Virtual Delights
Online Program
This year, aluCine is celebrating the vibrant intersection of food and cinema. In addition to our in-person festival, we are excited to present a curated series of online short films that delve into various aspects of food.
These films showcase both acclaimed and award-winning works. Our goal is to highlight the dynamic world of Latin American cuisine and cinema, featuring rich culinary traditions and diverse cultural narratives through the creative lens of filmmakers.
Each film offers a unique perspective on food, whether it takes center stage as the protagonist, serves as a compelling subject, or simply enriches the film’s background.
Join us for this sensory feast and immerse yourself in the captivating stories that make Latin American food and cinema exceptional.
The Keepers of The Corn
directed by Gustavo Vazquez
Mexico/USA - 2020 - 60’- Documentary
The 2021 Red Nation International Film Festival
Best Documentary Feature Film Winner
Keepers of the Corn presents the story of native corn told by the indigenous farmers, artisans and cooks in Mexico whose ancestors shepherded the ever-evolving seeds from the dawn of agriculture into the 21st Century – a story of collective labor spanning more than 350 generations. Their voices are joined by community leaders, scientists, chefs, and others whose knowledge and activism stand not only in defense of food sovereignty and the genetic integrity, diversity, and community ownership of native seeds, but in defense of a durable cultural legacy and a way of life.
About the director: Independent filmmaker, Gustavo Vazquez is originally from Tijuana and now lives in San Francisco. He is a professor in the Film and Digital Media Department at UC Santa Cruz. Vazquez has directed over thirty productions, including documentaries, video installations, and dramas. His work has been shown at film festivals and art exhibitions including the Mill Valley Film Festival, Film Stock, Luton UK, Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia, Mexico, Centre for Contemporary Images, Saint-Gervais, Switzerland, L’immagine, Québec, Leggera, Palermo, Italy, Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival and has been broadcasted nation-wide on PBS and Canal 22, Mexico’s National broadcasting system. He is a co-author of Documentary Filmmaking: A Contemporary Field Guide, 2nd edition published by Oxford University Press in October 2013 and 2017.
Harina
Directed by Joanna Cristina Nelson
Venezuela - 2018 - 15 min - Fiction
Winner at 44 Festival de Huelva Cine Iberoamericano
Special Mention at 34 Interfilm Berlin International Short Film Festival
Official Selection 59th Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias (FICCI)
Official Selection 34 Festival Internacional de Cine de Guadalajara (FICG)
Roberto is a middleclass working professional trying to survive Venezuela's economic death spiral and current humanitarian crisis while maintaining his unemployed mother. An argument breaks out when she asks him to buy flour for her birthday cake and he reprimands her for not being resourceful with what he provides. In an effort to make amends, he resorts to the black market to buy the scarce food item. Before heading back home he gets caught in the violent looting of a food delivery truck, facing a moral dilemma.
About the director: Writer, producer, director from Venezuela-Belgium, Joanna has produced and directed four short films of her own script. The latest, Harina (2018) premiered at Festicine Huelva in Spain and won best short film. Currently in the development of her first feature, Hunger (2020), in coproduction with Chile, she takes on the script, direction and executive production with Vannel Productions.
Stories of Culture: Oaxaca in Santa Cruz
directed by Megan Martinez Goltz
USA - 2022 - 11’34”- Documentary
Grand Jury Best Documentary Short Film - Sonoma International Film Festival
Best Documentary Short Film - Stuff MX Film Festival
Best Cinematography - Idlewild International Film Festival
Indigenous elders in Santa Cruz, CA share culinary traditions from their homelands in Oaxaca. Celebrating and taking their culture with them wherever they go, these women embrace the recipes as a healing tool for their community.
About the director:
Megan Martinez Goltz is an award-winning queer Chicanx filmmaker based in Santa Cruz, California. Megan embraces storytelling to pave a pathway to ancestral and community connection and is passionate about Indigenous sovereignty, queer and trans liberation and weaving medicine into entertainment with every project. Their work has been showcased internationally across the United States and Mexico as they continue to devote their craft to legacy stories.
About the director:
Megan Martinez Goltz is an award-winning queer Chicanx filmmaker based in Santa Cruz, California. Megan embraces storytelling to pave a pathway to ancestral and community connection and is passionate about Indigenous sovereignty, queer and trans liberation and weaving medicine into entertainment with every project. Their work has been showcased internationally across the United States and Mexico as they continue to devote their craft to legacy stories.
The Cake
directed by Carlos Novella
Venezuela - 2022 - 18’48” - Fiction
Soto Award for Best Short Film 2022 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Venezuela.
Best Actress Award at the 13th Venezuelan Border Film Festival, Venezuela 2023
Best Actress Award at the 20th Venezuelan Film Festival 2024
Honourable Mention at the 25th Cine Las Americas Film Festival, Austin, USA 2023
Special Mention Short Film, University Category at the ELCO Festival, Venezuela 2023
Maria, a lonely 60-year-old confectioner, by chance meets Diana, an old childhood friend, who asks her to bake a cake for a family birthday party. As she gathers and mixes the ingredients, brings up memories of her old friendship with Diana, so she hopes to be invited to the party
About the director: Graduate in Filmmaking from the Escuela Nacional de Cine (National Film School) and thesis student for a degree in History (Universidad Central de Venezuela). Director of the award-winning short film LA RADIO (2021); he was one of the 55 young Latin American filmmakers admitted to the Talents Buenos Aires 2022 programme; co-screenwriter and co-director of the choral feature UN PAÍS IMAGINARIO DONDE LOS PERROS COMEN FLORES (in post-production). He is currently working on the writing and development of the documentary short LA SOLEDAD DE SERGIO. LA TORTA was his final degree work as a filmmaker. At the moment, Novella is about to release his new short film STADIUM (2024).
Sara Mama: Sacred Seeds
directed by CHIRAPAQ and Quechua Indigenous youth
Peru - 2020 - 11’ - Documentary
6th International Festival of Indigenous Film and Arts in Wallmapu FICWALLMAPU 2021 (Community Cinema Mention)
II Parwarimun Muhu Short Film Festival 2012 (Honorable Mention)
International Short Film Festival, Kannibal Fest, Berlin
II Latin American Indigenous Languages Film Festival, Peru (Official Selection)
14TH indigenous film+video showcase, Chile 2020 (Official Selection)
1st Incontrastable Film Festival 2021 (Special Mention)
In the Peruvian Andes, a Quechua boy shows his particular relation to Sara Mama (Mother corn) and reveals knowledge of its productive cycles.
This short film was collectively created by Quechua youth from the San Francisco de Pujas Community in Vilcas Huamán Province, Ayacucho Region, Peru, who participated in the scriptwriting, pre-production, and shooting of the film. The members of the production team were part of an audiovisual training and creation process led by CHIRAPAQ, Center for Indigenous Cultures of Peru. This work is carried out as part of CHIRAPAQ’s commitment as member of the Latin American Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples' Cinema and Communication (CLACPI), a network dedicated to promoting and distributing Indigenous cinema and upholding the right of our peoples to communication and media access.
