DocumentaMadrid
XV Festival Internacional de Cine Documental
Synopsis
Miranda Pennell returns to the stage for this performance, which came out of the “What If…” festival in London in 2013. Preceding in time the works we will see at other sessions, this is the genesis of her endeavors in filmmaking. It is a reflection on how images get used by the various systems of power and explores how we are possessed by them. Pennell’s prior training as a dancer intertwines with her exploration of the corporeality of images and the central role of the spectator’s body in the darkness of the cinema. She engages in dialogue with the screenings: from the on-screen images in 16 mm and, by way of Martin Arnold’s experimental cinema, through to early animation.
Following the performance and a short break, the floor will be opened up for a conversation with the audience. With a presentation by second-year students of Documentary Film (ECAM) and subsequent discussion with Miranda Pennell.
Due to the nature of the work, the session will be conducted entirely in English.
Director biography
Miranda Pennell
Miranda Pennell’s films reworks images from colonial archives to reflect on contemporary issues. Her work underscores the role that imagination plays in interpreting historical documents.
Having trained as a dancer, Miranda Pennell took the leap into film directing and made numerous films dealing with performance and choreography in everyday life. She would later study visual anthropology, where she took an interest in colonial archival images, a subject she deals with in her most recent work.
Miranda Pennell’s films have been exhibited at prestigious venues such as the New York Film Festival, FIDMarseille, Viennale, and the Open City Documentary Festival and the collective exhibition Evil Eye: The parallel history of optics and ballistics at the Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture in San Sebastián. Her feature film The Host won the 2017 Best Film Award at the Punto de Vista Film Festival.
Resident in London, she is currently in the process of developing a new film for the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. Her writing has been featured in Found Footage & Collage Films: The Artist's Voice.
Finished
Sessions
May
Thursday 08
11:00 h
ECAM. Sala de cine
Credits
Director
Miranda Pennell
With Miranda Pennell (english)