March 29, 2022
Under the sky shelter, Diego Acosta’s debut film, will have its international premiere at the CPH:DOX (Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival) -considered one of the most important documentary film festivals in Europe-after its national premiere at the Valdivia International Film Festival.
CPH:DOX is characterized by programming independent and innovative productions, presenting the freshest films of contemporary non-fiction cinema. In this way, the instance becomes a key scenario for Under the Sky Shelter.
The feature film, also produced by Florencia Dupont, follows Don Cucho, a transhumant muleteer who once a year fulfills the mission of guiding more than a thousand sheep to the heart of the Andes. Through the dialogue between naturalistic realism and silent cinema, the film narrates Don Cucho’s journey. Accompanied by six men and ten dogs, he crosses forests, cliffs and rivers, looking for food for the cattle, knowing that he also puts his life at risk.
Previously, Acosta directed the short films Chilean Huaso (2015) and Day 32 (2013). On the occasion of the world premiere of his new feature film, we interviewed the director. We talked in depth about this work and about future projects that challenge him.
Diego Acosta
I’m very happy because it is a great festival with programming linked to non-fiction and an authorial aesthetic that interests me a lot. In addition, I think it is a very good place to show the film outside of Chile, to share it. Hopefully it will reach more people who may be on the other side of the world as well. I want to know what they can think or feel when they see it. That seems to me to be an interesting experiment.
I’m local to the region and since I was a child I have had contact with the most rural worlds. I have always been interested in the culture, history, flora and fauna of the countryside that I have known. It seems to me that it is a place like a border -perhaps more imaginary- between the city and the wild, technology and antiquity, people and animals. They told me about the muleteers of the sixth region and I went with my dad to meet Don Cucho, not that I chose him as a casting -not at all- but a relationship took place. He was very kind from the beginning and invited me to climb the Cordillera because, according to him, there I would see how it was what he did and he was right. From there a friendship was formed and we could meet and share the experience of climbing with them to the mountain range, of living that adventure that was both normal and extraordinary.
Because I’m very interested in cinema as an art form, as a means of expression, as a technological invention, as a form of knowledge. So I’ve been wanting to find out more about the beginnings of cinema. That happened a little over a century ago and left us loaded with images in motion. On the other hand, I have always been very interested in biology, perhaps because of the luck of having lived in the countryside as a child; climbing a tree, finding bugs, mice, Sizing a horse’s head! I think I’m trying to convey what I’ve seen, heard and imagined. In that sense it made a lot of sense what I read from the director Manoel de Oliveira in an interview where he said that “personality and culture is what everyone applies to making cinema or art”. It may seem obvious, but I find it deep and very useful when creating.
“Al amparo del cielo”
Because the work of the muleteers is timeless and I thought it was okay that the footage had some of that. Also because I thought the Cordillera would look good like this, with all its rocks, cracks and shadows; and because I had never filmed. It was a good excuse to do it.
I would like it to be positive naturally, although I find industry and audience words difficult to grasp. I have enjoyed the comments about the film that have been made to me one by one. That exchange is rich because it has always been different and varied. I would like it to be liked and to reach different parts so that I find those secret audiences for whom the film was made without my knowledge.
This year I will resume a documentary about, and with, Mauricio Valenzuela who is a photographer and friend that I love and admire very much. He has a portrait of Santiago from more than 30 years ago that speaks of the political and social history that has occurred but in a very special and sensitive way. I am also going to make an adaptation on the book of short stories Diez by Juan Emar, an avant-garde writer who fascinates me. It is a challenge that I got into with great pleasure.
Teaser AL AMPARO DEL CIELO from SANTIAGO INDEPENDIENTE on Vimeo.