28th August, 2008
Documentaries, just like fiction films, are interpretations of certain topics. Like feature films, documentaries face aesthetic choices in their representation of different realities. Throughout Latin America, documentary filmmakers are exploring various issues while developing personal visual styles. This year’s documentary programme aims to illustrate varied examples of these efforts, including the British premiere of Pánico: Culto a Jodorowsky.
Latin American societies, like other societies, are constituted by multiple elements. Thus, the documentaries chosen for the fifth edition of the festival include the examination of individuals, the assessment of social and historic events, and the profiling of a Latin American artist. We are presented with extreme personalities: a man addicted to alcohol and involved in ‘bullfighting’ in Toro negro, and a mentally ill woman in a precarious situation in Estamira. For those looking for social criticism La dignidad de los nadies provides a personal understanding of contemporary economic events. Finally, the filmmaker and versatile artist Alejandro Jodorowsky is portrayed in Pánico: Culto a Jodorowsky.
These films are the personal visions of some Latin American documentary filmmakers, their contribution to the public debate on their topics of choice and their gift to the audience for cinematic enjoyment.
Germán Martínez Martínez
Documentaries Director
DLA Film Festival
Making the Spirit of Latin America available through film