A documentary film by Mauro Colombo, 2024
Producers: Abner Benaim, Arturo Méndiz
Executive producer: Isabella Galvez
Produced by: Apertura Films, Bastian Films
Country of origin: Panama, Spain
Length: 90 minutes
Genre: Documentary
Languages: Spanish, English, Italian, French, Dutch and Embera
Shooting locations: Panama, Spain, Chile, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands
With the support of: ICAA, ICEC, Programa Ibermedia, Ciudad del Saber, UNIR

Oscar Shortlisted
Funds: DICINE, IBERMEDIA.
Selected for Berlinale Talent Project Market 2015 – winner of the VFF Talent Highlight Award.
Developed in EAVE and Jerusalem Film Lab.

With the support of: TVN (Panama), Caracol TV (Colombia) and COPA Airlines
Funds: IBERMEDIA, INCAA, DICINE
Festivals: Guadalajara (Mexico), Ambulante (Mexico), IFF Panama, BAFICI (Argentina), DocsBarcelona (Spain), SIFF (Seattle, USA), Philadelphia Latino Film Festival (USA)
Awards: SXSW 24 Beats Per Second - Audience Award

RUBEN BLADES IS NOT MY NAME takes us up close to one of Latin America's most beloved singer-songwriters, his music, and the stories behind them.

Awards: Best Documentary IFF (Panama), People’s Choice IFF (Panama), Best Director IFF (Miami), Best Caribbean Film FICBAQ (Barranquilla), Best Documentary (Malaga) Best Documentary (Biarritz), Best Documentary (San Jose de Costa Rica’s Festival), Best Documentary CINEMA TROPICAL (New York).
Festivals: SXSW, True-False, Miami IFF, Cartagena IFF, It’s All True, Huelva IFF.
Commercial release in Panama with more than 55,000 spectators in theaters.
Represented Panama for the Oscars Awards for the category of Foreign Movies.
With the support of: IBERMEDIA, DICINE, INCAA, Doha Film Institute.

“Everyone has their own version of the invasion.” That is film director Abner Benaim’s point of departure, because ultimately everyone has their own subjective memory of the events that took place in Panama between Christmas and New Year of 1989 – when American troops deposed dictator Manuel Noriega, killing an unknown number of civilians in the process. Invasion is Benaim’s attempt at a collective reconstruction. Instead of hashing out historical facts, he gives credence to Panama’s vox populi. Although the exact death toll remains unknown, witnesses describe streets strewn with the bodies of civilians. Benaim reenacts these memories on location, knowing full well that even if the accuracy of what he’s filming is questionable, the pain it expresses is quite true. Panamanians from all walks of life hammer out their doubts and certitudes of what happened: did the “gringos” bring democracy or destruction? Was Noriega a victim or a villain? Was he an anti-Imperialist or a CIA accomplice gone rogue? Was it about drug trafficking or arms dealing, or perhaps neither? Or does it really just boil down to the fact that the U.S. wasn’t ready to relinquish control of the Panama Canal? These questions, many of which go intentionally unanswered, constitute the first Panamanian attempt to reconcile with a national trauma that many Panamanians have been all too eager to forget.

Festivals: Huelva, La Habana, Guadalajara, Chicago, Moscow, Montreal, Lima, Sao Paulo and Cairo. Best Script Award Best Skip City (Japan).
Commercial release in theaters with more than 500,000 spectators in the region.
With the support of: IBERMEDIA.
Scheduled on HBO USA and Ibermedia TV

This hilarious comedy tells the story of Toña and Paquita, the housekeepers for the aristocratic González-Dubois family. These domestic employees have been mistreated for quite some time and they are tired of their situation. So when the family plans a shopping trip to Miami, the maids have a plan of their own; to take control of the mansion. Unexpectedly, they will also discover a family secret.

Festivals: HOTDOCS, London IDF, EIDF (Korea), Open City London, Afi Silver, et al.
With the support of: IBERMEDIA, INCAA, Jan Vrijman Fund.

The front doors of the expensive houses and apartments in Panama, where families and their domestic staff sometimes live together for many years, hide a world of ignorance and prejudice. Maids and Bosses uses smoothly edited atmospheric shots and interviews accompanied by music to create a picture of the complex relationships between employers and their staff. A variety of women and girls explain how as young girls they said farewell to their rural lives (and sometimes their own children) to work far away from their native region as a nanny or domestic. They talk of the long hours, difficult work, low or unpaid salaries, unjustified accusations, and even abuse. In turn, the employers complain about their employees' unreliability or lack of skill. Nevertheless, the women sometimes live with a single family in their home for many years. This inevitably leads to close personal ties, and there is sometimes a sense of fondness, but they seldom bridge the chasm between the social classes.

Julio Zachrisson, an aging Panamanian artist, has lost his sight and his career has come to an end, but his vivid memories and passion for life prevail. Zachrisson is a documentary portrait about finding comfort in a life well lived.

An immersion into the Darien gap, the primary forest that divides Panama and Colombia where Guerrillas, drug traffickers, immigrants, indigenous people, farmers, wild animals and local police cross paths. Mauro´s observation goes beyond his characters in this a no man's land and focuses on the search for meaning in the jungle as a metaphor for the wild within us.