Short Films from Indigenous Latin American Filmmakers at Native Spirit Festival

By 19 October, 2020

There’s still time to catch a number of short films from Indigenous Latin American filmmakers at Native Spirit Festival: the UK’s first and only annual independent festival to promote Indigenous filmmakers, media and artists. With increasing focus on narrative and visual sovereignty, there is a huge range of film styles on offer: experimental, sci-fi, comedy, horror, documentary, animation, spoken word, music and dance. We’ve rounded up a list of Latin American films that you still have time to watch.

Water Dreams

Directed by Domingo Pablo Ortiz, 2020 (Mexico) 10 mins. Available until 15th November 2020.

In this experimental short, a Mayan elder goes in search of a shaman to ask for help in banishing the night owl disrupting her dreams.

Katary (Stand Up)

Directed by Esteban Lema, 2014 (Venezuela) 19 mins. Available until 21st October 2020.

A short documentary showing the power of anecdotes and stories told by grandparents in the Kichwa community, to reaffirm a sense of cultural and ancestral belonging in younger generations.

The Sheriff (Alguacer)

Directed by Samuel Moreno Alvarez, 2018 (Colombia) 26 mins. Available until 21st October 2020.

A short documentary about the sheriff of a Colombian Kamëntsa community and how their unique legal system means that judgements must comply with their world view.

Hant Quij Cöipaxi Hac (The Creation of The World)

Directed by Antonio Coello, 2019 (Mexico) 10 mins. Available until 15th November 2020.

Indigenous Seri children of Mexico and their elders narrate their creation story in this short animation narrated in Cmiique Iitom (Seri).

Mensagens da Terra (Messages from the Earth)

Directed by Sebastián Gerlic, Maria Pankararú, 2020 (Brazil) 13 mins. Available until 15th November 2020.

A short documentary presenting the views of four Indigenous people in Brazil about so-called “civilisation” in contrast to “Mother Earth”.

Digital Body Painting with Indigenous Karapotó Plaki-ô

Directed by Bruno Gomes, 2020 (Brazil) 1 min. Available until 15th November 2020.

A short experimental documentary showing how technology can be used artistically to facilitate new experiences and conversations with the Indigenous people of Brazil.

Smoking Pipe Village

Directed by Sebastián Gerlic & Imboré community, 2020 (Brazil) 14 mins. Available until 15th November 2020.

An account by the Imboré Indigenous people of Brazil of the reconquest of their territory after 200 years of being separated from it.

Click here for more information about the Native Spirit Festival’s programme.


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