FEEL IT.STREAM
Mercedes Gaviria

Mercedes Gaviria

Sound

Known For

The Goodbye

After the death of her grandfather, Antonio Bonino, Toia found six negatives proving that he was a member of the Fascist Party and an aide to Benito Mussolini. Influenced by this discovery, the director sets out to trace her male family lineage, whom the end of World War II brought to Argentina. Instead of a clarification, however, the past crumbles and disintegrates into a mosaic of archival material, family films, excerpts from personal diaries and fragments of the works of Roberto Rossellini or Luchino Visconti. But it is the meanings that emerge from the combination of disparate images that offer answers and fill the information vacuum that has shaped generations of the family. The dynamics of the Bonino family's male-female relationships have a much darker basis than the social context of the time. In the story of grandfather, father, cousins and sons, Toia also finds a story of identity and of the role of wives, mothers, grandmothers and daughters in a history shaped by men.

The Goodbye

2024Movie
Tres Hermanas

Three sisters entering old age. Three sisters that are very knit together but have opposing views, that are very close but live far apart, one in Tel Aviv, one in Paris and one in Bogotá. A film about how the passage of time affects us, about death, both our own and that of those who shared their lives with us. Director Joyce Ventura films herself and her two sisters over many years, reflecting on the aging process, acceptance of one's own death and that of our loved ones, and exposing the anxieties that come with facing the end of life. The three very different sisters, each living in different cities, contrast their opposite existential perspectives and personalities. Old age, a life stage that we often choose to ignore but inevitably concerns us all, is narrated in first person with humor and sensitivity.

Tres Hermanas

2025Movie
The Face of the Jellyfish
4.4

It is no coincidence that the second feature by Argentinian Melisa Liebenthal begins with a quote from “Duino Elegies” by Rilke, who was concerned with existential angst. And, more prosaically, Marina, the film’s young protagonist, is faced with similar anxiety. In fact, her problem is her face. One morning, she discovers her face has changed, and she can no longer recognise herself. Not even her mother can, who bumps into her on the street and says hello to her like she would to any stranger (deadpan, surreal humor is part of the film’s recipe). Marina is thus forced to confront her identity: who is she? Is she determined by her parent’s DNA or by her ID card? Can she be identified by a family portrait, by biometrics or the love of those around her, including her Colombian boyfriend? Is she prettier now?

The Face of the Jellyfish

2022Movie