Practice-based Research

CINEMA   ARTISTIC - AUDIOVISUAL PROJECTS

TYPOGRAPHIC PRINTERS, A LOST CRAFT

Documental. Dir. Marian Del Moral. 2017

THE LIBERATOR

Fiction film. Dir. Alberto Arvelo_2012

Director: Alberto Arvelo

Production: Venezuela, Spain in collaboration with Germany and the United States.

Year: 2014

Synopsis:

"Libertador" shows Bolívar's childhood and the moments that shaped his determination to defend the rights of indigenous peoples and slaves; his subsequent marriage to María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro and the scar left by her premature death. It reveals his descent into a decaying Europe before he rediscovered his social consciousness, returning to the Americas, where he began a series of complex military campaigns associated with the Wars of Independence.

Roles I perform as an anthropologist in film production:
- Casting coordination

TRAILER

OPERATION LIGHT

Documental. Dir. Nani Sahra Walker. 2012

Title: OPERATION LIGHT

Director: Nani Sahra Walker

Production: Nepal, USA.

Year: 2012

Information:

Nepali artists work on the concept of "Light" in poster form, creating awareness about the various meanings of Light and moreover commenting on the absence of electricity in Nepal.Posters are pasted around the streets of Kathmandu in the heart of monsoon. Artists, filmmakers, musicians and art-lovers share their light in this short documentary. 

Featuring the music of Spanish-American-Indonesian electronic ensemble Filastine (with Nova).

Participating Nepali artists: 

Suraj Shrestha, Hari Ram Adhikari, Siddhanta Pudasaini, Raj Kumar Rai, Yajju Manadhar, Rabin Shakya, Arun Rai, Anil Gurung, Barsat Karki, Bibek Suwal, Gaurav Raj Dhakal, Niranjan Maharjan, Padam Bdh. Shrestha, Ujen Maharjan, Sophiya Karki, Hisila Maharjan, Subhadra Maharjan, Mahendra Thapa Magar, Sashi Kala Rai, Mahesh Tamang, Abishek Shakya, Bibek Shrestha, Kanchan Tamang, Mina Gurung, Ruju Achanja, Saul Magan, Suvash Tamrakar, Sanish Maharjan, Tum Bdr. Gurung.

Roles I perform as an anthropologist in documentary production:

• Co-producer
• Conducting interviews
• Coordination and facilitation of artist groups in the city of Kathmandu
• Camera
• Locations and urban mapping

KATHMANDU. A MIRROR IN THE SKY

Fiction film. Dir. Iciar Bollain_2011-12

Title: Kathmandu, a Mirror in the Sky.

Director: Iciar Bollain

Year: 2012

Synopsis:

Laia is a Catalan teacher who travels to Kathmandu to work in a school in the poorest neighborhoods. There, she will become aware of the misery surrounding her, and her greatest desire will be to carry out an educational project that provides the poorest children with quality education to help them escape this situation in the future. In order to do so and continue working there, she will be forced to enter into a marriage of convenience with a Kathmandu citizen, whom she will eventually fall in love with. On the other hand, a native teacher, Sharmila, will help and accompany her throughout the process, where they will face various difficulties, and they will form a deep and intimate friendship.

Roles I perform as an anthropologist in film production:

• Casting director

OTHER NATURE

Documental. Dir. Nani Sahra Walker, 2010

Title: Other Nature

Director: Nani Sahra Walker 

Production: Nepal, USA, Spain

Year: 2012

Synopsis:

"Other Nature" chronicles Nepal´s passage of the first law guaranteeing third gender rights in the world, as the country transitions to a federal republic after 240 years of monarchy. Third gender refers to the presence of identities that challenge binary dichotomies of gender, a concept known as Tritiya Prakriti in Hindu thought for thousands of years. Nepal is in the midst of building a constitution, with more than 600 political parties. The film builds on various perspectives, with an in-depth look into the personal stories of Nepali LGBT human rights activists, as well as reflections from South Asian artists, politicians, lawyers, and religious figures on the politics and ethics of same-sex marriage and the third gender.

Roles I perform as an anthropologist in documentary production:

• Co-Producer
• Spanish subtitles translator.
• Creative advisor in editing
• Distributor in the academic field (USA and Spain)

Alliance for Solidarity

Audiovisual Work: Afroandaluzas. Neighbors and Citizens

Role: Ethnographer, Creative Director, and Producer.

Information:

As part of the Derribando Fronteras y Muros Invisibles (Breaking Down Borders and Invisible Walls) project, whose aim is to contribute to the understanding of the violence experienced by Black African migrant women in transit and at their destination, and to commit to acting and producing change, Ángela, Assy, Clotilde, Dousso, Kine, Lily, and Silvie have created the Afroandaluzas magazine using the Photo Voice methodology, which combines photography and voice. The protagonists are women, African, Black, and citizens of Granada and Seville, who generously participate to make visible that they are citizens, neighbors of this land, which is also theirs, and that they contribute to building.

