A little girl will have to sing to the mythical goddess of water so that this valuable liquid can reach her community.
His recent animation Kablunât: Legend of the Origin of the White People (2016) draws from a Nunatsiavummiut legend recorded by a Moravian missionary. Making use of archival photographs collected over nearly nine years, Gear reinterprets the legend for a contemporary Inuit audience, while framing the story as a reclamation from colonial retellings. “I wanted to literally insert myself in that narrative, break it apart and see what was there in a kind of dreamlike way,” he notes.
Inspired by a true discovery that occurred in 1991 (Alboyanco, Angol), the short film tells the story of a boy who, while playing hide-and-seek with his cousins, accidentally discovers a large ceramic vessel. This encounter will reveal important knowledge about his culture and, in particular, about the unique death rite at the El Vergel cultural complex.
In a remote Peruvian city, lives Honorata Vilca, an illiterate woman of Quechua descent who sells candies more than 20 years ago, with the rain will cry to the sky itself.
An epic action-fantasy drama rooted in the soul of Cagayan, Philippines. Hawil, a warrior consumed by guilt after killing his own brother, embarks on a harrowing journey in search of redemption. Along the way, he confronts ancient forces, painful truths, and monsters... both real and internal that threaten to break him. Hawil learns that healing comes not from forgetting the past, but in accountability, self-forgiveness, and transformation.
Taqralik Partridge asks what if every language that had been lost to English — every word, every syllable — grew up out of the ground in flowers? Taqralik’s grandmother’s Scottish Gaelic and her father’s Inuktitut unfold in memories of her family, of pain, and of love.
At Archer’s Aunty Gladys’ funeral, he hears a tap on the window — it’s a bear named Jesus, who has come for Archer’s mom. “A Bear Named Jesus” is an allegory for religious interference, with an aching yet humorous look at estrangement and mourning for the loss of someone still living.
Las Raíces del Roble
Oral legend of the Amazonian nationality Secoya del Ecuador. Tells the story of Ñañe (the moon) and how it created the world.
Chinanteco. Jujmi La niña del Río
Chocholteco. La niña de la lanilla
The Chuj tell the story of three brothers and the reason behind the origin of the largest salt mines in San Mateo.
Cora. La creación del mundo
Cucapá. El origen de los montes
Akateko. La aparición de san Miguel Arcángel
An unapologetic confrontation of cultural appropriation and everything that’s wrong with hipsters in headdresses. The takeaway? Just don't do it.
The Mapuche tribe asks their Gods for help in difficult situations, including illness and drought. When the Spanish conquerers on their horses invade their country, the indigenous people think that they are aliens. The Spaniards capture and enslave many of the Mapuche tribe. Lautaro, a young captured native, realizes that these aliens are human beings without any divine power. He learns to use their weapons and organizes a resistance movement against the intruders.
As a young fisherman cruises along a rugged shoreline, a tiny mouse in Haida regalia appears and starts to knit a blanket. A story unfolds on the blanket as it grows longer, illustrating the ancient tale of Haida master sea hunter Naa-Naa-Simgat and his beloved, Kuuga Kuns. When a SGaana (the Haida word for “killer whale”) captures the hunter and drags him down into a supernatural world, the courageous Kuuga Kuns sets off to save him. Will the lovers manage to escape the undersea Mountain of SGaana, or will they, too, become part of the Haida spirit world forever?
Short animation by Ricardo Jabardo, about an astral journey by an inhabitant of the Catatumbo region, in the south of the Maracaibo Lake, Venezuela.
Lucca, a young trans man from the outskirts of São Paulo, travels to Foz do Iguaçu — at the crossroads of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina—in search of the father he never knew. There, he meets Diego, a Paraguayan who introduces him to the secrets of the borderland.