Elizabeth Pirela Gonzalez

Elizabeth Pirela González is a Wayuu interdisciplinary artist from the Epieyuu clan, whose work encompasses film, literature, video art and multimedia installations. Through her work, she connects the ancestral memory of her people with contemporary forms of visual narration.

As a director, she has received recognition at national and international festivals. Her most recent short film, El Silencio de las Semillas (2021), was selected at the 61st Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival (FICCI) and at festivals in Chile, Peru, Spain, Germany and Colombia, winning awards for Best Film and Best Director at the 2022 Venezuelan Film Festival. It was also released in CINEMARK theaters in Colombia in 2024.

His most notable projects include Majayut Señorita (2010), winner of the Audience Award at the 12th South American Film Festival in Marseille, France, and the documentary series Shimirra'in Wayuu: Juegos tradicionales wayuu, a tribute to the oral and recreational memory of his community. She is currently producing the documentary short film Los Hilos del Mar, which will receive funding from the Colombian Film Development Fund (FDC) in 2023, and collaborating with Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau on the multimedia installation The Dance of Dead Souls.

Elizabeth has a degree in Literature and Holistic Education, a Master's Degree in Literature from the University of Zulia (Venezuela) and a Master's Degree in Screenwriting from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her essay Miguel Ángel Jusayú: Oralitura y Memoria del Pueblo Wayuu was awarded a prize in the Sol de Letras competition and presented at the Bogotá International Book Fair (FILBO) in 2024.

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ABOUT Sa'in y los hermosos invisibles [Sa'in and the Invisible Beings of the Land]

In the magical landscapes of La Guajira, Colombia, a young Wayuu woman undergoes mystical transformations —including into birds and hybrid beings— while unraveling secrets about her existence. She struggles to balance her people’s ancestral cosmology with the challenges of modernity and globalization.

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