On the occasion of the award ceremony held on Saturday 15 October, the jury of Vivac – International Documentary Film Festival Amazonia – the Caribbean, chaired by Edward Montot, awarded the following awards:
High School Student Award – Best Documentary (Feature)
Faye Cavallo
Harold Grenouilleau, co-directed with Vincent Rimbaux
France, Brazil | 2022 | 1h06 Brazilian Portuguese | Babel Dock
In northeastern Brazil, Dirlinho and Edivan risk their lives at every Prado race, hoping to become professional riders. For 12-year-old Dirlinho, racing in front of an electrified crowd is his only chance to escape his fate. His dream is to leave his village to become a professional knight in the city of Fortaleza. Devoting body and soul to little chance of penetration. In his wake, his cousin Edivan wants to become a person, and to live in this harsh Brazil. Young teens, they will have to overcome their fears. But wanting to grow so fast, wouldn’t they leave a part of themselves there?
Audience Award – Best Documentary Film (Feature)
I am
Keirth Aguente and Nicholas Pradal
France, Guyana | 2022 | 52 minutes | Mawina Tongo, French | Co-production France-TV-Martinique La 1ère – 5 ° Nord Productions – YN Productions – La Cuisine aux photos
Wani Doudou is a plumber on the Haut-Maroni River in French Guiana. Since the death of his father, the customary leader of the community, he feels an existential void. But his father passed on to him valuable knowledge: the traditional drum used in mourning. Although decimated, when a villager dies, Wani accompanied by the drum inherited from him by his father, actively participates in the Puu Baaka ceremony, raising the mourning. Traveling across the river and wild forests, he is still haunted by the spirit of his late father.
Festival Award – Best Documentary Short Film
Abysal
movie from Alejandro Alonso
France, Cuba | 2021 | 30′ | Spanish | Vega Alta Films – La Concretera Production
Since childhood, Raudel has been haunted by a strange vision of light. At 27, he works as a shipbreaker in Bahia Honda, Cuba, where the line between the living and the dead is nearly invisible.
Festival Award – Best Digital Content
cargo bike
Daniel Martinez Quintanilla
Peru | 2020 | 6 ‘Kinumada Production – Sasha Cinema
A visual trance crosses the daily voyage of the “chaucheros” (loading and unloading workers) at the Masusa port in the Amazon. This pier is where dozens of ships supply Iquitos, the largest city in the world without a land connection. These guys go to great lengths to survive in the sun. Without wheels or winches to lighten the weight on their backs of more than 120 kg, immersed in the tumultuous sinking of more than 400 years of exploitation. Constant movement drains the continent’s resources as well.
Jury Award – Best Director
Ninos de las Brisas
movie from mariella maldonado
United States, France and Venezuela | 2022 | 1 x 23 | Spanish | Point of the Day – Balibari Films – Mosaic Film Invento
Niños de Las Brisas is a story of resistance, resilience, and perseverance that explores the power of discipline and classical music as tools of survival. The documentary follows three Venezuelan children from the Las Brisas slum on their quest to become professional musicians in the ranks of the music program El Sistema. Over the course of a decade, Edixon, Dissandra, and Wuilly have sought a better future while facing the great challenges of a pitiful country. The Venezuelan crisis prevents them from realizing their dreams, and they represent in their struggle a society living under an authoritarian regime.
FIFA/France Télévisions Grand Prix – Best Documentary
Del Otro Lado
movie from Ivan Guarnizo
Colombia | 2021 | 1h26 Spanish | gusanoo movies
Two brothers decide to search for members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who have held their mother for two years. Before her death, she forgave her captors, leading the two brothers to wonder if they too could forgive, and if they could find and talk to the guerrillas guarding her. Using the notes she was allowed to write during her captivity, they located places, deciphered names, and began a journey through jungles and mountains in the footsteps of their mother’s pain, but also on the path of forgiveness.
