Short-graphy of a committed cinema

Short-films:

Black Panthers, Agnes Varda, 1968, 31´
Riot, Nathan Silver, 2015, 4´
November, Hito Steyerl, 2004, 25´
Specialised Technique, Onyeka Igwe, 2018, 7´
Irrintzi, Mirentxu Loyarte, 1978, 12´
Performance "Respiración oceánica" by Izar Ocariz, 15´

The September session of A(r)mar la cámara (Arming The Camera) is comprised of five
short films from different eras and origins that expand on the dialogue proposed by the
cartography of committed cinema that is planned this year. Through this direct editing
exercise, we move closer and see how the crossing lines of a shared fight are drawn bit by bit.
As we move through the cycle, new ways of thinking about this direct relationship between
the camera and how one holds a weapon appear –a common thread through all the films
selected. The various eras presented in this session make this quite clear: if the short films
from the ‘60s and ‘70s –Black Panthers (1968) and Irrintzi (1979)– are based on the
documentation of specific social and political processes of the moment when they are
determining current historical memory, the session's more recent works –November (2004),
Riot (2015), and Specialised Technique (2018)– favour the reinterpretation of their own or
third-party archival material in order to lend new meaning to the images.
As such, to the conceptual and terminological similarities that we have been pointing to from
the start –to shoot a film–, we will be adding small guerilla actions, tricks of alteration that
expand the possible tones of the audiovisual medium: ripping, speeding up, slowing down,
going back... they are part of our resistance vocabulary, and old images appear in a new light,
combined to provoke thought beyond war and incite reflection on modern politics and
committed cinema.

Performance "Respiración oceánica"

Izar Ocariz Prego's only breathing

This work was built based on a chorus of breathing. Ujjjayi is a type of breath used in yoga, as she works as a teacher . The meaning of the word Ujjjayi is "I win"; it is usually translated as "oceanic breathing" because it is produced by this image. It is important that the figurative nature of the piece be separated between the abstract space of the breathing sound and the figure it produces, as if the sign and meaning were broken.