Discoveries from Panama World Cinema

Documentary about the origins of jazz in Panama, which generated the tambojazz genre.

Two friends who worked in the vinyl record shop Panamá Radio remember the post-II World War days when they entered the working scene of the city, the music of the times and all the artists that visited the shop.

Nina, a 30 year-old comedian, is haunted by an embarrassing viral video that left her in a creative slump. After abandoning her office job, with the doom of debt and the pressure to decide what to do with her life, Nina tries to dominate the art of surviving the biggest scam: adulthood.

Memories haunt a man and blur the lines between reality and imagination.

A short film of Evelyn Nesbit singing Jack Yellen and Lew Pollack's song "No Man's Mama" at Bilgray's Garden in Panama, June 1930. She performs the song three different times.

Documentary about calypso signer Lord Cobra.

Francisco, a former priest, shares his story. When a demon possesses his daughter, he's forced into a spiritual battle that drags him back to confront his past. The only way to save her is to face his own history.

Panama’s strategic geographic position has long been its greatest economic asset, with the Canal serving as the cornerstone of its development. Yet for decades, control of this vital waterway remained in the hands of a foreign power. Through interviews with residents of Panama City, Una bomba a punto de estallar (1977) captures the hopes, doubts and political sentiments surrounding the negotiation of the new treaties between Panama and the United States, offering a vivid portrait of a nation debating its sovereignty and future.

Grace, the older sister of a family, agrees to play "Juanito": a satanic game going viral in a community.

How does progress in a city influence the life of its inhabitants? Panama is one of the fastest-growing economies in Latin America, as reflected primarily in the various construction mega-projects that have been adorning the capital of this small country. Many in this city brag about the pace of development that is taking place, but to what point can we speak of development? The documentary seeks to assess this development in terms of the improvement or worsening it produces in the Panamanians’ quality of life.

In 2000, following a century of American occupation, Panama regained control of the Canal Zone territory. A Panamanian soldier enters the old military bases for the first time. While assigned to clean an artificial lake, he stumbles upon a mysterious woman in the jungle. She is revealed to be the former leader of the Culebra community’s resistance who had once fought against forced displacement. Their encounter sparks a journey of personal transformation, forcing the soldier to confront his own roots.

Ermisendo, a janitor who opens the door for his boss Domingo, is unjustly accused of the largest fentanyl theft in the history of Panama.

Documentary about the strike of March 1976 in the Panama Canal, promoted by the United States.

While painting pictures in his room, a young painter creates a malevolent entity.

Ermisendo, a young man who lives in a forgotten indigenous region, discovers that his biological father is the presidential candidate Juan Carlos Kelqueyec. Through Ermisendo, Kelqueyec will try to sympathize with the people and win in the polls.

Documentary about Nelson Mandela.

A man arrives home drunk without knowing how, and someone mysterious appears in his dreams to remind him of what he did.

Confined to his Tahitian hut by the French colonial authorities in 1903, the painter Paul Gauguin is forced to paint a new masterpiece to save his five-year-old native son, while battling illness and torn between madness and sanity. In the course of these events, memories of the past, especially of his life and work at the Panama Canal, the place where his artistic career began and his guilt at abandoning his family in Paris, begin to haunt him.

After a friend goes missing, an ambitious publicist begins investigating the exclusive society he longs to join. But a rat-masked figure starts stalking him, and as protests and political campaigns erupt, he begins to lose his grip on reality.

Claudia, a friendly and cheerful young woman, is chatting on the phone with her sister as her wedding day approaches. However, one detail is worrying her family: no one has met her fiancé yet. Claudia reassures her sister by saying that he is, without a doubt, the man of her dreams.

The story of a young boy, Andres Pimienta, that is sent to the United States to be kept away from the bad influences, but returns 10 years later and meets his father, Bobby, an encounter that will change his destiny.

A close look at what really means to be part of Haus of Fraimpark, an alternative drag family in Panama City. Daughters and Nieces of Miss Veneno Fraimpark share their experience in belonging to one of Panama's most acclaimed drag houses.

One year after the creation of the National Assembly of Community Representatives (1972), a new power structure established by the government, significant changes had taken place throughout the country. This documentary records the most important of these transformations, as well as the working methods of the Assembly. It follows the consultation tours organized by the Legislative Council, during which basic forms of grassroots organization are discussed at the community level. The film also draws a parallel between life in the countryside and in the city.

Synthesis of the first stage of the comprehensive development project for the Bayano region, aimed at converting a marginalized rural region into a pole of national development. 34 thousand hectares of jungle are cut down and burned to be converted into a lake that will serve as a reservoir for a state hydroelectric plant.

"Why do I want to straighten my hair? Why have they made me believe that we should straighten our hair? These simple questions sparked a research that is now a counter-memory to the Panamanian history that has gone unquestioned for so long. This counter-memory was built by the hands of multiple Black women, friends who have found themselves in a similar situation."

Conchita, a spirited young woman, orders her favorite dish to go: a lobster. At home, she finds herself caught in an unexpected situation with her meal, triggering a series of pleasurable and deranged events.

In Portobelo, two friends go to a Congo dance and witness an invasion of demons, while Panama is invaded by Americans troops in 1989: this turns into an account of what happened in the cities of Colón and Panamá.

In Peru in the 1980s, conflict between the Shining Path guerrillas and the army forced Josué, a young Quechua with dreams of becoming a boxing champion, to flee his hometown. Separated from his family and forced to enlist in the army, he vows to fight for a better future for them.

In March 1973, the United Nations Security Council met in Panama City to debate the Panamanian claim for a new treaty that would end the colonial presence of the United States in its territory. The majority of the participating states of the Council recognize the justice of Panama's cause and give it their support, but the United States vetoes the resolution.

