- Organized by Universidad Austral de Chile, produced by the Valdivia Cultural Center for Film Promotion, and convened by the City of Valdivia and the Los Rios Regional Government, FICValdivia aims to offer Chilean and foreign filmmakers a space for dissemination and competition, along with promoting national and international audiovisual production of artistic quality. This year, the festival will take place between October 9 and 15, 2023.
- Season tickets and accreditation sales will be available soon.
Official Feature Film Selection
The Official Feature Film Selection is made up of twelve films from Argentina, Belgium, Cameroon, Chile, United States, Peru, Dominican Republic, Thailand, and Poland.
From Chile, the selected pictures are El Que Baila Pasa, by Carlos Araya Díaz; Malqueridas, by Tana Gilbert; Muertes y Maravillas, by Diego Soto, and Un Buen Hombre, by Alexis Donoso. The first is a fable set in the context of the Social Uprising, looking at the process initiated in October 2019 through the eyes of a being from the great beyond, embodied in a worker who longs for a turnaround in his state of affairs. Araya Díaz’s film was selected in 2022, in the Future Chilean Cinema competition at FICValdivia. As in his previous documentary, El Viaje Espacial, the vision of reality is oriented from a larger context: in that movie, it was the public transportation network, and here, a rarefied everyday life on the streets. The film will hold its world premiere at FICValdivia.
In 2022, Tana Gilbert was part of the Latin American Short Film Selection at FICValdivia with Ninguna Estrella, a piece built from homemade family images. This year, with Malqueridas (2023), she expands the length of the record, building a documentary that explores the lives of incarcerated mothers, out of shots generated with cell phones inside the prison. The movie, which had its world premiere at the Critics’ Week of the Venice Film Festival – an out-of-competition section aimed at promoting up-and-coming directors – explores the multiple solidarity networks the group of women build for containment and affection.
Muertes y Maravillas (2023), by Diego Soto, is a drama about the discovery and life change that can occur after a friend’s departure. Premiered at BAFICI 2023, this coming-of-age film focuses on a group of students during their last school vacation, with a focal point on Jorge Tellier’s poetry, which becomes more than just a source of inspiration.
The last of the Chilean selections is Un Buen Hombre (2023), by Alexis Donoso, a picture that also tells the story of the end of a stage: a film student has finished his training and, unable to find work, returns to his home in southern Chile. Donoso had already participated in the FICValdivia competition in 2021, with his feature Cada Uno Tiene Su Cada Uno. His new movie was also one of the projects selected in the 2022 Future Chilean Cinema competition and will hold its world premiere at FICValdivia 2023.
Visions from Latin America
The Urgency of Death (2023), is one of the three titles that prolific Argentine director Lucía Seles completed last year, which she synthesizes with the phrase: “Until I am buried, I will always truly respect the Bronte sisters, the Blisters, and the Ritz sisters.”
Compartespacios (2023), is the first full-length by Peruvian filmmaker Carmen Rojas Gamarra – whose short Vacío/a, participated in competition at the 23rd FICValdivia. The feature focuses on Isabel, a woman with deep problems of anxiety and shyness, which are largely mitigated when she goes to live with Paula, her best friend. That perfect balance becomes unstable when Paula finds a boyfriend and Isabel establishes a close relationship with him. The film will celebrate its world premiere at FICValdivia.
The final Latin American title is Ramona (2023), second full-length picture by Dominican author Victoria Linares Villegas – the first was the documentary Lo Que Se Hereda” (2022. Here, like in her previous picture, she delves into a performative dimension, this time, to approach the relationship that an actress establishes with a series of pregnant teenagers, to prepare for her next acting job. That purpose gives the director license to take on a mise-en-scène where the construction of the film is permanently exposed and modified. Ramona had its world premiere in the Generation 14plus section, at Berlinale.
Other Nations
The selection is completed with Here, by Belgian filmmaker Bas Devos; In Ukraine, by Piotr Pawlus and Tomasz Wolski; Mangosteen, by Thai director Tulapop Saenjaroen, Le Spectre de Boko Haram, by Cameroonian author Cyrielle Raingoun, and The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, by American artist Joanna Arnow.
Here (2023) is a drama that narrates the itinerary of a Romanian construction worker living in Brussels. When he is about to return to his country, he meets a young Belgian-Chinese woman who is doing a PhD on mosses. The attention she pays to the almost invisible stops his rush in its tracks.
