Winners
Winner 2004
Renate Costa
RENATE COSTA, 23, from Paraguay, also received US$ 5,000 for her project “Cuchillo de palo” (Knife of Wood). Our jury was impressed by the originality in Renate’s treatment and her cinematic writing. Hers is a political and personal story from the period when homosexuals in Paraguay were put on a “black list” by the Stroessner regime, and many paid with their lives
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
“We found his body on the floor, naked. It had been there for several days; there was a letter next to it. I couldn’t watch; I ran to his closet to get some of his dearest keepsakes but there was nothing left. Rodolfo Costa, my uncle, was the only man in the family who didn’t want to become a blacksmith, like my grandfather. He wanted to be an artist. His destiny was decided by the great repression that descended on our country. In the 1970s, at a time when the rest of the world felt the winds of freedom, Paraguay lived under a regime of terror. One night Rodolfo cried out.., and disappeared.”
Before « Cuchillo de palo », no film had ever been made about the 35 years of Stroessner’s dictatorship. This silence weighed heavily over the entire country.
Cinema is almost non-existent in Paraguay. Only a dozen films have been produced in this country. Therefore it was wonderful to be able to count on international support to trigger this production. It strengthened my project and gave me the courage to continue for the long haul. A grant from the Alter-Cine Foundation greatly helps the filmmaker during the process of creation because of the freedom and confidence it confers. This is unconditional support with no strings attached.
“Cuchillo de Palo” was born out of an intense internal process of acceptance. This is a film in which two generations confront each other: those who lived the dictatorship and remain silent; and those living under democracy with no idea about what transpired. Filming the present was a way to reconcile ourselves with our past and to better understand where we’ve come from, a means to appropriate who we are today.
– Renate Costa