Through Fire
Directed by Roger Castro;
Venezuela · 2026 · 21 min · Social issues; Science and Technology; Indigenous communities; Culture; Emigration/Inmigration; Old Age;
Submitted to RTV International Film Festival 2026Synopsis
Through Fire is a poetic documentary that explores the spiritual memory of the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Inspired by the archives of Martin Gusinde and Alberto María de Agostini.
About the film
Through the Fire is a poetic-experimental documentary that invites a sensory journey into the spiritual memory of the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Inspired by the ethnographic archives of Martin Gusinde and Alberto María de Agostini, as well as the figure of the last Selk’nam shaman, Lola Kiepja, the work reconstructs an ancestral universe through images, sounds, and atmospheres that transcend traditional narrative language. Rather than recounting a historical narrative, the short film offers a contemplative experience where fire, wind, earth, and the body become portals into a cosmogony that still resonates today. At this intersection of archival footage, contemporary visual creation, and artificial intelligence, the film builds a symbolic space where past and present dialogue, evoking rituals, chants, and ways of life that resisted oblivion. The project also stems from the intimate encounter of its director—a Venezuelan filmmaker migrating through Patagonia—with this history of displacement, loss, and cultural resistance. In this mirror between the contemporary diaspora and the indigenous peoples of the world's southernmost tip, Through the Fire becomes a reflection on identity, belonging, and memory, inviting the viewer to traverse not only a physical territory but an inner one.
Official link
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RTV International Film Festival — Inaugural Online Edition · 2026