Join author Alejandro Puyana and filmmaker Andres Figueredo Thomson for a post-film discussion. 

In this prison, inmates rule. Enter one of the most dangerous facilities in Venezuela, PGV in Caracas, where the only guards stand outside. Inside, prisoners enforce their own code and deliver justice accordingly. Despite — or because of — these conditions, salvation is sought, and found, even in the darkest of cells.

Featuring an Alienated Majesty Books pop-up shop. Alejandro Puyana’s Freedom is a Feast, is available for purchase at Alienated Majesty Books, in-person or online. A sweeping, multigenerational Latin American saga of love and revolution, the novel follows a rebel who, after committing a youthful betrayal, receives a late-life chance at redemption: “a tour de force” from “the new master” (Luis Alberto Urrea, New York Times bestselling author of Good Night, Irene).

This screening is presented in collaboration with American Short Fiction, the Austin‑based nonprofit literary organization founded in 1991.

Alejandro Puyana, who came to the United States from Venezuela at the age of twenty-six, received his MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. His work has appeared in Tin House, American Short Fiction, The American Scholar, and elsewhere, and his story “Hands of Dirty Children” was reprinted in Best American Short Stories. His debut novel, Freedom Is a Feast, won the Westport Prize for Literature and was a finalist for the Literary Peace Prize.

Andrés Figueredo is a Venezuelan-American producer working between Caracas and the U.S., with a degree in Political Economy and Film Studies from Georgetown University. He produced his first narrative feature, LOST SOULZ, in Austin, and wrote and directed LA CAUSA, a documentary filmed over a decade inside the Venezuelan prison system. His producing work includes the Goya-nominated DIRECCIÓN OPUESTA, and his most recent production, DEATH HAS NO MASTER, premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, marking a rare Venezuelan return to the festival. Beyond film, he founded the record label Habeatat and the nonprofit Free Convict, through which he built recording studios inside Venezuelan prisons.