Once Upon a Time in Venezuela

Congo Mirador is a village in Venezuela built on stilts over Lake Maracaibo. It was once a crowded place living off fishing. Now the lake is filling with sediment and the water under the houses is receding; the village is slowly disappearing. An election is coming. There are two women in the village: one is the local representative of the governing party, the other a schoolteacher close to the opposition. Anabel Rodríguez Ríos's documentary was filmed in the village over several years. The country's great political conflict appears here between two women, through boxes of supplies given in exchange for votes and through emptying school desks. The film takes no side but does not soften the outcome either: whichever side wins, the water under the village keeps receding and the people leave one by one. It had its world premiere at Sundance in 2020.