AQUERONTE
​​​​​by Manuel Muñoz Rivas

26min | Spain | 2023

On board a ferry, a series of passengers cross a river from one riverbank to the other.
Some of the travelers wrap themselves in silence and observe the unfamiliar fellow travelers or contemplate the scenery. Some others chat, perhaps to liven up the voyage and speed up time.
The journey on the waters seems to expand, the destination shore is postponed, the magnitude of space is blurred. Motion itself is perhaps the only certainty.
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Year of production 2023
Length 26'
Country Spain
Shooting Format 16mm
Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Dialogue Spanish
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Director Manuel Muñoz Rivas
Producer Manuel Muñoz Rivas
Executive Producer Manuel Muñoz Rivas
Production Manuel Muñoz Rivas
Writer Manuel Muñoz Rivas
Cinematographer Mauro Herce, Manuel Muñoz Rivas
Editor Manuel Muñoz Rivas
Sound Designer José Homer Mora, Luiz Lepchak
Sound Recordist Joaquín Pachón
Sound  Mix Alejandro Castillo
Production Manager María Gisèle Royo
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Website
Manuel Muñoz Rivas
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Festival selections
​IFFR, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2023, Netherlands - World Premiere,  KNF Award
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2023, UK
True/False Film Fest 2023, USA
New Directors/New Films 2023, USA
Festival de Málaga 2023, Spain - Best Documentary Short Film Award
D'A - Festival de Cinema de Barcelona 2023, Spain
Hong Kong International Film Festival 2023
Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen 2023, Netherlands
Andares Festival 2023, Peru - Jury Special Mention
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival 2023, Spain
​IndieLisboa International Film Festival 2023, Portugal​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Documenta Madrid 2023, Spain - Young Jury Award
Guadalajara Film Festival 2023, Mexico
DC DOX Festival 2023, USA
Mediterranean Film Festival Split 2023, Croatia
TIFF ODA - Tetova International Film Festival 2023, Republic of Macedonia
Manlleu Film Festival 2023, Spain
​Marienbad Film Festival 2023, Czech Republic
Lago Film Fest 2023, Italy
Apricot Tree International Film Festival 2023, Republic of Armenia - Grand Prize
​DokuFest - International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2023, Kosovo
Castrovillari Film Festival 2023, Italy - Best Film Award, Best Director Award
​Drama International Short Film Festival 2023, Greece - Grand Prix Award, Human Values Award
FICBUEU - Festival Internacional de Cinema de Bueu 2023, Spain
​​Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy 2023, Finland
​Vilnius Documentary Film Festival 2023, Lithuania
​​​​Tirana International Film Festival 2023, Albania - Best Short Documentary Award​
Nashville Film Festival 2023, USA
​ARKIPEL International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival 2023, Indonesia
​Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival 2023, Romania
​Vancouver International Film Festival 2023, Canada
Alcances Festival Cine Documental 2023, Spain
Curtocircuíto - Festival Internacional de Cinema 2023, Spain
Reykjavik International Film Festival 2023, Iceland
Alexandria Mediterranean Countries Film Festival 2023, Egypt
​Plons! International Short Documentary Film Festival Leeuwarden 2023, Netherlands
​Mediterranean Film Festival 2023, Bosnia and Herzegovina
​Raindance Film Festival 2023, UK
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Director's Statement
With each new film project, it is natural for me to return to the foundational question of "what is cinema", and to engage with this inquiry through a wider formulation:
"what can cinema be?".
I feel that the commitment of every filmmaker is to carry
out a formal exploration through which, hopefully, to broaden the contours of what we expect from cinema as an art. Both as a filmmaker and as a film spectator, I
seek astonishment and wonder.
I would add that I also seek the revelation of something, a kind of truth, which might comfort me (and others) with a sense of belonging.
When I first approached the location where later I would shoot my film “Aqueronte”, the river Guadalquivir and more specifically the ferry boat that crosses it, I was
struck by the aesthetic characteristics of the scene. Everything that I identify as defining elements of cinema was there: movement, faces, bodies, landscape,
sound atmospheres, light and shadow, reverie, the visible and the latent force of the invisible... all present in the raw material with which to shape fragments of time and space.
Because ultimately that is what we filmmakers do: compose with fragments of time and fragments of space.

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