Discoveries from Dominican Republic World Cinema

In a place where the seas have dried up and water has become a memory, despair advances like a relentless desert, erasing almost all traces of life. Amidst the silence and dust, drops of rain can be heard, reappearing after a long time. But it was only the fading of what once was. The scene was not only a nightmare... but also a warning.

How did migration transform the Caribbean identity through art and culture? This documentary explores the rich heritage behind the Dominican Republic's history and other Caribbean territories and, in doing so, takes us out of the Caribbean and into other latitudes where Caribbeans have taken and installed their traditions.

Emilia finds an escape from her reality through visions she experiences when in contact with a mythical river that her father Eliseo, the "curandero" of their village, forbids her to get in.

A tomboy transforms the gender trappings of her room to show her cruel mother how sugar and spice don't equal nice.

Due to the sale of her family's summer house, María relives the experiences she lived in that space.

In a world where water equals power and wine represents status, Jhonny, a pig farmer, is driven by poverty and humiliation into a corrupt system of gambling and abuse. Scarcity, betrayal, and violence push him toward a brutal transformation that exposes the true rot of the social order.

An audiovisual journey narrated in voice-over that invites reflection on the importance of water. It focuses on food security, tourism, and solid waste management. Through evocative images, this short documentary raises awareness about a vital resource that we often take for granted, or in other words, as something that is guaranteed.

Three teen ballet students — Raymundo, Angel and Victor — are the only boys in a class of twenty. In a country where dance is mostly considered an activity for women, they are determined to follow their dreams and challenge traditional gender roles. Like a waltz, music played in triple time, the three boys move through Santo Domingo while confronting, yet sometimes abiding by, the Dominican machismo culture.

Benny, the best North Manhattan barber, inherits a building. He must choose either to sell it (thus ending the history and dreams of an immigrant neighborhood) or keep the Barbershop, center of the community where everything can happen.

While playing near Columbus lighthouse in Santo Domingo, a boy will find about the reality of dreams and premonitions.

Love leaves traces that resonate far beyond what we see.

David, who is part of a family struck by death and silently suffering from the loss of his grandmother, receives a visit from some friends from abroad who keep him busy. The memories that surround him and the family pressure unleash an emotional crisis in David that makes him travel an unknown path to the depths of the forest and his memory, where he realizes that the fight is with himself and that he must face his greatest pain: the duel of the death of his grandmother.

The story of Manuel, a young man, entrepreneur, married, has a big accident after a long chase in which he's the target, his chaser can't find him after searching his crashed car, and that's when the plot unfolds into his location. Manuel's wife, Paulina, begins a search with the police that will uncover Manuel's deepest darkest secrets.

Before Andrés departs for Mars, he re-unites with former lover Ernesto to reconcile their past and the pain of their fractured relationship, forcing them to confront hidden realities and social pressures in a bittersweet farewell.

In the fields of Yamasá, the documentary revives the story of Florinda Soriano Muñoz, a symbol of the peasant struggle for land. Through an intimate and observational lens, it reconstructs her legacy and the impact of her resistance on a community that still cherishes her memory.

A multi-generational family of outspoken Puerto Rican women takes center stage as they conceive and perform fantastical film vignettes as a way to navigate painful pasts in this visually-arresting, kaleidoscopic documentary.

Experimental animated film

Tragic reminder of the political hunting in Trujillo's 1960 dictatorship.

My grandfather's parrot

In a society where child marriage seems like a solution to family problems, Pichi, a 12-year-old girl, fears her first period because her mother has promised her to Ramón, a 36-year-old man who guarantees her a financial future.

The efforts by a church minister to rescue a town from crime, drugs and sorcery.

In 1937, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the massacre of over 20,000 Haitian immigrants living in the Dominican Republic. Daphné Ménard, a Haitian theater director, brought together actors from both parts of the island to work on this event.

Some friends sitting in front of a television set are watching a film directed by Stanley Kubrick but failed to understand it.

The story of 19th-century Dominican dictator, Ulises Heureaux, from the start of his presidency in 1882 until his assassination in 1899.

Four friends decide to bid farewell to their late drinking buddy, taking him in his coffin on a last walk through the homes of their acquaintances. But things get complicated as they have all gotten drunk.

