February 2, 2025
I was very moved by this interview by @_marimerino in SARA Y ROSA: FILM CRITICISM & IBERO AMERICAN CINEMAS @sarayrosacine with film programmer @cintiagil9 . It is not often that we have access to the thinking of those people who curate for cinemas and festivals. Usually in the press, the emphasis is on the actors, the films, and the directors. Thanks to the rigorous thinking of film curators, this very special celebration becomes a lived experience that we share with others in a very particular configuration.
“This is why programming work is not only a selection work, but a work of constructing contexts, critical contexts, discursive contexts, contexts of connection between films. I have to look for these contexts myself, so how do I connect?”
As Gil makes so very clear, the bigger, fancier, more commercial space is not always ideal.
“So I think we have to recognize the different scales at which films can operate, can function, can live, and put money, strategy and thought into these different scales. It is like ecology: a forest does not only live with very big trees, it also needs smaller ones. Everything works in an ecological system.”
She also asks us to take a new look at the map of cinema, to de-emphasize the focus on affirmation from Europe as the center and to work harder to register our relationships to other languages and regions.
“We have to imagine a world where there are many centers. Latin American cinema also has the power to define centers.”
In Latin America, she explains, there is far more emphasis on film criticism, deep thinking around meaning, representations and invention.
“I think it’s beautiful how, for example, cinephilia in Latin America doesn’t just involve watching films, but also reading about films, something that is in decline in Europe.”