“Santa Teresa y Otras Historias” an Internationally Recognized Dominican Experimental Film

“Santa Teresa y Otras Historias” an Internationally Recognized Dominican Experimental Film
Santo Domingo, December 1 2015

With the film “Santa Teresa y Otras Historias” (Santa Teresa and Other Stories) (2015), Dominican filmmaker Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias has created an abstract essay that has received international recognition. It explores the relationship between fiction, devotion and violence.

Filmed in Mexico and co-produced by the Dominican Republic and the United States, “Santa Teresa y Otras Historias” was written, directed and edited by Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias. It arises from the urgency to talk about violence from another perspective, being aware of the exploitation of the statement “Third world society places violence at the center of its own meaning.” There, he forgot the models of representation used in our filmmaking industry and stated that when an idea manages to take control and becomes predominant, the anarchic rebellion of the multiplicity of stories and formats arises, as a drive towards the permanent revolution.

The film won the George Beauregard International Award at the FidMarseille (Film Festival of Marseille); and Best Latin American Film at the International Film Festival of Mar de Plata. It has also participated in other film festivals, such as the Toronto International Film Festival; the Doc’s Kingdom; the New York International Film Festival; the Viennale di Venezia; the Madison, Wisconsin Film Festival; the Milano Filmmaker Festival; and, the Havana Festival of New Cinema.

Nelson Carlo is currently working in the pre-production of “Cocote,” his first feature film, which he will begin filming in early 2016. The script of this film project received an award at the annual competition of the General Directorate of Film FONPROCINE (Fondo para la Promoción Cinematográfica), Ibermedia, the Berlinale World Cinema Fund, and the Carolina Foundation.

De Los Santos Arias is a graduate of the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires, where he earned a residency at the School of Art in Edinburgh. There, he pursued experimental cinema and developed two short films, one of which was “SheSaid HeWalks” (2009), which won best experimental short film from the British Academy (BAFTA).

In 2011, the young filmmaker wins a scholarship from the California Institute of Arts, CalArts, to study his Master’s degree in Fine Arts. During his first year, he developed an experimental documentary titled “Pareces una carreta de esas que no la para ni los bueyes” that toured festivals throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America, where his presentation at the Tropical Uncanny of the prestigious Museum Solomon Guggenheim in New York, stands out.