Potentiae
Javier Toscano
Javier Toscana untiringly observes everyday coping techniques of handicapped people in Mexico City – until his eyes are suddenly at risk.
D
Film Archive
Potentiae
A literal change of format. A car door is pushed open and the image follows. The narrow frame widens, the camera starts to fly, floating slowly high above the roofs of Mexico City. Then it starts to descend, sinks down into a narrow alley, finds its protagonist and rises again. It’s the shot that changes everything, that translates everything seen so far into a new order of seeing, a new form of perception.
So the question is: what exactly is director Javier Toscano documenting in his film “Potentiae”? Is it the routines of moving without legs – on steps, in the water, on the cinder track? The technique of brushing one’s teeth without arms? The skilled handling of the white stick? For a long time we watch a closely observing film about the various daily practices and techniques of handicapped people: documents of different concepts of self-determined life on the outskirts of a megacity. But is that all? How does this car door that opened the image affect our own vision? Is it shifted or freed from limitations? Is our perception expanded or even exploded? Can we still trust our eyes?
Lukas Stern
So the question is: what exactly is director Javier Toscano documenting in his film “Potentiae”? Is it the routines of moving without legs – on steps, in the water, on the cinder track? The technique of brushing one’s teeth without arms? The skilled handling of the white stick? For a long time we watch a closely observing film about the various daily practices and techniques of handicapped people: documents of different concepts of self-determined life on the outskirts of a megacity. But is that all? How does this car door that opened the image affect our own vision? Is it shifted or freed from limitations? Is our perception expanded or even exploded? Can we still trust our eyes?
Lukas Stern
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
The Mermaid Kingdom
Luis Rincón
Mysterious incidents occur in a Nicaraguan fishing village: divers re-emerge paralysed from the waters. A strong belief in mermaids correlates with the tragedies.
The Mermaid Kingdom
The boundary between the land and the sea is magic. When we see a few cows walking along the coast right at the start, it’s a picture of unity. Just like the bodies of mermaids who are said to look like fish from the belly down. There are many legends around these creatures. For example that people one of them falls in love with begin to stink of fish. Only special herbs can remove the smell, which makes locating the person impossible. Mermaids can cause pregnancies, too. And have huge banquets at the bottom of the sea. But the inhabitants of a Nicaraguan fishing village seem to have lost the local aquatic creatures’ favour: recently, incidents were observed where men returned paralysed from dives. Luis Rincón shows life on this boundary, the work above and below the water line. And he focuses on one paralysed man who almost never appears without his sunglasses. Once Rincón films him sitting at the window, so that the light playing on his skin looks like fish scales.
Carolin Weidner
Nominated for Healthy Workplaces Film Award
Carolin Weidner
Nominated for Healthy Workplaces Film Award
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
The Other Side of the Wall
Pau Ortiz
The touching portrait of two adolescents in Mexico. At the height of puberty they are forced to replace their parents for their younger siblings while their mother is in prison.
The Other Side of the Wall
Documentary Film
Mexico,
Spain
2017
68 minutes
subtitles:
English
Sometimes 13-year-old Rocío suddenly becomes an adult woman worried about the future. This is mostly due to the fact that, together with her 18-year-old brother Alejandro, she has to take care of two younger siblings while their mother is in prison. It’s been more than two years that the teenagers have been holding the family together. But the extreme situation is wearing them out and they quarrel more and more frequently. The battles they fight are both copies of classic arguments between couples (“I’m the only one who tidies the house here!”) and expressions of their inner conflicts. Both want to be capable of handling difficult situations and “carry their own weight”. But especially pubescent Rocío feels, that “my relationship with myself”, as she puts it, has been less than perfect for a while.
This detailed filmic observation shows a family microcosm marked by overextension, but also by great warmth. Both Rocío and Ale use the conversations on camera as moments of reflection – both analysing their own situation with breathtaking precision and realism. This film is also an emphatic declaration of love by director Paul Ortiz to his young protagonists that will stay with the viewer for a long time.
Luc-Carolin Ziemann
Nominated for Young Eyes Film Award
This detailed filmic observation shows a family microcosm marked by overextension, but also by great warmth. Both Rocío and Ale use the conversations on camera as moments of reflection – both analysing their own situation with breathtaking precision and realism. This film is also an emphatic declaration of love by director Paul Ortiz to his young protagonists that will stay with the viewer for a long time.
Luc-Carolin Ziemann
Nominated for Young Eyes Film Award
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.