Espiritísmo and the hallowed body

Guest:

Rafael Ramírez
Cineasta


In this workshop the aim is to develop a unique methodology that, through a mind-map or a memory museum, will ounexplored possibilities in the structuring and invention of what we call ‘’films’’ by inertia, when in reality are fragments of a dialogue with the world.

How ‘’ghostly’’ can a register be? What we meant by registering in this era? Complex modes of questioning the irrefutable character of the world, an intolerable inquiry. All the passages that relate the animal body with the gestural body are exposed and dissected in a ritualistic way of knowledge: Espiritismo de cordon, a Cuban religion (a variation of Allan Kardec’s spiritualism) has been the spinal cord of my cinema practices and cogitations. We will trace cinema as an anechoic chamber for the spirits, maybe a practice that should not be named as cinema any more. Following the notions of Cuban-American scholar Gilberto Perez and essayist Antonio Benitez Rojo, we will study both the Caribbean imagery as a feedback-machine and its Atlantic undercurrents as ectoplasm (ghostly) fluids. My films, audio-works and ‘’thought experiments’’ will become the map for this (always) uncharted territory.

Day 1

Espiritismo: basic notions. Kardec, Hilma af Klint, Conan Doyle.

The material ghost, as envisioned by Gilberto Perez.

Hauntology.

The Hallowed Body I. (Voice, Gesture) The 4 bodies of the instrument (Bernard Seve). Iconographie Photographique de la Salpetriere. E. J. Marey or when the Physiocrats went for a walk.

From my work: Limbo. Traces of the Inscribed. Field recording. Audio/work 1 y 2. Diary of the Mist.



Day 2

The Hallowed Body II (Body, Territory)

Phrenology. Ana Mendieta. Alom. Villaverde/Naredo. Bernabe Hernandez.

The Hunting Pack: Island of Lost Souls. Seahorse and sharks. Tatiana Huezo. Transitional spaces in Lucrecia Martel, Charles Laughton, and Jacques Tourneur.

From my work: Alona. Portrait of a Filmmaker. Orlando Furioso. The Melancholic’s Pavillion.



Day 3

The Caribbean as a feedback-machine. Antonio Benitez Rojo.

Sea and Ocean. Antimatter. Daniel Paul Schreber. Belkis Ayon. Orinoko Nuevo Mundo. Twin Peaks and the intuitions of Guido Ceronetti. Guillen Landrian and the Schizoid Revolution.

From my work: Amundsen’s Dogs. Audio/work 3.


Number of students: 14


Focus:

Students or professionals in the field of cinema, media studies, visual anthropology or related artistic practices.

Rafael Ramirez
(1983, Cuba)

Bachelor in Audiovisual Communication, by the University of the Arts, Havana, Cuba. Graduated in documentary filmmaking at EICTV (San Antonio de los Baños International Film School). His work has been part of international programs in France, Spain, Switzerland, UK, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, USA, Greece and Japan. His short films and projects has been premiered or selected in relevant film festivals such as Locarno, Mar del Plata, DocumentaMadrid, Havana Film Festival, Frames of Representation, Neighboring Scenes, FIC Valdivia, FestCurtas, MAFIZ, Frontera Sur, DocLisboa, CortosCali among others. In the 32th edition of Mar del Plata IFF was presented a retrospective of his works in the Altered States Section.

Ramirez’s first feature Winter Campaigns was premiered in April, 2019 in Curacao IFF Rotterdam. In 2021, the Association of Documentary Cinema in Spain organized a retrospective of his work. That year, in collaboration with curator Oderay Ponce de Leon, was presented in Elias Querejeta Zine Ezkola the intermedia project The Melancholics’ Pavillion.

Ramirez has authored translations on the work of Emily Dickinson (Purple Traffic, 2014) and John Robinson Jeffers (Los poemas de Tor House, 2015). In addition, he has written an anthology collecting the work of his heteronyms (Umbralismo 2014). He has composed music for several Cuban independent films such as The Project (Alejandro Alonso) and Tundra (Jose Luis Aparicio Ferrera), premiered in DOK Leipzig and Sundance, respectively.

Ramirez has coordinated the Humanities Department and the master degree in Alternative Cinema organized by the EICTV. He currently directs the Master Program in Cinema Practices for the same institution.

Web:www.mundussub.org


FILMOGRAPHY

Portrait of a Filmmaker. 6 min. (DOCMA, 2021).

Las campañas de invierno (Winter Campaigns). 75 min. (Curacao IFF Rotterdam, Havana Film Festival, 2019).

Los perros de Amundsen (Amundsen’s Dogs). 26 min. (Locarno Film Festival 2017, FIC Valdivia, Mar del Plata IFF, Frames of Representation, DocumentaMadrid, FestCurtas, Frontera Sur, Neighboring Scenes).

Alona. 12 min. (Mar del Plata IFF, DocumentaMadrid 2017)

Traces of the Inscribed. 6 min. (Mar del Plata IFF, 2017)

Limbo. 12 min. (DocumentaMadrid, 2016. Muestra Joven ICAIC 2016. Yale Film Festival, 2016. Mar del Plata IFF, 2017).

Diario de la Niebla (Diary of the Mist). 13 min. (Munich Student Film Festival, 2015. Mar del Plata IFF, 2017).

Tractatus. 40 min. (Muestra Joven, Havana 2008, Prize Almacén de la Imagen, 2008).

Filmar Pedro Páramo (Filmming Pedro Páramo). 26 min. (Muestra Joven, Havana 2006).

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