FLOR DE LA MAR

FLOR DE LA MAR
A film by Jorge Thielen Armand
Venezuela, Canada
24 min. 2015

39th Margaret Mead Film Festival
Museum of Natural History, New York City



WITH
Jorge Armand Navarro
Mireya Tabuas
Mario Gonzáles
Andrés Salazar
Raul Grioni


PRODUCERS
Lorenzo Signoretti
Jorge Thielen Armand


CO-PRODUCERS
Irina Grozavescu
Samantha Van der Beek


CINEMATOGRAPHY
Hauk Björgvinsson


MUSIC
Rob Teehan


SOUND DESIGN
Brennan Curtis
Pet Shop Productions - Toronto


WRITER, DIRECTOR, EDITOR
Jorge Thielen Armand


PRODUCTION COMPANIES
La Faena
Sivax Pictures

 

The film is a meditation on the ways Venezuela resembles Nueva Cádiz: its total reliance on a single, finite, natural resource and whether the country will have the same fate as this colonial city.
— Rodrigo Palau, Caracas Chronicles


SYNOPSIS
In a remote Venezuelan island, a community of fishermen fights to protect the ruins of the first European city built in the Americas.


DIRECTOR’S NOTE
When I set out to make FLOR DE LA MAR, I intended to document my grandfather’s excavation of the ruins of Nueva Cádiz. But I discovered there was a much deeper connection between myself and the island. I was seated before Andrés Salazar, and I was fixated in his cloudy eyes as he sang about the government wanting to oust them—the fishermen—from their paradise island. We shot a portrait of Andrés and his family in front of their shack and then said goodbyes. I will never forget this moment. I realized that the soul of Cubagua is embedded in its people, guardians of the island’s historical ruins. The history of Cubagua might be a metaphor for the crisis in Venezuela. If the depletion of pearls caused the abandonment of the island, could the dependency on oil also put a final end to Venezuela?


PRESS
> Engrossing and quite effective in its short length. Rodrigo Palau, Caracas Chronicles
> Touching. Felipe Arias, Endémico
> A moving denounce of the pressing reality in a small fishing community. Ana Müller, Vos Magazine
> Unearths a forgotten island to remember the last unsuccessful attempt to restore its ruins during the government of the late President Hugo Chávez. Romhy Cubas, El Estímulo


FESTIVALS (selection)
39th Margaret Mead Film Festival. Museum of Natural History New York City. USA
Sarasota International Film Festival. USA
American Documentary Film Festival Palm Springs. USA
RIDM - Montreal International Documentary Film Festival. Canada
FICMA International Environmental Film Festival. Spain
Green Film Festival in Seoul. Korea
FESANCOR Santiago. Chile
Festival de Cine de Guayaquil. Ecuador
Cinemaissi Helsinki. Finnland
Green Screen. Trinidad & Tobago
DC Environmental International Film Festival. USA
Patagonia Eco Film Fest. Argentina
Festival Trastevere Rione del Cinema. Italy
Festival del Cortometraje Internacional Manuel Trujillo Durán. Venezuela
Festival de Largos y Cortos Lecherías. Venezuela
Muestra Documental de Mérida. Venezuela
Venezuela en Corto - National theatrical distribution

AWARDS
Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short. Cine Las Americas International Film Festival. USA
Honorific Mention. Caracas DOC. Venezuela.


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