Disappearing Territories

Guest:

Alejandro Alonso
Filmmaker and Photographer


How to assume the creative crisis in order to explore our obsessions and develop our own gaze? How to take advantage of accidents and "mistakes" to shape our creative processes? Is there an ideal distance to turn the everyday into "strange"? Disappearing Territories proposes a reflection on the creative possibilities offered by non-fiction. Questioning the notion of the "documentary", we will move through a wide spectrum of registers, visions and methods to capture that substance that we insist on naming as the real.

Day 1

Rituals and disappearances

Lights and spirits in Duelo and Abisal. The landscape and the face as the first trigger. Finding a guide: casting and search for characters. From observation to staging. Sound atmospheres: the word.

Day 2

Accidents

The Cuban experiment or how to "alter" our way of relating to History. The other: Censorship and archival material in The Project. Travel films. How to cross a country without leaving home: road accidents in Home and El Hijo del sueño.

Day 3

Utopias y delusions

Invisible cities and camera obscuras: the dismantling of Terranova. From commissioning to script editing. Private utopias in Metratron. The character on his island: pacts in the documentary portrait.

Number of participants: 20


Profile: Film students, industry professionals, critics, film buffs and the general public.

Alejandro Alonso
(1987, Cuba)
Filmmaker and Photographer

Graduated in Documentary Directing at EICTV. His films have been screened at festivals and exhibitions in more than 30 countries. His documentary La Despedida (2015) had its international premiere at IDFA, was awarded Best Film in the category Aciertos at FICUNAM, and won the Full Frame President Award. Duelo (2016) premiered at Cinema du Réel-Centre George Pompidou, won Best Short Film at the 32nd Mar del Plata Film Festival and Best Short Film at the 58th Popoli Festival.

His feature film El Proyecto (2017) had its world premiere at Visions du Réel, won the FIPRESCI Award at the 60th Dok Leipzig and was listed by Cuban critics as the best documentary screened in 2017 on the island. Metatrón (2018) was part of the Cervantes Institute's selection for screening in 8 countries during 2018. Home (2019) was the result of the residency granted by the MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie) and the Cité International des Arts in Paris during the fall of 2018, had its European premiere in the Fascination Section of the 23rd IDFF Ji.hlava.

Terranova (2020) co-directed with Alejandro Perez won the Ammodo Tiger for Best Short Film at the Rotterdam Festival. Abisal (2021) had its world premiere at Visions du Réel, won the Audience Award at DocumentaMadrid and the Best Short Film Award at 64 Dok Leipzig.

Between 2017 and 2019, he coordinated the Master's Degree in Alternative Cinema organized by EICTV. In that institution he has taught several workshops and consultancies in Documentary Film.

He is currently a Resident at the Madrid Film Academy with his feature film project La Estrella. At the same time, he teaches workshops in Documentary Film at the Instituto de Cine de Madrid.

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