Mariana Castiñeiras is a Uruguayan documentary filmmaker. She is a graduate of the DocNomads Master in Documentary Filmmaking, which took her to make films in Lisbon, Budapest, and Brussels. From 2021 to 2024, she worked at the BBC as a video producer, editor, animator, and documentary director. She directed and edited Out of Shape, which premiered at Hot Docs 2023, and edited and produced My Infertility Journey, broadcast by BBC News in Spanish, Portuguese, and several other languages. Her films have been shown internationally at Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, the London Short Film Festival, and in her home country, where her short Exoskeletons won the Best Short Film Jury Prize at the José Ignacio Film Festival.
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Pioneering biologist Silvana Santos attributes her ground-breaking discovery in the field of genetics entirely to chance – she met a family with an unknown disease on the very street where she lived.
She went on to identify the Spoan syndrome (spastic paraplegia, optic atrophy, and neuropathy), a rare genetic neurodegenerative disorder which causes progressive paralysis in north-eastern Brazil.
In the 20 years since she started her research in the town of Serrinha dos Pintos, Santos has helped residents affected by the condition to get a crucial diagnosis.
She studies the occurrence of rare genetic diseases and their relationship with marriages between people who are closely related in poor areas of rural Brazil.
Spanish, Portuguese, soon in English
BBC Mundo journalist Ana María Roura and her husband, Sebastien Jesús, share their personal journey of attempting to become parents.
After receiving a diagnosis of infertility, the couple turns to in vitro fertilisation (IVF), the most common technique in assisted reproduction. They recorded their treatments for more than three years and filmed a sort of diary that helps the audience understand the process from a scientific perspective but also dig in the psychological impact of the treatments.
Ana María also shares her journey with other women going through the same experience. One of them is Laura, a very close friend who lives in Argentina, who achieved a successful pregnancy after eight years of fertility treatments.
Like Ana María and Sebastien and other characters in this film, millions of people worldwide confront infertility, which the World Health Organization has described as a “global fertility crisis”. Despite its widespread impact, infertility remains a taboo subject in many societies.
Produced by DocNomads, 2022
Hungary, Uruguay, Portugal, Belgium
17:48
A filmmaker who struggles with her fear of insects meets a neurologist with a peculiar obsession for beetles. Curious about what his passion can teach her, she decides to join him on his expeditions into the Hungarian woods.
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/685252121
Awards
Best Short, José Ignacio Film Festival
Special Mention, Glaister Award, Braziers International Film Festival
Official selection
Hot Docs 2022
José Ignacio Film Festival 2022
CPH:DOX 2023
Festival Internacional de Cinemateca Uruguaya 2023
Festival Internacional de Cine de Cuenca 2023
Santarém International Film Festival 2023
Little Islands Film Festival 2023
Helsinki International Film Festival 2023
Tirana International Film Festival
Braziers International Film Festival
Festival Detour
Swedenborg Film Festival
London Short Film Festival
Nominated to the Asociación de Críticos de Cine del Uruguay Awards
AFO 59
Beskop Tshechu Film Festival
Feria Naturalium
More about it
La Diaria: “El año de los cortos uruguayos”
Latido Beat: Entrevista
Reducto: “Miedo, deseo y escarabajos: Una exploración neurocientífica en el cine documental”
Corre cámara: Entrevista
Matías is an Argentine writer, actor, rapper and one of the only 60 people in the world affected by a rare disease called juvenile hyaline fibromatosis. Although he cannot move, in his still body lives a restless mind that plays with words and music in an almost compulsive way. Out of Shape is a portrait of the humour, care and love present in his daily life.
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