The 15th edition of DocumentaMadrid, which will take place from May 3 to 13, announces some of the films to be included in its National and International Competitive Section and enjoyed at the Cineteca Madrid (Paseo de la Chopera, 14. Madrid)

The programming for 2018 features such well-known names as Johan Grimonprez -star of Sábados Cinéfilos at the Cineteca in March-, who tackles both sides of the issue of arms trafficking in his most recent documentary film Blue Orchids; and the French Jean-Gabriel Périot, who returns to the festival with a screening of De la joie dans ce combat, in which he shows a chorus on the city outskirts which uses music as a form of resistance.

Women such as Carolina Astudillo recognized in festivals worldwide for El gran vuelo, Ekhiñe Etxeberria, and the Galician Xiana Do Teixeiro, will reflect on the role of women and their representation. In Ainhoa: yo no soy ésa, intimate stories from diaries and file footage are used; in Mikele, we get a transsexual teenager’s take on adulthood; and in Tódalas mulleres que coñezo ("All the Women I Know"), the "everyday nature" of gender violence and the debate stirred up by conversations among women when they are projected onto others.

Other women, the adoptive mother and biological mother of Carmen Torres are the inspiration for her first feature film, Amanecer, which has just won the prize for the best Colombian film at the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival (FICCI). In it, the director sets out on a journey to meet her mother and address the issue of what really builds our identity.

Opposite these intimate stories, we have the award-winning Milad Amin, who narrates in the first person the drama of war and hunger in the short film Land of Doom, shot in Aleppo. Back in Spain, Juan Andrés Coéllar, Javier Extremera and Joaquín Hermo reflect on the legacy of colonialism with Un verano en Madrid; and La grieta, by Alberto García and Irene Yagüe will introduce us to Isabel and Dolores, two women from Villaverde who refuse to leave their homes when faced with eviction.

National Competitive Section: Feature Films
 

AINHOA: YO NO SOY ÉSA
Director. Carolina Astudillo 
Production company. Un Capricho de Producciones
Run-time. 98’
Spain, 2018

Chilean director Carolina Astudillo, known for films such as El gran vuelo, presents the story of Ainhoa ​​Mata: as a child, her family recorded and photographed her daily life for many years but at the age of 34, her diaries reveal a very different woman from the one her family and friends knew, almost the opposite of the extroverted Ainhoa ​​that was captured on film. With this personal and feminist story, Astudillo traces out an alternative history to the official Spanish history of the nineties.

Synopsis
The elusive portrait of a deceased young woman is the starting point for a story about three women: the main character Ainhoa, the director Carolina, and Isabel, her writer friend. Through diaries and archival images, this effervescent essay and its skillful, dense, daring and philosophical screenplay is about a posthumous investigation that leads to a new version of a personal history.

LA GRIETA
Directors. Alberto García e Irene Yagüe
Production company. Cabestreros Films
Run-time. 76’
Spain, 2017

Shot over five years, La Grieta reveals the complex reality of families facing the drama of eviction from the point of view of two residents of Villaverde, who tell their story with naturalness and grace. A portrait focusing not only on the struggle to keep a roof over their heads, but also on one's sense of identity and belonging to a community.

Synopsis
Following the sale by local governments of thousands of public flats to foreign investment funds in 2003, many Madrid families were forced to leave their homes. This film takes a hard look and, despite the implicit drama, is not without humor when it comes to two women and their families reluctant to leave the unique neighborhood of Villaverde.

Trailer

TÓDALAS MULLERES QUE COÑEZO (TODAS LAS MUJERES QUE CONOZCO)
Director. Xiana do Teixeiro
Production Company. Walkie Talkie Films
Run-time. 71’
Spain, 2018

In  revealing conversations with friends, collaborators and high school students in three symbol-laden settings, director Xiana do Teixeiro, spells out a discourse on violence, gender and public space. Five friends share experiences in an intimate conversation filmed and shown at a women's meeting and then in a high school classroom, along with the subsequent debates. From the personal to the political, the experiences of diverse women show how today's society continues to be masculinized and violent.

Synopsis
A "putting into words" for thinking about the social imbalance between men and women in Spain; a spoken film composed of key conversations in three interlinked and significant settings, starting at the turning point of Alcàsser and the changes in behavior that it brought for women at the national level, with the sensationalist amplifier of the media.

