On Saturday 8 February, in Guía de Isora (Tenerife), MiradasDoc brought its 13^th edition to a close with the handing out of trophies to its winners. The top prize, the Award for Best Documentary, was taken home by the Argentinian movie La visita, directed by Jorge Leandro Colás. The film tells the story of 500 women and a handful of men who, every weekend, head to the small town of Sierra Chica to visit the inmates at the prison there: Bibi’s hostel and El Gallego’s bar serve as the venues for them to tell their life stories, which are all peppered with pain, love and desire. In addition, the official jury, comprising filmmaker Alfredo Mora Manzano, film critic Luciano Barisone and Toni Monty, the director of Durban FilmMart in South Africa, decided to award a Special Mention to the Iranian production A Moon for My Father by Mania Akbari and Douglas White.

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Another jury – made up of Uruguayan teacher Clara Charlo, producer Inti Cordera and Jean-François Hautin, the chairman of the Lumière du Monde association – deemed the animated short Carne worthy of the Award for Best Spanish Documentary. Directed by Camila Kater, and produced by Chelo Loureiro and Livia Pérez, it portrays five women who share their experiences related to their bodies, from their childhood right up to old age. The jury’s Special Mention went to the feature Manoliño Nguema (Spain/Guinea) by Antonio Grunfeld, which picked up its second gong of the night when it snagged the Audience Award.

The Award for Best Feature Debut went to Talking About Trees [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Suhaib Gasmelbari, a Sudanese production that recounts how, after years of separation and exile, four friends reunite in their scarred homeland in the hope of being able to make their former dream come true: to spread the art of cinema there. A Special Mention was conferred upon the medium-length film Synek (Polonia), helmed by Pawel Chorzepa.

The Best Documentary Short Award ended up going to Mars, Oman, a Belgian production directed by Spaniard Vanessa del Campo: it tells stories of human naivety while deftly intertwining the links between nomadism, exploration, colonisation and the desire for freedom. The international jury’s Special Mention was bestowed upon A sad se spusta vece (Serbia/Bosnia and Herzegovina) by Maja Novakovic.

Wrapping up the gathering, the director of the International Documentary Film Festival and Market, Alejandro Krawietz, dubbed non-fiction film a “genuine miracle”, and as such, “we have to try to defend it”. For this reason, he also warned of the dangers currently stalking it: the market and the authorities, “a bureaucratic monster” that seeks only to serve itself, rather than the people. He also stated that entering a MiradasDoc theatre is a risky activity that can potentially transform us, and that the most beautiful thing is that there is a group of people who, “come hell or high water”, pull out all the stops to keep it going.

Here is the full list of award winners:

International feature-film competition

Best Documentary
La visita – Jorge Leandro Colás (Argentina)

Jury Special Mention
A Moon for My Father - Mania Akbari and Douglas White (Iran)

Best Documentary Short
Mars, Oman – Vanessa del Campo (Belgium)

Special Mention
A sad se spusta vece - Maja Novakovic (Serbia/Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Best Documentary
Carne – Camila Kater (short film)

Jury Special Mention
Manoliño Nguema - Antonio Grunfeld (Spain/Guinea)

Best Feature Debut
Talking About Trees [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] - Suhaib Gasmelbari (France/Sudan/Germany/Qatar/Chad)

Jury Special Mention
Synek - Pawel Chorzepa (Poland) (medium-length film)

Audience Award
Manoliño Nguema - Antonio Grundfeld