The documentary In Ukraine (2023), which premiered in the Forum section of the Berlinale, is an intense approach to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The record at first takes on distance and perplexity and, little by little, begins to come closer to the human dimension of the conflict’s victims.
With its world premiere in Bangkok, in 2022, the medium-length Mangosteen (2022) narrates the family ups and downs of a young man who returns to his hometown to work with his sister. This small mismatch motivates him to write a novel.
In the documentary Le Spectre de Boko Haram, Tiger Award for Best Film at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2023, Cyrielle Raingoun analyzes the precariousness of children who are exposed to aggressions in the northern part of the country, driven by separatist groups. In this work, the children’s dreams of growth and learning contrast with the fragile environment in which they live and study.
In an ironic and affectionate tone, The Feeling that the Time for Doing Something has Passed (2023) is a portrait of the situations that face a middle-aged woman who seems to have hit rock bottom in every aspect, from the abusive relationship she keeps, to the absolute lack of motivation in the rudimentary work she performs with a hilariously self-flagellating attitude. The film premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2023.
Official Feature Film Selection
- Compartespacios, by Carmen Rojas Gamarra. Peru. 2023. 75 minutes. DCP.
- El Que Baila Pasa, by Carlos Araya Díaz. Chile. 2023. 70 minutes. DCP.
- Here, by Bas Devos. Belgium. 2023. 82 minutes. DCP.
- In Ukraine, by Piotr Pawlus, Tomasz Wolski. Poland. 2023. 83 minutes. DCP.
- Le Spectre de Boko Haram, by Cyrielle Raingou. Cameroon. 2023. 75 minutes. DCP.
- Malqueridas, by Tana Gilbert. Chile, Germany. 2023. 75 minutes. DCP.
- Mangosteen, by Tulapop Saenjaroen. Thailand. 2022. 40 minutes. DCP.
- Muertes y Maravillas, by Diego Soto. Chile. 2023. 70 minutes. DCP.
- Ramona, by Victoria Linares Villegas. Dominican Republic. 2023. 82 minutes. DCP.
- The Feeling that the Time for Doing Something has Passed, by Joanna Arnow. United States. 2023. 87 minutes. DCP.
- The Urgency of Death, by Lucía Seles. Argentina. 2023. 125 minutes. DCP.
- Un Buen Hombre, by Alexis Donoso. Chile. 2023. 90 minutes. DCP.
Official Latin American Short Film Selection
The Official Short Film Selection is made up of twelve titles, from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, and Uruguay.
- El Polvo Ya No Nubla Nuestros Ojos, by Colectivo Silencio. Peru. 25 minutes. DCP.
A set of memories, a series of readings. After 200 years as a nation, Peru has collected many struggles in different territories and eras. This super 8mm short brings together fighters and mourners for a compilation of speeches hailing from the most intimate side of our recent history.
- Los Misterios del Mundo, by Mariano Luque. Argentina. 17 minutes. DCP.
A presenter and a cameraman travel to the mountains to film a documentary program, convinced that fiction is the best way to make contact with the world.
- Mãri Hi (El Árbol del Sueño), by Morzaniel Ɨramari. Brazil. 17 minutes. DCP.
When the Mãri tree blossoms, dreams arise. The words of a great shaman lead a dreamlike experience through the synergy between film and the Yanomami dream, presenting poetics and teachings of the peoples of the jungle.
- Example #35, by Lucía Malandro and Daniel Saucedo. Cuba, Uruguay. 6.5 minutes. DCP.
The images stored in Cuba’s judicial archives contain the island’s best-kept secret: an alternative history of which nonconformists, misfits, and dissidents are also part.
- Meditaciones Sobre el Silencio, by Sebastián Quiroz. Chile. 28 minutes. DCP.
This sensory essay explores the dismissed case of torture that took place in the Baquedano subway station, during the forgotten revolt of October 2019. Using diverse materialities, these meditations strain the fibers of history and reality, with a dynamic flow of images and sounds.
- Muestrario, by Sofía Hansen. Chile, Spain. 26 minutes. DCP.
Archives of plants named by early colonists. Un-archiving a territory; un-inventing the name. This is a learning process about the relationship between native forest plants, guided by the voices of those who live in Hornopirén, southern Chile, to get a glimpse of what still survives in this territory, devastated by industrial extractivism.
