Jeissy Trompiz’s ‘Three Houses’ Explores Post-Maduro Venezuela

For a significant period, filmmaker Jeissy Trompiz answered a simple question from his Brazilian friend with a telling phrase: "I don't know what to tell you." That question was about Venezuela, a country Trompiz left in 2014 from his oil-city hometown of Maracaibo. He traveled to Cuba to study filmmaking at the International School of Film and TV right before the nation's severe political and economic crises fully deepened. His journey eventually took him through a residency in Italy, short film productions in Cuba and Indonesia, and finally to the Dominican Republic in 2019, where he currently resides.

Due to the global pandemic and persistent passport renewal hurdles, Trompiz remained physically separated from his homeland for approximately six years. Upon his eventual return, he encountered a radically altered nation that he had previously found nearly impossible to articulate, even to himself. The emotional weight of the homecoming was profound. He described the situation as deeply sad and shocking, finding himself continuously drawing comparisons between Venezuela and Cuba, another country enduring prolonged crisis. This return acted as a catalyst, making him realize that he finally had the context and emotional clarity to speak about his homeland through his art.

This realization marked the genesis of "Three Houses," known originally in Spanish as "Tres casas." Conceived as a documentary structured like an extended video letter addressed to his Brazilian friend, Trompiz views the filmmaking process as a form of personal therapy. The project explores a complex and often overlooked facet of the national landscape, focusing on a Venezuela where Afro and Indigenous communities are pushed onto the periphery of the periphery. Through this localized lens, the documentary examines the broader societal fracture and the lived realities of those who are most marginalized within an already distressed state.

The documentary's path to completion has been fraught with practical challenges and security concerns. Trompiz has been developing the project for four years, driven by a deep sense of urgency to share these untold stories. In the early stages, he captured footage directly on the streets using a mobile phone. However, these guerrilla-style recording methods had to be curtailed after his mother expressed severe safety concerns. Her fears were well-founded; she had actively promoted the opposition movement, witnessed friends imprisoned, faced false accusations, and been unjustly pushed out of her public sector job.

Compounding these political vulnerabilities, local mafias and systemic extortion presented constant threats to everyday safety and documentary production. Consequently, Trompiz had to abandon traditional street filming with visible cameras to protect both himself and his family from retaliation. Despite these formidable obstacles, the project has garnered international attention and validation. "Three Houses" was selected to be showcased at the Vancouver Film Festival's newly launched Business Hub Works-In-Progress Forum, signaling growing recognition for Trompiz's vital perspective and the urgent narratives coming from Venezuelan independent creators.