Church: Virgen del Carmen
Submitted by: Javier Sánchez Martín
Location: Spain
For more than a hundred years, the small town of Zahara de los Atunes in South Spain, has been ‘carrying’ its Virgin of El Carmen from the church to the beach that bears her name.
This short documentary is simply filmed with a single camera (Canon 70D) and some aerial footage that shows the true scale of the celebration from above. The original idea was simply to document the journey to the sea, the devotion of the faithful, and the respect of those attending this demonstration of courage and fervor. After the final editing, the images tell a story on their own, and, aided by the voice of a narrator, pose a series of questions to the viewer for reflection, without expecting an immediate answer.
Each year, the path is traveled again, and, if the sea permits, the Virgin goes out to sail.
Director Biography – Javier Sánchez Martín
Music, traveling and writing are his great passions.
He has taken part in a dozen short films in different departments.
His first short film as director and screenwriter “A question of luck”, gets more than ten selections and national and international awards, including 1st Prize at the Festival Marbella Crea 2014 or 3rd prize at the International Horror Hotel Festival 2015 (Ohio, USA), besides being selected in the official section in competition of short films Malaga in the 18th Spanish Film Festival of Malaga.
After releasing his story “The Pact” as an audiobook (Sonolibro 2016), he directs “Render, the lost time”, his second adventure as a director. The short film gets twelve selections in different festivals and 1st prize at the “Independent Film festival of Linares”, as the best Andalusian Shortfilm.
In 2022 he shoots Broken (Rota), a zero budget short film with only four people in his team, to tell the story of a mother who has lost her daughter and her difficult relationship with a father who is always missing.
His latest work entitled “Camino al mar” is a short documentary recorded in the summer of 2023, also without budget, using a single camera and a drone. Its exquisite final editing allows us to live the emotion of the journey that for more than a century the image of the Virgin of El Carmen has been making from the church of Zahara de los Atunes to the beach that bears her name.
