Austral Films

Sonia Soberats is a sixty-six-year-old Venezuelan woman who lives by herself in a modest apartment in New York City. The pain caused by the death of both her sons resulted in her total loss of vision. She takes care of everything she needs. Today she is a blind photographer.
Through different stages of Sonia’s life and work we will see how two apparently contrary concepts coexist in harmony: a whole new tendency in photography bringing together this expressive art and sight deficiencies.

In Cuba, they have more than 15 years researching a treatment based on a type of indigenous Scorpion venom, which is a great palliative for some types of cancer patients since the venom attacks the cancer cells. We will visit the facilities of the pharmaceutical company (Labiofam) that makes it, we’ll go hunting the Scorpion with Cuban biologists, we sure the director of Labiofam, as well as doctors and Cuban patients and foreigners who had come from all over the world.

Paraguay, April 2008.
After 35 years under Stroessner’s dictatorship and 17 of power and corruption lead by the Colorado Party (the only one allowed after the democratic transition), Fernando Lugo, a former bishop who is running for President, represents the hope to build a better future.
Internationally recognised as an activist for Human Rights and discoverer of the Archives of Terror, Martin Almada leads a lonely and exasperated battle to expose the links between the old dictatorial system and the current corrupted democracy.
Guillermina Kanonnikoff, courageous activist and General Secretary of the Tekojoja Movement, is accompanying Fernando Lugo on his path up until the elections on April 20th.

Puerto Rico’s secret police, supported by the FBI, during decades spied and persecuted those who disagreed with the government. All collected information was classified in archives known as “the files”. An entire network was set up so that this “subversives”, were denied certain jobs through which they could exert some influence or authority (police, university, journalism). On the jobs they were hounded till they resigned. Many citizens had to emigrate since they could not find jobs in Puerto Rico. In some families they even followed the children.

GOUDOUGOUDOU is the name Haitians invented for the 2010 earthquake. For those who made it through, the notion of ‘being alive’ was superseded by that of ‘being survivors’ in a world turned upside down by death and chaos. This intimate and penetrating documentary explores how people, in the aftermath of tragedy, grieve, struggle to regain a semblance of normality and aspire to new dreams.

Is filmmaking possible in a country like Ecuador? Is there an audience in Latina American movies? These are some of the questions posed by an Ecuadorian filmmaker whose latest subsidized movie did not find commercial distribution. He embarks on a filmic query to find answers to his questions and relief for his despair. He speaks to film critics, to the manager of the national cinematheque and to passersby… His research leads him to a giant contraband market in the port city of Guayaquil where pirated movies from all over the world are sold for one dollar.

Manyas is a feature film that shows Club Atlético Peñarol fans, their joys and sorrows… a thousand different ways of expressing their love and unconditional faithfulness to their team: the making of the giant flag, tattoos, songs, trips abroad, among other things.
This film includes statements by dozens of fans that fill this special cultural phenomenon with passion, energy, and rhythm.

Defensa Street is one of the oldest and most traditional streets of Buenos Aires. On it the history and the culture of Buenos Aires are expressed. Different artists and workers will enlighten it from their own perspective, given birth to this particular universe, full of music, colors, dreams and desires.

With the special participation of the Oscar winner , Juan José Campanella.

“Design behind Bars” brings the improbable together: prisons and design in a world seeking a sustainable future. From the tiny sewing studio in Tires Prison comes out a mix of languages, here are produced the multi-award-winning La.ga handbags. Vikki, a Romanian woman, says time spent in their “factory” of design just flies. Just like LA.GA, women also come out of prisons with a stamp.

Settled down for over 100 years in the Isla Maciel, the boatmen that cross back and forward the Riachuelo, provide a service to the people on both sides of the most polluted watercourse in Argentina. But the re-building of a bridge between the island and the Federal Capital will check the job they inherited from their grandfathers and great grandfathers, a “collateral damage” that comes from the hand of progress. Boatmen is an accompaniment to this process, a silent and subtle battle, that may leave them without their historical work.