March 28, 2021 (SIGNIS). The SIGNIS jury at the virtual edition of the Festival Cinélatino, 33es Rencontres de Toulouse has awarded the prize for the best short film to Quien dice patria dice murte by Sebastian Quiroz (Chile).
With this magnificent but painful title and in only fifteen minutes, Sebastian Quiroz depicts with originality and proximity the 2019 riots in Chile where the people’s rights are violated. It is a social drama where humanity no longer recognises human dignity. A value nevertheless claimed with conviction and clarity in an effective form, poignant interviews, strong and colourful images, close-ups on the unbearable cries of suffering on the faces thirsting for equality, justice and peace. The film is a short but incisive documentary on human rights.
The jury also awarded the prize for best documentary to El cielo esta rojo by Francina Carbonnell (Chile).
This documentary takes us to the San Miguel penitentiary in Chile, on the night when eighty-one prisoners lost their lives in a tragic fire due to deplorable prison conditions. Human rights were not respected at all; prisoners found themselves without security, humanity or human dignity.
The almost unbearable close-ups and painful images are never sensationalised. The director is effective in her account, documented by judicial archives and surveillance cameras. In powerful tracking shots and poignant slow motion, she shows us the misery, the despair of the inmates, the panic of the distraught guards and the pain of the bereaved families.
This documentary calls for collective mobilisation, for social and political responsibility in the face of the urgent need for justice and human dignity.
The members of the jury were Chantal Laroche-Poupard, Carlos Aguilera and Philippe Cabrol.