Tayyaba
Tres Balas (Three Bullets), a Dominican project, has emerged as the dominant force in this year’s Locarno Pro Open Doors Awards. This program, meant to support the artistic development of artists from underrepresented communities, has given the Dominican team multiple accolades for their efforts.
What awards did ‘Tres Balas’ win and what is it about?
Génesis Valenzuela’s film, produced by Wendy Espinal, was recognized for its artistic excellence at the Locarno Pro Open Doors Awards and won three major prizes. The awards included a CHF 20,000 Open Doors cash grant ($22,000), and an €8,000 development grand from France’s CNC. The movie, set in 1992, chronicles the true story of Dominican immigrant Lucrecia Pérez, who was brutally murdered by four neo-Nazis while living in Madrid. This incident is recognized as the first case of racism and xenophobia in Spain.
“Through a visually enthralling journey intertwining colonial history, displacement, and criminal investigation, the director will delve into Lucrecia’s life as a way to explore the diaspora experience and dislocate the grand narrative of history- as she currently shares Lucrecia’s undocumented status. The present and the past connect, while fictional representation will emerge as a mechanism to help fill the gaps in the Afro-descendant memory of the Caribbean.”
The synopsis for ‘Tres Balas’
What other films won prizes in the Locarno Open Doors awards and what region was it focused on this year?
A film called Pantasma, which is a co-production between Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras by film director Gloria Carrión, has been awarded the top cash prize of CHF 25,000 ($28,500) at the Open Doors Awards. The movie has been produced by Leonor Zúniga. This year, Open Doors’ main focus was on the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, with the selection of eight development projects for its coproduction platform, the Projects’ Hub, alongside eight creative producers who enrolled in the program’s talent incubator, the Producers’ Lab.