MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

By Samuel Vargas

I find myself sitting at the Dadeland North station waiting for the train that will take me to the University of Miami, where the “Miami Film Festival: Short Documentary Film Award” event will occur.  As I wait for the train, I wonder what kind of short documentaries I’m going to be watching and if I’ll be able to find a solid story in such a short timeframe; I’m used to watching documentaries of more than two hours and from productions such as National Geographic, Discovery, and among others.  It is clear to me that this event will be presenting something a little bit different, documentaries by productions and filmmakers that I don’t know at the moment. For that reason, I decided to go to the event without researching who these filmmakers are, their work, and what their short documentaries are about.  I’m going with high expectations that I will find incredible films that will change the way I perceive documentaries and that I will be able to meet the talented people behind these documentaries.

As always, I am the first one to get to the event. I wait for the screening to begin, and I see several filmmakers entering the theater with their families and friends.  I think about approaching to talk with them, but just as I decide to do so, the director of journalism at the University of Miami walks in and welcomes everyone present. The directors in the theater are the couple who created “The Originals”; next to them are the animators of the documentary and the people who gave life to the characters with their voices.

The screening begins and the first film to be presented is “The Stillness of a Wound” by the director Souki Mehdaoui. The film shows the artist Firelei Baéz and her story in the art world. It’s a film full of vibrant colors that take us through a journey on how this talented artist creates unique paintings about women represented uniquely by the folklore and history from the country where she was born. Besides that, the director presented the studio where these masterpieces are created and choreography that embraces the beauty of the women’s structure. We then continue to a more different but fascinating film called “American Scar” by Daniel Lombroso. A documentary that is specifically aimed at the American public; something that will make us realize the damage we are doing to the ecosystem of our country. The director of this documentary shows us how the wall that is being built between Mexico and the United States is affecting the migration of animals and the ecosystem. In the documentary, we see recording tapes of cameras that were left hidden around these places and how in them we see animals that are not managing to move from one country to another as they used to do it before. As they say in the documentary: the animals do not know that they are passing from one country to another; they do not know of such political divisions; for them, the whole place is their home. Then we continue with two other documentaries, one called “Melting Snow” by director Janah Elise and another called “Nasir” by director Nasir Bailey. Both documentaries were quite interesting.

Finally, the most anticipated moment of the night arrived; the short documentary “The Originals” by directors Cristina Costantini & Alfie Koetter is on screen. It is something innovative but at the same time makes us travel from the past to our childhood. This documentary is presented in animation, which is not very common to see. The reason these directors decided to make the documentary in such a way is that they couldn’t find old recordings from the past, and they needed a way to present to the audience the story of how used to be the life of the protagonists. Before starting with the animation, they decided to do a podcast session with the protagonists of this documentary and then bring those voices to life with some animators from Tokyo. The night was perfectly sealed with a flourish with the presentation of the short documentary “The Originals” and then seeing the film’s directors win the first place prize in that event.