26/01/2023 - The festival and the documentary market will be held in the town of Guía de Isora in Tenerife until 4 February, showcasing 24 international projects in its industry section

The 16th MiradasDoc festival will take place in Guía de Isora (Tenerife) from 27 January to 4 February and will feature the latest documentary films. The Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase will also receive the Mirada Personal award and will be the subject of a retrospective, while eight feature films and eleven short documentaries will compete in this year's international competition.

Films such as Guardian of the Worlds, directed by Leïla Chaïbi, and Tsumu-Where Do You Go With Your Dreams? [+see also:
film review
film profile], by Kasper Kiertzner, reflect the international nature of this event, portraying universal issues in remote places. The opening film Aurora’s Sunrise [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Inna Sahakyan
film profile], by Inna Sahakyan, looks at the Armenian genocide; The Kiev Trial [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sergei Loznitsa
film profile], by Sergei Loznitsa deals with the post-war trials of Nazis in Eastern Europe; and Marie-Jo Will See You at 4 [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by Camille Ponsin, offers a new perspective on the killings in Darfur; and Simon Lereng Wilmont's Oscar-nominated A House Made of Splinters [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], takes a bold approach to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In the words of Nayra Sanz, MiradasDoc's programming advisor, the national and international debut film selection "stands out for its richness in the use of cinematographic language and the search for new narrative forms". Something that can be seen in the short film Searching for Heleny, by Esther Vital, which analyses the fascist repression in Brazil during the 1960s; and  The Visit and a Secret Garden [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by Spain’s Irene M. Borrego, which is based on the recovery of archive material to reconstruct the life of an enigmatic painter; and Anhell69 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Theo Montoya
film profile], the debut film by the Colombian Theo Montoya, which recreates a very personal world.

The national programme also includes El tiempo después de la lluvia, co-directed by Nina Solá, Pol Picas and Júlia Girós, a portrait of three generations of Sahrawi refugees; Robin Bank, by Anna Giralt, reflects on capitalist structures; Inshallah, by Paula Bilbao Aragón, films the African migrants of the Las Raíces camp in La Laguna (Tenerife); Hafreiat [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by Álex Sardá, is based on an archaeological project in Jordan to portray the problems of a country that has become a tourist paradigm; and La mala familia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nacho A Villar and Luis Rojo
film profile], by Nacho A. Villar and Luis Rojo, tells the story of a group of friends reuniting after one of them is released from prison.

The MiradasDoc Market will take place from 1 to 3 February, also in Guía de Isora. The creators of the projects selected for the event’s 16th edition will have the chance to present them to producers from television channels and platforms, distributors and heads of specialised documentary festivals in Latin America and Africa, such as DocsMx, DocMontevideo, DocSp and Durban, whose directors will be in attendance.

The projects:

DocSur

Un lugar seguro - Milena Castro, Magdalena Hurtado (Chile)
Laureano - Claudia Capatinta (Peru)
The Shire - Juan Manuel Bugarín (Argentina)
Millionaire - José Isla, Felipe Isla (Chile)
Casas Muertas - Rosana Matecki (Venezuela)
Trash Cemetery - Firas Rebiai (Tunisia)
Kongo is Burning - Arnold Aganze (Uganda/Democratic Republic of Congo)
Adoum's Scars - Ben Gordon (Cameroon/Nigeria/Niger /Algeria/Morocco/Spain)
The Girls of the Industrial - Cecilia Montagut (Spain)
Landowner - Rodrigo Demirjian (Spain)

Afrolatam - Africa - Latin America Co-Production Forum

Quisqueya - Jeissy Trompiz, José Bello (Dominican Republic)
Mounir Ismael - Juliana Borges (Brazil)
La penúltima lucha - Maite Bermúdez (Venezuela)
Boy - Michel Carvalho (Brazil)
Djeliya, Memoire du mandingue - Boubacar Sangare (Burkina Faso)
Echo Nomade - Intagriste el Ansari (Mauritania)
3 balas - Génesis Valenzuela (Spain)
Pescadores del desierto - Ayoze O'Shanahan (Spain).

Anidoc Sur (Animated documentaries)

Field Marshal - Abid Sarkar Sohag (Bangladesh)
Misioneros de internet - Leandro Barneche (Uruguay)
Nahota e a Sereia - Yara Costa (Mozambique)
L'îlot - Stephanie Saxemard (France)
Le Mur de la mort - Sabir Amine (Morocco)
Viajes alrededor del mundo - Francisco Greene (Chile)

(Translated from Spanish)