Posts Tagged ‘xcèntric’

Interview: Jonas Mekas, man of film

November 2nd, 2011 No Comments

Jonas Mekas, one of the key figures in experimental film, visits the CCCB to meet in person a virtual friend, a friend he has known through the Internet: José Luis Guerín. The two filmmakers have exchanged filmed correspondence in recent months, small pieces of video about everyday life. Their correspondence, as well as the correspondence of another five pairs of contemporary creators, can be seen at the CCCB at the exhibition: “The Complete Letters. Filmed Correspondences.”

We talk with Mekas about how he sees the world through his cameras and about how he understands film and the art of capturing images in motion. He explains to us that he can only film what he has before him: New York, Brooklyn, his son, his friends. He talks about the Occupy Wall Street movement and the citizens’ protests in New York in which he has actively participated.

He reflects on film, an art which, according to him, is very much alive everywhere thanks to new technologies. We are surprised by the simplicity and lack of orthodoxy of his words.

This interview is an advance of a longer conversation that will be viewable on different CCCB channels: on the “Soy Cámara” programme, which will devote a special episode to him, in the XCÈNTRIC ARCHIVE, where we will be able to see an introduction by the filmmaker to all his works acquired by the CCCB, and the virtual platform “Global Screen”, where Mekas will reflect on the end of cinema and the future of screens.

Interview by Lucia Calvo and Gloria Vilches. Camera and lighting by José Antonio Soria and Juan Carlos Rodríguez

FROM ECSTASY TO RAPTURE. FROM MELBOURNE TO PHILADELPHIA

December 1st, 2010 1 Comment

Xcentric is presented in Philadelphia

Xcentric loves to travel and to have its programs travel. We often travel through the images, and usually, the least busy routes we take are the most evocative ones. We are not tourists, we are adventurers, and the paths we walk are difficult, but what we get to see is fascinating, and we want it to Xpandit.

Melbourne, New York, Washington, Barcelona, Madrid, Prague, Medellin and Cali are all cities that have so far been taken away by the Xcentric storm. Since October 2009, our most international of travelling programs, From Ecstasy to Rapture: 50 years of the other Spanish cinema, traverses the globe leaving traces of its silent course.

The next stop on the tour couldn’t be more exciting; the film department of the International House of Philadelphia will have members of the Hispanic Studies Section of Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania introduce each session of the tour, that will be screened until December 4th. The film curator of this initiative, Robert Cargni, got to watch the program during its presentation at the legendary Anthology Film Archives in New York, and decided he had to bring the ecstasy to Philly.

Canada will be next, from east to west, with the first show at the TIFF Cinémathèque, home of the Toronto Film Festival and the next at the Pacific Cinémathèque in Vancouver, during the months of January and February. From March onwards, the series returns to Europe and will be screened in centers such as the National Gallery of the Jeu de Paume in Paris, the Tate Modern in London, the WRO Art Center in Wroclaw (Poland), the Daile Nacionaline Galerija of Vilnius (Lithuania), and the Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana (Slovenia).

Pending confirmation of additional dates and centers, the tour is scheduled to finish in our country, visiting various venues such as the Film Archive of Murcia, the Galician Center for the Arts of A Coruña, and the Center Huarte of Contemporary Art in Navarra.

Xcentric is meant to bring the world “from ecstasy to rapture”, don’t let it pass you by.

(Català) Aniversari enganxifós

November 25th, 2010 No Comments

(Català) “Fragmentos”, un documental produït pel CCCB, al Festival de Sitges

October 7th, 2010 No Comments

(Català) Aprenent a escriure amb imatges

October 4th, 2010 No Comments

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