More than 8,000 people were able to enjoy an (S8) festival that screened more than 180 films from a dozen different countries, including 25 that were international premieres and 41 Spanish ones, in addition to five completely new film performances that were held in the Desbordamientos (Overflows) section.
Some of the most outstanding moments in the Mostra included the experience of Anthony McCall’s “solid light” cinema and the premiere in Spain of the work by Barbara Sternberg that filled the venues of Filmoteca de Galicia, Palexco and the Luis Seoane Foundation with an audience from all over Spain and beyond our borders.
Faithful to its commitment to fostering emerging talent, the Sinais section showed the most relevant examples from our peninsular cinema. In addition, the festival extended the Paraíso section dedicated to Fine Arts students, as well as the INPUT tutoring space for projects.
On Sunday, 4 June, the fourteenth (S8) Peripheral Film Festival or Mostra in A Coruña came to a close after ten days of screenings and activities in eight spaces around the city: Filmoteca de Galicia, Palexco, Domus, Luis Seoane Foundation, Afundación, Atalaya, the Méndez Núñez Gardens and the Eurostars Atlántico Hotel. Altogether they were visited by more than 8,000 people, once again making the city of A Coruña an essential place to be for avant-garde cinema, exemplary for new creators of contemporary cinema, with a significant increase this year in a young audience that took part very actively.
On the fiftieth anniversary of his death, the world dreamed up by the painter from A Coruña Urbano Lugrís inspired and provided the image for this festival. Another great point of reference this year was the forerunner of underground and experimental cinema, Iván Zulueta, to whom this year’s (S8) dedicated an extensive series. “A/Z: Zulueta inédito” (“A/Z: Zulueta unreleased”) took pride of place in the opening session, and will continue as an extended programme of the festival at the Filmoteca de Galicia every Friday in June. This is a great opportunity to view the legendary filmmaker’s film legacy, which had not come to light until it was recovered by the Filmoteca Española (Spanish Film Library).
Also in this year’s (S8), once again there were world-renowned filmmakers such as Anthony McCall, Barbara Sternber, John Price, Hangjun Lee, Helga Fanderl and Benjamin Ellenberger. In addition, also this year, more than 60 professionals from countries such as Argentina, France, Chile, Brazil, Germany, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy and the United States attended the festival, as well as from many parts of Spain such as Madrid, Navarre, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Catalonia, Andalusia, the Valencian Community region and more.
Among the most impressive moments for the attendees, there was the closing event by the Briton Anthony McCall, visiting our country for the first time for a film festival, who amazed the public with the staging of his “solid light” works. Image overlay cinema was also given a magnificent reception, along with research into the visual, emotional and intellectual world brought to (S8) by the Canadian Barbara Sternberg. The two filmmakers filled out the venues of the Filmoteca de Galicia and the (S8) Palexco to capacity.
Film performances: an essential (S8) experience
Film performances are one of the festival’s flagships, and they also provided some great moments this year, such as the tribute to lighthouses, inspired by the Tower of Hercules, created exclusively for this year’s (S8) by the Canadian filmmaker John Price, and which was able to count on live sound from Torso, the Galician multi-instrumentalist Ibán Pérez’s electronic music project. In addition, the two programmes with Price’s films filled out the (S8)’s screening venues.
The proposal from the South Korean Hangjun Lee was also a completely new one, surprising A Coruña with a visual and sound spectacle that turned the film projector into a kind of musical instrument. In addition, (S8) was the stage for the world premiere of Torontontero by Alvaro Feldman, the project resulting from his BAICC artistic residency carried out at LIFT in Toronto (Canada), as well as the works Todo va a fallar (Everything is going to fail) by Helena Estrela andAs time bends by Maria Pipla, created thanks to the eSe8_LAB Scholarships at the Baltic Analog Lab facilities in Riga (Latvia). In their commitment to discovering authentic creations made to be enjoyed with the five senses, Cervezas Alhambra once again collaborated in the festival with its Alhambra Moments, and during the “Desbordamientos” section they were able to pair their varieties with the best artistic and cultural proposals.
Also this year, the festival has continued to build bridges with experimental cinema being made on the other side of the Atlantic, with one of today’s most exciting creators in Argentina: Benjamin Ellenberger, who was present. In addition to showing a complete programme of his cinema for the first time in Spain, he gave a sensory performance with 16 mm projectors.
All of this was packed into a festival in which (S8) confirmed its international stature, with 25 works premiered internationally and 41 in Spain. Its global relevance has also been confirmed by the fact that over the festival’s ten days, the Mostra Internacional de Cinema Periférico had festival programmers from all over the world map: Avant Festival (Sweden), Porto Post Doc (Portugal), Barcelona Independent Film Festival, l’Alternativa (Spain), PROYECTOR from Madrid, the Punto de Vista Festival of Pamplona, Miragem – Arte Cinematica na Paisagem (Portugal), SACO (Oviedo Contemporary Audiovisual Week), DocumentaMadrid, the Play-Doc International Film Festival, the Vila do Conde Festival, and EXiS (South Korea). Representatives from institutions of international relevance also visited (S8), such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the CCCB Centre for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, Circuito Nomadica, the Instituto Cervantes and the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid.
(S8): beacon and guide for the new cinematographic avant-garde
In this fourteenth (S8), the Sinais section has established itself as a benchmark for today’s avant-garde cinema in Iberia. About twenty creators from the Galician, Spanish and Portuguese spheres showed their most recent works for the first time. Among them, there were names from the present and future of our cinema such as Claudia Pineda, Rita Morais, Laura Moreno, Carlos Baixauli, Elisa Celda, Gadea Burgaz, Sofía Hansen, Leonor Serrano Rivas, Lucía del Valle, Ángel Montero Vázquez, Valentina Alvarado and more.
