Berlin Indie Film festival
Reviews

Invisibles by Juan Lumé is a drama short film. This story is written by the director himself with Italo Spotorno, the main actor, and Ignacio Verdugo, the co-producer with Lumè.
The story starts when Andres, a 38-year-old property broker, receives an offer to sell a house, which he does not hesitate to accept. After the difficulties suffered during the past years, he has worked hard to restore his situation.
The day begins with a visit to a house on the outskirts of the city, which provides Andres with a strange mixture of restlessness and peace. When he opens the door, for some reason, the image causes him a jolt of unease: a slight, irrational shiver that passes quickly as it has appeared. The house looks sinister and it’s almost empty. It’s hard to imagine what kind of person lived there before. Nevertheless, gradually, Andres finds traces of his own life.
Flowers in the bathroom or specific music would seem absolutely normal to most people, but for him, they are just the opposite: they are clues. Between gloomy walls and nightfall, hallucinations become confusing memories. It seems as if the person he contacted to sell the land is someone he already knows. Someone he wants to forget. But that person is now at home… The night ends, and under the sun, a deep feeling of desolation takes over reminding him of what he could not face.
Dealing with a strong exploration of the past and of the unconscious, the director uses very specific camera moves to take usto the main character’s inner trip. All the shots convey this sense of research.Nicolas Sepulveda’s refined and extremely elegant cinematography sustains this research.
The editing is smooth at the beginning and develops to become agitated and syncopated as the short film progresses.
Another great point of Invisible is the performance of the main character, played by Italo Spotorno. The actor is remarkably intense and well directed by Juan Lumé. The audience is touched by a strong sense of suspense and fatigue in the actor’s inner search: looking back in the past is hard work for everyone that dares to do so. The sound design is minimal and efficient in conveying the feelings of the main character. The director’s brilliant choice of the location is extremely efficient in the communication of the character’s state of mind.Obviously he’s not a novice: Juan Lumé has been a Director and Producer with over 10 years of professional experience, as well as a Founding partner of Go.Films, and a Producer dedicated to both fiction and theatre. Highlights of his career as a Director include:
INVISIBLE (2021 / Short film – Fiction)
Winner 1st Monthly Film Festival:Best director – Best Indie Short Film. Special mention: Short Film – Production – Actor – Thriller Short Film
Winner 4th Dimension Independent Film Festival: Best director Juan Lumé -Best Actor Italo Spotorno – Best Producer Ignacio Verdugo. Winner Chicago Indie Film Award: Best Director. Winner Berlin Indie Film Festival: Best Director Independent Shorts Award: Bronze Award Best Production Designer (Ignacio Verdugo) – Bronze Award Best Thriller Short – Honorable Mention for Best Director (Juan Lumé) – Actor (Italo Spotorno) and Indie Short.
Semi-Finalist Berlin Shorts Award Official Selection Prague International Indie Film Festival Official Selection 2021 ARFF Berlin international Awards Official Selection CKF International Film Festival Official Selection Montreal Independent Film Festival Official Selction IndieX Film Fest

SUMERGIDO (Submerged) 2020 / Short film – Fiction (Semi finalist Venice Shorts 2020 – Official selection Venice Shorts 2020 – Semi FinalistSweden Films Awards September 2020 – Official selection Sweden Films Awards 2020 – Official selection Montreal Independent Films Festival 2020 – Especial Mention Londonx4 seasonal Short Films Festival Autumn 2020).

CAÍDA LIBRE (Free Fall) 2018 / Short film – Fiction
Theatre Director of the play PROMETEO, launched in 2019 in the city of Montevideo, with a roaming season in Uruguay, as well as in different theatre halls in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2019. During 2015 and 2016, he presented the theatre play HANSEL Y GRETEL (play nominated to the 2017 CLAP awards with the largest 2016 audience) with two successful seasons in the theatres Coca Cola City and Centro Morí. He is currently working in the pre-production of his first feature film ASEDIO, both as Producer and Director of the project. In addition to his work in Go.Films, he developed his career for three years as General Producer of the multi-space cultural theatre “Ladrón de Bicicletas” in Santiago – Chile. During that period, he was responsible for the following activities: Executive production – Program design of all billboard works – Sponsorship management – Coordination of activities and new hires.
He has vast experience in pedagogy, teaching short film workshops in the field of Fiction at the Cultural Corporation Balmaceda 1215.
He also noted, concerning this short film: «Invisibles emerges from the concern to investigate the different reactions that our memory can have facing traumatic events and how our brain can block all its memories in front of such reaction.”
We can confirm that he really reached his goals and will add that his strong experience doesn’t seem affected at all by the low production budget.For all the above mentioned reasons, INVISIBLE was awarded Best Director Short film in May 2021 by the Berlin Indie Film Festival.

1stmonthly film festival
FILMMAKER OF THE MONTH

When I was a kid I used to play home movie making, I have always been a huge fan of cinema, photography and reading. Through reading I was able to develop a great imagination, in addition to having many references. In my teens, I often skipped class to go to the movies (I keep smiling when I remember those days). My first real approach to cinema as a director was in a fiction workshop organized in Balmaceda 1215 in Santiago de Chile. Later I took different acting and film courses, which led me to work for many years as a producer, consequently, directing films was a dream that I had to postpone for a few years.

Until, in collaboration with Ignacio Verdugo, we founded the production company Go.Films, where my first short film was «Free Fall.» This short film starred Italo Spotorno, a very important actor in my works. «Free Fall» It was a great experience that allowed me to quickly approach the world of cinema to want to continue investigating this language with the short films Submerged, Invisible, and currently working on the pre-production of my first feature film ASEDIO, where he works as a producer and director of the project with Italo Spotorno as Actor and Ignacio Verdugo in the production. n.