- Notas para el Futuro, by Karin Cuyul. Chile. 22 minutes. DCP.
After my grandmother’s death, I begin to question the gender roles of her generation and mine. Reflections, voice notes, and 8mm takes of women from different periods try to define what they were in their time, and what we long for in ours.
- Ramal, by Higor Gomes. Brazil. 16 minutes. DCP.
Protected by the mountains that surround the neighborhood on the outskirts of the city of Sabará, Brazil, a group of young people enjoy themselves on their motorcycles on a dead-end viaduct known to the locals as the railroad branch.
- Sólo la Luna Comprenderá, by Kim Torres. Costa Rica. United States. 18 minutes. DCP.
As a magical moon glides in the twilight, different timelines intertwine in the town of Manzanillo, on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. The locals, young and old, come together and collide in a story in which the village is able to exist as it is: at once beautiful and forgotten, mysterious and monotonous. As if in a dream or a memory, mixing documentary with science fiction, the film is a search for the complexities of what it means to grow up in a place like Manzanillo.
- Sympathia, by Fernanda Vicens. Chile. 3 minutes.
Sky, volcanic rocks, and the Nathofagus forest of Devil’s Throat and Shangri-La Valley attract, mix, appear, and disappear, following a secret inner movement.
- Tú Me Hiciste Ver El Cielo, by Luis Esguerra Cifuentes. Colombia, Spain. 20 minutes. DCP.
A group of friends decide to travel to a forest located on the outskirts of the city, despite warnings and restrictions over a strange moss that has recently infested the area. In this place, where the characters play, sing, and show their bodies freely, reality gradually dislocates and ends up intermingling with their stories, dreams, and fantasies.
- Tudo que Vi Era o Sol, by Leonardo Amaral, Pedro Maia de Brito, and Ralph Antunes. Brazil. 20 minutes. DCP.
Gil works in construction, goes to his mother’s bar, and goes out with Kátia. One day, like so many others, Gil begins to disappear.
Official Children’s Short Film Selection from Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Official Selection of children’s short films is made up of six pieces, from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru.
- Cascabeles, by Jhina Hernández Ospina. Colombia. 8 minutes. DCP.
Emma is a brave 7-year-old girl who keeps an important secret: she is afraid of the dark; for her, her fears come alive in it. When her grandfather Augusto – a blind and wise man – discovers her secret, he hatches an ingenious plan to drive her to confront her apprehensions, weaving an emotional intergenerational bond through which Emma explores the power that comes from facing one’s fears.
- Al Otro Lado de la Montaña, by Yosman Serrano. Colombia. 8 minutes. DCP.
One day, neither good nor bad, two children from the Labateca sector, north of Santander, hear an ad on the radio for a vacation at sea. Full of curiosity, the children turn to their grandfather to find out where the longed-for destination is. His answer is no more than “on the other side of the mountain”. With the naivety of childhood and the fixed idea of getting to know the sea, the children set out with their little dog Nala.
- Sobre Amistad y Bicicletas, by Julia Vidal. Brazil. 12 minutes. DCP.
Thiago never thought of participating in a bike race due to his physical condition. Everything changes when he meets Cecilia, a brave girl with a visual impairment. Together they will learn how to ride a bicycle and the meaning of friendship.
- El Motor y la Melodía, by Juan Antonio Limo Giribaldi and Manuel-Antonio Monteagudo Gauvri. Peru. 7 minutes. DCP.
In a place in the Amazon rainforest, a tree-felling ant meets a cicada whose music makes nature grow. Their friendship is threatened when a fire breaks out.
- Yachachiq (The One Who Teaches)”, by Guido Baca Yahuida. Peru. 14 minutes. DCP.
Paulina and her son Benito get the news that a disease is attacking the entire world. For this reason, they go into the mountains to graze their animals, and while they are there, Benito decides to teach his mother to read.
- Nuevo Amanecer, by Elisa Eliash. Chile. 17 minutes. DCP.
Free adaptation of the fairy tale Mrs. Snow, by the Brothers Grimm, performed by children from the largest shanty town in Santiago. To recover an embroidery, an orphan girl arrives in the magical world of Señora Santa. The girl works for her, shaking pillows and blankets to produce snow on Earth. Before returning home, she receives gold as a reward; her stepsister decides to imitate her to get the same, but her rude and lazy behavior only derives in her punishment. All roads lead to the shanty town, but each one reaps what they sow.
