Writing Cinema II

When Jean-Luc Godard said that “writing about cinema is making it”, he made no distinction between writing and making films. Approaching the work of a filmmaker through their writings can, then, give us new perspectives on their work and their vision of cinema, art and the world.

This course is dedicated to discovering and analysing a series of texts on avant-garde, experimental or documentary cinema by filmmakers and essayists such as the pioneer Germaine Dulac, the visionary José Val del Omar or the theorist Hito Steyerl.

These creators are interested not only in issues related to cinema, but also in disciplines such as literature, philosophy, history, politics, science, technology, pedagogy, dance and the fine arts. A guided reading and interpretation of their writings will help us to explore further their work and their vision.

The course is taught by various specialists in the subject, some of whom are also publishers or translators of the texts that they will analyse in their respective classes, or have recently curated exhibitions about these filmmakers.

- Whose history? Writings about the cinema of Germaine Dulac and Lis Rhodes. María Palacios Cruz

- Technique with a capital T. The writings of José Val del Omar. Lluis Alexandre Casanovas

 - Marguerite Duras. Cinema as emphasis on writing. Valentín Roma

- Hito Steyerl: formations in movement, politics of histories. Andrea Soto 

- Yvonne Rainer: the Mind is a Mucle. Eulàlia Iglesias

- Vertigo of speculation. About Raúl Ruiz. Érik Bullot 

- Portrait of the filmmaker as a ventriloquist. Érik Bullot (*Session at the Filmoteca de Catalunya)