Lineup Addition — Realities and Dreamscapes-Unconventional narratives of the Latin American experience - a shorts showcase curated by Chica Barbosa.

PHLAFF is excited to highlight PHLAFF alum, Chica Barbosa, as she presents a curatorial program as a part of the PHLAFF 2023 season.

Chica Barbosa is a Mexican-Brazilian filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles, US. Her artistic practice explores narrative, hybrid and experimental forms of storytelling, with a focus on themes of displacement, colonialism, borders, and faith as resistance. Her films have been showcased at IDFA, Frameline, Outfest, DOC NYC, LALIFF, Leeds International FF, Habana International FF, Cinélatino - Rencontres de Toulouse and Málaga International FF. Chica migrated from São Paulo, Brazil, where she was part of the Film Collective "Cinefusão" and started her own production company "En Caliente Films" in 2014. She directed several award-winning short films, including FERROADA, LA FLACA, SAME/DIFFERENT/BOTH/NEITHER, as well as the documentary feature film, MADRIGAL FOR A LIVING POET. In 2022, her latest feature documentary, SWING AND SWAY, directed with Fernanda Pessoa, premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest. In 2023, CHICA was selected to the Berlinale Talents with her narrative short film in development, AMAINARY, in the Short Form Station.

The curatorial program includes six films, each of which viewers can get a deeper dive into within the Q&A sessions that Chica has conducted with the filmmakers. Q&As are available on our YouTube channel.

A Brazilian military's quest, in both myth and history, expands the visible and invisible frontiers of human imagination and computer's virtual veil. A correspondence between the intricate rhythms of longing and displacement, as poignant memories of a Mexican couple's love echo from beginning to its end. A journey through the ethereal realms of self-discovery and affirmation intertwines with the delicate tapestry of Ayo’s black identity. Recollections from an unknown territory whispers through sand and wind about a future that has already passed. Between the contact of a young girl and a cyborg, a bond is formed, entwining destiny and light. And the world’s horror and supernatural is narrated by the moon as a tale in a delirious collage.

These encounters between reality and dreamscape, created by Latin American artists, transcend boundaries and beckon us to immerse ourselves in the kaleidoscope of their diverse perspectives, territories, and experiences.

Watching this special program is an opportunity to immerse ourselves in narratives that challenge us, that push the boundaries of our understanding, and provoke introspection. Enjoy the space, time and delirium!

VISÃO DO PARAÍSO by Leonardo Pirondi explores the phantom island Hy-Brazil, believed to be located in the west of Ireland, triggers this meditation on the links between the great expeditions carried out during the 15th century and VR designers setting their sites on expanding and controlling a virtual "new world". Using interviews, old maps, drawings, technological gadgets and computer simulation, Leonardo Pirondi (director) tackles issues concerning the visible and the invisible, the role of imagination, and the Jupiterian expansion of physical frontiers.

Playa by Francisco Borrajo experimentally narrates the relationship between a 21-year-old couple until their separation. Reflect on how we decided to build our own memories. It is a testimony of a generation that lives creating memories to share and that feel nostalgic for memories that they even adapt from other generations. This short film is intended as a memory or a dream that anyone could incorporate into her own memories.

Eu, Negra by Juh Almeida — Ayo is an artist who lives alone submerged in her own sea and begins to question her identity when, through self-portraits, she realizes that she does not see herself as she really is. From then on, she begins to disentangle herself from the process of social whitening and struggles with herself to claim her blackness.

The Impossible Future by Juanjo Pereira is set in the heart of the Middle East, between whispers, bright sun, stealthy sand and futuristic buildings, where high technology plays a key role, the World's Fair is about to take place. A journey of observation unfolds a path between renderings and reality, where the desert is the only permanent thing.

LICANTROPIA by Janaina Wagner is an atonement of the figure of the werewolf, a creature shaped by men-kind as a scapegoat to give contour to cruel acts perpetrated by humanity through the course of history. Narrated by the moon during the course of a night and merging fiction and reality, the film is a collage of 16mm, digital, engravings, text and anonymous testimonies. The werewolf, a hybrid being, operates always “in between”, transitioning around the limits of reality and invention, lie and truth, history and stories: it is an amalgam that merges in one single image the human and the animal, operating as an approachable bridge to investigate civilizing processes of domination through history.

Atrapaluz by Kim Torres— When a mysterious light invades socially awkward Lila, she encounters its source: a cyborg who comes to remind her who she was in a past life.

Watch and learn more about these incredible films as a part of this curatorial program as a part of PHLAFF 2023 Week Seis. Check the two Q&As will be available on our Youtube channel. In addition, check out SWING AND SWAY, a film that Chica co-directed, when it is shown during Week Seis Bloque Dos!