Spanish documentaries at Hot Docs 2019

Running April 25–May 5, the 26th edition of North America’s largest documentary festival features over 200 movies, including the two Spanish films “Call Confession” and “The Search,” as well as a Spanish coproduction entitled “Havana, from on High.”

Havana, from on High

• On Friday, April 26 at 2:45 pm. At TIFF Bell Lightbox 3, 350 King St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3X5.
• On Saturday, April 27 at 10:15 am. At TIFF Bell Lightbox 3, 350 King St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3X5.
• On Friday, May 3 at 10 am. At TIFF Bell Lightbox 3, 350 King St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3X5.
• Directed Pedro Ruiz, Co-production Canada / Venezuela / Spain, 2018, 80 minutes. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Toronto premiere. Watch trailer.

Part of the Canadian Spectrum Program. High above the streets of Central Havana, some of its poorest citizens are forced into rooftop homes by a chronic city-wide housing shortage. Director Pedro Ruiz captures the lives of 11 of these rooftop dwellers, all with a unique perspective on the happenings on the streets below. Each of the resilient characters speaks of the personal hardships and experiences they’ve faced since the founding of a revolutionary government. Their lives are about to change again as they find themselves in a moment of national transformation and a drastically changing relationship with the encroaching forces of the United States and capitalism.

Call Confession

• On Friday, April 26 at 3:00 pm. At Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, 259 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3M6.
• On Saturday, April 27 at 8:15pm. At Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5.
• Directed Arturo Aguilar, Spain / Mexico, 2018, 9 minutes. In Spanish, Catalan, with English subtitles.
• International premiere. Watch trailer.

Near the village of Aspa in Catalonia, a hunter succumbs to his killer instinct and inexplicably shoots two wildlife rangers he happens upon in an olive grove. When he puts through a call to emergency services, he finds it nearly impossible to articulate why he pulled the trigger.

Part of the Animal Magnetism Shorts Program, Call Confession share screenings with other short movies: Acadiana (9 minutes), Animal Bridge U-3033 (12 minutes), The Pigeon Keeper (10 minutes), Then Comes the Evening (28 minutes) and Waiting for a Miracle (14 minutes). This collection of shorts reveals the push/pull, love/hate, friend/food tension that pervades our interactions with the creatures we raise as livestock, hunt for sport, keep as pets and see as a reflection of ourselves.

The Search

• On Thursday May 2 at 8 pm. At Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, 259 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3M6.
• On Sunday May 4 at 2:30 pm. At Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, 259 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3M6.
• Directed by Mariano Agudo and Daniel Lagares, Spain / Peru, 2018, 75 minutes. In Quechua, Spanish with English subtitles.
• Canadian Premiere. With director Daniel Lagares in attendance. Watch trailer.

On May 17, 1980, an internal conflict erupted in Peru. The ensuing scorched-earth military campaign between the government and the guerrilla group known as the Shining Path—a group who terrorized Peru with assassinations, bombings, beheadings and massacres—was one of the bloodiest wars in Peruvian history since European colonization. Caught in the conflict were rural and Indigenous communities, and the deep wounds left behind still plague the country. This film follows three subjects from different sides of the war who boldly face the past, holding memory and truth at the centre of their stories. In their quest to heal from loss and violence, their journeys play an important part in bringing about reconciliation and mending a country shattered by conflict.

Co-director Mariano Agudo is a documentalist in the Andalusian production company Intermedia Producciones, of which he is the founder. The images he creates show social awareness and sensitive aesthetics. Among his works are Prisoners of Silence, Yindabad, La Partida, Desde la Oscuridad, or Guillena 1937.