Name: Viviendo al límite
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 1 h 27 min
Cast: Danilo Aguilar, Carlos Borbón, Héctor Castellanos

A documentary about HIV-positive men and women in Cuba

Viviendo al Límite is the moving story of five infected Cubans: Yoire Ferrer, María Julia Fernández, Fernando Mederos, Kenia León and Carlos Borbón, who "had the courage to open their hearts to us," as the director said. Belkis Vega knew what she wanted to say and achieved it. It is not an informative film on how to avoid the disease. It is not a warning on the continuing number of people infected. She confines herself to the accounts of her five interviewees, their dreams and how they have managed to overcome their tragic fate. In order to do that, she also utilizes the so-called Spontaneous Theater - improvisations based on real testimonies - tied into psychodrama. It thus adds up to a conductor for the five, to follow their daily lives, and with those elements the actors move onto their representation, inter-linking movement, text and poetry. The director has the virtue of achieving the fact that the film, structured on those five stories with a common theme, shapes their individualities and integrates dramatic representation with the purely documentary. The two complement each other. For Manuel Iglesias, the experienced editor who worked with Belkis Vega on this film, the argumental structure and the rhythmic style of this full-length feature are "very close to the canons of orthodox classical and academic cinema," and highly functional for a documentary like Viviendo al Límite, "transparent in its artistic and ethical proposals, totally clear in its catalyzing intentions on the sensibility of a society that in order to become steadily more human, needs to exorcise fears, stigmas and prejudices." Finally, it is not a documentary about illness, it is a hymn to life.

Spanish-language cinema across Spain and Latin America is united by its engagement with history, cultural identity, and social transformation. In Spain, films often balance artistic experimentation with popular genres while reflecting on memory, politics, and family. In Latin America, cinema has been deeply tied to questions of colonial legacy, resistance, and community resilience, ranging from intimate dramas to bold political allegories.

Ana Torrent in The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

The documentary is a form of non-fiction storytelling that aims to present factual information, insights, and perspectives on real-world subjects, events, issues, or people. Documentaries can cover a wide range of topics, including history, science, culture, social issues, nature, biographies, and more.

Dziga Vertov in Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

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Viviendo al límite

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