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In Focus: Alexandra Cuesta – Second Programme + Q&A
Institute of Contemporary Arts
Films
Notes, Imprints (on Love): Parts I & II, Carmela, dir. Alexandra Cuesta, Ecuador / USA 2020, 25 min., 16mm to digital, English & Spanish with English subtitles

Open City Documentary Festival

Alexandra Cuesta is a filmmaker and photographer who lives and works between Ecuador and the United States. Her 16mm films and videos are portraits of public places and urban landscapes and the people in them. Reminiscent of documentary practices such as street photography, Cuesta’s work is also rooted in the poetic and lyrical sensibility of the avant-garde.
Programme:

Despedida (Farewell), dir. Alexandra Cuesta, Ecuador / USA 2013, 10 min., 16mm, English 
 
Shot in Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles, this transitory neighbourhood resonates with the poetry of local resident Mapkaulu Roger Nduku. 

Antonio Valencia, dir. Daniela Delgado Viteri, Ecuador 2021, 6min., digital, sound, Spanish with English subtitles

An imaginary dialogue with a football player (Ecuadorian Antonio Valencia, a former defender with Manchester United) unfolds as written text over slightly underexposed footage of men playing football and bathing in a beach in San Jacinto, Ecuador.  

Hand-Held Day, dir. Gary Beydler, USA 1975, 6 min., 16mm, silent

A full day in the Arizona desert is recorded via time-lapse photography and a carefully hand-held mirror reflecting the view behind the camera.

Notes, Imprints (on Love): Parts I & II, Carmela, dir. Alexandra Cuesta, Ecuador / USA 2020, 25 min., 16mm to digital, sound, English & Spanish with English subtitles 

Two opening instalments of a six-part series that meditates on love and the act of making. Notes, Imprints (on Love) is crafted from autobiographical footage shot in Upstate New York, Chile, Japan, Los Angeles, the Californian desert, Miami and Mexico City. 

Cielo Abierto / Mar Abierto / Suelo Abierto, dirs. Libertad Gills & Martín Baus, Ecuador 2021, 4 min., Super 8mm to digital, sound
 
From a point of view/listening that is both animal and elemental, between the air, the ocean and the sand, relationships emerge between humans, birds and marine life.  
 
Lungta, dir. Alexandra Cuesta, Ecuador/Mexico 2022, 10 min., 16mm to digital, sound 

The lungta (Tibetan for “wind horse”) is a symbol for the human soul in shamanistic traditions in Central and East Asia. Alexandra Cuesta repurposes a few seconds of footage of a horse in a field that she had shot years before but never used in this analogue composition of image and sound that emphasizes its own materiality.
 
Ticket information
  • All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
  • For aged-based concession tickets (under 25, student and pensioner) please bring relevant ID to collect at the front desk before the event.

All films are ad-free and 18+ unless otherwise stated, and start with a 10 min. curated selection of trailers.

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