Hi, everybody!
*(S8)* has been “opening the doors of perception” for eight years with inspiring avant-garde cinema that does not reach theaters. A unique event in Spain and an international reference in its field. Every year *(S8)* discovers a series of fundamental filmmakers and films to the Spanish audience. Two of the key filmmakers of this edition are* Aldo Tambellini* and *Helga Fanderl*. Painter, sculptor, filmmaker and integral artist, Tambellini began his journey linked to the New York counterculture of the 60s. Either with his plastic experiments with film and video, pioneering works that embrace directly film materiality, either from his position of cultural preceptor since he founded the Black Gate Theater in 1966, a place that programmed experimental cinema and theater, where one could see the work of visionary and controversial filmmakers such as *Bruce Conner, Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger and Jack Smith* among many others. This complete program dedicated to Tambellini (curated by *Helena Girón and Samuel Delgado*) will include a showing of his *"Black Films"*, dedicated to some of the fundamental movies shown at the *Black Gate Theater (both in 16mm)*, in addition to a performance and installation. *Helga Fanderl*, for her part, has been making -since the 80s- films only in super 8, a format with which she continues working. For the German filmmaker, living and filmmaking are one and the same thing: her particular look captures the beauty of everyday life in films that can almost be understood as haikus, in intimacy with the world around her thanks to the super 8 camera. She herself prepares and programs every film showing, as for her each combination of films forms their own rhythms and resonances, composing each time a different final work, and turning each projection into a unique event. This year *(S8)* *will host two screenings of her work, and a third film and lecture session in which she will also screen some of her movies.* Another fundamental part of the program of *(S8) is the thematic block* that this year, under the title *"Objects and Apparitions",* is dedicated to a*ppropriation films or found footage.* The title is a nod to the American surrealist* Joseph Cornell* (via the poem that Octavio Paz dedicated to him), a pioneer of appropriation film, inspiration, guiding light and "patron saint" of this edition. Within this block, of course, a showing will be devoted to Cornell’s found footage work made between the 30s and 40s, but there will be also room for many other filmmakers. This is the case of *Luther Price*, who will be in Spain for the first time, bringing two programs of his films and an exhibition. Price, with a hazardous life marked by misfortune, has been dealing with pain and trauma in his films since the 1980s. A controversial filmmaker that melts sordidness and beauty in super 8 and 16mm films that he re-edits, paints and even buries in his garden for months to play with the effects of decadence, using found materials such as surgical operations movies, porno films or home and institutional films. His particular way of working has made that there are not prints of most of his films: there are only the originals, which he himself brings and projects, and which we will see for the first time in Spain exclusively at *(S8).* *Luther Price’s exhibition* will consist of his collages, mounted on slide frames, including pieces of film, paint, dust and even insects. *Cécile Fontaine* will also be part of this block of "Objects and Apparitions". The French filmmaker (born in the overseas department of Réunion Island) studied in the United States, where she began to work in the 80s. Using all kinds of home resources (from adhesive tape to bleach, soaps and sharp objects), Fontaine makes film collages in which, under different themes, she works with the color and graphic properties of the 16mm and super 8 film strip. Her films are an invitation to travel: there are sea themes, about Japan, microscopic beings, waterfalls, family meals. Using home movies (of her own and others) and advertising films of all kinds, Fontaine makes visually stunning collages. This thematic block is not only made up by found images, but found sounds. In that sense, the Spanish filmmaker and curator -living in New York- *Mónica Savirón* recovers and shows the work of the Dutch *Barbara Meter* (whose films will be seen for the first time in Spain). In her program we will also see appropriation works in which sound is a key piece. Meter, who has been a key player in the Dutch avant-garde, and sound is one of her fundamental expression tools. From sounds of nature to voices of actors taken from movies, music or radio recordings (which she mixes and manipulates) populate her films, whose images are composed of own footage, family photos and documents that Meter treats with the optical printer (a system of film re-photographing and copying). Her movies, recently restored by the EYE Film Institut (the Dutch film archive), will be projected in 16mm and 35mm. Within* "Objects and Apparitions" *there will also be two programs devoted to recent works of found footage, in a double program called Lost Property Office. Filmmakers such as *Dianna Barrie, Daïchi Saïto, Janie Geiser, Pere Ginard and Sebastian Wiedemann*, among others, make up the varied selection, showing many different ways of working with found materials, film and video. The block of "Objects and Apparitions" is completed with the premiere in Spain of *Potamkin*, by the young Canadian filmmaker *Stephen Broomer *(whom the festival dedicated a focus last year), a kind of biography of the film critic of the early twentieth century Harry Potamkin through the films he wrote about, which Broomer manipulates through various chemical and copying processes. In addition, there will be an exhibition regarding this theme, with works by *Cécile Fontaine, Luther Price and María Cañas *from Seville. One of the most characteristic and emblematic parts of the festival is the section Desbordamientos (titled in homage to José Val del Omar)*,* dedicated to *expanded cinema and film performance.* This year Overflows brings, as already mentioned, the *performance Moondial by Aldo Tambellini*. Music, dance, cinema and lumagramas (slides that Tambellini devastated or painted creating hypnotic circumferences in the dark) are mixed in Moondial, one of his called Electromedia Performances. The group *Nominoë* and *Sally Golding*, artists who have toured the most prestigious festivals and institutions in the world, are this year's highlight of Overflows. The performance of the French group *Nominoë Parallax *creates different spatial and geometric games by moving several 16mm projectors around the room with dollies and using various optical and sound devices. The London-based Australian *Sally Golding *will bring to (S8) two of her recent performances, *Light Begets Sound and Ghost - Loud + Strong*, a stunning performance in which she plays with the optical sound of 16mm projectors, which she operates with different devices and manipulated movies, creating a hallucinatory and trance experience. The selection is closed with the filmmaker and researcher *Albert Alcoz *and the photographer *Blanca Viñas,* from Barcelona, who bring their performance* La noche inventada*: sound interventions, slide projections (of photographs and painted slides), a 16mm projector and three super 8 projectors are the tricks they use to bring the conflict between static and moving image into play. Another one of the already traditional annual events of (S8) is dedicated to a *guest festival*, a kindred spirit of (S8) in other territories. This year is the turn of *Crossroads, the San Francisco Cinematheque Festival *dedicated to experimental cinema, whose programmer *Steve Polta* will bring a program with works by filmmakers such as *Jem Cohen, Robert Todd or Mike Hoolboom*, among others. Polta, also a filmmaker, will also show a selection of his *super 8 works*, films highly appreciated by critics and experts. To close an edition full of amazing works, we will also see the most stimulating and promising *films made in Galicia* in our section Sinais. On the one hand, with a showing dedicated to the film editor and filmmaker *Diana Toucedo *(who also works with found footage in a lyrical and reflexive way), and the selection of Sinais en Curto, which this year brings together works by *Carla Andrade, Jaoine Camborda, Helena Girón and Samuel Delgado*, among others. See you in A Coruña! www.s8cinema.com <http://www.s8cinema.com/portal/en/> -- Elena Duque Viña Telf: (+34) 605431072 [email protected]
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