National Competitive Section: Short Films

 

UN VERANO EN MADRID
Directors. Juan Andrés Coéllar, Javier Extremera y Joaquín Hermo
Production company. ECAM
Run-time. 25’
Spain, 2017

Coéllar, Extremera and Hermo, documentary film students at the ECAM, give an exposition on Spain's thorny legacy in the history of colonialism. Un verano en Madrid uses the remains from an exhibition in Madrid in 1887 to revive the issues and encourage reflection on the implications it could have.

Synopsis
A shipment from the Philippines arrived in Spain to be exhibited in Retiro park.  Through various mechanisms ranging from theater to photography used to evoke memories, Un verano en Madrid provides present-day visitors a look at the distant echoes and Spain's thorny legacy in the history of colonialism.

Trailer

MIKELE
Director. Ekhiñe Etxeberria 
Production company. ESCAC Films
Run-time. 45’
Spain, 2017

Ekhiñe Etxeberria provides a portrait of Mikele, a sixteen-year-old transsexual who has so far lived a happy life surrounded by family and friends. However, she starts thinking about her plans for the future and the possibility that beyond these surroundings, society will label and prejudge her.

Synopsis
Young Mikele reflects on the complexities of being a teenager alongside friends and family in this cheerful, intimate and straightforward portrait of a young girl. Mikele describes an alternative outlook on transsexuality in Spain through her experience with the gang in her village in Navarra.

Trailer

International Competitive Section: Feature Films 

BLUE ORCHIDS
Director. Johan Grimonprez
Production company. Zap-O-Matik
Run-time. 48’
Belgium, 2017

Through the personal stories of a specialized journalist and arms dealer, file footage and political accounts, Grimonprez provides us an unusual and uncomfortable critique of the arms industry and subtlety portrays it as a symptom of a deeper disease: greed.

Synopsis
Two experts on the global arms trade, the renowned journalist Chris Hedges and the mysterious dealer Riccardo Privitera, describe their hard experiences. Two opposing viewpoints that, edited alongside file footage with Johan Grimonprez’s characteristic subtlety, makes for a profound critique on the dark story behind governments financing their trade worldwide.

Trailer

AMANECER
Director. Carmen Torres
Production company. Estudi Playtime
Run-time. 79’
Colombia and Spain, 2017

The film's director and main character, Carmen Torres, always knew she was adopted but never got a clear answer as to why her biological mother gave her up. When her adoptive mother Teresa passes away, she comes up with the idea for this movie, believing it would show her how, if one learns where one comes from, it can reveal who we really are. What she found out, though, is that beyond what happens to us, we can choose who we are.  

Synopsis
Rethinking identity, emotion, pain and love, the director sets off on a dual-purpose, autobiographical journey: to meet her biological mother and ask her why she gave her up for adoption. In this delicate and insightful observation of precariousness, trauma and memory, Amanecer explores a universal phenomenon down to its most intimate aspects.

Trailer
 

International Competitive Section: Short Films
 

LAND OF DOOM
Director. Milad Amin
Production company. Bidayyat
Run-time. 19’
Lebanon and Syria, 2018

The fateful characteristics of war appear in the background of this film, which premiered worldwide at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival. Its director, Milad Amin takes an intimate journey through the suffering of citizens enduring siege, hunger and war; and the relationship among the activists displaced there.

Synopsis
Demolished buildings, spooky streets, a food shortage. A story on the front lines and in the first person about the evacuation of Aleppo following five years of war against the Al-Asad army. The online conversations between Ghith and Milad make a record of these final historic days.

 

DE LA JOIE DANS CE COMBAT (LA ALEGRÍA EN LA BATALLA)
Director. Jean-Gabriel Périot 
Production company. Les films Pelléas, Ópera National de Paris
Run-time. 22’
France, 2017

Thanks to an exquisite production by the Paris Opera, Périot draws a rough portrait, as both a documentary and musical, of the workshops organized by the mezzo-soprano Malika Bellaribi-Le Moal on the city outskirts for men and women living in marginalized situations. Music as a means of resistance and a tool for escapting situations of isolation and poverty.

Synopsis
The renowned short filmmaker and master of re-editing, Jean-Gabriel Périot gives us an up-close look in an eloquent musical essay. The practice of an amateur choir will give rise to social self-affirmation. Notes and words for releasing suffering, where each face is an expression of resistance in the daily struggle of life. A beautiful film song about human beings and collective work.