What if puppet works could travel from one festival to another, crossing continents through the screen and opening new encounters along the way?
Initiated by UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette) through its Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Festivals Commissions, A.L.A. Puppet Movies is a solidarity-based exchange initiative connecting puppet theatre festivals across Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
The project creates a shared circulation network for audiovisual works related to puppetry. Through participating festivals, short films, animations, documentaries, and recordings of stage performances from one region can travel to another—allowing artists and their stories to meet new audiences across continents.
Rather than working through a one-way exchange, A.L.A. Puppet Movies are built around reciprocity. Participating festivals receive access to an international selection of works while contributing voices, stories, and artistic practices from their own regions. Each festival therefore becomes both a host and a bridge, helping works move further and creating connections between puppetry communities that may be geographically distant but share many questions, experiences, and possibilities.
Through this circulation, A.L.A. Puppet Movies hopes to create greater visibility for artists and companies from the Global South, expand access to international programming, and open possibilities for future collaborations between festivals and puppetry communities across the three regions.
At PESTA BONEKA, we are happy to become part of this journey—opening another window for our audiences in Yogyakarta to encounter the many forms, voices, and imaginations of puppetry travelling from Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
Puppet Movies List :
El Rompecabezas/The Puzzle (Argentina)
Duration: 2.31 minutes
Synopsis
A stormy night and a puzzle that reveals one's own destiny…
Author: Cristian Palacios
Creative Team:
Omar Alvarez (Compañía Omar Alvarez Títeres)
Micaela Picarelli (Compañía Arde la Nona)
Cristian Palacios (Compañía Nacional de Fósforos)
Design and making of puppets: Alejandra Farley
Country: Argentina
Year:2021
Festival of reference: Festival Internacional Mundo Títere Fest (ARGENTINA)
El teatrino de Diego /Diego´s theatre (Cuba)
Duration : 5.02 minutes
Synopsis
A unique blend of puppet theater, television animation, and literature brings us closer to the work of the distinguished Cuban writer Eliseo Diego.
Author: Mario Cárdenas
Country: CUBA
Year: 2021
Festival of reference: Festival Internacional de Títeres Habana Titiritera (CUBA)
The Granny Pirate (Macau, China)
Synopsis
One day, Granny Pirate suddenly disappeared!
Grandson anxiously searched for clues to her whereabouts, he gradually uncovers the memories of Pirate Grandma's youth and discovers that her disappearance is related to a divine legend…
Author, Story and Scriptwriter: LAM Teng Teng Teresa
Creative Team
Director: LAM Teng Teng Teresa
Film Director: Keng U LAO
Story and Scriptwriter: LAM Teng Teng Teresa
Puppet Design and Making: LAM Teng Teng Teresa
Puppet Making Assistant: Rita WONG, Annie HO, Kevin CHIO
Puppeteers: LAM Teng Teng Teresa, Kevin CHIO
Voice Actor/Actress: LAM Teng Teng Teresa, Kevin CHIO, Eddie CHEUNG, Keung Lon HO, Cherrie LEONG
Cinematographer: Ka Wai LEE
Gaffer: Keung Lon HO
BTS Photographer: Ion Pui TONG
Production Assistants: Eddie CHEUNG, ZHANG Bo Yan, Annie HO, Kevin CHE
Editor: Keng U LAO
Producer: Kevin CHIO
Country: Macau,China
Year: 2023
Festival of reference:”OUT” Coloane Art Festival (Macau,China)
One last drink/La última y nos vamos (Mexico)
Duration: 15.47 minutes
Synopsis
Two puppetteers unfold this historical fiction based on Frida Kahlo’s life:
La Catrina (death) pursues her, finding out details on her accident, family, lovers, art and the epic relation with Diego Rivera.
After some drinks and music, like best friends, they’ll decide the fate of the most reknowned Mexican female painter of all times.
Author: Script: Susy López P.
Director: Susy López P.
Photography: Gerardo Leiva
Country: México
Year: 2021
Festival of reference: Puebla Puppet Project (MÉXICO)
The Girl In The Pink Frock (India)
Duration: 11.18 minutes
Synopsis
Armed with a mousetrap and a bottle of water , a little girl puts on her favourite pink frock to go on a journey of a ‘thousand’ miles and a million steps, to save the world.
This paper thetare film was made during the total lockdown of India in March 2020, when about 4-6 million people from the disorganised labour sector walked from cities across India back to their villages creating what is probably one of the largest mass exoduses in recent history.
The film at this event through the eyes of 9 year old Sitara who the puppeteer/film maker met while she was walking 682 kilometers to get home.
Author: A Film by Anurupa Roy
Story: Aditi Mediratta
Editing: Dr. Atul Sinha
Country: INDIA
Year:2020
Festival of reference: New Dehli Puppet Film Festival/ Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust (INDIA)
