Columbus, Who?
October 3rd – 7 PM – Cinemes Girona
Advance tickets and box office sales
⏳1h25min
🎞️choreo-shorts
💃 traditional indigenous, steppin’, contemporary, performance, bubbling, afro, salsa, samba
In collaboration with IndiFest / AlterNativa Exchange with Indigenous Peoples
In collaboration with Nowness
Because neither Columbus discovered America, nor is America the United States. The Americas are many cultures that hold an unmatched diversity and richness. Columbus who? is a journey from north to south across the American continent, weaving together ancestral and contemporary dances (powwow, stepping, avant-garde, bubbling, afro-caribean drums, salsa, and samba) that have resisted colonial homogenization. An unapologetic celebration of what Columbus could never have imagined: living peoples reinventing themselves without pardon. In collaboration with IndiFest / AlterNativa exchange with indigenous peoples. “
Pidikwe
Duration: 0:10:11
Director: Caroline Monnet
Choreography: Clara Furey
Country, Year: Canada, 2025
Social media: IG @coco.monnet, IG @la.distributrice.de.films
Synopsis
Premiere in Catalonia. Featuring Indigenous women across generations, Pidikwe fuses traditional and contemporary dance in a visceral film-performance. Inspired by the Roaring Twenties in the post-pandemic world of the 20’s, it channels freedom, exuberance, and creative rebirth, somewhere between the past and the future. The work challenges colonial and patriarchal narratives that objectify Indigenous women, reclaiming their bodies as living presence in our cities, families, and collective imagination.
Scenes: Steppin’ on Water
Duration: 0:09:48
Director: Rodney Luca
Country, Year: United States, 2024
Social media: IG @rodneyluthaking
Synopsis
On Chicago’s South Side, Rodney Lucas takes a nostalgic ride through the gliding footwork, elaborate looks and characters of the Chicago Steppin’ scene.
Gods and Machines
Duration: 0:15:40
Director: Santiago Sierra Soler
Choreography: Priscila Hernandez
Country, Year: Mexico, 2023
Social media: IG @santiagosierrasoler
Synopsis
Premiere in Spain. Inspired by the muralism of Diego Rivera and commissioned by the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, Dioses y máquinas fuses history and present to explore the environmental scars of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Between ancestral gods and historical symbols, the film offers a visual reflection on time, memory, destruction, and the rebirth of a nation through the resilience of Mexican identity.
Tenderness
Duration: 0:02:10
Director: Rachel McDonald
Choreography: Paulina Pulido
Country, Year: United States, 2026
Social media: IG @raemcdonald
Synopsis
Premiere in Spain. Inspired by Radical Ternura, a transfeminist project that explores tenderness, vulnerability, and intimacy as acts of resistance. It reflects on art as a space to process the world, reconnect with shared love, and, at times, inspire others to transform through collective sensitivity and emotional awareness.
Bubbling Baby
Duration: 0:18:32
Director: Sharine Rijsenburg
Country, Year: Netherlands, 2025
Synopsis
Premiere in Spain. Bubbling music is one of the most spirited manifestations of Caribbean-Dutch cultural heritage. Propulsive and highly danceable, it embodies freedom, power, and a sense of ownership within the diaspora. This vivid documentary celebrates bubbling’s roots and evolution, while exploring the contemporary scene that continues to push boundaries from a female perspective.
We Knew the World in Fragments of Color
Duration: 0:03:08
Director: Victoria Ruíz
Choreography: Vivian Guyrá
Country, Year: Brazil, 2026
Synopsis
Venezuelan artist Victoria Ruiz explores memory, migration, and spirituality through a visual universe inspired by Afro-diasporic religions across the Americas. Through performative imagery and a rich chromatic language, We Knew the World in Fragments of Color becomes a poetic reflection on identity, belonging, and survival, where spiritual and cultural forces coexist within the same invisible network.
From Heaven is Cali
Duration: 0:12:30
Director: Christaan Felber
Country, Year: Colombia, 2021
Synopsis
In southwest Colombia, the city of Cali is home to salsa caleña, a lightning-fast dance style that has become a powerful symbol of local culture, freedom, and community. From Heaven is Cali follows the dancers, musicians, nightclub owners, and costume designers who sustain this vibrant tradition, while going behind the scenes of Delirio, the celebrated salsa cabaret troupe whose spectacular performances embody resilience, pride, and collective passion.
Pavilhâo
Duration: 0:13:00
Director: Victoria Fiore
Country, Year: Brazil 2025
Synopsis
Pavilhão is a love letter to samba, rooted in memory yet always innovating, carried forward by a shared commitment to its survival and relevance for the future. The film traces its history, struggles, and enduring power, reflecting a community that thrives on unity, resistance, and belief in a brighter future. It celebrates a rich spiritual tradition rooted in Afro-Brazilian identity, resistance and resilience, honoring the essence of samba as both cultural memory and living force.
