All events at 'Camino a FIDOCS 30' are free. For performances at Sala K / U. Mayor, you must reserve your spot by completing a registration form available at the link we will share here soon.
Throughout its twenty-nine editions, FIDOCS has served as a showcase for new generations of filmmakers. This selection brings together some of the early works of directors who found a place at the Festival in its inception, inviting us to revisit the origins of key figures in contemporary Chilean cinema.
The first session brings together two filmmakers from a generation that distanced itself from traditional documentary techniques to explore new languages. In his debut feature, 'Nowhere, Nowhere,' José Luis Torres Leiva constructs a personal vision of spaces and those who inhabit them. Inspired by the Lumière brothers, he explores time, shot duration, sound, everyday gestures, and the boundaries between documentary and mise-en-scène. From a different starting point, Tiziana Panizza's 'Sender: A Visual Letter,' the second part of the 'Visual Letters' trilogy, begins as an epistolary essay reminiscent of the films of Chris Marker or Jonas Mekas, in which personal and external archives acquire new meanings through editing, in a territory where the familiar meets the unknown.
Whether working with Super-8 or digital, Tiziana Panizza and José Luis Torres Leiva understand filmmaking as a craft, an intimate and direct form of work. At the same time, their processes are open to chance and unexpected encounters. From different perspectives, both are part of a new branch of Chilean documentary filmmaking, in which experimentation allows for the intertwining of the personal and the collective, form and meaning.
Sender: a visual letter
When I was a child and had to make a wish, it was always the same: to meet the other side of my family who lived in Italy. Imitating my Italian nonna, I wrote dozens of letters to these people I didn't know, telling them about my daily life in the city where I was born. This documentary is a letter, from Chile to Italy, in a final attempt to revive an old family tradition.
Tiziana Panizza She is a documentary filmmaker and holds a Master's degree in Art and Media from the University of Westminster, England. Her films include "Tierra Sola" (2017), "Tierra en Movimiento" (2015), and the "Cartas Visuales" trilogy (2004-2011). Her research projects include "Joris Ivens in Chile: Documentary Between Poetry and Criticism" (Cuarto Propio Publishing House) and "Recovery of Easter Island's Film Heritage." She is a professor at the Faculty of Communication and Image at the University of Chile, a programmer at the Valdivia International Film Festival, and a member of the Ceis8 Collective, a group of filmmakers dedicated to research and experimentation in film formats.
Nowhere
‘'Nowhere' can be about many things. It's a personal journey through image and time. It's a contemplative portrait of the "La Matriz" neighborhood in Valparaíso. It's the encounter between reality and fiction. It's a musical essay. It's the constant search for truth in documentary filmmaking. It's a documentary of questions rather than answers.
José Luis Torres Leiva He is a director, screenwriter, editor, and teacher. His films include: 'Nowhere, Nowhere' (2004); 'The Sky, the Earth and the Rain' (2008), winner of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) award; 'Summer' (2011), which premiered at the Venice Film Festival; 'The Wind Knows I'm Coming Home' (2016); 'Death Will Come and It Will Have Your Eyes' (2019); and 'When the Clouds Hide the Shadow' (2024).