Puerto Rican choreographers, dancers, educators, and directors Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez won the Jury’s Prize at the International Festival of Cinematographic Arts at San Cristobal de las Casas [Festival Internacional de las Artes Cinematograficas de San Cristobal de las Casas] in Chiapas, Mexico for their feature-length documentary ¡Fenomenal!: Rompeforma 1989 – 1996.

Other Jury’s Prize winners included selections from Australia (Ablaze), Colombia (WERAPARA), Germany (Logion 100, Episode 1 27.11.2022), India (Neither a Girl nor a Woman), Switzerland (Finding the Line – An Exploration of Structural Integration), the United Kingdom (Kath Duncan–The Untold Struggle for Civil rights) and the United States (#HIPLET).

The national winner for feature film was La maroma a la antigua [Ka ven goka maroma kanate wa] by Charlotte Pescayre (Mexico) and the international winner was The Group [Balagam] by Venu Yeldandi (India).

¡Fenomenal!: Rompeforma 1989 – 1996: Fenomenal, Rompeforma 1989-1996 is a documentary film about the experimental Latinx festival Rompeforma—a dance, performance, and visual marathon held in Puerto Rico from 1989 to 1996. Co-directed and produced by [dancers, choreographers, and educators] Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez, the documentary is edited by Laura Sofía Pérez and includes music by Eduardo Alegria.

Fenomenal shows excerpts from dozens of performances and critical comments from eyewitnesses, dedicated spectators, the public, and participants—all members of our cultural sphere in the San Juan of our (and those) times. In its six iterations, Rompeforma featured the participation of notable artists in our local and diasporic cultural community, presenting work by over sixty Latinx artists from across the hemisphere. In addition to this dance, performance, and visual marathon, the events included two exhibitions, five theater installations, a retrospective of Petra Bravo’s choreographic work, spoken word events, and dozens of workshops and master classes. [. . .]

La maroma a la antigua: A tightrope-walking ethnologist meets the Zapotec acrobats (maromeros) of Santa Teresa Sochiapán, Veracruz. La Maroma a la Antigua is a reconstruction of memory through the stories of Charlotte Pescayre and different generations of maromeros. The film reveals the foundation of the dances, the processes of construction of structures from the pediment of the trees, protection rites, and the rope show. Una etnologa funambula conoce a los maromeros zapotecos de Santa Teresa Sochiapan, Veracruz.​

The Group: Komurayya, an old man living in a village in Telangana, India, is a jovial figure who gets up early in the morning, greets everyone, and works on his farm. He has three children: two sons, Aillaya and Mogilayya and a daughter, Lakshmi. But his family is no longer the same. His grandson Saayilu, a brilliant but self-centered young man, decides to get married to pay off his debts with the dowry he receives. Komurayya’s death just before the engagement changes the course of his and his family members’ lives, rattling some skeletons in the closet. The pinda (rice ball) ritual after the family funeral, which is attended by the whole village, shows that the old man’s soul is not satisfied with something when the crows refrain from eating the offerings. Will the family settle their differences, discover the old man’s wishes, and free the deceased’s soul?

See more on the films at https://www.fiacsancristobaldelascasas.com/

For more information on ¡Fenomenal!, see https://repeatingislands.com/2023/01/26/film-dance-fenomenal-rompeforma-1989-1996/, https://events.temple.edu/film-screening-%C2%A1fenomenal-rompeforma-1989%E2%80%941996, https://www.uprrp.edu/2023/02/el-documental-de-rompeforma-estrenara-el-17-de-febrero-en-el-teatro-julia-de-burgos/, https://eladoquintimes.com/2023/02/07/estrenan-el-documental-fenomenal-rompeforma-1989-1996-en-la-upr-rio-piedras/, https://autogiro.cronicaurbana.com/es/documental-fenomenal-rompeforma-1989-1996/, and http://www.andanzapr.com/fenomenal-documental  

[Top photo by José López Serra, accessed via El Adoquín Times.]