In response to the question "Who are we as African, Black, and Andalusian women?" In the case of Afro-Andalusian women, who are mostly from West African countries (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Conakry, etc.), the answer is always the same: We are diverse women, and our identities respond to a multitude of experiences and interactions, just like all other social and cultural identities.

YOUTUBE 1

YOUTUBE 2

Andalusian Solidarity Development Association 

Project 1. Migrimage. Images of Migration on the Southern Border of Europe

Year: 2021

Work done: Multimodal Ethnographer, Teacher, Facilitator.

Information:

The MIGRIMAGE project: Images of Migration on the Southern Border aims to engage the citizens of three European countries bordering the Mediterranean (Spain, Greece, and Italy) on the need for responsible knowledge and use of the information circulating about migration. Specifically, it seeks to critically question negative stereotypes and the stigmatization of migrants, offering a prototype of a comprehensive training program so that young people, both European and foreign, become direct interlocutors in intercultural dialogue, using the transformative potential of communicative tools.

ASAD

INTLPROJECTS

Project 2. He/She. Short Films for Social Change.

Documentary Short Film

Year: 2016

Work done: script, teaching, facilitation, and direction.

Information:

A documentary short film on Gender in Granada from the Photo and Video for Social Change course taught by the Andalusian Solidarity Association for Development – ASAD.

YOUTUBE

Project 3. Small Eyes That See Big.

Documentary Short Film

Year: 2016

Work done: documentation, script, direction, and editing.

Information:

"Small Eyes That See Big" is a short film that is part of the collaborative documentary "Muchos más objetivos," produced by ASAD as part of the Education for Development project "ACTIVARTE: Global Communication, Art, and Local Transformation" (2015-2016), implemented by ASAD and funded by the Andalusian Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AACID).

YOUTUBE

Center for Initiatives for Cooperation - Batá (CIC-Batá)

Project 1: "Imaginaries. Building Global Citizenship from the Children's Perspective."

Photography and video.

Year: 2018

Work carried out: audiovisual ethnographer, teacher, facilitator, director, and editor.

Information:

We promote a reflective and expressive process on environmental protection, cultural diversity, and equality through artistic and communication tools (radio, video, photography, graffiti, theater, etc.). We create spaces for children's participation through communication. We invite children to share their worldview with peers from the rest of Andalusia, Mexico, the Sahara, and Colombia. In this way, we foster dialogue for a better world.

CIC BATÁ

Project 2: "Imaginaries in a Diverse World"

Audiovisual based on the exchange of children's video letters between Spain and Mexico.

Year: 2018

Work carried out: audiovisual ethnographer, teacher, facilitator, director, and editor.

Information:

With the project "IMAGINARIOS EN UN MUNDO DIVERSO," funded by the Andalusian Agency for International Cooperation for Development, Ministry of Equality, Social Policies, and Reconciliation of the Andalusian Government, we aim to focus educational actions on diversity and emotional education. From a child's perspective, we address issues such as cultural diversity as an enriching element that promotes coexistence, both inside the classrooms and in society at large, from a glocal perspective.

Based on this idea, we propose actions that build new narratives from childhood, promoting the exchange of knowledge and experiences through audiovisual correspondence between children from Oaxaca, Mexico, and Andalusia, Spain. In this way, discussing topics related to cultural diversity, healthy and nutritious food, food sovereignty, and human rights is easier.

Through a playful, participatory, and creative methodology, children express their worldview, aiming to influence and transform things they don't like, while emphasizing attitudes and learnings such as empathy, respect, acceptance, collaboration, and care for others to promote and achieve the challenges and goals set by the 2030 Agenda.

CIC BATÁ

Project 3: "Connecting Cultures for the Common Good"

Creative audiovisual with children.

Year: 2017

Work carried out: audiovisual ethnographer, teacher, facilitator, director, and editor.

Information:

"Connecting Cultures for the Common Good" proposes play and audiovisual as creative elements through which children recreate and transform their environment. It aims, through various educational actions, to promote spaces for children's participation and develop strategies that allow children to share and learn about the lives of children in different parts of Andalusia and Oaxaca (Mexico), their environments, interests, priorities, issues affecting them, and how we move towards the common good.

Through the process carried out with children from various CEIPs (Primary Education Centers), a series of communication materials have been produced that highlight their reflections, ideas, and proposals for advancing towards the recognition and preservation of common goods.

CIC BATÁ

Social Photography School - La Ampliadora  

Project 1: Santa Cruz File

Year: 2017

Visual and Experimental Anthropology

Role: Ethnographer, Teacher, Facilitator, Photographer, Editor

Information:

Reimagining the past.

