Designed to survey significant works in Spain’s little-known history of experimental cinema, this program includes radical classics from the late 1950s through to the current production of younger generations.

Itineraries

On February 29th at 6.30 pm

The inaugural program of From Ecstasy to Rapture opens with a piece by José Val del Omar, an inventive, visionary film director and one of the most relevant figures to emerge in the Spanish film industry. Fuego en Castilla forms part of his unfinished Tríptico elemental de España. Other filmmakers included in this session are the architect Gabriel Blanco, better known as an animator but represented here by a documentary showing a typical Sunday for a Spanish citizen in an outlying urban area; the multidisciplinary artists Benet Rossell and Antoni Miralda, with a look at military iconography; and José Luis Guerin, who, after debuting with the full-length film Los motivos de Berta (1983), created this short with certain reminiscences of the genre known as essay film. The program closes with a documentary by Virginia García del Pino on the job identity of people exercising professions having to do with death, dirt or sex.

Fuego en Castilla by José Val del Omar (1958-59); De purificatione automobiles by Gabriel Blanco (1974); Miserere by Antoni Miralda, Benet Rossell (1979); Souvenir by Silvia Gracia, José Luis Guerin (1985); Lo que tú dices que soy by Virginia García del Pino (2007)

Appropriations / Great Super 8

On March 1st at 6.30 pm

This program presents an eclectic series of pieces done in Super 8, a format created in 1965 but still in use today, and other films belonging to the subgenre of found-footage cinema. Some of the works are both found-footage and Super 8, such as Eugènia Balcells’s For/Against and David Domingo’s Súper 8. In this program, a dialogue is established between filmmakers of different generations: those who participated in the avant-garde of experimental filmmaking based in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia during the 70s (headed by Eugeni Bonet, Juan Bufill, Manuel Huerga and Eugènia Balcells), and the latest generation, active from the late 1990s to the present.

For /Against by Eugènia Balcells (1983); Minnesota 1943 by Toni Serra (1995); Alice in Hollywoodland by Jesús Pérez-Miranda (2006); Súper 8 by David Domingo (1997); Bloodfilm by Marcel Pey (1975); Roulette Wheel by Luis Cerveró (2005); Signaturas (síntesis) by Juan Bufill (2008); I Love You Because by Lope Serrano Sol (2007); 22arroba by Maximiliano Viale (2008); Photomatons by Eugeni Bonet (1976); A escala del hombre by David Reznak (1991); Copy Scream by Oriol Sánchez (2005); Brutal Ardour by Manuel Huerga (1979)

Animated Experiments: Rhythm, Light and Colour

On March 3rd at 7.00 pm

This visually dazzling program of experiments in the field of animation includes works from very different periods in the history of Spanish cinema and showcases a wide range of techniques: classical studies on color-music correspondences (Aguirre, Mestres, Sirera), cameraless cinema (Puigvert, Artigas, Granell), stop-motion (Marimón, Pié Barba), the drawn line as a sketch or rough draft (Amat, Oñederra, Etcheverry), cut-out collage animation (Herguera) and sand-on-glass animation (Vicario).

Forma, color y ritmo by Josep Mestres (1956); Ballet Burlón by Fermí Marimón (1959); Exp. 1 / II by Joaquim Puigvert (1958-59); Pregunta por mí by Begoña Vicario (1996); Pintura 63 by Ton Sirera (1963); Hezurbeltzak, una fosa común by Izebene Oñederra (2007); Ritmes cromàtics by Jordi Artigas (1978); Spain loves youby Isabel Herguera (1988); Espectro siete by Javier Aguirre (1970); Lluvia by Eugenio Granell (1961); La 72.024 mil•lèssima part d’un any by Marcel Pié Barba (2008); Danse noire by Frederic Amat (2006); 3 Monos by Juan Pablo Etcheverry (1997)

Painting-Movement: José Antonio Sistiaga’s …ere erera baleibu izik subua aruaren…

On March 4th at 7 pm

Remarkable! The title of José Antonio Sistiaga’s feature-length marvel is a series of meaningless words. The film itself is the first —and, to date, only— feature-length film in the history of Spanish cinema painted entirely in the cameraless animation technique. Sistiaga uses 35mm celluloid as a blank —or, to be more precise, transparent— canvas, directly applying paint onto the film employing different techniques. Created over the course of 17 months, and lacking figurative elements and sound accompaniment, the result is a piece impossible to describe in words and designed to be experienced projected in a darkened cinema. In sum, a nonpareil pleasure for the eyes!

…ere erera baleibu izik subua aruaren… by José Antonio Sistiaga (1968-70). Color, 35mm

Investigation / Metacinema

On March 7 at 6.30 pm

The nature and essence of cinema and its multiple facets as an art form are investigated in this dizzyingly diverse program, which ranges from reflection on the film media itself or metafilm essay (Lertxundi, León Siminiani, Rivera, de Pedro) to the blank screen (Casas Brullet) to contact with other art disciplines such as dance (Marimón and Ramos), performance (Santos), photography (Lacuesta / Humberto Rivas, Cosmen) and poetry (Padrós). In sum, an exploration of the different branches of which the great tree of cinema is comprised.

Blanc Dérangé by Blanca Casas Brullet (2008); Límites (1ª persona) by Elías León Siminiani (2009); Travelling by Lluis Rivera (1972); Teoría de los cuerpos by Isaki Lacuesta (2004); Figura by Gonzalo de Pedro (2007); In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni Jorge Cosmen (2003); BiBiCi Story by Carles Durán (1969); Farce Sensationelle! by Laida Lertxundi (2004); In crescendo by Joan Marimón & Jesús Ramos (2001); Ice Cream by Antoni Padrós (1970); LA RE MI LA… by Carles Santos (1979)

Enraptured: Iván Zulueta’s Rapture (Arrebato)

On March 8 at 8.30 pm

From Ecstasy to Rapture closes with Iván Zulueta’s rarity and masterpiece Rapture, a cult film in Spanish cinema history. The filmmaker —also known as the designer of posters for Pedro Almodóvar’s films— combined many of the techniques he had put into practice in his previous Super 8 shorts (such as A Mal Gam A, Frank Stein, and Kinkón) while delving into a series of themes that had preoccupied him since childhood. His bizarre, baroque film —self-conscious, psychedelic, and brimming with sex and drugs— concerns a hack director of horror films who has just finished his latest grade-B vampire movie when he receives a package containing a reel of film, an audiotape, and a key. Rapture is a full-length film as hypnotic as they come, charged with a certain mysticism and eliciting numerous readings —an indisputable (and indisputably odd) masterwork whose unwarranted neglect beyond Spanish borders we hope to mitigate.

Rapture / Arrebato by Iván Zulueta (1980). Color, 35mm

Venue

335 Maisonneuve Boul E, Montréal, QC

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Venue

Cinémathèque Québécoise, Claude-Jutra Room, 335 Maisonneuve Boul E, Montréal, QC

Phone

514-842-9763

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