Las voces del despeñadero (Voices from the Abyss)
2025 · 23m · Mexico
Directed by Irving Serrano, Victor Rejon
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender, whimsical
An intimate black-and-white documentary portrait of the La Quebrada cliff divers in Acapulco, who have passed down their dangerous tradition of diving 100 feet into the sea since the 1930s. Shot in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis, the film uses slow-motion footage, personal testimonies, and an original poem recited by the divers to explore the collision of human form and the brutality of nature.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Black-and-white cliff divers post-Hurricane Otis, with no public shows so the access is unusually intimate — the conditions of the shoot are doing the heavy lifting and I'm fine with that. Leviathan-adjacent body-and-element cinema if it doesn't get too poetic.
Black-and-white cinematography of La Quebrada divers shot in post-Otis quiet, with a recited original poem, points toward Lucrecia Martel's sensory ethnography and the Sensory Ethnography Lab's Leviathan. An intimacy this hard-won is worth the runtime.
Twenty-three minutes of B&W cinematography of La Quebrada divers in the wake of Hurricane Otis — no crowds, no shows, just the ritual — blending slow-motion footage with an original poem recited by the divers themselves. That's the documentary holding still for something sacred.
Reviews
Serrano and Rejón paint an intimate portrait of that community, its members and their love for this dangerous sport. The film's gorgeous cinematography grants the film a truly breathtaking, immersive quality.
What comes through really well is a near worship of the human form. The sheer beauty of physicality seeps into artfully drawn-out shots of the divers in motion paired with classical compositions to turn this dangerous job into pure art.
Festivals
- Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2025
- HollyShorts Film Festival 2025, Best Documentary Short Film
- Morelia International Film Festival 2025, Best Documentary Short Film
- Guadalajara International Film Festival 2025, Best Ibero American Short Film
- Camerimage 2025
- DOC NYC 2025
- Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2025
- Guanajuato International Film Festival 2025
- Cine Las Americas International Film Festival 2025, Best Documentary Short
- BCN Sports Film Festival 2026, Winner
- St. Louis International Film Festival 2025
- San Francisco International Film Festival 2025
- Busan International Short Film Festival 2025