Searching Heleny

10 10
2022
29min

Portuguese

English

Country: Spain Brazil

Original Title: Cade Heleny

In this stop-motion animated documentary, the story of Heleny Guariba—philosopher, professor, and theatre director forcibly disappeared in 1971—is told through textile animation.

Portuguese
English
Country: Spain Brazil
Original Title: Cade Heleny

AWARDS: Mikeldi Best Animation Short Film. ZINEBI/ Audience Award. ZINEBI/ Premio Coral Especial. Festival de Cine de La Habana/ Winner. Shorts México/ Canal Brasil Prize. É Tudo Verdade/ Silver Award. New York International Film Awards

OFFICIAL SELECTION: ZINEBI / International Short Film Festival Oberhausen / Durban International Film Festival / Festival de Cine de La Habana / Shorts México / New York International Film Awards / Curta Cinema / BIAF (Bucheon International Animation Festival) / É Tudo Verdade - It's All True / DokuFest / FECIR

Searching Heleny - Stitched memories reclaim a vanished life

This animated doc unearths the forced disappearance of Heleny Guariba in 1971, under the brutal Brazilian dictatorship. Drawing from the visual language of arpilleras—textile art developed as political protest during the Chilean dictatorship, the documentary animates scraps, stitches, and textures to reconstruct Heleny's story.

A stop-motion tapestry of memory, activism, and pain, the film becomes an act of resistance in itself. It echoes a broader Latin American tradition of reclaiming the disappeared and reminds us that when language fails, art speaks.