A painter in her seventies takes two big stages at once
The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs, a documentary about Shipibo-Conibo painter Sara Flores, has premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto. The film centres on Flores, a painter from the Peruvian Amazon who is in her seventies. It was selected for TIFF Docs, the festival's documentary section Screen Daily.
Flores paints intricate networks on raw cotton canvases. She works in kené, the patterned line system of the Shipibo-Conibo people, rendered in fine, interlocking designs. She was the first kené artist to sign her work, starting in the 1970s The Art Newspaper.
She signed her name. Recognition took decades to follow.
Flores was discovered by the international art world in her 70s. She still lives and works in the Peruvian Amazon, far from the festival circuit and the gallery calendar.
The film was directed by Matteo Norzi and Èlia Gasull Balada. Norzi is a co-founder of the Shipibo-Conibo Center, a non-profit group that works with the community, and that close connection shapes the film's access to Flores and her family.
The title has a specific source. It is a line from a shamanic song heard in the film, in which the hummingbird appears as a helper spirit TIFF. The film uses the phrase as its name, rather than as a description invented for the poster.
Viewers in Toronto will meet Flores on screen. Visitors in Venice can meet her work in person.
Flores is the exhibitor for Peru at Biennale Arte 2026, the international art exhibition in Venice. Peru's presentation is titled From Other Worlds. It is commissioned by Armando Andrade de Lucio and curated by Issela Ccoyllo and Norzi La Biennale. Her work is currently on view in the Peruvian pavilion.
Her patterns have already moved beyond canvas and gallery walls. Flores collaborated with Dior on a limited artist's edition of the Lady Dior bag. The project put her networks in front of fashion buyers as well as art audiences.
What makes this stand out is the timing. A cinema audience learns her story in Toronto while her paintings hold a national pavilion in Venice. For a painter who began signing when few were watching, both stages have arrived at once.
