- The 15th (S8) has been presented with an entire programme brimming with the creative power of women filmmakers
- The festival’s image for 2024 was inspired by tarot as a tribute to Kenneth Anger, who died in 2023
- The festival or mostra is showcasing Canada upon 30 years of the Film Farm, with Rhayne Vermette, Franci Durán and the8fest, presenting the “Overflows” section
Premieres, unreleased works, exemplary international guests, unique retrospectives in Europe and a clear commitment to new generations of artists all make the (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférica of A Coruña from 31st May to 9th June the perfect time and place to be (and watch). Fifteen yearly festivals have established it as a unique event for avant-garde cinema worldwide. Its directors, Ana Domínguez and Ángel Rueda, presented this special edition’s highlights on the morning of Tuesday, 21st May, and they did so together with the institutions backing the project: the City Council of A Coruña, the Xunta de Galicia (regional government) and the Provincial Council of A Coruña. The entire programme of (S8) 2024 is overflowing with the creative power of female filmmakers, the graphic image for which has also been revealed for this fifteenth festival.
The Magician, Strength, the Lovers and the Wheel of Fortune. These are the tarot cards that (S8) has chosen to launch the image for this 15th festival at the Domus in A Coruña, one of the event’s venues along with the Sala Palexco, Filmoteca de Galicia and the Luis Seoane Foundations. It is a combination of cards that describe the philosophy of the festival, as Ángel Rueda explains, while also connecting with a lover of occultism and magic to whom they wish to pay tribute: the American filmmaker Kenneth Anger. The author of the famous book Hollywood Babylon, published in 1965, in which the most gruesome aspects of the show business industry were paraded, died just a year ago in May 2023. The inauguration of (S8) on 31st May is honouring him with the session “The cinema of Thelema”, in which his films Lucifer Rising and Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome will be screened at the Filmoteca de Galicia.
But women artists dominate the festival’s programme, which is offering more than 130 works to the public visiting (S8). Avant-garde creators’ film discourse is the hallmark of an undeniable reality in a programme that includes the work of exemplaries such as Narcisa Hirsch, with the first major retrospective after her passing and to whom the festival is also dedicated this year. Then there are programmes dedicated to the American Margaret Honda, the underground cinema of Annalisa D. Quagliata and to the memory of the diaspora of Franci Durán. A new section, “Sinais Latin America”, is also being presented, in which we will exclusively see works by young creators. We will also be discovering Rhayne Vermette, a Métis filmmaker (one of the three aboriginal peoples recognized in Canada) and be transported to the expanded cinema of the “Overflows” section by Gaëlle Rouard and Lynn Loo.
The directors of the (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico were accompanied at the press conference by Gonzalo Castro, head of A Coruña City Council’s Development and Promotion department, which is backing the project through a collaboration agreement, thus highlighting the great interest the festival holds for the city. Also participating in the event were Jacobo Sutil, director of the Galician Agency for Cultural Industries of the Xunta de Galicia (regional government), whose support comes in the form of the annual call for aid for audiovisual festivals; and Natividade González, head of Culture at the Provincial Council of A Coruña, an institution that collaborates with the festival through the line of subsidies to festivals organized by entities in the province.
Within the (S8) 2024 programme, the youngest among Galician avant-garde will be represented in the “Sinais” section with the works of Iago Lourido, Yasmina Farhani Luaces and Pablo Agma, recent winner of the eSe8_LAB development scholarships organized by the festival. In addition, the public will get to see the work of the artist Xinzo de Limia, resident in Barcelona, and María Ruido will be taking part in the online monographic programme “Ultreia et suseia”, dedicated each year to the most prominent voices in today’s Galician cinema.
The press conference on Tuesday 21st also had a video connection to hear from Inmaculada Ballesteros, the programming director of (AC/E) Spanish Cultural Action, which supports the festival through the programme for the internationalization of Spanish culture (PICE in Spanish). The international guests who will be in A Coruña thanks to this AC/E programme are: Tomás Rautenstrauch, head of the Narcisa Hirsch Foundation (Argentina) and Cecilia Barrionuevo (Argentina); the filmmakers Annalisa Quagliata (Mexico) and Rhayne Vermette (Canada); Philip Widmann (Germany), curator of the “Unfinished Films” seminar; the researchers Katie Kirkland (United States), Léa Morin (France), Lynn Loo (UK), speakers at the same seminar; Ivone Sheen Mogollón, the Peruvian resident in Germany who is head of the new section “Sinais Latin America”; and Oana Ghera, tutor at INPUT, a space to develop film projects fostered by the Galician festival.
CANADA: 30 YEARS OF THE FILM FARM
The avant-garde movement is looking towards A Coruña from 31st May to 9th June, but (S8) has always looked towards Canada, as Ángel Rueda acknowledged at the presentation event. It is one of the territories with the greatest activity and history in experimental cinema for good reason. The Film Farm, a project led by Phil Hoffman, who will also be in A Coruña, is turning thirty years of age. It has always been an inspiration for the festival in A Coruña, as its directors explain. Every year on a farm in the province of Ontario, a group of artists gather to learn and share techniques for handling and developing analogue film and to shoot, view and share cinema in a natural setting, hence creating a transformative experience. Some of the works created there can be seen in A Coruña this year.
Another example of the 15th (S8)’s focus on Canada is the filmmaker Rhayne Vermette, who has earned international recognition after appearing at the Berlinale and in Toronto with her first feature film Ste. Anne, as well as the Chilean resident in Canada, Franci Durán, whose work related to the Film Farm is based on experimentation with photochemical media. In addition, the dynamism and youth of today’s experimental Canadian film scene comes from the veteran festival the8fest, which is dedicated to exclusively showing cinema made in Super 8. Today it is directed by the Egyptian-Canadian filmmaker Robin Riad, who will be bringing a selection of pieces from the festival’s history.
OVERFLOWS (DESBORDAMIENTOS)
This year, the “Overflows” section of the festival dedicated to expanded cinema, held at the Luis Seoane Foundation venue, is welcoming two artists following that path: Gaëlle Rouard and Lynn Loo. Darkness, Darkness, Burning Bright will be one of the films we will be able to see by Rouard, one of the founders of the legendary Atelier MTK in Grenoble. It premiered at the Rotterdam Festival and won the Best Experimental Film Award at the Curtas Vila do Conde festival. Lynn Loo, a Singaporean musician and filmmaker based in London, explores expanded cinema with film performances in which she uses several 16 mm projectors running at the same time.
As for the educational and creation-inspiring dimension of (S8), the festival is also hosting the works resulting from the BAICC, a residency at the LIFT in Toronto that was taken up this year by Agnès Hayden, and from the eSe8_LAB Scholarships, thanks to which the Peruvian artist resident in Madrid, Nicole Remy, travelled to the Nanolab in Australia. The result of the two programmes can be seen in the “Overflows” section.
This 15th (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico has been organized 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,
With the special collaboration from Cervezas Alhambra.
“Cervezas Alhambra is once again collaborating with the festival, which is in the Alhambra Moments calendar, in its commitment to be present at events that create unique moments perfect for enjoying an Alhambra. The brewery is thus continuing its commitment to doing things in no hurry while backing artists and creators through a more familiar, personal and creative point of view. During the “Desbordamientos” section, their varieties can be paired with the best artistic and cultural proposals once again this year”.
