Esta es mi Cara (Spanish) [This is my Face] (Documentary)

I have mentioned tis many times. Documentaries are not easy to make. Striking a balance between information and still making it interesting enough for the viewer to be interested is not an easy thing at all. In Chile, people living with HIV fear stigma, and often conceal their condition and remain silent about what they are going through. This is My Face explores what happens when a range of men living with the virus open up about the illness that changed their life trajectories.

We meet 4 individuals who have secretly been living in Chile with the stigma of being HIV positive and have stayed silent about the issue. An 18 year old fine arts student, A president of a wellbeing group for HIV people, a wanna young poet working in a stationary shop, and finally a 45 year old teacher and a gay activist. Using autobiographical photography and reflexive techniques through cinematic storytelling, the maker takes us through the journey of these individuals. The photographic portraits represent their painful memories and feelings, a process which helps them challenge years of silence, shame, and misrepresentation. It's a different form of story telling to be honest where practice-led research can produce emotionally moving and politically relevant films that are accessible to a discerning audience. The pictures are supposed to educate us about the impactful stories and ‘statements’ produced by the men through their photographic projects without us being sentimental about it. Unfortunately, personally for me, this form of story telling didn't work for me. I was unable to really connect and empathize with these individuals.

The story is powerful and a very very important documentary to be told. People, not just in Chile, but everywhere need to be educated on what HIV is, what people living wit it go through because of it. Good as a documentary, if you can keep yourself invested, but just not interesting enough to want to stay on watching it and get to know more. (3.5/10)

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