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BAICC – INTERNATIONAL ARTISTIC RESIDENCES FOR CINEMATOGRAPHIC CREATION

In 2017, the first International Artistic Residencies for Cinematographic Creation, BAICC, were launched, promoted by the (S8) International Peripheral Film Festival of A Coruña. This involves a selection process to take part in a residency to produce an audiovisual work shot in analogue format (35 mm, 16 mm, 8 mm or super 8) in Toronto, Canada. It is a project that was greatly sought after by (S8), which materialised thanks to the support of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT), reaffirming the Mostra’s strong commitment to artistic production and creation in alternative spaces.

 LIFT is an internationally prestigious non-profit organisation, founded in 1981. It is directed by artists and works to promote excellence in film creation via training, providing technical and production resources, and disseminating creations in such formats.

AC/E – Acción Cultural Española’s activities include organising and holding exhibitions, events and initiatives to disseminate and promote Spain’s cultures and the professionals linked to them, boosting their international projection and the creation of networks among professionals and institutions.

The International Artistic Residences for Cinematographic Creation known as BAICC are intended to continue with a line of work and research that seeks to open up new paths for emerging creators, helping create channels for exchange with an institution of international relevance: LIFT, the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, while networking with international bodies and professionals from all over the world who visit it.

INTENTIONS, CAPACITY FOR TRANSFORMATION, AND GENDER PERSPECTIVE

BAICC is the only international artistic residency for cinematographic creation in Spain. It was set up due to the desire to have a type of artistic residence in our country for the kind of cinema that delves into new cinematographic languages. It is therefore a residency that fosters a more artistic, auteur cinema, opening up new avenues and offering the possibility for a Spanish filmmaker to carry out a project in an exclusive, international environment. It is a truly unique opportunity.

The results of the residency are premiered within (S8), giving the creators the chance to present their work to the Mostra’s international public and interact with it. The (S8) thereby generates its own content by programming the project resulting from these residences, while empowering and supporting new talents both financially and in their future career path, giving them credit as part of the programme in (S8), which many entities, events and professionals from all over the world look to every year. 

The selection for a BAICC scholarship has always been based on equality, with a total of three female filmmakers and three male ones.

The location of this residency in Canada offers the opportunity for the beneficiaries to gain access to other communities, as well as opening up a space for new work environments, thus enriching both the beneficiary and the environment they will live in.

HISTORY

After the successful first call received more than 15 proposals, Relieves (Reliefs) by Tono Mejuto was the project selected to be created over five weeks at the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto. We were able to see the final result at its world premiere at the 9th Mostra de Cinema Periférico (2018). The proposal dealt with the city and its ‘reliefs’. Using an approach with stereoscopic film shooting and projection in 16 mm, a film of observation with pulse and rhythm was proposed. It was a tour around the life of downtown Toronto on some winter days.

Propiedades de una esfera paralela (Properties of a parallel sphere) by Valentina Alvarado was the project selected to be created throughout five weeks at LIFT (Canada) in the third round of BAICC. The final outcome was screened in a world premiere during the 9th (S8) Mostra Internacional de Cinema Periférico, which took place in A Coruña from 27 September to 3 October, 2020, outside the usual festival dates, which had to be changed as consequence of the pandemic outbreak.

Frame Manoeuvres to Port by Bruno Delgado, an advance of which we were able to see at the 12th (S8) Mostra Internacional de Cinema Periférico, was the finalist of the projects for the 4th BAICC call. Due to the restrictions arising from COVID-19, the project was carried out in September 2021 and premiered in the 13th (S8), which took place in A Coruña from 27 May to 5 June, 2022.

For its fifth call, launched in May 2021, BAICC selected Laura Moreno Bueno’s project El sonido de las imágenes (The sound of images) as a finalist. Over five weeks in February and March 2022, Moreno was able to carry out her project at LIFT in Toronto: a 16 mm film performance using photosensitive microphones to translate images into sounds. The result of her work could be seen at the 13th (S8) Mostra Internacional de Cinema Periférico: from 27 May to 5 June 2022, together with the presentation of the work by Bruno Delgado. Two BAICC projects, for its 4th and 5th call for proposals, were therefore presented last year as world premieres in the thirteenth (S8). That event also announced the launch of the 6th call.

At the next 14th (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico, the work by Álvaro Feldman, Torontontero, will be premiered, which is the result of the BAICC residences from the last call in 2022. Feldman proposes to build a mechanism to enable film to be projected in both directions, as well as exploring the possibilities of optical printing and different techniques for manually developing to achieve a variety of structures with which to construct the film itself, shot in Toronto. It is a film that is as reversible as possible, able to be seen in both directions simultaneously, forwards and backwards, so that the experience of seeing it in opposite directions gives rise to a map of images that are repeated infinitely but never exactly in the same way.

In the resulting performance, whose premiere can be seen in A Coruña in June at the upcoming (S8) 2023, Feldman will continue fragmenting and expanding the images, seeking to decentralise one’s gaze so that it can move freely between the multiple frames to reconstruct the film at all times, with no beginning or end.

FOLLOWING UP THE TRAJECTORY OF THE PROJECTS BENEFITING FROM BAICC

The process is always ongoing. During the residency itself, two interviews are carried out: one while the work is being created and another during its presentation at the (S8) Mostra Internacional de Cinema Periférico. The presentation presumably provides an opening to new opportunities, both directly (with the professionals attending) and indirectly thanks to the work resulting from the BAICC being discovered by programmers from all over the world who look towards the Mostra and its programme every year. This is the case, for example, of PMC- Proyecto Máquina de Coser (Sewing Machine Project) by the Prismáticas Collective, a BAICC project in 2018. After being seen at the (S8) festival, it was selected by the CA2M Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo within the Cine Revelado programme, and was recently programmed at MOMI in New York within the film festival “The Never-Ending Screen of Val del Omar” in March 2023. Furthermore, Tono Mejuto’s Relieves, a project for the first (S8), became part of the collection in the Gas Natural Unión Fenosa Museum of Contemporary Art after being presented at the festival.

Propiedades de una esfera paralela (Properties of a parallel sphere), a project by Valentina Alvarado benefitting from a BAICC scholarship in 2019, was on the programme at Loop Barcelona, Xcèntric (CCCB), the Filmoteca de Catalunya, La Escocesa in Barcelona and the Los Angeles Filmforum in 2023.

Frame Manoeuvres to Port, by Bruno Delgado, a BAICC project in 2020, participated in BilboArte, Wiels in Brussels, La casa encendida, Punto de Vista, the Tabakalera in San Sebastián, ZumZeig in Barcelona, INJUVE, and ICAS’ Santa Clara Art Space, Seville.

The last of the pieces presented resulting from a BAICC, El sonido de las imágenes (The sound of images) by Laura Moreno Bueno, was on the programme at Filmadrid 2022, after its premiere at (S8) 2022.

At the next 14th (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico, the work Torontontero by Álvaro Feldman will be premiered, which is the result of the BAICC residences from the last call in 2022. In addition to his piece, Feldman had the opportunity, just like Bruno Delgado in 2021, to screen his work in Canada in front of an exclusive audience of Toronto filmmakers at the Pix Film Gallery, an institution that collaborates with LIFT and (S8). For both creators this was a unique opportunity for international projection and feedback with international artists.