SUGAR ISLAND
Hybrid Film / 85 min / Dominican Republic, Spain / 2023
SUGAR ISLAND
A film by Johanné Gómez
In the Dominican-Haitian community of the Batey, labor will be displaced by the introduction of cane-cutting machines. Sixteen-year-old Makenya, who is pregnant, accompanies her grandfather, a cane worker, to claim his pension and helps her mother sell bread to the workers.
Her pregnancy progresses in parallel harmony with the sugar industry’s cycle: planting, blooming, cutting, and processing the sweet crystals. As her familiar environment shifts and she is thrust into abrupt adulthood, the young girl finds guidance in Santa Marta, a metressa of Dominican Vodou.
Sugar Island trailer from TINGLADO FILM on Vimeo.
Johanné Gómez, director and screenwriter
Fernando Santos / David Baute, producers
María Abenia, co-writer
Alván Prado, director of photography
Raúl Barreras, editor
Jonay Armas, composer of the soundtrack
JOHANNÉ GÓMEZ TERRERO
Johanné Gómez Terrero is an Afro-diasporic artist who grounds her work within a Caribbean and decolonial framework. The documentary Caribbean Fantasy launched her career as a director; she has just completed Sugar Island, a project that navigates a porous boundary between reality and fiction. She is also a producer, consultant, and supports educational processes in project development labs such as MiradasAfro, FilmaAfro, Desde la Raíz, and Hilando Historias.
She graduated from the International School of Film and Television in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba (EICTV), where she has returned as a department coordinator and instructor; she also holds a Master’s degree in Film Distribution from the School of Cinema and Audiovisuals of Catalonia (ESCAC). Her field of interest and study encompasses Complex Thought, Anti-Racist Activism, and Cine Cimarrón.
21ª Venice – Giornate degli Autori, Italy
68ª BFI London FF, UK
48ª Sao Paulo IFF, Brazil
65ª Thessaloniki IFF, Greece
35ª Stockholm IFF, Sweden
72ª IFF Mannheim Heidelberg, Germany
17ª Tres Margenes Festival Latino Americano de Cinema, Brazil
36ª Exground FF, Germany
5ª Bajo Nuestra Piel, Bolivia
7ª WIIFT GR Festival, Greece
46ª Habana IFF, Cuba
5ª DiALAB, Brazil
