstances and reasons for his murder remain unclear and the search for the truth will take us to the darkest sides of Colombia’s history.
Tonio Hecker
Tonio Hecker is a German filmmaker born in Nicaragua in 1985. He studied film directing at the Berlin Film and Television Academy (DFFB), and his films have been shown at international film festivals and on German television (SWR, ARTE, 46. Lubuskie Film Summer, Visionär Filmfestival Berlin, 12. Wendland Shorts, Bridge of Arts Motivational Film Festival). In his works he has mainly focused on political and social issues. His latest documentary film ‘Insurgente’, about the peace process in Colombia, premiered at the FIDBA 2021 (International Documentary Film Festival of Buenos Aires, Argentina).
SUNDAY 15
18:00pm in Niessen Cinemas
AWARDS DELIVERY AND SCREENING OF WINNING SHORT SHOTS
OUT OF COMPETITION:
Los cayucos de Kayar
Title: Los cayucos de Kayar
Direction: Álvaro Hernández Blanco
Duration: 29´
Subject: Migration
Country of production: Spain
Original language: Spanish
Álvaro Hernández Blanco, winner of the Juanmi Gutierrez Grand Prize at the 1st Errenteria Documentary and Human Rights Film Festival, presents the result of the Festival’s consultancy. After 15 years in Spain as an immigrant, Thimbo visits his Senegalese fishing village, where he is overcome by mixed feelings of nostalgia and uprootedness, longing and regret. He also has to deal with the dangerous influence he exerts on the young people of the village, who see him as an example to be followed and seek to emulate him with a very dangerous journey in a dinghy.
Álvaro Hernández
Álvaro Hernández Blanco is a director and scriptwriter from Madrid with international experience in both digital content and documentary filmmaking. In Los Angeles, he began his career in the world of documentaries as a film editor. In 2022, he directed ‘Aquí Seguimos’, a short documentary about the last speakers of the indigenous language Ku’ahl, in Mexico. In 2023, he releases his first book, ‘Migrantes’, about the US-Mexico border. In 2024 he releases ‘Los Cayucos de Kayar’, about the phenomenon of migration in a small Senegalese fishing village.