Reimagining what happened in the air crash of September 1982, between Santa Cruz del Comercio and Valenzuela, was the goal of this project. The mystery surrounding the event provided the perfect opportunity to let our imagination run wild, leading to conclusions worthy of Iker Jiménez. We aimed to create a mock documentary with the village residents, who would become actors and directors of the piece. However, before that, they needed to learn the basic concepts of photography. We conducted workshops to teach the neighbors a bit about the science behind photography. It didn’t matter if they used mobile phones, tablets, or cameras – the important thing was that the villagers could tell this story using the tools available to them. The story was captured in the mock documentary Expediente Santa Cruz.

Methodology:

This short documentary was the result of a photography and video workshop we facilitated over a weekend in November 2017, in the village of Santa Cruz del Comercio (Granada, Spain). We began with the idea of photography and video as a medium for collective creation that activates the imagination and brings about practices that make it experientially engaging and generative of spaces. Expediente Santa Cruz is an exercise in boundless imagination and image representation within the "fictional documentary" genre, created by a rural community.

The project’s starting point focused on a strange and true event: a military plane crash that occurred in this village in the mid-1980s. Around 20 people of ages ranging from 4 to 70 years old enrolled in the workshop. We introduced ourselves as experts in photography, anthropology, and ufology. We presented some videos about strange accidents, lights in the sky, sightings, reptilians, military operations, UFOs, etc., to stimulate creativity and fiction dynamics among the participants. Gaps and imbalances began to emerge: between the real, imaginary, and extraordinary; between the younger participants, perhaps with a more inclusive imagination, and the newcomers to the village (a truly peculiar couple, as well as a sizable British community) and other participants. Together, they started to create dynamics that highlighted organizational values, collaboration, play, and collective social imagination, which, through the use of photography and video cameras, formed the first materials of this experience. We began to create a game in which we all pretended anything was possible, and sometimes, it was unclear whether others were truly pretending. Each person let their imagination flow, with local elements gaining particular relevance: the strange triangular layout of the village, the outlying area, and the watchtower, the behavior of the ducks on the lake, abandoned buildings, areas with telluric energy, etc.

Expediente Santa Cruz is a mock documentary about plane crashes and explanations beyond the rational for their causes. These explanations were formulated through audiovisual practice and photography in a process of collective construction. The story was created by playing. We set up rotating groups, pretending an order based on tasks: video, sound, interviews, photography, locations, production. We started by asking the oldest locals about their memories of that crash. Our informants also played along, improvising, walking the fine line between seriousness and madness.

At one point, Ainoa, a 6-year-old girl, asked to record the red pilot light on the TV and its reflection on the table, moving the camera so it would resemble "strange lights in the sky." We recorded footsteps, filmed goats, ran in the rain, crossed puddles and rivers, ate chicken with garlic – the story was unstoppable.

Marian del Moral: PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Granada

Ana Belén Estrada Gorrín: PhD in the Institute of Migrations at the University of Granada

Cecilio Puertas: Director of the La Ampliadora Social Photography School

LA AMPLIADORA

YOUTUBE

SOCIOLOGÍA ORDINARIA

Project 2: Memory of the Caves

Year: 2017

Visual and Experimental Anthropology

Role: Ethnographer, Teacher, Facilitator, Photographer, Editor.

Project 3: Home

Year: 2016

Photobook

Role: Ethnographer, Photographer, and Editor.

Observatory of Childhood and Adolescence of Andalusia  

Project: More than Words, Collaborative Photography with Children in Residential Care.

Participatory Photography

Work carried out: multimodal ethnographer, facilitator, and teacher.

Year: 2019

Information:

During 2018, the Observatory of Childhood in Andalusia, in collaboration with the CIC Batá project “Corresponsables, Space for the Meeting of Andalusian Audiovisuals for Social Change” and the funding from the Observatory of Childhood in Andalusia and the Andalusian Agency for International Cooperation for Development, both part of the Ministry of Equality, Social Policies, and Reconciliation, developed the exhibition "More than Words, Collaborative Photography with Children in Residential Care." This experience is part of the Participanda (OIA) project, which aims to promote children's participation in different areas of society. The images featured in the exhibition are the result of a collaborative photography workshop with individuals aged 12 to 17 in residential care in Andalusia, in which visual narratives were created that reflect their realities, needs, and dreams in relation to their experience in the protection system.

This exhibition is the result of the collaboration between the workshop facilitation team, professionals in the field of residential care, and the children and adolescents who were part of the experience. The exhibit consists of 24 panels with photographs and texts printed on PVC with dimensions of 90 x 60 cm, texts printed on the images, and a presentation banner measuring 85 x 200 cm.

The photographs were taken by Madina, Oumu, Nour, Jasmine, Judit, Níah, Darell, Yo, C. Ronaldo, Yorsi, Casper, Ninguno – participants under 18 years old –, Ana Belén Estrada Gorrín, Marian del Moral Garrido – collaborators of the “Corresponsables, Space for the Meeting of Andalusian Audiovisuals for Social Change” program – and Silvia Bustamante Elvira – psychologist and technician at the Observatory of Childhood in Andalusia and project coordinator.

OBSERVATORY OF CHILDHOOD