Farewell EDOC

Dear friends,

I am writing you to let you know that I am leaving my position as Artistic Director at EDOC, after 12 wonderful years working together with a team that I now consider my family. To program the festival has been like going through a long journey inside Ecuador and the world, getting to know them better through multiple and wide approaches, to discover remote and uncharted territories; certainly an amazing experience that has transformed me at a professional and personal level.

Since its creation in 2002, EDOC has presented around 1300 films in almost a dozen cities and smaller communities in Ecuador; we have organized academic activities, workshops and labs aimed at documentarians of Ecuador and the Andean countries. The festival has edited three books, 14 editions of the newspaper El Otro Cine and has fostered a unit of translation for documentary film. EDOC has also contributed to strengthen the production of documentary films in our country and the dissemination of Ecuadorian films outside our borders.

I am happy and grateful to have been part of this process but I think that changes are an important source of vitality for people; they help ideas to multiply and contribute to pluralism and democracy within organizations. In that sense, I feel that a fundamental cycle of my life is over. The festival will keep on going, reaping the rewards of the work done and facing new challenges that would allow it to keep strengthening documentary cinema in Ecuador. For my part, I will remain close to EDOC as a member of the Board of Directors, and from new spaces and new projects I will continue working for the development of non fiction cinema in Ecuador, Brazil (the country where I live) and Latin America.

With this message I would like to send special thanks to Manolo Sarmiento, Albino Fernández and Alfredo Mora, my constant companions on this journey, to all the people who are or were part of the EDOC team throughout the years and to the members of Corporación Cinememoria, the independent collective of citizens behind this project. To share this experience with such a supportive, creative, passionate and committed crew has been a huge privilege.


I would also like to express my gratitude to the filmmakers and producers who have shared their work and knowledge with the public of EDOC; as well as distributors, sales agents, exhibitors, sponsors and the media for allowing us to ensure the presence of documentary film in Ecuador. Thanks also to my fellow festival programmers around the world for the rich exchanges, conversations and shared emotions based on a mutual passion. I cannot fail to mention the audience at EDOC, certainly the raison d'être of the festival. It was a pleasure to grow along with the audience, feel their love and share stories from real people around the world year after year.

I would like to put you in touch with Albino Fernández, whom many of you already know. Since 2014 Albino is the Program Coordinator of the festival and for several years he has been in charge of the parallel showcases and the video library at Cinememoria, a place from which he has boosted documentary film among new audiences with his characteristic enthusiasm and his sharp point of view. For all matters related to the festival program please contact him.

Do not hesitate to contact me if I can help you somehow or if you pass through Rio de Janeiro.  

Thank you for being around all these years and for believing in EDOC!

A big hug,

Maria