From 1972 to 1981, Robert Gardner conducted a Boston television series that became a reference and a cult show for the experimental cinema community: Screening Room. The program, which welcomed some of the most relevant avant-garde filmmakers of that time, offered not only in-depth interviews with the guests, but also the opportunity to discover their work. Today, Screening Room remains a source of inspiration. Gardner’s legacy, in combination with the spirit of the times and the possibilities brought to us by technological advancement and the internet encouraged us to develop a show that will be broadcast on streaming. Camera Obscura, which also follows the steps of Janine Bazan and André S. Labarthe’s Cinéastes de notre temps, is a creative endeavor –an interpretation of Gardner’s show with a bold aesthetic and in an innovative format in tune with our times. The show, which will bring to the audience an in-detail presentation of the creative processes of a selection of filmmakers, is also an invitation to discover their work, as it will feature chosen excerpts of their creations. The name Camera Obscura is a reference to the optical device that inspired painters and anticipated cinema centuries before its creation –a box-like, unlit construction where a ray of light coming from the outside projects, through a small hole in one of its walls, a moving image that is seen on the surface opposite to the opening. (S8) aims to be that ray of light, travelling from wave to wave on its way to project its images on the wall of any room in the world.

Juan Sebastián Bollaín is a Spanish filmmaker, architect, and urbanist whose filmography is a rare jewel in the Spanish experimental cinema scene. A man of wild imagination and great sense of humor, Bollaín brings into play the tools of cinema and puts them to use for creating utopian cities, casting a clever glance onto his surroundings, especially the city of Seville (which acts as a revulsive for his idiosyncrasy). In this episode of Camera Obscura (a complement to the two on-site sessions that we will be devoting to this outstanding author), Bollaín will guide us into his first steps into the world of filmmaking, and explain us the ideas and circumstances behind some of his emblematic films, such as La Alameda (1978) and the tetralogy Soñar con Sevilla (of which we will be showing two episodes –two films that were restored by Filmoteca de Andalucía). A program designed to delve into Bollaín’s unique vision of cinema –and the world–, still revolutionary, still loaded with the future.