Praise of the Distance

L'Amour vache(fr)

Tierra de mujeres(es)

The reality of four rural women in the Metropolitan District of Quito. Despite their pain and difficulties, they have managed to forge a life that in maturity unfolds all the beauty of wisdom.

Figli del Minotauro / Storie di Uomini e Animali(it)

The Mancuso family has practiced transhumant grazing for generations, moving the herd of Podolica cattle from the Marcedusa countryside to the large Sila forests.

Comitiva Esperança(pt)

North by Current(en)

Filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown following the death of his infant niece and the subsequent arrest of his brother-in-law as the culprit. Using the audio-visual approaches of essay film, first-person cinema vérité, staged actions, and decades of home movies, Madsen navigates a town steeped in opioid addiction, economic depression, and religious fervor, while using the act of filmmaking to rebuild familial bonds and reimagine justice. Posing empathy as a tool for creating a more just world, North By Current does not seek to investigate a crime, but creates a relentless portrait of an enduring pastoral family, poised to reframe and reimagine narratives about incarceration, addiction, trans embodiment, and ruralness.

Remember me?(pt)

Shot on the farm of the Director's grandfather, the short film "Remember me?" shows how certain places can be sources of great inspiration and nostalgia.

De okända utvandrarna(sv)

Documentary about Swedish emigration to Argentina via Brazil.

Like Water Through Stone(pt)

In the Espinhaço Mountains one winter, a group of small-town Brazilian girls are experiencing the end of their youth. Impossible romances leave marks on their bodies and the surrounding landscape. Each of the friends finds her own particular way to overcome the loneliness and to live within a tangle of uncertainty.

Las Hurdes, a Land with Soul(es)

A modern answer to Luis Buñuel's mythical documentary “Land Without Bread” (1933) about Las Hurdes, a historically impoverished region of the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, and also a journey of discovery of the soul of this beautiful land and its inhabitants.

Tu nourriras le monde(fr)

Behind Time, Time Comes(pt)

“Behind time, time comes” interlaced with folk songs, narrates the rhythms of rural life, where time and its weight, shape and define the landscape, as well as the lives that compose it. Accompanying the reminiscences of a group of women from the parish of Dornelas, Sever do Vouga, Portugal.

Beiras, Vivir2Veces(gl)

Bécquer and the Witches(es)

In 1864, the Spanish poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-70), suffering from health problems, retires to the monastery of Veruela. Far from the noise and worldly activity of the capital, he immerses himself in the landscape of the mysterious Moncayo mountain. There, he discovers a new world full of legends that converge in a small village located at the foot of the mountain: Trasmoz, the Village of the Witches, the only officially cursed village in Spain.

Monegros(es)

Accompanied by the songs of singer-songwriter José Antonio Labordeta, a poetic journey through the inhospitable shire of the Monegros, located in the region of Aragón, in Spain, in search of peace and isolation.

La ruta de don Quijote(es)

A poetic journey through the paths and places of old Castile that were traveled and visited by the melancholic knight Don Quixote of La Mancha and his judicious squire Sancho Panza, the immortal characters of Miguel de Cervantes, which offers a candid depiction of rural life in Spain in the early 1930s and illustrates the first sentence of the first article of the Spanish Constitution of 1931, which proclaims that Spain is a democratic republic of workers of all kind.

Pelerinaxes(gl)

Luzía visits the eight stages of the 'pilgrimage' that the intellectuals Otero Pedrayo, Vicente Risco and Ben-Cho-Shey hiked from Ourense to San Andrés de Teixido in 1927; the story of the journey was published in the book ‘Pelerinaxes I’ (Pilgrimages I). She carries out this journey in order to finish up an audiovisual project about Otero Pedrayo’s book started at the University, together with a colleague who passed away in an accident.

Cabbage, Potatoes and other Demons(ro)

1 village, 1.000 tractors, 100.000 tons of cabbages & potatoes each year - which are hardly sold and eventually destroyed. Is there any way out?

The Way Without Limits(es)

The Way of Saint James, northern Spain, 2016. Two brothers, Oliver, the eldest, and Juan Luis, the youngest, a disabled person in a wheelchair, face the hardest challenge they have found so far on their long road of dirt, stones, rain and cold. Everyone says they will not make it, but, fortunately, they are not alone.

John Ford: The Man Who Invented America(fr)

Over a 50-year career and more than a hundred movies, filmmaker John Ford (1894-1973) forged the legend of the Far West. By giving a face to the underprivileged, from humble cowboys to persecuted minorities, he revealed like no one else the great social divisions that existed and still exist in the United States. More than four decades after his death, what remains of his legacy and humanistic values in the memory of those who love his work?

Four Roads(it)

In the absence of any physical connection, this short explores alternative forms of contact among neighbors by making use of an old 16mm camera, a zoom lens, and a few meters of expired film.