Daughters of the Forest Blossom @SXSW 2026

As a lover of mushrooms of all shapes and sizes, FERNTV would never think that a documentary would come along that would be all about the fungi. Daughters of the Forest, from director Otilia Portillo Padua, is a charming film about how two Indigenous communities live with mushrooms and how mushrooms resemble the way that we lead our own lives.

The winner of the Audience Award at SXSW is a very layered story and film. As the synopsis says, Daughters of the Forest is a film about entanglements: between humans and mushrooms; the visible and the invisible, generational knowledge and modern science. Through watching this film, there is so much more to mushrooms than anyone would have thought. The focus on these two Indigenous communities is chronicled seamlessly, and how mushrooms are the centre of their universe.

Daughters of the Forest is an immersive sci-fi documentary because it digs deep into the unknown world of mushrooms through site and sound. Padua, who worked so diligently on the music with Hannah Peel and sound design by Javier Umpierrez, almost lets you in on the sound of the life cycle of the mushroom. The sound of the growth and the death of a mushroom is haunting yet beautiful because it also symbolizes renewal.

Inspired by Ursula K. LeGuin‘s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, the story of Daughters of the Forest starts with a lot of questions rather than answers. Through that philosophy, the documentary allows you to question what is in the bag and who holds it. With that the audience immerses themselves into a world that has never been viewed before. The film uses a “mycelial lens” allowing the audience to get the feeling of what it is like to be a mushroom and how the world interacts with you.

The two daughters of the story focuses on are Julietta and Eliseete who are both mycologists. They are both scientifically trained and taught by their own families of how to view nature and themselves. One of the highlights of this film is when the daughters are classifying mushrooms with their elders and seeing if they are edible or not through smelling them. Or even the way they cook the mushrooms is so delightful and gives you that home-cooked meal feeling. The film shows how mushrooms can bond families in so many different ways and manners.

Nevertheless, both Julietta and Eliseete are aware of their surroundings and of the inevitability of change. They realize evolution happens with or without them, and major ecological changes and deforestation in inevitable. Meaning the mushrooms themselves will change, whether in shape or structure, which is also symbolic of the families they live in.

The two young mycologists must remain resilient and to stand up against all elements that oppress mushrooms and their own families. In addition, they must enhance their role as women and as the bearers of mushrooms. Rather than planting the seeds, spreading the spores of mushrooms is just like knowledge. This is an act of resistance and renewal. As well of helping to grow a future of possibilities with much care.

Daughters of a Forest is such a unique film because it delves into the unknown in a way that makes it alive. Whether it is the world of mushrooms or the world of these two Indigenous families, director Otilia Portillo Padua makes you become one with worlds that she presents to you in this fascinating documentary.

Daughters of the Forest is certainly about entanglements. Not only between mushrooms and humans but between humans and this earth, and undoubtedly amongst humans themselves. As in the case for this film’s actual production, the entanglement between sound and film is of utmost importance. The layers of sound that are designed for the film are entanglements themselves that director Padua continues to learn as a filmmaker. FERNTV says that Daughters of the Forest is one of the best sound-generated films in the documentary landscape to date.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fernando Fernandez (@ferntv.ca)