APHORISMS OF THE LAKE (2021)

A film by Humberto Gonzalez; 25 min. Venezuela - Creative Documentary, Experimental

“I had to return home after almost two years of being away as another migrant in the Venezuelan diaspora. My ill mother awaits so we can embrace one last time”.

“Aphorisms of the Lake insists on finding, or reclaiming, the filmmaker’s desired version of his homeland, while accepting the impossibility of such a task. In this way, this diaristic film – shot almost entirely on Bustillo’s phone – is a meditation on grief, and a visual poem haunted by nostalgia. It is also deeply concerned with the patterns of migration: what it means to leave one’s family, and to anticipate the loss inherent in a temporary return to them. This is emphasised in a sequence where, via image-editing software, the filmmaker’s name is excised from official documents, as a narrator suggests that dreams can act as an ethereal meeting place for separated persons.” Sheffield Doc/Fest

SELECTIONS / AWARDS

28° Sheffield Doc/Fest (World Premiere)

+ Best Short Documentary / Best Camera / Best Editing 17° Venezuelan Film Festival

3° Istanbul Experimental Film Festival

8° Caracas Doc Festival Internacional de Cine Documental

41° Minneapolis International Film Festival

11° Philadelphia Latino Film Festival

Third Horizon International Film Festival 2022

LASA International Film Festival 2022

+ Honorable Mention 2° Diego Rísquez Auteur Cinema Awards

77° Locarno Film Festival - Open Doors Screenings