Bolivian miners are focus of documentary short

“Flower of a Thousand Colours” is a short that purposely was given time to blossom by its filmmakers–about eight months. The people and countries involved in its production also seem to fit that view of a global village that keeps getting smaller, connecting artists and other individuals from different continents. Competing in the documentary short category at Sundance and premiering on Friday, Jan. 22, the 22-minute long documentary involves a Mexican director living in Belgium, a Belgian writer, and a hardworking, struggling mother from a poor Bolivian mining town. The film is in Spanish and plays with English-language subtitles at Sundance.

The film is directed by Karen Vázquez Guadarrama, a Mexico City native who studied film at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. She became interested in making a film about Bolivian miners when she learned their country’s mining tradition dated back centuries. "Flor de Mil Colores" is the director's master film, a university project required for graduation. STORY OF EMILIANA

The director, along with writer Bart Goossens, traveled to the South American nation in search for a story connected to mines. After months of traveling, they were pointed to a camp in the mountains called Mina Argentina, where they met Emiliana, a single mother of several children whose story became the focus of “Flower of a Thousand Colours.” The filmmakers did not want to rush their short documentary. “We decided to stay at the remote mining camp for five months to be able to shoot the portrait of Emiliana,” says the director. “We’re convinced it takes time to shoot an intimate portrait, to really become close with your character. A good relationship, which fosters sincere mutual confidence between maker and subject, and in which my subject no longer senses the presence of the camera, is vital to me.” This is not Vázquez Guadarrama's first film. Her first narrative short film, “Mont d’Or,” screened at several fests and won the Grand Prix at the Kratkofil Plus Film Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her approach uses rudimentary narrative to explore little events of daily life placing much attention to emotions and small details, she explains. COMPETING SHORTS “Flower of a Thousand Colours” faces another work in Spanish, Mexico's “Beneath the Embers” (Bajo las Brasas), among the 18 selections from the U.S. and other countries in the documentary short category.

The other films are: “Another Kind of Girl” (Jordan)

“Bacon & God's Wrath” (Canada) “Chekhov” (U.S.) “Entrapped” (U.S.) “Figure” (Poland, Belgium)

“Jáaji Approx.” (U.S.) “I Am Yup'ik” (U.S.)

“Mining Poems or Odes” (United Kingdom, Scotland) “Peace in the Valley” (U.S.A.)

“Roast Battle” (U.S.) “The Saint of Dry Creek” (U.S.)

“The Send-Off” (U.S.)

“The Shining Star of Losers Everywhere” (U.S.A.) “Speaking is Difficult” (U.S.)

“Territory” (United Kingdom)

“A Woman and Her Car” (Canada) –CESAR ARREDONDO MORE INFO: PREMIERE FRI 1/22 @ 12:30 PM @ TEMPLE THEATRE ADDITIONAL SCREENINGS SAT 1/23 @ 12:00 PM @ REDSTONE CINEMA 7 SUN 1/24 @ 9:00 PM @ BROADWAY CENTRE CINEMA 6 THU 1/28 @ 9:00 PM @ YARROW HOTEL THEATRE

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