Documental observacional “La Perla mientras duerme”: retrato de la vida nocturna silenciosa de Guayaquil.

Abstract

This degree project details the production of La Perla mientras duerme, a observational documentary short film that explores the emerging labor and social dynamics in the center of Guayaquil during the nocturnal hours. Given the contemporary audiovisual void regarding the city in the dark, this project aims to make visible the informal survival economy and the invisible trades that sustain it from the evening transition until dawn. Theoretically grounded in Bill Nichols' observational mode of representation and Gilles Deleuze's time-image concept, the documentary yields absolute prominence to the physical space, deliberately dispensing with interviews, voice-overs, and sensationalist manipulations to guarantee ethical respect toward the subjects. On a technical and aesthetic level, the work is sustained by the exclusive use of available light and static framing that portray the contrast between the empty architectural monumentality and the vitality of the working class. In the post-production stage, a chronological montage was structured which, integrated with an organic sound design and an experimental acoustic musicalization, operates as the main psychological driver to convey the weight of nocturnal isolation. Finally, executed under an independent and self-managed production model, the project demonstrates the viability of creating works with high cinematographic rigor that function as documents of historical memory, vindicating the resilience of the human ecosystem that inhabits the margins of the main port while most of the population rests.