XPRESA
EDUCATION
At (S8) we conceive cinema as a tool for self-knowledge and exploration of the senses and emotions. That is the spirit that inspires Xpresa, an educational programme that aims to foster social inclusion.
One of the activities within this programme is the workshop that we provide every year for people with diverse abilities or at risk of social exclusion, given by filmmakers with a recognised track record. Breaking the mould when it comes to sparking enthusiasm for cinema, Xpresa is not content with simply disseminating traditional models of creativity, but is committed to providing the participants with a mechanism through which they can experience and express their own universe through the free, stimulating creation of personal film pieces, made with intuition prior to what is learned. In previous years at (S8) we have hosted workshops by filmmakers like Pablo Mazzolo, Jeannette Muñoz and Andrés Duque.
In recent years, Xpresa has been able to count on collaboration from local associations, as is the case this year with the Galician Asperger’s Association, ASPERGA, and the Disabled Adults Foundation of A Coruña, ADCOR, who are becoming familiar with the guest filmmakers’ work. Moreover, the Xpresa programme includes a presentation and screening of the films resulting from the workshop at the Mostra as part of its programmme, as well as these works touring in collaboration with the University of A Coruña and other institutions, and inclusion in events (beyond the festival dates and with their creators present) and an extended programme in collaboration with the city’s socio-cultural centres to work with people of school age at risk of social exclusion.
XPRESA WORKSHOP WITH AINHOA RODRÍGUEZ
THE FILM WINDOW: VISUAL SPACE AND SOUND SPACE
In this workshop we will delve into some of the main codes for film narrative, looking in depth at the director’s dramatic and narrative decisions but breaking away from the normative guidelines of systematic, mainstream film so as to question the pensée unique, also doing so from a gender perspective. We will be experimenting with the possibilities of film language, especially as regards the cinematographic space and the importance of the frame and the off-frame constructed by the filmmaker, because “to photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed” (Susan Sontag). In the different workshop sessions, we will attempt to return to the shot and contemplation of it, its entity, from a playful and experimental point of view, learning while playing with language.
The workshop will be given by the director, producer and screenwriter Ainhoa Rodríguez, whose first feature film, Brave Flash (2021), premiered in the Official Tiger Competition Section of the International Film Festival of Rotterdam (IFFR) and was part of the 50th anniversary selection of New Directors / New Films in New York, organised by MoMA at the Lincoln Film Center. The film was awarded the Silver Biznaga (Jasmine bouquet) Jury Prize at the 2021 Malaga Festival, and the Silver Biznaga for Best Editing within the Official Section. Rodríguez has also earned many other acknowledgements for this work and for his previous short films.