Skip to main content
We Were No Desert film image; man with arm resting on his head

We Were No Desert

Nunca fuimos un desierto

MODES

North American Premiere

Taking an installation by Argentine textilsts Chiachio & Giannone as a point of departure, director Agustina Comedi (Playback, MODES ‘19) stages a queered rendition of a strict national folk dance, the “Pericón.” This new choreography opposes its traditional steps and resists the inherent ideology of conquest baked into the notion of ‘homeland’.

 

Community Partner

Directors
Credits
Country of Origin

Argentina

Year

2024

Language

In Spanish with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
12 min
Experimental & Avant Garde Human Rights & Social Justice LGBTQIA2S+ Shorts Women Directors
PAN Contenidos

Credits & Director

Producer

Sandra Rojas

Screenwriter

Agustina Comedi

Cinematography

Benjamín Ellenberger

Editor

Ezequiel Salinas

Original Music

Violeta García

Agustina Comedi headshot; We Were No Desert director

Agustina Comedi

Agustina Comedi (1986, Argentina). Scriptwriter and filmmaker. She holds a degree in Literature. In 2017, her debut film Silence is a Falling Body (2017) premiered at IDFA. Her short film, Playback (2019) was part of the Berlinale Shorts Competition in 2020, where it won the Teddy Award. It was also awarded Best Short Film in the Mar del Plata Film Festival and Entrevues Belfort. She is currently working on her second and third films.

Photo by Catalina Bartolomé

 

Chiachio & Giannone joint headshot; We Were No Desert directors

Chiachio & Giannone

Chiachio & Giannone are Argentine visual artists. Leo Chiachio (1969, Buenos Aires) and Daniel Giannone (1964, Córdoba). Their work translates the knowledge of painting into the field of textile arts and it is framed within political debates about new family models and LGBTQ+ issues. Their work has been part of national and international exhibitions. Among these, The Emilio Caraffa Fine Arts Museum (Córdoba, 2014), the Museum of Art and Design (NY, 2014), Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 2015), Cité International de la Tapisserie d’Aubusson (2016) MOLAA, California (2019) and Antre Peaux, Bourges (2022) among others.

 

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Schindler's List

Dir. Steven Spielberg
195 min

One of the most acclaimed films of the 90s, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark is the story of a German industrialist whose conscience is stirred to save his Jewish workers from the camps.

Free event.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Whispers in the Woods

Dir. Vincent Munier
94 min

A luxuriant, healing immersion in nature with ravishing wildlife photography, this is the cinematic equivalent of "forest bathing," a trip deep into the Vosges, France, with photographer Vincent Munier (The Velvet Queen), his father and his son.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Serial Mom

Dir. John Waters
95 min

John Waters' killer comedy features an uproariously funny, marvellously malicious performance from Kathleen Turner as a housewife with impeccable manners and very handy with a kitchen knife.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Three Colours: Blue

Dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
98 min

The first of Kieslowski's acclaimed Three Colours Trilogy, inspired by the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and the French flag, the Tricolour. Blue stars Juliette Binoche as a young woman grieving her husband and child.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Last Seduction

Dir. John Dahl
96 min

In this sexy neo-noir thriller, Linda Fiorentino has a blast playing one of the most amoral women in film history -- and one of the most exciting.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Three Colours: White

Dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
91 min

Divorced by his beautiful French wife, Karol returns to his native Poland and schemes to win back his self-respect in Kieslowski's spry black comedy.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema