This Is Where I Sleep - Carla
2013 · 5m · Canada
Directed by Annick De Vries, Ernest Godin, Eza Paventi
Genres: coming-of-age, documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender
On the tiny Caribbean island of Terre-de-Haut near Guadeloupe, Carla lives in constant sun but must take a boat to the main island for most needs, while filming friends and pursuing singing and dance.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A five-minute slice-of-life about a girl on a Caribbean island sounds like the most predictable coming-of-age setup imaginable—and yet De Vries, Godin, and Paventi somehow made it feel like eavesdropping on an actual life rather than a festival sentiment.
The film sits within a lineage of intimate documentary portraiture, executing with formal restraint the kind of observational cinema that prioritizes presence over narrative—a quietly rigorous study in letting location and character speak without editorial intrusion.
What lands here is the decision to let Carla's voice—her actual singing, her humor, the texture of how she moves through her small island routine—carry the entire emotional weight rather than underscore it; that restraint is what transforms a modest five minutes into something that lingers.