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Dominican Filmmaker Nayibe Tavares-Abel Talks Ambitious Berlin Doc ‘Colossal’: ‘Stories Like This Need to be Seen’
'Colossal,' about the Dominican Republic's troubled election system, screens in the Berlinale’s Forum program and marks the director’s first feature.
A family lineage of civil duty is marred by electoral unrest in “ Colossal ” (“Colosal”), the debut feature from Dominican filmmaker Nayibe Tavares-Abel which will world premiere in Berlin as part of the fest’s Forum program. A TAVAB Production, produced by Lei González, founder at Santo-Domingo based Media Jibara in tandem with Santo-Domingo and Detroit-based Cinema Costanera, the film pairs live interviews and archive footage with a tender and deeply personal underlying arc, González admitting that she was attracted to the project for, “its fearless honesty, how it weaves personal and national history exploring the unseen situations that shape a country,” adding, “it’s a reflection on the complexities of truth, memory and the struggle to understand where we come from, something that resonates far beyond the Dominican Republic.” From production designer Milena Volonteri, a textile artist who created the vast collage and helped the director whittle 60 years of Dominican history and 100 hours of footage into the coherent and gripping narrative, to cinematographer Kat Díaz who filmed with Tavares-Abel at the height of the pandemic, wading through throngs of demonstrators to get key footage-often facing aggressive adversaries and editor Nathalia Lafuente, also a key figure in the process, acting as confidante aside her role piecing together the edits.
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