Who says what is real and what is not?
How are we able to see and feel the invisible worlds?
How can we communicate with the forces and spirits that live within our lands?
I spent years getting to know the sabedoras (knowledge people) from Mazatec indigenous communities in Oaxaca, México, listening, learning and sharing about their cosmogony and world vision.
It connects deeply with my own background and questions around the afterlife, the connections between the human and non-human and the portals between the visible and the invisible.
Inspired in their cosmogony, we built this sensorial and poetic ancestral futurism VR experience, to shake our perception of the real, to rewire the ways we connect with nature and the afterlife.
Juanita Onzaga
SYNOPSIS
Two little sisters prepare for the Day of the Dead in the mystic mountains of Mexico, remembering the stories their shaman granny used to tell.
A portal opens as the Mazatec community celebrates and we enter the interactive universe of their ancestors and the spirits of nature, each keeping a secret world to be unveiled.
BIO DIRECTOR - JUANITA ONZAGA
Juanita Onzaga (1991) is a film director and artist born in Colombia, based between Brussels, Bogotá & México. Her work combines fiction and non-fiction elements, touching the importance of mysticism, memory, death and imagination, creating poetic tales that reflect different ways of perceiving reality within strong political contexts.
Her short films have been presented at Cannes Directors Fortnight, Berlinale Generation, IFFR Tiger competition, the MoMA of New York, the Museum of Modern Art of Paris and many more festivals, museums and venues, while being awarded internationally.
She is currently in financing stage of her first fiction feature film THE LANDSCAPES THAT YOU SEEK, in development of a documentary and creating a series of installations about ancestral futurism.
FACTS
Running time:
31 minutes
Genre:
6 DoF, interactive, cinematic VR
Production countries:
Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands
Language versions:
English, Spanish
Shooting locations:
Mexico, Luxembourg
Selected markets:
IFFR Pro X VR Days 2019
IFFR Pro CineMart 2020
NewImages XR Market 2020
IFFR WIP Darkroom 2022