back

Casa Roshell

Forum 2017
You’d never know this is your home away from home. The surveillance camera outside shows a drab reception area and an unremarkable street in Mexico City; inside, the lights flash, but the tables are empty. Yet preparations are soon underway and fixed categories cease to apply: stubble is removed, make-up applied and strands of hair are teased into place; the camera is trained not on the men themselves, but what they see in the mirror. There’s time for a lesson before the festivities get going, to practise walking, consider the letters of the alphabet, think about what sort of girl to be. Music plays, drinks are served and the last boundaries are suspended: those between man and woman, gay, straight and bi, past and present, reality and fiction. The people chatting at the tables or waiting before the darkroom are shot to resemble characters from a film, impossibly glamourous, which doesn’t mean their stories aren’t true. Whenever film stock replaces the digital images, it’s like a symbol for the memories Casa Roshell contains, the spectres of all those who came here and no longer felt alone. No matter how small the utopia, the world outside can still catch up.
by Camila José Donoso
with Roshell Terranova, Liliana Alba, Lia Garcia, Diego Alberico, Cristian Aravena Mexico / Chile 2017 Spanish 71’ Colour

With

  • Roshell Terranova
  • Liliana Alba
  • Lia Garcia
  • Diego Alberico
  • Cristian Aravena

Crew

Written and Directed by Camila José Donoso
Cinematography Pablo Rojo
Editing Camila José Donoso
Sound Design Mauricio Flores
Sound Isolé Valadez
Producers Juan Pablo Bastarrachea Tonalá Lab, Maximiliano Cruz Interior XIII, Sandra Gómez Interior XIII, Garbiñe Ortega

Produced by

Tonalá Lab

Interior XIII

Additional information

Download additional information

Photos

Camila José Donoso

Born in Chile in 1988. While studying film at the Universidad Mayor de Chile, she made several short films. Camila José Donoso runs the experimental film school Transfrontera in Arica, Chile, where she also teaches.

Filmography

2005 Camino gris (Grey Path); 22 min. 2006 La niña y el rio (The Girl and the River); 18 min. 2010 Zonas seguras (Safe Zones); 18 min. 2011 La muerte de la loca; 16 min. 2012 Una vida mejor; 32 min. · Insistencia del género; 11 min. 2013 Naomi Campbel; 83 min., co-directed by Nicolás Videla 2017 Casa Roshell

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2017