Yahoo Movies Chile’s Sanfic Industria Bows Virtual Reality, Female Producers Lab Strands
Chilean industry forum Sanfic Industria bows its 11th edition with the launch of new virtual reality and women producers lab sections. Running Aug 11-19, Sanfic Industria will also include its mainstays: WIP Ibero-American, Santiago Lab: Fiction and Documentary, Sanfic-Mórbido Lab, Series Lab, Sanfic Net and Sanfic Series.
“By introducing a virtual reality section, we’re betting on new narrative formats,” said Sanfic Industria founder-director Gabriela Sandoval of the Sanfic XR showcase, which will be open to the public at the forum’s official headquarters, Matucana 100.
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“Making these films accessible to everyone creates a nexus between the public and the films’ creators,” she pointed out.
In a nod to the growing number of female producers across Ibero-America, Sanfic Industria will present a new space dedicated to female creators: Productoras Lab. The lab for both fiction and non-fiction projects in development will have a selection of seven debut and second films by women producers hailing from Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Guatemala and Colombia.
This year’s hybrid edition expects some 400 guests, including participants, experts, mentors and industry professionals. A number of panels, masterclasses, workshops and various networking activities form part of the busy program, most of which will be streamed online to the public.
The forum will also premiere the highly anticipated series “La Vida de Nosotras” directed by Barbara Barrera Morales (“Mas Alla de Diego”) and other female directors. A buzzy title when moved at Conecta Foiction, and a BTF Media production, “La Vida de nosotras” is a five-episode dramatic fiction series which presents 16 stories of sexist violence suffered by women in modern-day society.
Of the WIP selection this year, most entries received were documentaries. “It might have been because of the pandemic as they are easier to make,” Sandoval surmised who observed that many projects explored personal stories.
Sanfic Industria is presented by the CorpArtes Foundation, produced by Storyboard Media and co-financed by the 2022 Audiovisual Development Fund. It complements the Sanfic Film Festival which runs Aug. 14-21.
SANFIC WORKS IN PROGRESS (WIP)
“Tierra de nuestras madres” (“Land of our Mothers”)
Dir. Liz Lobato Prod. Nieves Maroto (Spain)
Docu-fiction hybrid. A fable narrated by a goat about an elderly woman and her disabled son who lead the fight to keep their ancestral lands from being sold.
Courtesy of Sanfic
“Érase una vez en los Andes” (“Once Upon a Time in the Andes”)
Dir. Rómulo Sulca Ricra Prod. Rómulo Sulca Ricra (Peru)
Set in Peru’s Andes, Margarita, a shepherdess, comes upon a dying Chilean soldier who has escaped from a battle. She nurses him back to health and they fall in love. Upon being discovered, the Chilean is taken prisoner but his life is spared when it is revealed that the shepherdess is expecting his child.
“Viola no Redemoinho” (“Guitar Treaty”)
Dir. Guilherme Bacalhao Prod. Getsemane Silva (Brazil)
Slaughterhouse worker Alex dreams of becoming a musician like his father Lázaro, who is said to have made a pact with the devil. To protect himself from harm, Lázaro organizes the traditional Folia de Reis. Alex returns home to help his father, but things keep going awry. His only chance to save his father is to take over the satanic pact.
“Monstro” (“Monster”)
Dir. Diogo Leite Prod. Andrea Lanzoni (Brazil)
Laura Magalhaes, about to turn 50, still thinks she has the chance of becoming a movie star. Despite few job opportunities in her acting career, she rehearses to audition for “Medea” which she hopes will mark her triumphant return to the silver screen.
Courtesy of Sanfic / Joaquin Echeverria
“Una luz negra” (“A Dark Light”)
Dir. Alberto Hayden Prod. Joaquín Echeverría & Benja Pinto (Chile)
Josefina (56) and Jorge (45) are connected by chance. Four years ago, she lost a son with the same name as him: Jorge Ferrer Buriard. What at first seems like a simple coincidence turns into an obsession. Not only do they share the name, but there is an obvious physical resemblance. Jorge looks for answers online. For Josefina, the absence of her son haunts her. His presence disturbs the household.
“Biopsia (Retrato de una Anti Entidad Inhumana),” (“Biopsy (Portrait of an Antihuman Entity”))
Prod. Verónica Abarca (México, Chile)
Doc-feature. Adriana bears the trauma from the time she was raped as a teenager. Some 15 years later, inspired by the rising #metoo movement, she tells her mother what happened that night. They band together to open up a frank discussion about the role of women in society, sexuality and the silent violence against women in a country where gender violence is normalized and even justified.
“Ana Rosa”
Dir. Catalina Villar Prod. Cristina Marie Villar Rosa (Colombia, France)
Docu. Villar explores the mystery behind her paternal grandmother, Ana Rosa, who was a pianist and was lobotomized in the ‘50s. She only has a photo from an identity card and few clues. A journey into the history of psychiatry, docu asks why the majority of lobotomies in the world were performed on women.
“Henri el último pirata” (“Henri the Last Pirate”)
Dir. Julián Fernández Prod. Dominique Rammsy (Chile)
Docu follows Loti, the son of Henri Garcia, a French diver from the Cousteau team, who decided to leave his European life behind and settle on Easter Island. During an expedition to the top of a volcano between Chile and Bolivia, Henri finds a crystal ball submerged in the lagoon. After this discovery, he changes and in 2015 ends up taking his own life. Docu explores Henri’s life and his sudden death.
“Abundancia de mariposas” (“A Bounty of Butterflies”)
Dir. Roberto Latorre Prod. Maria Neyla Santamaría (Panama)
Docu-fiction hybrid. Since before the social outbreak and the pandemic, the Salva el Grillo Artistic Group has been spearheading the fight for LGBTQ rights in Panama, an ultra-conservative and homophobic country. We follow young activists and artists who are making history.
“Al Sur del invierno está la Nieve” (“The Snowy Winter in the South”)
Dir. Sebastián Vidal Campos Prod. Sebastián Lavados (Chile)
Doc-Feature. In the province of Última Esperanza, Chile, an historic snowfall left people isolated for weeks and killed scores of animals. It is still remembered as “the white earthquake.” Today it barely snows, and the peasants, old or unemployed, have abandoned their homes. Those who still live here, along with their dogs, raise animals to kill and eat, sheltering themselves from wild beasts, loneliness and the cold.
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