Yamel, a Mexican cinema student in Cuba, is randomly filming a stormy afternoon in Havana when Jans, an 18-year-old fisherman, walks across her frame and captures her attention. From that first recorded encounter, she, her camera and him become intertwined. As real emotions emerge, ethical questions appear. Why can’t she stop filming him?
Mexico / 62 min / 2025 / documentary
North American Premiere
in Spanish with English subtitles
Direction: Yamel Thompson
Screenplay: Yamel Thompson, Melisa Liebenthal
Cinematography: Yamel Thompson
Editing: Melisa Liebenthal
Producers: Melisa Liebenthal, Veronica Leon
The year is 2016. Yamel Thompson, a 23-year-old Mexican film student at Cuba’s EICTV, is strolling along a pier when she catches the gaze of Jans, an 18-year-old fisherman. “I liked the way he looked at me,” she confides at the beginning of her film. It is that gaze that would become, years later, the true subject of this documentary—beyond the country, the sea, the fishing boats, the love story, or even Jans himself. Back then, like the rest of the world, Yamel had no way of knowing that the #MeToo movement was about to shake the foundations of the cinema industry, or that ideas such as consent, objectification, and “gaze” would go on to reshape how we represent others—and how we love. - Anne Delseth