Elisa Barbosa Riva SCU
The black box.
It is a documentary development directed by Elisa Barbosa Riva and produced by Isabel García Arnabal, Montelona Cine.
It is a documentary development directed by Elisa Barbosa Riva and produced by Isabel García Arnabal, Montelona Cine.
In the morning of October 28, 1969, a man identified as ‘David Chavarriaga’ in the Colombian Pacific coast hijacked Avianca flight HK 1022 and rerouted it to Cuba, where, years later, he would become a cult ‘Cuban writer.’ Half a century later, as his figure begins to fade away, the director behind this documentary struggles to preserve his memory, confronting the fleeting nature of human remembrance. Recalling the tumultuous Latin America of the 1970s, the film is a reflection on the passing of time, the traps of looking back and the need to delve into our fragile collective memory.
Journey: In 2018, La caja negra was selected to participate in Nuevas Miradas, a film project development platform (Cuba), where it received the EICTV Incentive Award. That same year, it also received the Documentary Feature Development Fund from INCAU (Uruguay).
In 2019, the project was selected to take part in the Pitching Sessions at DocMontevideo (Uruguay), where it was awarded the DocsMX Prize to participate in the IB Platform - Campus Latino of DocsMX (Mexico). It took part in both platforms, as well as in the One-to-One Meetings workshops, engaging with various industry players and establishing contacts with festivals and funds such as Sundance, HotDocs, and BAFICI, among others.
In terms of its financial progress, the project received support from the Uruguay Audiovisual Program – Development Line B (Uruguay).
In 2020, it was selected for the Walden Residencies, led by Spanish consultant and documentary filmmaker Marta Andreu. That same year, it also engaged in advisory sessions with cinematographer Andrés Boero, focusing on the visual treatment of the project; with Cuban writer José Serrano, exploring connections with Cuban literature; and with Uruguayan documentary filmmaker Alicia Cano. The project closed its co-production agreement with Blond Indian Films and received the Documentary Feature Production Funds from INCAU and FONA (Uruguay).
In 2021, La caja negra received the Ibermedia Co-production Fund, and in 2022 it was awarded support from the Uruguay Audiovisual Program – National Productions Line A.