Slamdance Film Festival

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28-30 October, 2021

Slamdance Miami will celebrate emerging filmmakers from Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Florida via an open-air, COVID-sensitive festival experience at the North Beach Bandshell in Miami, Florida from 28-30 October. The festival will then continue in a virtual component from 31 October to 7 November.

Slamdance Miami aims to continue Slamdance's 25-year history of providing emerging filmmakers with the platform they need to develop long-term artistic careers. This time, the festival’s programming is a fully collaborative endeavor between Slamdance, its alumni, and Miami's own arts leaders. This coalition has selected 18 films from filmmakers in 9 countries representing the future of filmmaking from these regions of the Americas. Slamdance Miami’s opening night film is Malpaso, directed by Héctor M. Valdez from the Dominican Republic.

Passes and tickets may be purchased through the North Beach Bandshell website at the cost of $90 for a three-day pass and $15 for tickets to individual screenings, with additional tickets available at the door on the day of events. Discounted passes and tickets are available for Miami Beach residents, seniors, students, frontline workers, and active-duty military. Passes for the virtual festival will be available on slamdance.com for $9.

The festival will be presented in-person to a limited audience with COVID-19 protocols in place. The venue is open-air (covered with a canopy) and mask-wearing will be mandatory throughout the entire festival. Bandshell staff and crew follow strict COVID-19 protocols, including mandatory masks while working and rapid-tests for all who have not yet been vaccinated. Slamdance reserves the right to remove any guest from the facility who refuses to follow COVID-19 and other public safety guidelines. This event is subject to change based on the COVID-19 situation at the time of the event. Up-to-date information about the festival’s COVID policy will be posted on the Slamdance Miami website.

Slamdance Miami Film Festival Founding event sponsors are:
GMCVB, The Miami Film Commission, FilMiami, O Cinema, Faena, Miami Media and Film Market & Miami Club Rum.

Slamdance Miami Festival Schedule: October 28-30, 2021

Thursday, October 28

2:30 p.m.
Afrofuturism Panel at the Historic Hampton House

Featuring panelists Monica Sorelle, Sergio Giral, and Deniese Davis. Moderated by Ron Baez.
Free event; festival passes not required. Click here to reserve a spot, as places are limited.

6:00 p.m.
Death Doesn't Exist and Love Doesn't Either

Introduced by Sandy Lighterman, Film & Entertainment Commissioner for Miami-Dade County.

8:00 p.m.
Malpaso

Friday, October 29

6:30 p.m.
The House of Mama Icha

8:45 p.m.
ColOZio

Saturday, October 30

12:30 p.m.
Shorts Block I

Introduced by Jaie Laplante, Director of the Miami Film Festival.

3:00 p.m.
Parkland Rising

Q&A with Cheryl Horner, director, and Manuel Oliver and Patricia Padauy Oliver, parents of shooting victim Joaquin Oliver. Moderated by Taylor Miller, Slamdance Miami Festival Manager.
Free event; festival passes not required. Reservations required. To reserve, add your full-priced ticket to the cart here, and use promo code SLAM_SUPPORTS_PARKLAND at checkout.

6:00 p.m.
Shorts Block II

8:15 p.m.
The Border

Introduced by Sandy Lighterman, Film & Entertainment Commissioner for Miami-Dade County.

10:15 p.m.
Slamdance Miami Awards Ceremony

Statement by Film Florida.
Presentation of the Slamdance Miami Club Rum Filmmaker Award by Matt Malone, Founder of Miami Club Rum.

ColOZio

Director

Artemio Narro

In 1994, Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio garnered attention for his democratic ideology and anti-corruption stance until he was shot through the head in Tijuana. The wondrous ColOZio, which is partly based on true events, starts three days prior with a prophecy to tripping friends Diego and Gael: save Colosio from death.

Death Doesn’t Exist and Love Doesn’t Either

Director

Fernando Salem

Based on Romina Paula’s Novel August, Emilia is invited to return to her hometown in Patagonia to spread the ashes of Andrea, her best friend. Emilia pauses her whole life and travels for the ceremony. The snow and the wind are the setting of a trip to the past in which she revives her friendship with Andrea, accompanies the family and reunites with Julian, her first love, who has just become a father. Emilia scatters the ashes and with them she will let go of her past, her family, the south and also, love.

Malpaso

Director

Héctor M. Valdez

Candido and Braulio are twin brothers growing up near the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. While Candido stays home secluded due to his albinism, Braulio helps his grandfather sell coal in the market. Their life takes a turn for the worst after the unexpected death of their grandfather. Now Braulio will need to look after his brother and will attempt to make ends meet in the border town market. All the while, Candido dreams of the eventual return of their absent father.

Parkland Rising

Director

Cheryl Horner McDonough

On February 14, 2018, a school shooting took the lives of 17 people and suddenly changed the conversation about guns in America. Local and national news crews descended on the suburban town of Parkland, Florida in droves. A handful of media-savvy student survivors saw that all eyes were on them and seized the opportunity to be heard.

The Border

Director

David David

Amid a political crisis, on the border between Colombia and Venezuela, an Andean woman, her husband, and her brother survive by looting travelers. However, fate pushes her to the brink of illusion, and she gets lost inside mysterious dreams.