Five fishermen from Manresa, a poor neighborhood to the West of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, learn from marine biologist Omar Shamir Reynoso's one-of-a-kind plan to protect nesting sea turtles.

How come the catholic tradition of our Lady of Altagracia has endured for so many years in the Dominican Republic?

Rafael "El Caballo" García is a professional baseball player who has just lost the most important game of his career. When his mother dies, he has to return to the town where he grew up and face the ghosts of his past. As if this were not enough, he finds out that he has been suspended for the use of steroids and this puts his baseball future in doubt.

A housewife discovers her husband has a talisman that alters reality. She must struggle to recover her own life before becoming trapped forever in what he has created.

Flora tries to communicate with her deceased partner after he starts haunting their house.

Marina, an old woman, fights with herself and her mind to remember what she wishes to forget.

The Brotherhood of the Congos of the Holy Spirit of Villa Mella represents a cultural treasure that forms part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as decreed by UNESCO in 2001, and has been included in the list of heritage sites since 2008.

A group of robbers assault by chance a famous urban music performer and take him out to party around the city.

Lucas and Lily, a married couple trapped in the ruins of their relationship, sit down for what appears to be an ordinary breakfast. Beneath the quiet routine, however, lies the emotional decay of years shaped by lies, infidelity, and silence. As accusations cut deeper, their conversation becomes a battlefield where love slowly dies. Around them, the world begins to rot: food spoils, light disappears, and their bodies age in real time — exposing how time has been devouring them all along.

A female reporter investigates a rapist roaming the city, and discovers an underlying web of political corruption.

Nerea, a young woman who loses her hearing after an accident and struggles to reconnect with a world that no longer feels familiar. Her love for music, her disconnection from her family, and the discovery of a new friendship through sign language are all central to her emotional journey.

Romero, a retired fisherman and a forgotten hero by the community, lives isolated in his home, surrounded by ghosts of the life he couldn't have, spirits that materialize before him as his real family. Alcoholic and schizophrenic, surviving on a daily basis. But deep down he feels the time has come to regain what he lost several decades ago, when he brought the oil curse to his own island, the lush Ciudad del Carmen. At the same time at the mysterious Estero Pargo, the goddess Ixchel has been reborn and seeks to mate with humans in order to continue the cycle of life.

Fragmented memories and visions find a home in light and shadows, bridging the gap between the past, the present, and the loss of a mother.

Three stories of faith and hope, intertwined through time with the life of faith-healing priest Emiliano Tardif.

Three brothers go on a vacation and realize they need help around the house to function. One of them falls in love along the way.

Genealogy, uncomfortable questions and reams of archival material are Tavares-Abel’s tools in discovering the political truths of her family and the Dominican Republic. Election fraud and dictatorship are frighteningly topical. Activism suggests itself.

Ana tells her story in a call with Cleo, worried about a mysterious comeback in her life.

“In the absence of the recovery of films by Hugo Mateo, Max Pou or Eduardo Palmer, we can access Mattéi's film. Before becoming a filmmaker, he was a French writer and journalist who opposed the Algerian War and, from then on, began to accompany the African and Latin American struggles. He was a friend of Sartre, Castro and of the Dominican guerrilla members of the 14th of June Movement. In May 1966, at the request of his Dominican friends, Mattéi travelled to Santo Domingo to film for the first time, while elections were being held under the control of US troops. "It was politics that made us discover cinema as a means of information and agitation," he wrote. The film accompanies and depicts the fraudulent elections that gave victory to Joaquín Balaguer, Trujillo's heir, with the support of the United States, over Juan Bosch”. - Diego Cepeda

The relationship between a single parent and his son starts to fall apart as they go on a journey far from home.

Discover the essence of the Dominican Republic in this captivating documentary. Immerse yourself in the vibrant stories of five passionate individuals who celebrate their culture through fishing, meat, craftsmanship, aviculture, and cuisine.

A woman, on the verge of her own disappearance, experiences a final moment of consciousness. Between the water, the pills, and the memories, her body dissolves while her essence is revealed: she is not earth, she is river. What seems like an ending is, in fact, a revelation.

A muse poses in the void before an indistinguishable photographer.