The Inner Glow

Through this documentary work, we gain access to the creative intimacy of José Castillo, unequivocally one of the forerunners of animated cinema in Venezuela. With its original and poetic artisan style, it overcomes the frontiers of conventional filmmaking, to build a unique, original and unforgettable work.

Adolescent and from a modest neighborhood, Ana has spent her years in front of a sewing machine, working to support her two younger brothers and silently enduring the abuse of a pervert stepfather and an indifferent mother. Her hearing impairment has made marginalized her in a world that refuses to listen to her, becoming her in an object of use of who are around her. Unable to resign herself that her brothers will suffer the same fate, Ana decides to save them, embarking on a trip to freedom.

An elderly father and his two children, survive by harvesting salt from the sea. After the father dies, they live alone. Isolated from the outside world they become increasingly distanced, whilst their lust starts to blossom. Their lives get a lot harder. The brutal reality of harvesting sea salt coincides with their blossoming sexuality. Their lives of solitude drive them further apart whilst awakening lust makes itself known.

Former boxer Gregory Canelón gives himself with high commitment and dedication to the demanding task of training a diverse group of boys and girls from the most populous communities of the city of Caracas in the arduous discipline of boxing. The lives, fears and hopes of his young students are woven in a deep and inspiring way in Gregory's intimate struggle to achieve redemption, to resize the traumas of the past and thus overcome the uncertainty that the future implies for all.

This documentary takes us on a sensorial and atmospheric journey through the experiences, words and thoughts of the Venezuelan essayist and poet Armando Rojas Guardia. His early connection with the divine, the gradual inner maturation of a mystical experience that he manages to glimpse in his early adulthood, the determining and complex influence of his father (also a writer), his first crush on a young high school classmate, the profound experience of homoeroticism, the abysses of the psychotic crisis. All experiences pushed to the limit and which make up some of the singular elements of a unique artistic and intellectual quest with a broad universal scope.