5. Weavers of Memory
An ocean of memories, belonging to countless individuals—impossible to comprehend in only a glance. Through the medium of film, we recover instants in which memories submerged beneath the surface of everyday life become visible in words and movements. This program features art films of Gustavo Fontán, Germán Scelso, and João Moreira Salles, unique experiments that expand the private world into the cinematic one with delicacy and intimacy.
The Tree
El árbol- ARGENTINA / 2006 / Spanish / Color / 35mm / 62 min
Director, Script: Gustavo Fontán
Photography: Diego Poleri
Editing: Marcos Pastortire
Sound: Javier Farina
Producer: Stella Czerniakiewicz
Source: Tercera Orilla
Time is visualized in nature and its movement. María and Julio, two elderly adults, argue about two acacia trees. Their lives in a house over a hundred years old are weaved through this conflict. The visit of a neighbor, a party, memories, rain, dreams, actions that are repeated day by day; the seasons, lights and shadows, all work together to build a plot that speaks to us of the passing of time.
The Face
El rostro
International Competition Juror
Sensitivity
La sensibilidad- ARGENTINA / 2012 / Spanish / Color, B&W / Blu-ray / 55 min
Director, Script, Photography, Editing, Source: Germán Scelso
Interviewers: Germán Scelso, Mara Balestrini
Cast: Maria Luisa Pando de Sabattini, Laura Espíndola de Pesci
Grandmothers Laura and María Luisa are from the same generation but opposite social classes. Two women who suffered the disappearance of their children during the last military dictatorship, although one was lucky enough to get her daughter back, and the other one not. Germán Scelso—filmmaker and grandson of the two—gets into a dialog that goes through the somewhat more eloquent features of history, the ones history itself won’t narrate: different gestures, ways, forms and sensibilities, that vary based on class.
Santiago
- BRAZIL / 2006 / Portuguese, Spanish / Color, B&W / Blu-ray / 80 min
Director: João Moreira Salles
Photography: Walter Carvalho
Editing: Eduardo Escorel, Livia Serpa
Sound: Jorge Saldanha
Producer: Mauricio Andrade Ramos
Source: VideoFilmes
Santiago is a documentary about an unfinished film. Santiago was a butler in the house where the director grew up. Years ago, the director tried to make a film about him, but failed. Now he returns to the footage and makes a film on identity and the nature of documentary.