This year, the Paraíso section took a qualitative leap with the presence of students and teachers from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Pontevedra (University of Vigo); the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Salamanca and the University of Barcelona; the Academy of Fine Arts from Brescia Santa Giulia; the Accademia Di Belle Arti Di Bologna and the Nantes Saint-Nazare Higher School of Fine Arts.
Furthermore, the Mostra expanded its support for the promotion, professionalisation and development of projects by filmmakers committed to the use of new cinematographic languages, with a record-breaking INPUT space in which 62 proposals were presented. The six selected were tutored by the internationally renowned professionals Albert Alcoz, Helena Girón, Giuseppe Spina, María Cañas, Jessica Sarah Rinland and Cloe Masotta. The activity took place over three days at the Fundación Obra Social ABANCA and Fundación Luis Seoane venues, and will continue with online monitoring once the festival is over.
For another year, the Mostra has bolstered its educational side with a commitment to attracting new audiences to spread avant-garde film creation with screenings organised for more than 400 schoolchildren from schools in the city: IES Urbano Lugrís, IES David Buján, CEIP Concepción Arenal, CEIP Víctor López Seoane, and IES Ramón Menéndez Pidal. For many of them, (S8) was their first contact with celluloid and their first screening in Super 8.
International meeting point for professionals
(S8) also acted as a meeting point for professionals through its Observatory. On this occasion, the focus was on the work of publishers that immortalise the history of experimental cinema and its filmmakers through the written word. In the encounter “Bearing witness: how to publish books on experimental cinema today”, there was the Parisian publishing house Eyewash Books headed by Scott Hammen; the Argentines La Vida Útil with Lucia Salas and Caja Negra with Pablo Marin; the magazine Lumièrewith Francisco Algarin at the helm; and the publishing collective Stereo Editions with Helena Gouveia Monteiro present. The German publisher Hatje Cantz was also invited to take part in the Mostra due to the recent publication of the book Helga Fanderl. Konstellationen Super 8, which the filmmaker Helga Fanderl herself presented at (S8). In addition, the meeting was accompanied by the programme“Books about movies; movies about books”, with a selection of films included in the books released by the publishers present in A Coruña.
Another activity included in the Observatory at this 14th (S8) was the “Proxecta Panel: sustainability at festivals“, in which representatives took part from FICBUEU – Bueu International Film Festival and the Mares da Fin do Mundo International Documentary Film Festival, two of the festivals involved in Proxecta – Galician Film Festival Coordinator; in addition to representatives of the Sinsal festival and the Coordinator of the Galician Sustainable Culture Pact, María Baqueiro.
Extended programme and new calls
(S8)’s programme extends beyond the festival’s dates. This year, this is occurring with the continuity of the A/Z: Zulueta inédito (A/Z: Zulueta unreleased) series by the Filmoteca Española on Fridays in June at the Filmoteca de Galicia venue. There will also be the Xpresa – Cinematographic workshop for social inclusion, “Nostalgia of the image”by the hand of the artist Tânia Dinis, which will take place on 30 June and 1 July.This initiative from (S8) uses cinematographic creation as a motor for social inclusion. It can count on the collaboration of the Galician Association for Asperger’s (ASPERGA) and the Foundation for Disabled Adults of A Coruña (ADCOR).
Furthermore, the International Peripheral Film Festival is keeping open the call to participate in the BAICC Artist Residencies programme, for which the deadline has been extended until this Sunday, 18 June. This is a programme to foster the production of an audiovisual work shot in analogue format in Canada, thanks to the partnership between (S8), Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and LIFT – the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, with co-financing from the European Union – NextGenerationEU as part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts.
Backing
This 14th (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico has been organised by the eSe8 Cultural Association and can count on the backing of the A Coruña City Council, the Tourism and Congresses Consortium, the A Coruña Provincial Council (Diputación), the Galician Agency for Cultural Industries of the Xunta (Regional Government) of Galicia, the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Luis Seoane Foundation. It can also count on collaboration from the Afundación – ABANCA social work projects (Obra Social).
In addition, it has been possible to invite Barbara Sternberg, Hangjun Lee, Enrico Camporesi, Jessica Sarah Rinland, Helena Gouveia and Scott Hamen to this (S8) thanks to the Programme by Acción Cultural Española (Spanish Cultural Action or AC/E) to Internationalise Spanish Culture (PICE) in its visitor format, which makes it easier for Spanish cultural entities and institutions to invite international cultural exemplaries to Spain to take part in their activities and programmes so as to get to know what Spain’s creative and cultural scene has to offer directly and in person.
The BAICC International Artistic Residencies for Cinematographic Creation came about from the collaboration between (S8), Spanish Cultural Action (AC/E) and LIFT – the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto. They are co-funded by the European Union –NextGenerationEU as part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts.
The eSe8_LAB scholarships are funded by European Union – NextGenerationEU as part of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts’ Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience, thanks to the aid for Laboratories and Incubators for the Creation and Development of Audiovisual Projects. They can count on collaboration from the BALTIC ANALOG LAB (BAL) in RIGA.
In their commitment to discovering authentic creations made to be enjoyed with the five senses, Cervezas Alhambra has again collaborated in the festival with its Alhambra Moments. Once again this year, it was possible to pair their varieties with the best artistic and cultural proposals in the “Desbordamientos” section. The brand thus backed (S8) as part of its commitment to promoting culture and fostering unique experiences.
The images by Urbano Lugrís belong to the ABANCA art collection and their use has also been made possible thanks to collaboration from the artist’s family and the O Mural Cultural Association.
