THE POSSIBILITY OF MAN

After a volcano eruption on an island, a filmmaker captures the hope people experience at a viewpoint on top of a mythical mountain. Marked by a history of miscarriage, she observes how others seek hope amidst destruction. Meanwhile the letters she writes, bring her unborn child to life.

Vanesa Abajo Pérez is Spanish, but grew up in The Netherlands. She graduated in Film at the Complutense University and obtained a Master of Arts degree (through the European MEDIA programme). She first worked as an advertising creative, contributing to many campaigns which were awarded internationally. In the meantime, she produced and directed several short fiction films. In 2016, when a dear family member became terminally ill, she filmed her first short documentary La Casa De Piedra (shortlisted for Visions du Réeel and Doc Fortnight), in which she portrayed her dying aunt through the space this woman once inhabited. After this, she started developing the transmedia documentary I Am Not My Body, about our changing perspective within the context of an approaching death. The project was exhibited during Documenta Fifteen in 2021 and attracted around 50.000 visitors in 2 months time. In 2020 she was nominated with Life Is Dream, her first feature length documentary, for a Dutch Golden Kalf (main award in The Netherlands). In this film Vanesa portrays the migration story of her parents (who fled the poverty of the Franco regime) as a dream from which she tries to wake up.