Recent Success Stories and Fiascos
Spanish underground auteur cinema is enjoying something of a sweet moment: a steady stream of films have been winning plaudits at festivals worldwide and are building up a keen audience within Spain. Nonetheless, this fragile industry is still struggling against a series of (often self-imposed) precarious conditions that constantly require us to invent, reinvent and reassess the (our) means of production.
In light of the vast amount of audiovisual content produced and consumed, alternative production needs to carve out a niche for itself in a similar vein to 21st-century poets and punks. New models for producing, screening and distributing films are clearly unfit for supporting a sustainable lifestyle or profession. Today’s auteur filmmakers and producers have to juggle a dizzying array of professional roles to sustain a professional career that paradoxically requires a proven track record even to get on the very first rung of the ladder to apply for grants. Great patience and a belief in their work is what keeps them going.
In this panel discussion, we shall look at producing auteur films in terms of ideas such as rhythms, improvisation, craftsmanship, creative figures, committed producers, punk, new waves, markets, platforms, the politics of ideas, egos, power plays, film crews, friends, the unconscious, criteria, money, patience, factors that come into play, emotional costs, sofa beds, taking care, honesty, privileges, the true essence, resistance and shared knowledge.
Panellists
Cristina Hergueta
Cristina Hergueta produces fiction and nonfiction arthouse films, including Guillermo Benet’s Los inocentes, María Pérez Sanz’s Karen and Juan Palacios’ Meseta. Many of the films she has produced have played at international festivals such as the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, San Sebastián International Film Festival, Seville European Film Festival, CPH:DOX, Transilvania International Film Festival and Visions du Réel. In 2020 she was selected for the Berlinale Talents programme (at the Berlin Film Festival) and in 2021 she took part in the Match Me! programme at the Locarno Film Festival. Her production company Garde is currently producing Pedro G. Romero’s latest project, Los caballos.
Tasio
Tasio is an independent sound and film producer. He amplifies projects that blur the boundaries between reality and fiction and is instinctively drawn to new languages by experimenting with sounds, formats and storytelling. He combines this activity with his other roles as a sound designer and curator. Through his label UMMM, he promotes projects and events around new sound, visual and performative trends that blend artistic and scientific disciplines. He is a member of the band Paciencia and the BRBR collective.
Tasio and Cristina Hergueta together form Esto no es una poesía (This is Not Poetry), a curatorial project that brings together filmmakers and poets to create pieces centred around contemporary poetry. Creators such as Virginia García de Pino, Maddi Barber, Elisa Celda, Andrés Duque, Isaki Lacuesta, Lur Olaizola, Acacia Ojea, Elisa Celda, and María Pérez Sanz, along with authors Rosa Berbel, María Sánchez, Pilar Adón, Lupe Gómez, and Cristina Morales, among others, are part of the first two series, “Presentes” (Presents) and “Paisajes” (Landscapes), which are currently being showcased at film festivals and cultural institutions, across Spain and further afield.
In collaboration with
