In the first screening, viewers were introduced to Los días azules, the first foray into short-form cinematic storytelling by Mallorcan director Javier García Lerín. Through everyday scenes and a poetic gaze, the documentary evokes the passage of time, love, and the fragility of memory. An intimate portrait of the relationship between a grandmother with early-stage Alzheimer's and her young grandson.

In Los días azules we meet Julia, García Lerín's mother. A woman who has worked her whole life as a hairdresser, but now retired, spends her week cooking and styling her friends' hair. Her greatest joy is caring for her grandson, who visits her once a week and stays overnight. One day, the following morning, Julia says she thinks she's had a stroke. This is the starting point for the filmmaker, who, two weeks later, shoots this film.

"At the time we made this documentary it was a very painful experience. It seems easy to film all this and then sit down at the computer to see which bits to use… it's hard. I mean, if filmmaking were like letters you write on paper, where all the tears are imprinted, there probably wouldn't be a film. It was a kind of catharsis, a learning process to shed some light on all the bad things we were going through,” the director confessed at the press conference.

This was followed by a screening at the MVA Centre of El mapa para tocarte by director Mercedes Afonso, about her more than ten years with her son Airam, a young man diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and PANDAS. This condition causes him to experience sudden episodes. In the film, we witness the anguish of a talented young man with autism who struggles to live a conventional life. By filming Airam, Mercedes Afonso finds a way to create distance while simultaneously offering her son a helping hand.

Constructed from images recorded on a mobile phone, El mapa para tocarte  invites us to reflect on the difficulty of filmmaking when pain is present. "Pain has made me who I am now. Pain makes us invincible," says young Airam in one clip of the film, leaving the audience with a lesson in perseverance and struggle.

The second screening of the day featured two works by Uruguayan directors. First, director Rocío Llambí presented her short essay documentary that explores mineral catalogues, outtakes from a documentary, and archives related to the coup d'état in Uruguay. Editor and film director Rocío Llambí's work focuses on the intersection of archival footage and documentary.

Wrapping up Tuesday's screenings: Mamá está acá, the latest work from directors Claudia Abend and Adriana Loeff, documentary filmmakers with distinguished careers. In this year’s Official Competition, Claudia and Adriana brought to the Festival de Málaga a deeply moving piece about motherhood.

In Mamá está acá , four female artists work together to create a play. As the big opening night approaches, the film reveals each woman's story: the adoption process of a single mother, the birth of the first child to two mothers, the arduous battle for the life of a child in danger. Building a portrait of unconditional love, Claudia Abend and Adriana Loeff's documentary speaks of the invisible bond of friendship and complicity that develops between women who support each other.

According to Claudia: “In our research, we discovered many stories of motherhood until we met Dana, a woman with deep emotional scars. At first, we didn't want to cross that line. We were afraid to delve into such a painful subject, but we fell in love with Dana and her story, her way of living and transforming her pain.” “Bringing a film here for the second time to the Festival de Málaga is a tremendous joy. We filmed three seasons of the play to capture these female experiences. It's a film very much focused on the female universe,” Adriana commented.