Locarno’s Open Doors 2024: Trends, Highlights, Titles – MASHAHER

Focused on projects, producers and pics from smaller territories in Latin America, Locarno’s 2023 Open Doors showcase suggested a revolution is working through Latin America filmmaking. This year’s titles explore other facets of this next generation makeover. Four takes on the 2024 line-up:

The Genre Revolution

Many younger Latin American filmmakers are embracing genre. But they’re not turning out standard shlockfests. Some are genre blending. At Open Doors Projects Lab, “Fiebre Caribe, for instance” is “a multi-genre travelog: a Latin-American vampire drama splashed with culture-shock comedic relief moments, a lost romance investigation, a body horror tale, and for a moment, an archive-historical reimagining,” says director Diego Andrés Murillo. Others are genre bending. “The project’s voice – a queer, gen-z, female auteur – has reimagined a somewhat familiar horror narrative with tropical heat and cool,” producer Rob Maylor, at Mental Telepathy Pictures, says of “The Periphery,” another Hub title.

The Rise of Women Producers

Open Doors will showcase “The Unique Time,” the latest project by Paz Encina, one of the highest profile Latin American directors featured at Locarno this year, a 2022 Rotterdam top Tiger Award winner for “Eami,” at this year’s Open Doors Screenings. In gender terms, at the Projects Hub, she remains an exception, however: Five of its eight titles are directed by men. Seven of the nine figures featured at Open Doors’ Producers Lab are women, however. Haltingly, women are becoming a production force in Latin America, at least in its arthouse and documentary sectors.

The Social Focus Remains

“UFOs in the Tropics” weighs in as Ecuadorian queer science fiction. El Salvador’s “Salvation” is “a thriller with a found-footage horror spirit,” says director Ernesto Bautista. Both, however, have large social point. “The film industry is not independent from global politics, on the contrary it is deeply connected with social and environmental issues,” observes Zsuzsi Bankuti, head of Locarno’s Open Doors. In Latin America, it’s near impossible to ignore them. One case in point: Key films explore the legacy of the past, whether Stroessner’s dictatorship (“The Unique Time”), El Salvador’s Civil War (“Salvation”) or post-colonization (“Chris & the Disciples”).   

A Lighter Tone

Yet many titles are assuming a lighter tone. “99 Secrets,” brought to Locarno by producer Camila Molina Wietchucter, marks the directorial feature debut of Alvaro Manzano, producer of fest standouts such as “The Dog Thief” and “Chaco.” Yet it’s essentially an exposé of social equality, as is Peru’s “Through Rocks and Clouds,” But driving narratives in the films are, respectively, a teen romance at a quinceañera and Peru’s qualification for the soccer FIFA World Cup. Another title, “The Return of the Last Mochica Warrior”, teaches young Peruvians their history. It’s also the first gamer film in Peru, says director Fernando Mendoza.

A drill-down on titles and figures at this year’s Open Doors:   

Projects Hub

“Fiebre Caribe,” (Diego Andrés Murillo, Venezuela, Colombia)

Formally, one of the most ambitious of Open Doors titles and potentially one of the most popular. Talyssa, a vampire, having nearly killed her partner, pursues him from NYC to Caracas and then over its mountains to the Caribbean, as she debates between living sick, getting blood from syringes and killing wild animals, or living life to the full. Set up at Maldito Fantasma, whose members are based in NYC, Caracas and Buenos Aires. 

“A Farewell to Lola,” (“Un funeral para Lola,” Iván De Lara, Dominican Republic)

When a jaded trumpet professor reunites with his successful and privileged musician friend, their weathered bond is tested by resentment, drugs, and betrayal, the synopsis runs. Laced with Afro-Caribbean and Latin-American music, a film which “deconstructs the idea of success and to take a critical look at the idea of meritocracy,” De Lara tells Variety. 

“Her Lightness,” (Rosa María Rodríguez Pupo, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia)

When her cancer returns, Nora (Lola Amores, “Wild Woman”), distances herself from her family, moves into an impoverished neighborhood and determines to decide her own destiny. “Her Lightness” “is the story of my family genes, my women and my dead,” says Rodríguez Pupo. Produced by Armando Capó, Cristina Gallego and Martha Orozco, the first feature of a figure on the cutting-edge of Cuban cinema.

“The Periphery,” (Rebecca Williams, Jamaica)

In a Jamaica summer, two estranged cousins converge and, after a petty theft, are cursed by a local shopkeeper. “My vision is to craft a horror/drama firmly grounded in Jamaican culture, along with themes of sexuality, isolation, and womanhood,” says Williams. “This project is steeped in genre and authentic Caribbean folklore, while defying the conventions of our regional cinema at every turn,” adds producer Rob Maylor. 

