Short Films
Program 3 – “Friday Flicks”
Join us for a collection of short films made by some of the brightest and upcoming filmmakers.
A Complete Woman
Una Mujer Completa
Spain / 2019 / 11 min / Drama / Texas Premiere
Synopsis
Berta and Hugo are two strangers in a hotel room. Their lives have nothing in common… but they are closer than they think.
About the Director
Ceres Machado has a degree in Audiovisual Communication in Malaga. She has received specific training in interpretation and has directed more than 30 plays. Her play ¿A quién te llevarías a una isla desierta? has been a NETFLIX film since 2019. She has directed the short films Plétora (2013), Mormón (2014), as well as directing actors in La Petite Mort (2015), Last Memory (2016) and Una Noche cualquiera (2018).
Stuck
Colombia / 2021 / Documentary / 17 min / Texas Premiere
Synopsis
Many light-years away from Earth, Eve, a mine colony operator, awakes to find herself trapped underground after an explosion went off at the surface. Fear increases as she feels the walls closing around her, one of her hands trapped, an oxygen leak in her suit and unable to use her thrusters, Eve has to find a way out. Fast.
About the Director
Pablo Tobon Gallo studied cinema and photography in the United States. He mainly worked as a director of photography for commercials, music videos, feature films, and documentaries. As a director, he has written and directed several shorts.
Eagles
Águilas
USA / 2020 / 14 min / Documentary
Synopsis
Along the southern desert border in Arizona, it is estimated that only one out of every five missing migrants are ever found. Águilas is the story of one group of searchers, the Aguilas del Desierto. Once a month these volunteers—construction workers, gardeners, domestic laborers by trade—set out to recover the missing, reported to them by loved ones often thousands of miles away. Amidst rising political repression and cartel violence, as well as the eternal difficulties of travel in the Sonoran Desert, the Aguilas carry out their solemn task. Águilas lays bare the tragic reality of migrant death by venturing deep into the wilderness of the borderlands. The desert is a vast cemetery where the bodies and dried bones of migrants lie exposed under the scorching sun. In a world where efforts to humanize the migrant experience often get lost within the statistics and headlines, this documentary provides an observational and poetic response to one of the most pressing issues of our time, undocumented immigration and the hardships of the border crossing experience.
About the Directors
KRISTY GUEVARA-FLANAGAN is an Associate Professor at UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film, and Television, where she heads the MFADirecting Documentary concentration. She has been making documentary films that focus on gender, death, and the Latinx community for nearly two decades. Guevara-Flanagan’s documentary and experimental films have screened at the Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, and HotDocs film festivals and the Getty Museum. Her work has broadcast on PBS and the Sundance Channel, received numerous awards, and been funded by ITVS, the Sundance Institute, Fork Films, the IDA, the Tribeca Institute, Latino Public Broadcasting, and California Humanities.
MAITE ZUBIAURRE has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Columbia University, New York. She is a professor of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, Digital Humanities, and Urban Humanities at UCLA. Before joining UCLA, Zubiaurre taught at USC, UNAM (Mexico), ITAM (México), and UT, Austin. She is the author of numerous publications, the most recent one, an award-winning monograph on the cultural representations of contemporary refuse. She is presently leading a collaborative project on migrant death and border activism and art that includes a scholarly monograph and a digital map. “Filomena Cruz” is Maite Zubiaurre’s alter ego as a visual artist and activist.
Captain Blackbeard
Capitán Barbanegra
Mexico / 2020 / 15 min / Drama / Texas Premiere
Synopsis
At the beginnings of the Mexican Revolution. Isabella, a girl who plays the role of being the Captain Blackbeard, hears that her parents Hacienda is about to be overrun. With the certainty that she could help her family, Isabella goes in search of reinforcements. On her way, nonetheless, she will discover the horror of the armed conflict.
About the Director
Mateo Granillo is a Mexican filmmaker. He studied Film Direction at Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica A.C. (CCC) where he graduated with honorific mention. He has directed the short-movies “What is time?” (Documentary in post production), “Captain Blackbeard” (2020) and “Necropolis, they will be ashes but still will feel” (2016). This last one was selected in several film festivals around the globe. He is also a film editor and an aspiring writer, in 2013 was selected in the Young Writers scholarship “Capítulo Monterrey” by Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas. He also has published in the online magazines Le Miau Noir, Plot Point and Otro Páramo.
Mother Rain
Mamapara
Perú, Argentina, Bolivia / 2020 / 17 min / Documentary / Houston Premiere
Synopsis
In the Peruvian highlands, she lives with her dog, Honorata Vilca, an illiterate woman of Quechua descent, dedicated to the sale of sweets. As the rainy season begins, she recounts passages of her life, until one evening something fatal happens that seems to make the heavens cry.
About the Director
Alberto Flores Vilca was born in Juliaca, Puno in 1990. He is a filmmaker, Social Communicator (UNAP-Puno) and poet. In 2017 he was a resident in Transfrontera (Chile). In 2018 he was selected as director of Talents Buenos Aires. In 2020 he was selected for the 18th Talents Berlinale with his Opera Prima Grietas and premiered the documentary short film Mamapara.
Amateurs
Spain / 2020 / 11 min / Comedy / Texas Premiere
Synopsis
Paco wants to convince Mari to shoot homemade porn videos and thus solve the financial problems of the marriage.
About the Director
Ceres Machado has a degree in Audiovisual Communication in Malaga. She has received specific acting training and has directed more than 30 plays. Her play “Who would you take to a deserted island?” has been a NETFLIX film since 2019. She highlights her directing in the short films Plétora (2013), Mormón (2014), A Complete Woman (2019), Candela (2020), Amateurs (2021) and Write when you arrive (2021) ENGLISH She has a degree in Audiovisual Communication in Malaga. She has received specific training in interpretation and has directed more than 30 plays.
And Then What?
¿Y Luego?
Mexico / 2021 / 13 min / Comedy / Houston Premiere
Synopsis
David, an executive obsessed with productivity, suddenly collapses due to overwork. His boss orders him to take some time off. He gets sent to an Holistic recovery spa where he feels he’s wasting his time, he escapes and meets an artisan who would make him reconsider the value and purpose of work and time.
About the Director
Mario Trujillo received a Photography Diploma. His filmmaking education has been mostly self-taught. He’s been part of over 30 productions, between short films, documentaries, animation films, spots and feature films.
