A long canoe floats onscreen to the throbbing hum of insects; a frail woman expertly strips bark from a tree. She boils it slowly, a small tamarin monkey curled on her head like a crown. Dipping a blade into a bowl of tree juice, the woman free-hands a series of geometric shapes. Her nails are stained with age and ink, her grip remarkably steady.
Directed by Èlia Gasull Balada and Matteo Norzi, The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs (2026) follows artist Sara Flores throughout her rapid ascendance to art world fame as the representing artist of the Peruvian pavilion at the current Venice Biennale. The film will screen at the 50th annual São Paulo International Film Festival starting on October 19, and will make its United States premiere as the opening night selection at DOC NYC on Wednesday, November 11, streaming online as part of the festival from November 12–29.
After an opening sequence set deep in the Amazon rainforest, we encounter Flores smiling at a flute of champagne on a first-class flight to New York. At her exhibition at the now-defunct Clearing gallery on the Bowery, she stands proud in a crimson blouse, admiring the admirers. In Central Park, she feeds the pigeons after watching a man extend acorns to the squirrels.
