The Miracle, a documentary film by David Varela

The Miracle is a feature-length documentary that openly explores our life process as a couple. Lola, the protagonist, faces the sudden and unpostponable need to become a mother; while David (myself) refuses to face it, immersed as he is in other life quests.The Miracle is an emotional autobiography based on experiences and conflicts that were abruptly triggered during a journey that ended up becoming the root of our future.

This is a film that has been haunting our lives for many years. What was a failed attempt to try to get an ambitious feature film project off the ground, finally became an obsessive search for images and sounds with which to try to overcome that same failure. A frustrated honeymoon in Asia was the initial context from which we ended up becoming fictional (or ghostly) characters of our own reality as a couple.

With this campaign, and with your help, we want to make the final postproduction of the film. We currently have a final editing version. Now we only need this last step to make it public and start distributing this intimate, personal and at the same time -we hope- universal film.

India: an emotional journey.

Although we will not only travel through India, it is fundamentally in this space where we will wander in search of answers to obsessions that dominate us. An India brimming with stimuli and life that contrasts with the stopped time in which we found ourselves trapped. A continuous, intense and tenacious journey, which paradoxically managed to suspend a relationship that was at its peak.

We will travel from Bombay to Benares, passing through West Bengal - where the Bauls and Rabindranath Tagore sing their prayers and confirm their symbols - until we reach colonial Calcutta, and from there to Sagar Island, where, according to Hindu mythology, the sacred mother Ganga (Ganges River) flows into.

All of these places are much more than spaces of passage. In many of them we lived and experienced loss, loneliness or the desire to disappear on their shores. It was not exactly a journey of spiritual revelation. But it was a discovery of our limits, needs and future possibilities, both together and alone.

Music as a narrative thread.

Why do we say that The Miracle is an autobiographical musical film? Here the music will have a narrative prominence, although not only at the sensorial and emotional level to which its melodies elevate us, but also because of the way its lyrics suggest moods and critical thoughts in its protagonists (and in the viewer).

Folk music from different regions of India, spiritual songs from the Bauls and Fakirs of West Bengal and Bangladesh, blues from the Mississippi Delta, or Flamenco. These are some of the traditional music that will shape and give a new meaning to our travels and our history.

Why do we need your help?

This is a very unique film in our filmography. Made intermittently over the last 14 years of our lives, it has been recorded at different moments and processes of our intimacy as a family.

The Miracle is a self-produced film with absolute independence and economic autonomy. Since it is a project that was born from our experiences, and the filming has been carried out over the years in a haphazard and discontinuous manner, we have not carried out a conventional production process, usually based on public aid.

What will your contributions be used for?

With a final edited version, we are now in the moment of facing the sound and image post-production, as well as the creation of credits, intertitles, English subtitles and final copies of the film. This is why we are launching this campaign and asking for your help.

We want to carry out this last technical process, but above all, the creative one, with the best professionals (we include their biographies below); allies and colleagues with whom we have already had the good fortune to work on previous films. We want to repeat the experience, since without them it would be impossible to achieve The Miracle with the finish and aesthetic and narrative solidity that we have set as our goal.

The entire amount we are asking for will go to cover their salaries. But we would like to publicly thank all of them for their generosity in adapting professionally to a small and modest production like ours.

Although it is a risk (given that if we do not raise the total amount we ask for, we will not receive anything and all contributions will be returned to all of you), for consistency and fairness with the team involved, we have decided to bet high and trust that we will be able to raise all the money we need for this process.

We would also like to clarify that, even if we achieve the proposed objective, we would still have to make a new personal investment in order to meet the expenses for the rights of images and music, as well as the process of distribution, communication and press in good conditions.

The 7,000 euros we are requesting would only cover this first part of the process, so if we reach that amount, we would still need and heartily appreciate your contributions and support in spreading the campaign.

Planned calendar

We want to start the post-production process as soon as this campaign is over, with the idea of ​​having the final screening copy of the film between January and February 2025. This way we can begin distribution through international and national festivals in that first quarter of the year.

Rewards will begin to be sent during the last half of 2025.

What will your contributions be used for?

Who are we?

DAVID VARELA (Director, producer, screenwriter and editor)

IMDB David Varela

David Varela is a self-taught filmmaker, teacher and programmer. Since 2010 he has produced, edited and directed the feature-length documentary Banaras me, as well as various short and medium-length films, including Last portrait and Freedom to kill the other’s children, with which he travels to international festivals and art centres, collecting some awards along the way. In parallel, he works as an editor for other authors, on titles such as False Flags (2012), by Carlos Serrano Azcona or Archipelago (2023), a collective direction project.

In 2012, he began a collaboration with the writer Chantal Maillard, with whom he developed a theatrical adaptation of her work Diarios Indios. In 2021, he produced and directed the feature film An impassible sky, a collaborative work developed with a group of teenagers that premiered in the Official Section of the Gijón International Film Festival. The Miracle, in post-production, will be his third documentary feature film.

He has worked for years as a film programmer for the Documentary Film Association DOCMA, and has been the Artistic Director of 3XDOC, Meeting of Creators in its latest editions. He has designed film series, retrospectives and programs for institutions such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía or the Spanish Cinematheque. In his last stage, he has been Artistic Co-director of the Documenta Madrid International Documentary Film Festival, in its editions 2017 to 2019.

LOLA MARTÍNEZ (Protagonist and screenwriter)

I studied journalism out of pure passion. As a child, I interviewed anyone who came my way, and then, using the recordings, I made my own radio montages that my whole family remembers and that I still keep on old cassette tapes.