“The Return of the Last Mochica Warrior,” (“Huaco Retrato,”Fernando Mendoza, Peru)

Set up at Peru’s Cybermuchik Cine and produced by Sylvia Eileen Arellano, billed by Mendoza as the first gamer film in Peru, “mixing ancestral storytelling with a video game culture,” he says. In it, a gamer robs his ancestors’ tombs to pay playing in cybercafes until he’s contacted by the spirit of an ancient Peruvian warrior.

“Salvation,” (Salvación,” Ernesto Bautista, San Salvador)

In advanced development, set in modern-day El Salvador as a nurse and former war combatant is forced to face her past when she receives some cassette tapes from an unknown octogenarian admitted to the hospital in coma. “This intimate project is a love letter to my homeland’s unacknowledged pain,” says writer-director Bautista. Produced by Melissa Guevara at Burn and Die Films, in co-production with Mexico’s DRaiz Producciones. 

“UFOs in the Tropics,” (Ovnis en el Trópico,” Rob Mendoza, Ecuador)

Raul, a lonely orchid grower in the tropical mountains spreads the warning he received via an enigmatic UFO contact. A mining company and homophobia threaten his mission, however. “An ambitious project that combines a unique aesthetic proposal with deep, relevant and current themes such as masculinities, sexuality, extractivism, and science fiction,” says producer Isabel Carrasco at Quito’s La República Invisible. 

“The Unique Time,” (“El Tiempo Único,” Paz Encina, Paraguay-Mexico)

In Argentina, just across the river from Paraguay, Lorenza (70), Pedro (73) and their children await news of Paraguay and Máximo, their youngest son, 22 when he disappeared. Then, suddenly, Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner is overthrown. “From an emptiness that lives relentlessly inside them, each of them will take a different path,”  the synopsis runs. From Paraguay’s Sabaté Films  (“Killing the Dead”) and Mexico’s Piano (“Triangle of Sadness”).

Producers’ Lab

Luis Flores Alvarenga, “The Lost Boys,” (“Los Niños Perdidos,” Honduras) 

Based out of Thau Honduras and presenting at Locarno “The Lost Boys” from writer-director Enrique Medrano, about three children from Garifuna, Lenca and Tolupán indigenous groups who meet at an orphanage. Co-produced with Peru’s Amazona Producciones, the film highlights the struggles of indigenous children in the face of social injustice while portraying their journey towards freedom and hope,” says Alvarenga.

Nicolás Carrasco, “Je vous salue, Peru,” (Peru)

Carrasco founded Walden Films, a Lima-based production-distribution house, in 2016. At Open Doors with “Je vous salue, Peru,” “a portrait of contemporary cinema” tracing the trail in Peru of Jean-Luc Godard, a cousin of former Peruvian president Pedro Pablo Kuckzynski. “A film of archives, of cinema, documents and fragments found, invented, inventoried, rewound, accelerated,” Carrasco has said. 

Wendy Desert, “Non, je n’ai pas trouvé l’Eldorado,” (Haiti)

Desert launched Haiti’s L’Autre Regard Films Productions in 2020 to help the emergence of a Haiti cinema, its films focusing on human rights, social justice and identity. Developing “Non, je n’ai pas trouvé l’Eldorado,” a feature doc that “intimately captures the personal odyssey of the director as a young woman and mother confronting the looming question of exile and the elusive allure of an idealized ‘elsewhere,’” Desert says. 

Andrea Fatecha Bernal, “Interlude,” (“Interludio,” Cuba)

A cinema verité doc-feature from Julián Ortiz González about Wilfredo “Pichi” Chavez García, the last lutenist in his rural province of Cuba. He is like “an endangered species losing its habitat in a hostile society where progress advances faster than Pichi’s ability to create meaning,” says Fatecha Bernal, a Producers Lab junior producer/observer in a collaboration with Cuba’s EICTV school.

Morena Guadalupe Espinoza, “Ariel,” (Nicaragua)

A writer on hit series “Contracorriente” and producer at Nicaragua’s Collective Tecla Films who is readying “Ariel,” set in a Central American village. There, teen Ariel, who lives with his grandmother, tries to cure her mortal illness. “‘Ariel’ shows the strong relationship between Ariel and his grandmother, the genuine friendship between teenagers and the Latin American ability to face the most difficult situations with humor,” Espinoza tells Variety.

Romola Lucas, (“Chris & the Disciples,” Guyana)

When Chris and his friends are acquitted of murder, someone uses the occult to exact justice of the spiritual kind. With “Chris & the Disciples,” we hope to contribute to the continued development of film in Guyana, an increased awareness of the many ways we are still colonized and the ways we have and continue to resist that colonization,” says Lucas, also creator of the Third Horizon Film Festival. 

