Private Project

PRIMITIVE HEART (PRESENCE)

The life of Carlos, deaf, blind, is transformed by the search of a
hidden potential within his Self. The capacity of being present to himself will bring him close to the threshold of the spirit, due to the encounters that will have with people dedicated to the development of self-consciousness.
Primitive Heart is a documentary which has as its fundamental premise to simultaneously join audiences from the silent world of the deaf with those who can see and hear into the same movie theater.

  • Martin Balestrini
    Director
  • Martin Balestrini
    Writer
  • Martin Balestrini
    Producer
  • Carlos Martinez
    Key Cast
  • Thomas Clements
    Key Cast
  • Candela Ferrer de Paula
    Key Cast
  • Rafael Crine
    Key Cast
  • Lidia Lozano la Huerta
    Key Cast
  • Patricia Rios
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 11 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 3, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Argentina
  • Country of Filming:
    Spain
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    DVCAM,HD,Super 8
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Martin Balestrini

Martín Andrés Balestrini (Argentinean/italian) lives in Barcelona,SPAIN, is Professor of Documentary editing in Luis Buñuel film School and Professor of production and postproduction in the veracruzana University.
Worked as a producer and postproducer on television creating shorts documentary and in Spain as a filmmaker and editor of audiovisual Media.
Is currently finishing his opera prima documentary "Primitive
Heart" (presence).Dedicated to the world of deafblindness.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Primitive Heart is the title of the documentary and was part of what we studied with my teacher of Taichi Zen and meditation in Barcelona (Peter Yang).
One day he asked me to write a text about that state of natural purity; the first part of the writing went like this:
The primitive heart is the primeval state of natural connection with life, with the spirit, this state is the one the fetus feels in the mother´s womb, there is no time, there is no number, nor language.
After a time the ovule has been fecundated, the first thing to come is the pulse of life, materialy it forms a clot of blood, it is the beginning of the formation of our physical body, therefore, if the first thing to arrive is the pulsation of life, the primitive heart is of inmaterial nature, it is spirit, a pulsation. Once we grow up, when we regain conciousness of this state through breathing, we can feel the spirit; that is why the primitive heart is also called a primice of the spirit.
I didn´t know exactly what would be the question that would trace the experience of Carlos in the documentary and determine my quest, until one day I found in an ancient Zen proverb, a premise that adjusted to what I intended to work in the proyect:
Close the three external treasures, of sight, of hearing and of speech, in order to cultivate the three internal treasures, of essence, energy and spirit. (Ancient Zen Proverb).
The experience of Carlos throughout the documentary , is an encounter of his Being with a potential he himself discovers. A Potential related with the entrance to a permanent state of attention in the present moment, somehow the same path the oriental disciplines like Zen, follow.