SYNOPSIS
Can a dramatic story be told in just one minute?
For someone who needs to be heard, it may be more than enough.
PREMIERE AND AWARD
One Minute began its journey in Canada at Minute Madness Toronto, a festival devoted entirely to sixty-second films. Because of the pandemic, the screening took place online. Among the hundred shorts selected for the competition, One Minute was named one of three winners.
Its big-screen premiere, however, took place in the United States. In September 2022, the short film screened at the Zion International Film Festival in Tacoma, Washington.
A MATRYOSHKA OF STORIES
One Minute is built almost like a set of matryoshka dolls: two characters talk about telling a story in one minute, and they do so within a story that lasts exactly one minute. During their conversation, one of them proposes another story that could be told in a minute, involving an apparent third character we never see. But even that deeper layer is not the last: the proposed story contains a hidden message through which its narrator tries to convey the difficult situation he himself is facing. That situation — the story concealed within the message — ultimately reveals what the short film’s true story had been all along. And the film’s own title, One Minute, is the perfect outer shell for this nested structure.
Yet the dramatic tone running through this metafictional playfulness makes it more than a simple game. Perhaps that is why so many responses went beyond surprise, speaking instead of tension, depth, harshness, or “condensed cinema” — signs of a story that kept resonating long after its sixty seconds were over.
Stills from One Minute.
🧩 · FILM CREDITS
Written and directed by Israel Mirenda.
Starring Carlos Ramiro Pereyra y Pablo Pipolo.
Produced by Israel Mirenda.
VIEW FULL CREDITS
- TITLE: One Minute
- ORIGINAL TITLE: Un Minuto
- GENRE: Drama
- RUNNING TIME: 60 sec
- DIRECTOR: Israel Mirenda
- CAST: Carlos Ramiro Pereyra – Pablo Pipolo
- SCREENPLAY: Israel Mirenda
- PRODUCER: Israel Mirenda
- CINEMATOGRAPHY: Israel Mirenda
- SOUND: Ishaia Mirenda
- CAMERA: Israel Mirenda
- EDITING: Israel Mirenda
- COLOR GRADING: Israel Mirenda
- MUSIC: Edited by Israel Mirenda using tracks by Kevin MacLeod
- POSTER: Israel Mirenda
- SPECIAL THANKS: José Ignacio González
- LANGUAGE: Spanish
- COUNTRY: Uruguay
- DATE: February 2020
🎬 · FROM THE DIRECTOR
At the beginning of 2020, I realized I had to commit to filmmaking in earnest. It felt almost like a last chance. To keep putting it off would be like giving up.
“This will break the ice,” I told the actors.
Everything happened in a rush. In no time, I had written the script and sent a few messages; just hours later, the production was under way.
The shoot was just as quick: one scene in the living room and another in the square we walked to.
“That’s it?”
“Yes, that’s it.”
The crew could not have been better: my daughter handling the boom mic and me doing everything else.
Since I did not yet have an editing suite, I asked my boss if I could edit the film in my office at Canal 10. Within hours, One Minute was finished.
“Done. We’ve broken the ice,” I announced.
Looking back on that moment today, I realize we really had.
Filmed just after the shoot wrapped.
AFTER THE MINUTE
Both actors were delighted with the result, but neither they nor the director imagined how far that little short film would travel.
Although it was submitted to only a handful of festivals, it was also released immediately on YouTube and other social media. The responses came quickly.
The video reached thousands of views, then tens of thousands. Praise and comments also came from artists and viewers in different countries. Yet the most meaningful thing was not the numbers, but the intensity of some responses. Some viewers took time to analyze how the short was constructed, described the effect it had on them, or kept imagining what might happen after it ended.
But the most extraordinary thing happened in Mexico, where someone remade One Minute word for word and shot for shot, intending to submit their version to an international competition.
The film ended when its minute was up. Its journey did not.
▶ Watch “They copied our short film”