SESSION 120, ILLEGAL _CINEMA

Screening of Perpetual Disorder (Portugal, Spain, 2024, 5 min) by João Carlos Pinto, Lima (Peru, 2025, 4 min) by Biviana Chauchi, Foyer (Tunisia, France, 2016, 31 min) by Ismaïl Bahri and La Tarara (Spain, 2021, 14 min) by Álvaro Feldman. 8mm films in digital format, proposed by Sofía Tudela.

The city as a residential space triumphed a long time ago and imposed itself on any other form of settlement. Its expansion resulted in the transformation of natural landscapes prior to the Industrial Revolution, with each historical stage leaving its imprint on the territory. It is still not uncommon in cities to see areas in a state of ruin, with narrow streets, stone bridges and buildings with arches, coexisting at the same time with steel and concrete.

People who travel on foot often pause in the city’s old quarter, which they recognise as a place for escape or retirement, while the more modernised part of their daily route is the area of work and commuting.

But, despite the recent tendency of urban standardisation, the forms of urban life continue to be heterogeneous. The straight line that characterises most of our streets has not been completely imposed; some everyday routes continue to be improvised and in the urban space we still long to find “a house for each family; and with each house a vegetable plot and a garden” (Arturo Soria y Mata, 1882).

The films selected set out to portray these other forms of existence that reside in the blind spots of a city and that remain outside our everyday forms of understanding urban life. Starting from a personal view of their setting, the filmmakers not only create a narrative for themselves, but open themselves to what is happening around them in their coexistence with the urban environment.

Sofía Tudela (Jaén, 1996) is a visual artist and cultural programmer. She holds a Master’s Degree in Máster.LAV Laboratorio audiovisual de creación y práctica contemporánea (2021-22), a Master’s Degree in Artes y Profesiones Artísticas, Escuela SUR y Círculo de Bellas Artes (2019-21) and a Master’s Degree in Gestión Cultural UC3M (2018-19). As a cultural programmer she has taken part in ESQUEJES. Festival de cine expandido (sesión “Este ojo sin cuerpo”, 2025) and in coordinating the Artistic Residence of alRaso (2024- 25) together with Ana Domínguez.

*The realisation of this activity has benefitted from the collaboration of the Fondo Fílmico del Festival de Cine Africano FCAT.