Organised in collaboration with Apordoc, Arché Porto is a critical and experimental space dedicated to the development of Ibero-American projects with a strong documentary vocation, particularly those that inhabit the hybrid territories between reality and fiction. Over five intensive days, participants work in an atmosphere of listening and creation, guided by a tutor who encourages reflection on ideas, formal and narrative choices, and the multiple directions each project may take. More than a place for practical resolution, Arché Porto opens time and space for experimentation and creative risk.

In 2025, the laboratory will receive guidance from Colombian-Belgian filmmaker Nicolás Rincón, author of ‘Tantas almas’ and the documentary trilogy ‘Campo Hablado,’ recognised for his poetic approach to Colombia's oral tradition and political memory.

Open to all industry-accredited participants.

Moderator: Anne Rethfeldt, DAE — Documentary Association of Europe.

Anne joined the DAE team in May 2021. She is a project manager, cultural producer, writer, and podcast creator, with experience in European film festivals and documentary organisations since 2014, including DOK Leipzig, CPH:DOX, DOX BOX e.V., CIRCLE – Doc Women Accelerator, and Berlinale Generation. In 2024, she completed the EURODOC training programme, strengthening her expertise in documentary development and European collaboration.

Volcano
Volcán 
Luciana Merino Blamey
CHL, 20’

Three teenagers fall in love as they ride across Santiago on a cargo motorcycle. The journey turns into a science-fiction documentary, blending diffuse 16mm images and digital footage to reveal another version of the city.

Luciana Merino is a Chilean filmmaker and screenwriter. A graduate in Film and Television from the University of Chile, she works in a hybrid form of cinema that explores the limits of reality. Her short film “Al sol, lejos del centro” premiered at the Berlinale and won four awards. Her collaborative works — often in digital formats — have been screened at festivals such as NEMAF, FICValdivia, Visions du Réel, Annecy, and Clermont-Ferrand.

Our Raised Skin
Nuestra piel levantada
Paolo Natale García
ESP, 70’

Paolo films his father and grandfather, increasingly focusing on their bodies and identifying with them. He wonders whether they are aware of their emotions and of the eating disorder they share with him.

Paolo Natale García holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Murcia and a specialisation in Documentary Filmmaking from ECAM. He works as a film programmer and script supervisor. His work has been shown at festivals such as Curtocircuíto, IBAFF, Alcances, Márgenes, FICC, FIDMarseille, Novos Cinemas, FrontDoc, and Caminhos do Cinema Português. He has been a programmer at IBAFF since 2023 and is currently developing his first feature film, “Nuestra piel levantada”.

Tui häp okalay’i nämn’oye
For a Friend Has Come to Me Today
Rodrigo Montani
ARG, 90'

A dead man, a woman living alone in the forest, a boy lost in the village, and a child about to become a man. Four generations of the same family. The filmmaker-anthropologist knows them all: they are his friends. The film is a love letter.

Rodrigo Montani is an anthropologist and linguist, a researcher at CONICET (Argentina) and lecturer at the National University of Córdoba. For over 20 years, he has studied the ways of life, history, and languages of the Indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco. In 2019, he began his filmmaking career with two short films and is now preparing his first feature-length project.

Vicissitudes of Light
Vicisitudes de la luz 
Marcel Beltrán
CUB, BRA, 90'

An intimate portrait of Cuban photographer Chinolope (1935–2021), silenced by institutional power. His hidden work re-emerges as a testimony to a culture of silence and the fragility of memory.

Marcel Beltrán is a Cuban filmmaker and screenwriter, a graduate of EICTV and founder of Mediocielo Films. He has participated in the Rotterdam Lab, Berlinale Talents, and Locarno Open Doors. His feature documentary “La opción cero” premiered at IDFA (2020). His films have been screened at Cannes, Locarno, DOC NYC, MoMA, and Hot Docs.

Idalina
Idalina
Patrícia Nogueira
PRT, 85’

Idalina, a free-spirited woman at the beginning of the 20th century, is forced into a loveless marriage. She falls in love with her stepson and ends up confined to a manor house in Minho, where loneliness and madness push her to the edge.

Patrícia Nogueira is a filmmaker, professor, and researcher. She began working in fiction features in 2004 and has focused on documentary since 2010. In 2015, she held a residency at the NFB (Canada). Her debut feature, “3 Horas para Amar”, premiered at DocLisboa, Cine Las Américas, and Berlin Feminist Film Week. She holds a PhD in Digital Media (UT Austin/Portugal), teaches at UBI, co-directs MDOC, and serves on the NECS board.