Jacobo Martínez

Filmmaker José Cardoso’s deeply personal Flowers is an exercise in sense-making, led by both his conscious and unconscious mind. Navigating the barrage of online news images produced each day, he transforms these into an unexpected web of connections that link an Amazonian community threatened with the destruction of their land to an extreme right-wing Brazilian President who justifies the exploitation of the Amazon by the rising price of resources precipitated by the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh teaches us to make our enemy the object of our compassion, and the filmmaker’s three-year-old son marvels at the frogs and flowers growing in the garden.

After a violent bank robbery, the trio of hoods make their way across East L.A. carrying a blood-soaked bag of money. When word gets out, they must fend off gangs and crooked cops alike as they strive to keep the loot and stay alive.

An extraordinary black comedy that explores the limits of survival and absurdist political power games. The story takes place in times of elections in Mexico. A candidate for Governor runs over a pregnant migrant. After the accident, and to avoid a possible scandal, he hides her in a building he owns. Pressured by his political boss and so as not to ruin his political career, the candidate evicts the migrant. In a non-realistic style, the film focuses on the stories that surround the migrant during her search for a room. A radical film, with a critical gaze, that reflects the spirit of contemporary Mexican society.

Like many Palestinian families, the Amers live surrounded by the infamous West Bank Wall where their daily lives are dominated by electrified fences, locks and a constant swarm of armed soldiers. Through director Carolina Rivas' sensitive lens, we discover the private world of all eight members of the family. As their dramas unfold, we catch a glimpse of their constant struggles and the small, endearing details that sustain them, including olive trees, two small donkeys and their many friendships. Constructed with a combination of verité scenes and re-enactments, this poignant and richly crafted film offers its audience a much needed opportunity to reflect on the effects of racial segregation, the meaning of borders and the absurdity of war

Escaping from hunters, a jaguar finds an orphaned cub and teaches him how to survive, but when he gets captured the roles get reversed.

A small bird loses his mother and tries to learn to fly by himself in order to find her. He has no feathers, but he will get them at all costs.

After the last breath of her elderly husband, Maria experiences a brief suicide attempt that will take her into a journey throughout all her memories alongside him with the purpose of finding a true meaning to life, beyond marriage.

A metaphor of the Flood in our times, The Flood is the rain of violence that washes over us. Noah´s Ark is the train that runs through Mexico toward the United States and migrants are the species attempting to save their lives. For the directors, cinema moves people not just by condemnation, but by confronting and fostering emotions which lead to new, constructive ideas. This documentary became a cinematographic diary for their first viewer, their three-year-old daughter, Zafirah.

An enigmatic presence haunts the depths of the Amazon rainforest, where an indigenous Achuar teenager has disappeared. During the search for the young man, his family decides to consult with a Shaman, who, immersed in trance, reveals that the young man was taken by the devil, but that he has intervened by showing him the way back to his home. While waiting for his return, secrets of the rainforest and Amazonian visions of life after death are touched, vanishing the documentary filmmaker’s concepts of reality.

The creation myth is adapted into an animated short film made by Seri indigenous children and elders.