Experimental documentary that dives inside the creative process of three great Panamanian fashion designers: Andrea Sousa Pitti, Verónica Ángel and Tony Vergara.

Two years after being released from prison, a former advertising director is struggling to rebuild his life in a city that does not offer second chances. Desperate for his situation, he agrees to participate as a driver of the vehicle in what appears to be a simple bank robbery.

Teófilo Alfonso, also known as “Panamá Al” Brown, the first Latin American World Boxing Champion. After a fixed fight costs him his title, he retires to Paris. There, he becomes a sensation in a second-rate cabaret and catches the eye of poet Jean Cocteau, who becomes both his lover and agent. Despite being 35 and battling addiction, Brown agrees to return to boxing to reclaim his lost championship.

Explores the intimate relationship we have with tropical fruits.

In her village in Panama, Senobia saw art in everything. Put a broken umbrella on a bottle and you have the head of a wild man. A stick plus a plastic cup becomes a bird. She turned her house into “The Museum of Antiquities of All Species.” There are old telephones and computers, and hanging everywhere are cards on which she wrote her thoughts. Her last wish: to keep everything in her museum as it is.

Mike and Alanna drove a motorbike and sidecar from Alaska to Argentina and interviewed 120 couples about how to stay together for life. They also subjected themselves to scientific tests, to see if their marriage would last. They found out the results at the end of the road...

For many Panamanians, Carnival is a party. For others, it is an opportunity to express their passion and talent. The latter is Victor Acevedo, a self-taught artisan and designer who creates dresses for carnival queens and floats.

Documentary about the relation between Panama and the United States, during the building of the Panama Canal.

Eugenio and Manuel give each other the opportunity to begin what promises to be true love. However, a revelation will lead them to have to make certain decisions.

According to data collected in colonial chronicles from the 15th and 17th centuries, several American Indian peoples consider gender to be non-binary, male or female; on the contrary, diversity was the rule in Panama: the Guna people identified the Omeggids as belonging to a third gender, which leads to something beyond sexual orientation or eroticism. Nandin, Yineth, Rosario and Débora are some of the members of the Wigudun Galu group, whose name refers to an Omeggid entity from Guna mythology. They define themselves as a separate group, and their demands are specific to that group. They seek visibility, and their fight is arduous, as they are indigenous, they are trans and they are Omeggids. Broken down inside and outside your community.

A playful yet critical exploration of a singularly Panamanian phenomenon, Reinas ushers us into the spectacular, strange and stressful world of queen ceremonies. An integral part of Panamanian folklore, our queens symbolize the festive aspect of our national spirit. But they also promote a very particular, potentially troubling idea of womanhood.

For the first time, a painting contest is organized whose theme is the fight for Panamanian sovereignty over the Panama Canal. A primordial experience in the country, its executors, popular artists born in the bowels of the countryside and the city, provide an enriching testimony of their lived experiences in the face of colonialism.

The piece, an experiment that begins on the skin, in the skins of a family that spoke in silence about a tropical dictatorship in the 1980s, the dictatorship of a house. The skins whispered silently and their voices were heard in the corners, on the walls, in the cooking pot, on the soupspoon, on the wet beans. As the soldiers marched in the streets, the echo of their footsteps resonated in the walls of the home of a military man’s family, a house where the words were forgotten. With few oral resources, some photographs and some stolen confessions, the director proposes an exploration that goes from the personal to the political through a fictionalized experience of the family story related to the dictatorship of Panama.

James returns to his native Latin America after 30 years, with just one thing in mind-taking an organ from a human victim and smuggling it back to the United States. On this trip, relives memories of his own violent past, which makes him think twice about redeeming his future.

Film by Luis Franco Brantley and Edgar Soberón Torchia.

The Nicaraguan revolutionaries, determined to overthrow the bloody dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, enjoyed the semi-clandestine support of the Panamanian government and popular organizations from 1974 onward. Following the Sandinista Front's victory, which toppled a dynasty that had ruled for over 45 years, General Omar Torrijos visited that sister nation to strengthen ties between the two peoples.

Neri, a female researcher, works to find ways to improve the soil during a crisis that plagues papaya crops, which in turn affects the land. Using organic fertilisers such as her menstrual blood, Neri embarks on a journey of self-doubt and re-connection with herself, and with her mother, and explores the wisdom of the moon and plants to germinate, grow and harvest the fruits of the papaya plant.

Abandoned by her husband turned talking-crocodile, a woman must now find her own way to migrate to the US in order to reunite with their daughter.

A documentary detailing the relationship of the Panamanian people and Roberto Duran

Documentary dedicated to Manuel Tito Benitez, a volunteer member of the Student Federation of Panama who died in an accident while performing volunteer work in the remote region of Coclesito. The film depicts this experience and testifies to the efforts of the students in the struggle for national liberation.

A lucky ceramic cat in the lobby of a Chinese store welcomes all visitors by waving his little paw. As time passes, the leg continues to swing until it breaks down.

Convinced of the supernatural events taking place in a small village in Bosnia-Herzegovina since 1981, and which attracts millions of pilgrims every year, a priest collects conclusive testimonies from several countries, at the same time explaining the foundations of that message, according to the "seers " who narrate their experiences with the mother of God. This is the last time she comes into the world, before the events that were conditioned to her and which constitute a call to the conversion of humanity begin to take place.

A chance encounter at a party reunites two old childhood friends, forcing one of them to confront the secrets of her past and the reason why she disappeared without a trace.

Colorful portrait of a subculture on the verge of disappearing: the hot, uncomfortable school buses that for decades served as Panama’s primary form of public transportation, seen through the eyes of one of their drivers. The British filmmakers themselves gave the film its Spanish title, La fama.