The House of Mama Icha

Director

Oscar Molina

Mama Icha feels the end of her life is close and thinks only of one thing: returning to her homeland, Colombia. Decades ago, she immigrated to the United States to help her daughter and care for her grandchildren. Mama Icha returns home to Colombia, finding joy and heartbreak after decades in the US.

Bridge of the Mischievous Children

Director

Fabián León López

Jhony’s summer passes slowly as he watches his older brother’s life. He wastes time with his friends and becomes obsessed with alcohol, pornography, and the different women whom they take into the maternal bedroom. One day, La Misha arrives in the neighborhood, fracturing their monotony. Nobody knows about her. They call her that because of her green eyes, like those of cats.

I See Colorful Mists

Director

Pedro Jorge

Gisele Marie Rocha is a Muslim and guitarist for the thrash metal band Eden Seed. She was enchanted by the Koran and from then on she felt free to devote herself to metal as a musical genre. She seeks recognition in music, but feels that being a woman and Muslim brings issues in her daily life. To overcome this, Gisele seeks to protect herself in mists of various colors that bring inspiration to produce her art.

Lavosi

Director

Mohammad Jastaniah, Gabriela Williams & Alejandro Vergara

An inspiring story of a little school in Antigua, Guatemala that's changing kids' lives.

My Mud, My HIllside

Director

Julia Mendoza Friedman

A story about a Puerto Rican community engagement artist who spent ten years painting one mountainside village green. The film touches on themes of life post-Maria, American colonialism, and the magic of community resilience.

The Absences

Director

Hansel Porras Garcia

After trying to revive once again the lost passion of her marriage, a young woman will make a radical decision she had planned some time ago.

The Needle and The Drum

Director

Andrés Solis Barrios

A warm and tender look at the director's grandparents told through memories that intertwine in an abyss of dreams and illusions. In a Mexican setting of an ancient era (the director is of Mexican origin), the grandfather is a musician and the grandmother embroiders at home. Using only archival footage, the film is a reflection about memories and the fact that memory deteriorates over the years.

$(((((/*\))))) Echoes of the Volcano$

(((((/*\))))) Echoes of the Volcano

Director

Charles Fairbanks & Saúl Kak

In 1982, the eruption of a volcano called Chichonal forced the Zoque community to relocate. Filmed over the course of six years, (((((/*\))))) captures the unique atmosphere of the Indigenous group’s Chiapas village. This ethnographic excursion is a feast for the eyes and an auditory journey paced by quaint music and advertisements blaring from shops and roving trucks. Gradually, political themes come to the surface.

Breastfeeding Bats

Director

Gabriel Gomes

Lucas is a kid filming a school project that aims to show his day, his family, and his friends. After his mother's interview he tries to make it more interesting by playing some pranks on his brother and their maid. In his short videos, we get to know his family's daily life and their behavior. A short movie about the influences that kids receive and the examples they choose to follow.

Extracts

Director

Sinai Sganzerla

Extracts is a short film with images from 1970 to 1972 in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, London, Marrakech, Rabat, and the Sahara desert region. All images were filmed by Helena Ignez and Rogério Sganzerla.

Paris Is Here

Director

Quentin Chantrel

The peaceful life of Georges, an introverted Guyanese teenager, becomes complicated when he falls in love with Gisèle, a dreamy girl who hopes more than anything to see Paris.

Steps Out of the Blue

Director

Hector David Rosales

A poetic testimony of an immigrant struggling to redefine her identity in a new society.

Stunned, I Remain Alert

Director

Henrique Amud

Journalist Dermi Azevedo has never stopped fighting for human rights and now, three decades after the end of the military dictatorship in Brazil, he's witnessing the return of those same practices.

Thursday, October 28: Afrofuturism Panel
2:30 p.m. @ The Historic Hampton House
Free, no festival pass necessary - Reservations required.

Join moderator Ron Baez and panelists Monica Sorelle, Sergio Giral, and Deniese Davis in a discussion about Afrofuturism at the Historic Hampton House.

About the panel: As the influence of Afrofuturism increasingly defines our modern cinematic landscape, artists and audiences alike maintain a struggle to pin the elusive aesthetic down. Is science fiction its most instrumental detail, or can imagining the future of Blackness remain ambiguous by design, dodging definition and defying trope in search of deeper conversation? A panel of acclaimed filmmakers and notable artists pry open these complexities, discussing what's at the heart of Afrofuturism as both an artistic genre and cultural influence.

Saturday, October 30: Parkland Rising Free Screening
3:00 p.m. @ The North Beach Bandshell
Free, no festival pass necessary - Limited free tickets available, reservations required.

Slamdance Miami invites you to the Florida premiere of Parkland Rising. There are a limited number of free tickets available to this one-time-only event; use code SLAM_SUPPORTS_PARKLAND after adding tickets to your cart at the North Beach Bandshell website. First come, first serve; reserve ASAP to guarantee your spot.

Following the film, join Slamdance Miami Festival Manager Taylor Miller as she moderates a Q&A with Cheryl Horner, director, and Manuel Oliver and Patricia Padauy Oliver, parents of shooting victim Joaquin Oliver.

28-30 October, 2021

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