(S8) has announced the first names for this year’s festival, which is being held between 2nd and 7th June, bringing international luminaries of European and American avant-garde cinema to A Coruña.
From left to right, John Porter, Els van Riel, Jeanne Liotta and Bruno Varela
The 17th International Peripheral Cinema Festival or Mostra has revealed the first names from international avant-garde cinema attending the festival in A Coruña between 2nd and 7th June, 2026. John Porter, Jeanne Liotta, Bruno Varela and Els van Riel will be in the spotlight of retrospectives, unreleased screenings and even, in the case of Varela and van Riel, the premieres of their latest films. Hence, the Mostra will once again be a unique opportunity to discover their films screened in their original format, and Porter will even be interacting during the screening, making every session an unrepeatable experience.
JOHN PORTER, KING OF SUPER 8
John Porter (Canada, 1948)—starring in the documentary King of Super 8 by Anthony Wegner (2025)—is an underground activist for analogue cinema in the Americas and a cult figure in Canada. He has been filming continuously in this format since 1968. His work marks a creative milestone in using Super 8 for experimental cinema, to which he adds his own artistic characteristics that turn its limitations into virtues, fostering sensitivity and imagination.
Porter is a champion of analogue cinema and one of those responsible for Toronto being a world capital of avant-garde cinema, with screening rooms, laboratories and a dynamic creative scene to which he is very much committed. In fact, he has seldom travelled to screenings of his films abroad, so his attendance at A Coruña will be a unique chance to see some of his more than 300 works, most of which have not been digitized. Such is the case of Santa Claus Parade (1976), Landscape (1977), Toy catalogue 3 (1996) and Scanning 8 (2016), which will be projected in Super 8.
Since this is the first time he has been featured at a festival in Spain, the climax for his time at the Mostra will come in the closing session with some of his most acclaimed film performances. These include Scanning 8 (2016) and Shoot Out with Rebecca (1983), with which the creator interacts during the screening. Porter’s attendance at (S8) has been touted as his farewell to the international scene.
John Porter in King of Super 8 (2025), by Anthony Wegner. / Cinefuge 4 (1980) and Firefly (1980), by John Porter
JEANNE LIOTTA, DISCOVERING THE COSMOS
Jeanne Liotta (USA, 1960) is a New York visual artist and performer associated with the Anthology Film Archives. An icon of the underground and avant-garde scene since the 1980s, she began her career in other arts such as drawing and photography, until the freedom of homemade analogue formats led her to make her first film Blue Moon (1988), shot in Super 8 and which will be part of the focus on her at the Mostra.
With an extensive body of work marked by a relationship with philosophy, cinema and the cosmos, her films are always based on careful, prolonged observation of the firmament, materialising in films that spark a sense of discovery in those who watch them. This approach is even more profound, if possible, in her works dedicated to the stars, which take centre stage at (S8) with titles like Muktikara (1999), Observando el cielo (2007), Affect Theory (2013) and Loretta (2003), all of which will be projected in their original 16 mm format.
Jeanne Liotta and stills of Observando el cielo (2007) and Muktikara (1999)
BRUNO VARELA, PRE-COLUMBIAN CONNECTION
With a vast multi-format analogue body of work, Bruno Varela (Mexico, 1971) is one of the great innovators of avant-garde cinema in Mexico and South America, not only as a creator, but also as a thinker, pivoting between shamanism, futurism and politics. He continues the work of the Granada-born creator José Val del Omar, one of the historical figures of Spanish experimental cinema that (S8) helped to raise awareness, and with whom he connects to pre-Columbian culture.
At the 17th (S8), Varela will be featuring in two retrospective sessions with sixteen works made in a variety of formats, even in combination. Such is the case of Anáhuac contra los robots (2024), a performative piece filmed digitally on 16 mm, Super 8 and Betacam SP, and which will be screened in its original format. Other films he is concentrating on are Pequeño Prototipo (2025), Bucle (1992-2002) and Polen negro (2025), which will have its world premiere projected here in 35 mm with live sound.
Bruno Varela’s programme at (S8) includes a permanent space in the Luis Seoane Foundation, where there will be an installation about his work. The entire proposal is curated by the researcher and programmer Byron Davies, backed by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Materialism and Geographic Specificity in the Philosophy of Film from the University of Murcia, and funded by the European Union.
Bruno Varela and stills of Bucle (1992-2002) and Anáhuac contra los robots (2024)
ELS VAN RIEL, SCHOLAR OF LIGHT
Filmmaker, scholar of light and optics, Els van Riel (Belgium, 1965) has been a leading figure in the European panorama for creation and exhibitions of cinema in analogue formats for years. She has been linked to different cultural centres and self-managed laboratories like Cinema Parenthèse and LABO BXL, both in Brussels. In fact, his films include elements that delve into the mechanics of film, investigating how the devices behave.
With his creations and cultural activism, van Riel has fostered avant-garde artistic movements on the European scene; his work will truly be a discovery for the audience at (S8). In the two sessions dedicated to him by the festival, the following can be seen in their original 16 mm format: Gradual Speed (2013), Unwritten Page (2001) and Fugue: A Light’s Travelogue (2017). There will also be the Spanish premiere of his latest film, Elliptic (2025), in which he delves deeper into the optical experimentation characteristic of his work.
Els van Riel and stills of Fugue: A Light’s Travelogue (2017) and Gradual Speed (2013)
The (S8) is sponsored by the Concellería de Cultura e Turismo of the Concello da Coruña, and the support of the Deputación da Coruña, the Axencia Galega das Industrias Culturais (Agadic), Instituto da Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA), Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Fundación Luis Seoane.
