Category: The Sound We See: Montevideo

What a night!!! Thank you Ángela López Ruiz and Guillermo Zabaleta for believing in this whole crazy idea from the get-go. Thank you Laboritorio de Cine/FAC and the whole FAC team for connecting and promoting and providing an amazing workspace. Thank you EAC for hosting the premiere of SWS: MVD. Thank you Canada Council for the Arts and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts for the generous fiscal support. Thank you Nico y Garza for the incredible soundtrack. Thank you to the audience, full of curiosity and love. And a giant thank you and congratulations to the filmmakers: Gabriela, Agustina, Martín, Valentina, Anibal, Macarena, Julian, Felipe, Manuela, Gimena, Lucía, Agustín, Camilo, Jimena, Agustín, Fabiana, Natalia, Gonzalo, Julieta, Teresa, Marina, Rosina, Tim, Nano, Xenja, Matilde, Sofía, Natalia, Nicolas, Martín, Frank, Javier, Wilson, Clara, Domenica, Gastón, Laura, Mariana, Cristiana, Silvana, Guillermo, Fernando, Ivo, Josefo and Horacio… Thank you all for being part of this unforgettable cinematic pageant!

Sometimes unexpected gifts come at the perfect time. Thank you, dear Patricia, for this blissful 24-hours at your magical house beside the sea! Montevideo is known for its beaches but this beach is certainly the most beautiful of them all…

A fabulous feria; a queso contest judged by discerning senior citizens; a whirlwind trip to the El Cerro for churros, candombe and cine; a little Uruguayan tango; and The Sound We See: LA (on 16mm!) & Hanoi at the fabulous Sala Zitarrosa (muchas gracias, Patricia!!!) with a lively post-screening Q&A. Now… time to telecine into the wee morning hours!!!! Onward!

FAC Lab is really firing on all cylinders these days… the place is positively overflowing with radiant cinematic energy!

You never get tired if you just keep on movin’! What a magical May Day with our magnificent Montevideo Film Family! 24 shoots in 24 hours: YAY, TEAM!

After an intense morning storm with wild lightning, ear-splitting thunder and torrents of rain, the skies clear and we ramble a new path to the lab where we work with Anton, Sophia, Laura, Silvana and Guillermo to mix chemistry and spool down film in preparation for The Sound We See and Blow Up. Cake and mate reward our efforts! Then it’s time to hightail it home for the SWS Orientation. There’s some pals from the lab, plus art school kids from UCU and La Republica, some new friends of new friends, and even some random folks who just heard about the event somehow and were intrigued enough to check it out. Since shooting for this edition will take place over a 24-hour period on May 1 – May Day! – the planning component is even more complex than usual but it’s both fascinating and inspiring to sit back and watch folks navigate desires and differences in the process of coming together as cohesive cinematic family over the span of  just a couple hours. Now all we have to do is pray for a sunny Tuesday!

The Dodgers or The Yankees. DC or Marvel. The Beatles or The Stones. Alexis or Krystle. Cats or Dogs. We can debate it until the cows come home but rivalries are the spice of life. Today, it’s sheer delight to do back to back presentations (divided by a HUGE thunderstorm!) for multi-media students and faculty at Universidad Católica del Uruguay and art students, faculty and community members at Universidad de Republica Uruguay Faculdad de Arte. Who came out on top in this battle of the art schools? EVERYBODY! Thanks to Julieta, Felipe, Sophia, Florencia and Ferndando for your great help with facilitation, projection and translation, thanks to all the students for your interest and awesome questions, and thanks to The Canada Council for the Arts and The Foundation for Contemporary Arts for your generous support in making these presentations possible!

We heard Montevideo was “small.” We heard Montevideo was “like living in the ’50s.” We heard Montevideo was “quiet.” If we were anticipating tranquil days spooling out languidly with nothing much to occupy them, we were sorely mistaken! We’re here at the invitation of the fabulous FAC (Fundación de Arte contemporáneo) working with a bunch of dynamic local artists, activists and filmmakers making the 17th Sound We See AND participating in BLOW UP, a special project that invites participants to shoot short Super 8 films and blow them up to 16mm on the lab’s optical printer. Add to this about a million art shows, film festivals, performances, presentations, protests, concerts, conversations, discussions, debates, screenings, guest lectures and feminist pizza parties and we are most definitely rocking around the clock!

The three-hour bus ride from Colonia to Montevideo goes by in a flash and suddenly we’re in a new city with the wonderful Ángela and Guillermo there to welcome us with smiling faces and bags of delicious food! For the next three weeks our home base will be Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, a former prison complex that now hosts museum shows, workshops and artists in residence. Time to explore!