Films Archive Archive - Belize International Film Festival

Perry and Linda are deeply in love with each other and are content with their quiet life. They lived in a small, peaceful community until some mysterious strangers invaded their community. In pain, sorrow and disbelief, Perry found himself in a totally strange land, far away from his soulmate. Their lives were turned upside down.

Based on iconographic images and fragments of Nicaraguan cinema, this documentary tells us the birth and development of our cinematography, the revolutionary process, the creation of the first film institute in
the country (INCINE), the pioneers and representative productions and co-productions, ending with the emergence of independent cinema.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Tomer Heymann’s latest film is a deeply emotional work that follows an outcast teenager’s life-changing journey. Oren was adopted from Guatemala by an Israeli family when he was a baby. Long unable to find his place in society, the teenager has been subject to ridicule because of his communication difficulties, while at the same time dealing with recurring false diagnoses of mental illness. Oren decides to take up a small video camera and document his own life. He embarks on a quest back to the country of his birth to seek out his biological family in the hopes of better defining his own identity.

The film portrays the obstacles faced by asylum seekers and refugees in European countries, who are systematically criminalized by Western media and migration policies, in their never-ending struggle to obtain international protection and the right to asylum.
Forcibly displaced persons suffer exclusion, deprivation of liberty, precariousness, exploitation, medical neglect, hunger, racism and survive in uncertainty, in a legal limbo that prevents them from having security, the right to work, decent housing and food.

“The Photographer of La 40” reveals the story of photographer Pedro Anibal Fuentes Berg, who is sent to take images in the clandestine Prison of La 40, a torture center created during the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961), in the Republic Dominican. Fuentes Berg feels the inevitable commitment to disseminate these images internationally to highlight the horrors that the opponents experienced inside the prison and decide to release them, so that they are known. Some of these photographs became icons of the barbarity of the Trujillo dictatorship.

A new documentary that follows a multigenerational group of inspiring women leaders striving to protect Belize’s world-renowned barrier reef system. WEALTH UNTOLD shares a revealing look at the multi-disciplinary, multi-decade, community-based conservation work led by women in the fisheries, tourism, and non-governmental sectors in Belize. Their collaborative vision to preserve a unique and threatened ecosystem serves as a model for coastal communities around the world.

Torn between love and faith, a monk goes on a pilgrimage looking for a sign.

This feature film is an eco-friendly production that focuses on dementia, culture, and Rianna’s personal journey in creating an impact in the lives of older people in Dominica after the passing of her grandfather with dementia in Dominica. Living well in a cultural context is something the film highlights. Creating a realistic as well as a positive approach to older people in the media. Rianna explores holistic treatments for dementia and engages in traditional experiences in a quest to understand the recipe for the meaning of quality of life.

Part narrative performance film, part documentary, A LITTLE HOPE FOR CHICAGO is a walk through the life of a Chicago hustler, narrowly avoiding the devastating consequences of death and incarceration, as he reflects on the systemic root causes of the violence and trauma that consume youth in urban centers like Chicago.

An end of day on a rooftop terrace. Anissa has invited her mother to Paris to spend a weekend together. But their reunion doesn’t go quite as planned.

Manting, a Chinese woman in her early 60s, reconnects with the lesbian lover from her adolescence when one of her old classmates passes away. After a classmates’ reunion event in a karaoke bar, they spend a night together, roaming in the city.

Dir. Mark Moneda
(Philippines, 2024) 15 min 56 Sec / social / Ilocano, Tagalog, English w/ English Subtitles / Rated: PG (Belize Premiere)

The story of “Open Time” is set during the early days of the Drug War Campaign in the Philippines. It revolves around Ponga, a homeless, illiterate teenager who sells floor mats made of fabric scraps during the day and balut (duck embryo) at night. He sleeps anywhere, spending most of his time in a computer shop, watching game tournaments of four alpha student gamers. He serves as the middle man for the prizes and rewards won by betting from one computer shop to another. Hence, Mang Jex, the owner of the internet café, sometimes allows him to sleep right outside the shop to keep an eye on the surroundings. Ponga’s life took a total turn all of a sudden after intentionally barging in on a tournament that surprisingly helped the jocks win. After the four alpha gamers discovered his hidden skill, they immediately gave him a spot on their team. Ponga, being the unexpected leader of the squad, was then given access to a world where hierarchy, inequality, and injustice exist.

Dir. Marialejandra Martin
(Venezuela, 2022) 13min 39 Sec / Drama / Spanish-Italian w/ English Subtitles / Rated: PG (Belize Premiere)

Gioia returns home for her grandfather’s funeral, having fled when she realized she would never be part of the family business, which had been run by him until then. But now that her grandfather is dead, she makes the women of the family understand that they must unite and take the spaces that belong to them. Together they will take control of the family business, where these women now have their place.

NOT IN COMPETITION

Eladio is a failed actor who has been working for many years as a maintenance employee at a television station in the capital. He will have to return to Maracaibo to take care of his niece, a rocker teenager who will make his life impossible.

Paraguay, 1947. Nina is a 20 year old young woman living in Asunción at the height of the Paraguayan Civil War that ended with the Democratic Spring. She longs to be a singer, but when her revolutionary family flees abruptly she is forced to live in the house of a conservative family as a maid. She offers her services to the revolution and frees various political prisoners, including Raúl, a communist with whom she has an affair and becomes pregnant. She is later forced to flee the country herself after her lover abandons her.

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