15 YEARS CONSOLIDATING DOCUMENTARY CINEMA AND COMMUNITY MEMORY

To Santiago Bernard Roquebert

For 15 years, ACAMpadOC has been established in La Villa de Los Santos as a space dedicated to the creation, training and dissemination of documentary films, promoting the approach of filmmakers with communities and their realities. That collaborative practice contributes to the safeguard of the cultural and natural heritage of the region through audiovisual registration and community participation.

More than an international ACAMpadOC festival operates as a living school that, throughout its 15-year course, has produced more than 190 documentaries and made more than 450 projections in non-commercial spaces. The festival has several training and display spaces, including free production of short films for 10 nights, with the aim of bringing documentary films closer to the public and generating more interest and awareness about this film genre.

The "ACAMPADOC Camp" and the "Building and Building of Developing Projects" have been highlighted as part of his training proposal, with national and international creators with advice and assistance from industry professionals to strengthen the audiovisual projects currently under way.

Irina Ruiz, an artistic and production director of ACAMpadOC, has been leading this initiative since 2011 with the aim of decentralizing film training and contributing to the preservation of the cultural heritage and manifestations of the region at risk. Ruiz emphasized the importance of audiovisual registration as a tool for protecting cultural values and at the same time bringing documentary cinema closer to communities.

At its 2026 edition, held at La Villa de Los Santos in August, ACAMpadOC had as its thematic axis "Know about Natural Building," a proposal that allowed to explore knowledge, practices and traditions related to the forms of construction and heritage of the region.

The training success of this year was supported by a well-known national teaching body that includes Maricarchen Castillo Abrego, Harry Oglivie, Orga Wagua, Martín Contreras, Harry Suárez and international figures such as Marcos Pimentel (Brazil), David Aguilera (Colombia), elisa Barbosa Riva (Uruguay), Mariana Rivera (Mexico) and Fernando Peña (Chile), among others.