Mafifa', by Cuban Daniela Muñoz Barroso: Nicolás Guillén Landrián Award at the IV INSTAR Film Festival
By RIALTA STAFF - december 10th, 2023
RIALTA
The feature documentary Mafifa (2021), by Cuban filmmaker Daniela Muñoz Barroso, unanimously won the Nicolás Guillén Landrián Award at the IV INSTAR Film Festival. Likewise, the film 'Option Zero' (2020), by Cuban director Marcel Beltrán, received a special mention.
The award's verdict defines 'Mafifa' -whose premiere was at the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA)- as the work that best reflects and explores, among the fifteen contestants, "a taboo theme of its corresponding society". The decision took into account, above all, "the conceptual and artistic quality of the works in relation to their thematic proposals," says the brief statement released this Sunday afternoon.
The jury for this edition, consisting of Dunja Fehimović (Bosnia and Herzegovina), professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Newcastle, film critic and historian Paulo A. Paranagua (Brazil), and screenwriter and writer Alejandro Hernández (Cuba), highlighted "the quality and diversity of the selected films, as well as the opportunity to approach different cinematographies of the global south, which do not always have the presence they deserve in the traditional circuits of audiovisual exhibition and distribution".
In addition, according to the official announcement, "it recognized the resilience, courage, and inventiveness of filmmakers in overcoming their adverse production circumstances and delivering films that profoundly question their respective socio-political contexts".
The honored filmmakers will receive US$3,000 (Muñoz Barroso) and US$1,500 (Beltrán), respectively, which corresponds to the award sponsored by the "Hannah Arendt" International Institute of Artivism.
During the live broadcast of the award, Brazilian Paranagua highlighted the filmic power of 'Mafifa', which he considered "an authentic revelation". He was impressed both by the search, among the mists of collective memory, for the character of Mafifa, a legendary conga player in Santiago de Cuba, and by the intimate search undertaken, in turn, by Daniela Muñoz Barroso herself.
"It is a film that I find very intense, very powerful, very emotional, and at the same time, very lucid. It is a film that has touched me a lot," confessed the prestigious film expert, visibly emotional.
"I cannot hide how it touches my heart and how, at the same time, I am in awe to see the intelligence of the filmmaker and her team," he added. "I am very grateful for the chance to have seen it, and I hope that you too, many of you, can see it soon."
About Beltrán's 'Option Zero' (Jury Prize at MiradasDoc 2022), Fehimović stated that it "exemplifies the evolution of documentaries with new technologies, and the testimonial and artistic value that [these] provide, in the hands of a thoughtful and creative director.”
On the other hand, the England-based academic emphasized that "by insisting on recognizing works that deal with taboo subjects, the festival reminds us that cinema is conditioned and responds to very specific and precise contexts. The works in competition, all of them of very high quality, demonstrate and stage this dynamic".
"It seems of utmost importance to me the work of the INSTAR Film Festival in spreading and promoting the cinema of young Cuban creators, above all, in light of the disappearance of the Young Filmmaker's Showcase, which was, for many years, a fundamental critical space for so many, including several of the filmmakers whose works have competed for this award," Fehimović reflected. "However, this edition of the festival proposes something that reflects perhaps, even better, the evolution, or the current state of Cuban cinema, or its younger practitioners [:] I refer to the transnational focus of the programming and screenings, which highlights an expansive vision of Cuban cinema, connected to the rest of the world and to international socio-political dynamics and creative trends."
Afterward, Cuban artivist Tania Bruguera - INSTAR's director and main promoter of this festival - thanked both the filmmakers who lent their works and the audiences who went to theaters in cities such as Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, São Paulo, Paris, New York, and Miami.
She also thanked those who connected from Cuba (more than a hundred views) to watch the films programmed through the online platform Festhome.
"We know how difficult it is to access the Internet and how expensive”, the artist said. "This festival was created for the Cuban audience, and we will always have that as one of our main points of focus."
Finally, Bruguera announced that INSTAR has received proposals from three other cities worldwide to organize exhibitions of the event next year. The purpose, she noted, is to continue to grow and, likewise, to attract more foreign filmmakers.
"We want it to be a party and a meeting place and a space for serious and important discussions for filmmakers," she said.
You can read the original note here