Skip to main content
Here's What Really Happened

Here's What Really Happened: 'El Silencio del Topo'

-
PT

  • Screenshot of a middle age woman of latin American descent, behind a garden with trees
    Anaïs Taracena, Director
  • Headshot of a white woman with shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes, wearing a white shirt and brown earrings.
    Malia Bruker, Moderator
  • Medium shot of a adult Woman, curly hair, light skin wearing a Blue shirt.
    Laura Bermúdez, Moderator
A man sits in a beige button up in a chair in front of greenery. In front of him hands and arms clasping, as if they are slating on a movie set.

Join us for a candid conversation with Anaïs Taracena, director and producer of El Silencio del Topo (The Silence of the Mole, 2021), the award-winning documentary about a journalist who infiltrated the brutal and repressive government of Guatemala in the 1970s. Taracena, a self-trained filmmaker who studied political science, spent 6 years making the film. Despite a lack of sales agent and festival consultant interest, Taracena constructed her own documentary A-list film festival run (Sheffield, IDFA, Hot Docs) and specifically targeted audiences in countries with recent civil wars (Dokufest, Jeonju). 

Open only to filmmakers, this event will give behind-the-scenes access to the business and craft of filmmaking from Anais’ perspective as a first-time filmmaker in Central America. In particular, this session will delve into specific situations such as misunderstandings in international development labs regarding the unique Guatemalan political context, challenges of building trust with participants within a culture of silence, and gathering archival materials outside of formal institutions.

This event is free and open only to filmmakers. El Silencio del Topo will be available for registrants to view one week before and one week after the event.

About the Getting Real Fellowship

The Getting Real Fellowship seeks to spotlight emerging and mid-career documentary professionals who have inspired visions that will benefit their communities and the field at large. 

After attending Getting Real, the fellows spend the next year programming workshops and discussions inspired by their time at the conference.

This event is developed and facilitated by Getting Real ‘22 Fellows Laura Bermúdez and Malia Bruker. For additional background, read Laura's essay and interview with Anaïs in Documentary magazine here.

Event Participants

    Screenshot of a middle age woman of latin American descent, behind a garden with trees

    Anaïs Taracena

    Anais Taracena, director and producer with a master’s degree in Political Science. She has participated in programs such as Berlinale Talents and the IDFA Academy School as an emerging director. The Silence of the Mole, Anais’s first feature film has been screened in more than 75 Film Festivals and has won 23 international awards such as the Best Documentary Prize at Malaga Film Festival, the Special Jury Award at the Jeonju International Film Festival, South Korea and the Tim Hetherington Award in Sheffield Doc Fest.

    Her short films have been screened at international film festivals and universities in different countries. In Guatemala she works with Human rights organizations as a filmmaker. 

    Headshot of a white woman with shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes, wearing a white shirt and brown earrings.

    Malia Bruker

    Malia Bruker is a filmmaker and Associate Professor at Florida State University. Bruker’s work evades categorization—she has made award-winning documentaries, dance films, and immersive projects, and work that blends these genres. Recent projects have delved into collective healing from sexual trauma, the struggles of anti-imperialist workers in Haiti, and the creative process of a self-proclaimed feminist nihilist artist. Her work has screened at venues like International Film Festival Rotterdam, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Antimatter Video Art, Berlin Feminist Film Week and American Dance Festival, and her recent 360-degree film Threshold won awards at Chelsea Film Festival and FilmGate Interactive. She is currently a Getting Real Fellow and the Executive Vice President of University Film and Video Association. Bruker also co-founded the Tallahassee Bail Fund in May 2020, which she continues to help run.

    Medium shot of a adult Woman, curly hair, light skin wearing a Blue shirt.

    Laura Bermúdez

    Laura Bermúdez is a Honduran filmmaker. Her short film, Black I Am, was an official selection at the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival, New Orleans International Film Festival, and Málaga Film Festival, among others. She was part of the Open Doors program in Locarno in 2022, Berlinale Talents 2021, and Talents Guadalajara in 2018.

    She is the co-founder of Tercer Cine Espacio Alternativo, an alternative cinema exhibition film project, and the winner of the Berlinale Talents 2022 Mastercard Enablement Project grant.

    She is the co-founder of the Collective of Female Honduran Filmmakers, an organization that promotes the participation of women in Honduran cinema, financed by the Central American Women's Fund FCAM.

    Her first feature documentary Where the Sun is Born is currently in postproduction and has been funded by the Mexican Institute of Cinema (IMCINE) and recently won the Costa Rica International Film Festival WIP.