On Sunday 16 March, the 28th Festival de Málaga screened seven non-fiction works in its competitive section. The first screening of the afternoon featured documentaries at the María Victoria Atencia Cultural Centre: ‘Músicas', by director Lila Áviles; 'La Palmera', by Maryam Harandi and 'Deus-e-meio' by Margarida Assis. At the second session, the audience attended the presentation of 'Portales' by Elena Duque and 'On eres quan hi eres?' by Jana Montllor. The day ended with the screening of 'Cómo ser pehuén pedre' by Federico Luis and 'Burnout' by directors Ander Duque and Felipe Almendros.
 
‘Músicas’: Empowering indigenous women
 
‘Músicas', a new documentary by established Mexican director, screenwriter and producer Lila Avilés, looks at the career of Leticia Gallardo, the visionary director of Viento Florido,
a regional all-female band famous for being one of the few all-female groups in a genre traditionally performed by men. Composed of more than forty talented musicians, Viento Florido plays traditional instruments passed down from generation to generation. Accompanying the routine of this group of indigenous women from the mountainous region of Tlahuitoltepec in southern Mexico, Lila Avilés captures the deep connection between the women and how music inspires them to fight for their dreams.
 
´La Palmera´: Immigration and nostalgia collide       
 
Maryam Harandi, an Iranian filmmaker based in Asturias, offers her first short film at the Festival de Málaga with her personal story: a young woman who obsessively observes the palm tree in front of her house. Her mother's stories about the similarity between palm trees and humans resonate in her heart, and she feels how the tree suffers. Rooted in two worlds, a palm tree is the silent witness of society and history.
"My documentary is not a predetermined story. I started recording and the idea came up. Now 'La palmera' is a piece of my soul. Sharing my soul with you is very exciting," the new filmmaker confessed to the audience. 
 
`Deus-e-meio’: Reunion to heal wounds
 
A doctor wanders through an abandoned hospital. Years after their last meeting, someone whose life he saved seeks him out in his old office, so that together they can reconstruct a memory of their shared past. This is how young Portuguese director Margarida Assis recounts her own experience with a serious childhood illness. "It is a documentary full of originality. Margarida has a very peculiar way of thinking and she didn't want it to be a short film about cancer, but about stories," explained Luis Costa, producer of the documentary, which also features music by Daft Punk.
 
‘Portales’: The magic of travelling to other worlds
 
‘Portales' follows the course of the Guadalete river in Cádiz, Spain, from the mountains to the sea. A catalogue of landscapes that hide other landscapes, a collection of interdimensional portals (and postcards) that combines real action and animation, creating an impossible fauna and flora and inventing a new geography for a humble waterway.
 
Directed by Elena Duque, filmmaker, programmer, critic and teacher, 'Portales' is another of her experimental and animated pieces. "I work a lot with collage because it's like bringing many worlds together in a little piece of the world,” the director commented.
 
´On eres quan hi eres?’ (Where were you when you were?): A journey in search of the past
 
Director Jana Montllor Blanes, daughter of well-known Valencian actor and singer-songwriter Ovidi, has lost the only photograph she took of her father on a trip to Mallorca. Sailing across the Mediterranean among familiar images, objects, smells, songs, press clippings and television programmes, Jana embarks on another journey through memory to try to find the memory of her father, a person known to the general public and yet distant to her. "I really wanted to get close to my father. I was very young when he died, and I wanted to understand where he was. It was a vital need for me", is how Jana Montllor described the main idea behind her work.
 
´Cómo ser Pehuén Pedre’: A reflection on disability
 
Pehuén Pedre is a young man with a disability who trains two actors for an examination at the civil registry, where both will have the opportunity to get their own disability certificates. This is the main argument of the documentary 'Cómo ser Pehuén Pedre', a co-production between Argentina, Germany and France directed by Federico Luis, screened today at the 28th Festival de Málaga.
 
´Burnout’: A resistance manual for artists
 
Felipe is a well-known artist from Barcelona who, in order to survive, decides to work double shifts unloading boxes and as a courier. From that moment on, artistic expression is minimised, the environment is distanced and congestion looms in a slow combustion. Combining reality and fiction, the documentary 'Burnout' narrates the daily life of Felipe Almendros, the protagonist and one of the directors of his own film. "For me it's like a documentary of confession and surrender, where we attempt to show the resentful artist, a reflection of so many frustrations", said Felipe in the company of co-director Ander Duque, who emphasised the deep friendship that unites them.