For the third year in a row, the second-year documentary students at the ECAM propose a film series that aims to reimagine contemporary cinema. This year, we are inviting the British filmmaker Miranda Pennell to join us for the retrospective entitled Returning the Gaze, which invites us to turn our gaze to the colonial archive.

Having started out in the world of dance, Miranda Pennell has dedicated her work to researching and critically examining colonial archives for years. Her films seek to reinterpret these images, prompting us to reflect on how we might relate to them in the present day, how to decipher them without perpetuating the violence and oppressive codes that they were originally conceived from. Using reframing techniques, montages of still photographs and her subsequent sound editing, she shapes the narrative, integrating her personal, intimate, and family history into the broader context of colonial political history. Her filmmaking calls out to us directly, closing the distance that separates us from present-day conflicts, such as the genocide in Gaza in her latest film, Man Number 4 (2024).

The retrospective is made up of two sessions, during which the feature film The Host (2015) and her subsequent short films, a trilogy, will be screened. The series will be accompanied by a performance at the ECAM entitled Gestures of Love and Violence. Following each activity, Miranda Pennell herself will engage in a conversation with the public, who is invited to participate.

ECAM Cinematography and Audiovisual School of the Community of Madrid