I graduated in Information Sciences from the UCM, and after working in various media outlets, in 2001 I started working as a reporter on La 1 de TVE. After ten years in television, I decided to make the leap to radio, my great passion. In September 2007 I began working at Radio Exterior de RNE as deputy director of the program "Hora América". In 2014 I created the sociocultural laboratory "Artesfera", a program on RNE.

In 2019 we received the Fundación Grupo Norte Award for Journalism Against Gender Violence for the program "El quejío de una diosa" broadcast on Radio 3.

In 2021, I became part of the "Proyecto Amapolas", supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, whose objective is to give visibility to women artists from rural areas who, with their work, are promoting the culture and economy of their communities.

In 2021, I designed and continue to direct another program, "RadioActivas", which is currently broadcast on Radio 5, a project that is a sounding board for people and groups that are transforming society by betting on the common and self-management.

I have co-produced and creatively and emotionally accompanied all of David Varela's film projects.

SERGI DIES (Editor) AMMAC

IMDB Sergi Dies

XI GAUDÍ AWARD for Best Editing (2019) for 'Entre dos aguas' by Isaki Lacuesta.

XV GAUDÍ AWARD for Best Editing (2023) and Nominated in the 37 Goya Awards for Best Editing (2023) for Isaki Lacuesta's 'Un año una noche'.

A graduate in Audiovisual Communication from the Pompeu Fabra University, specialising in directing and scriptwriting, his interest in language in general and film language in particular led him to editing as a learning process in cinema, which he considered a path to directing. Little by little and almost by accident, both life and living editing images and sounds for film, revealed to him a profession and a passion that he immediately identified as his place (in cinema), where he stayed and specialised, delving into film writing.

He began his career as an editor working for television and advertising (animated series, documentary series, game shows, commercials, etc.), but soon felt a clear preference for long formats. His specialization in feature films began in 1999 with Monos como Becky by Joaquín Jordà and continues until today, late 2024, with the editing of an upcoming film by Isaki Lacuesta that is in full process.

He has participated as editor, among others, in De nens (2003) by Joaquín Jordà; The Ful Taxi Driver (2005) by Jo Sol; Dies d'Agost (2006) by Marc Recha; Family Strip (2009) by Luis Miñarro; Dying by Day (2010) by Laia Manresa and Sergi Dies; The Fourth Kingdom (2019) by Adán Aliaga and Àlex Lora; Camagroga (2020) by Alfonso Amador; The Marker Variations (2007), Between Two Waters (2018) and One Year, One Night (2022) by Isaki Lacuesta; Casa Reynal (wip 2024) by Laia Manresa; VALENCIANA (wip, 2024) by Jordi Núñez.

SERGIO LÓPEZ-ERAÑA (Sound Postproduction)

IMDB Sergio López-Eraña

Bilbao, 1982.

A career musician, qualified as a sound technician by the “CES” school (Madrid), and with a diploma in the specialty of sound for cinema from the “School of Cinematography and Audiovisual of the Community of Madrid” (ECAM), he currently works as head of direct sound and sound designer for film, advertising and television.

Among his most recent works, the following stand out: “La Desconocida”, “Vienes o Voy”, “Maixabel”, “Kobane”, “Canallas”, “García y García”, “Lo Nunca Visto”, “The Eight Hundred”, “So Long, My Son”, “Miau”, “La Higuera de los Bastardos”, “La Madre” and “Oscuro y Lucientes”, among others.

Always closely linked to the world of documentary, his latest works are "Labordeta, a man without more", "An impassible sky", "19", "Land of milk and honey", "Barefoot giants", "Aute Portrait", "The man who designed Spain", "The secrets of the red" "Mr. Liberto and the small pleasures", "The party of the others" or "Trees", from the collective Los Hijos.

Winner of various awards for best sound (Alcalá de Henares Film Festival, Cortogenia, Filmsere, Fuentes Film Festival), he has also participated in masterclasses on sound for documentary films, monographic sound courses at the “ECAM”, or as a professor of sound at the youth film school “Cinema Kids”.

ARMAND ROVIRA (Image Postproduction)

IMDB Armand Rovira

Armand Rovira was born in Barcelona in 1979. He combines teaching, film direction and colour correction with works such as “¿Qué será de baby Grace?” (2009), “Hoissuru” (2018) or the feature film “Letters to Paul Morrissey” (2019). His works have been awarded and selected at the Seville Film Festival (Nuevas Olas), Sitges (Noves Visions Award), D’A Barcelona (Movistar + Award), Malaga Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights, BAFICI, FIDLAB Marseille or Karlovy Vary.

ALBERTO DE CASTRO (Direction of Photography)

Alberto de Castro. A native of Madrid from both his father and mother since 1972.

Diploma in Photography Direction at the Madrid Film Institute. In 2015 I shot my first feature film, "Chicas Paranoicas". Subsequently, multiple advertising projects, music videos, some documentaries and numerous short films emerged. With training in digital cinema and color, I believe that technique should always be at the service of intuition. There are many ways of seeing and observing, and a camera allows you to differentiate them.

Passionate about the possibilities that a particular frame and lighting give you and with great attention to detail. Always aware of visual and narrative trends.

JAVIER CHILLÓN (Credit Titles Design)

Madrid, 1977. Graduated in Audiovisual Communication from the Complutense University of Madrid and holds a Master's degree in Directing from the University of Southampton. He works as a director, editor and designer of credit titles.

+ Info

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• Also follow the project on my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidvarelafilms/

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