Mascarados

The music is the engine of the different machines and the sound of materials as they impact the soil. Workers from the community of Pirenópolis, with their faces protected and their ears covered, turn the switches on and off. With their hands covered with gloves, they chip stones after the implosion that breaks the surface of the mountains that surround the quarry. Suddenly, the deafening sound ceases and industrial order is replaced by a handmade one–a hand that paints masks slowly with a brush, black on white. It is the preparations for the much-anticipated Festa do Divino Espírito Santo de Pirenópolis. For the first time, a court ruling forces the masked ones to attend the celebration with a number so that they can be identified. (Mar del Plata International Film Festival)