Yamila Marrero, (“Lifetime,” (“Toda la Vida,” Cuba)

Marrero is one of Cuba’s foremost doc producers and industry voices behind recent Rotterdam short “Azul Pandora,” Alejandro Alonso’s El Proyecto and Lázaro J. González González’s “Villa Rosa.” In “Lifetime,” a father dying from cancer asks his estranged filmmaker daughter to shoot the final phases of his illness. The footage comes to reflect on family, art, and life, set against Cuba’s Special Period and the country’s current day. 

Camila Molina Wietchucter, “99 Secrets,” (“99 Secretos”), Bolivia)

Producing “99 Secrets,” the directorial feature debut of Alvaro Manzano, producer of fest standouts “The Dog Thief” and “Chaco.” Produced by Molina Wietchucter at Bolivia’s Color Monster, “99 Secrets” weighs in as a teen love story set at a quinceañera party in a cholet, a mind-boggling luxury Aymara mansion decked out in pop-out indigenous aesthetics now thriving in El Alto, Bolivia’s second city. International potential. 

Patricia Velásquez, “The Pest That Surrounds You,” (“La peste que te rodea,” Costa Rica)

From Costa Rican director-writer-producer Velásquez, here as a producer with Oscar González directing. A psychology professor tries to bury a dead cat as the mold on his apartment wall spreads. “The humor is based on the inability of his characters to be better than themselves,” says Velásquez. Starring Reinaldo Amien (“Tengo sueños eléctricos”), produced by La Más Fuerte Producciones (Costa Rica) and Cuenco Cine (Uruguay).

Open Doors Screenings

“Black Mother,” (Khalik Allah, Jamaica)

From the New York based photographer and filmmaker of Jamaican and Iranian descent, a 2018 experimental doc feature described as an ecstatic expression of reverence and realities across Jamaica, which played Cinéma du Réel, Sheffield Doc Fest Dokufest and MoMA. 

“Bionico’s Bachata,” (Yoel Morales, Dominican Republic)
The film which won Morales, production house Mentes Fritas and producer-co-writer Cristián Mojica a SXSW 2024 Audience Award. A mockumentary about Biónico, a hopeless romantic and crack addict trying to take control of his life before his fiancée leaves a rehabilitation center. “A “serious topic but handled via the absurd and dark comedy that we have in our culture,” Morales tells Variety. 

“Eami,” (Paz Encina, Paraguay)

Rotterdam’s 2022 top Tiger Award winner, a stunning vision of a young Ayoreo Totobiegosode girl in the Northern Paraguayan Chaco committing to memory the landscapes and myths of her forest as she prepares to leave it, forcibly displaced by deforestation. Well reviewed, and swooped on for sales by Paris-based MPM Premium.

“La Playa de los Enchaquirados,” (Iván Mora Manzano, Equador)

A leading figure in Ecuador’s local industry build with 2012’s “No Autumn, No Spring,” which made a festival splash, and “Yellow Sunglasses,” an Outsider Pictures U.S. pickup, Mora Manzano’s “Playa” won a special mention at the 2022 Guadalajara Festival. The doc feature turns on Vicky a trans fisherwoman whose acceptance by her fishing village signals a new era of gender tolerance in the community.  

“Lost Chapters,” (Laura Alvarado, Venezuela, U.S.)

Based between Barcelona and New York and focusing in film on her family and literary endeavor, as in her debut feature “Los Capítulos Perdidos,” a docu-fiction hybrid where Ena, played by Alvarado’s sister, returns to Venezuela and discovers a mysterious postcard, which sparks a curiosity for a Venezuelan author who wrote under hundreds of pseudonyms. Her feature follow-up, “Gótico Languido,” follows Ena, now embarked on a book project, to Barcelona. 

“The Skin of the Water,” (“La Piel del Agua,” Patricia Velásquez, Oscar Herrera, Costa Rica, Chile)

Velásquez’s third fiction feature, “a story of teenagers in present-day Costa Rica, whose lives are marked by the confinement of affluent, upper middle-class life as well as by the conflicts and feelings of emptiness fostered by the self-centered lives of their family members,” she explains.

“Through Rocks and Clouds,” (“Raiz,” Franco Garcia Becerra, Peru, Chile)

Set in stunning high Andes, a Quechua-spoken drama in which a young alpaca herder dreams of Peru qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in 36 years. Picked up by Luxbox – a good sign – in the run-up to the film’s world premiere in the Berlinale’s 2024 Generation Kplus sidebar. 

“Uncivilized,” (Michael Lees, Domenica)

Set up at Lees’ One Off Productions and set on Dominica, a Caribbean island. Lees leaves to live in the wild to think through some of the big questions in life and is struck by category 5 Hurricane Maria. “The film is rare documentation of life before, during and after a climate event, serendipitously illustrating issues of development and climate change which the film was already about,” notes Lees.