Content from Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola

The highlands of Granada, Spain, 2027. Among sheep, ruins and drones, a student and two shepherds meet and connect. Their lives entangle as they explore the history of a homestead that appears and vanishes at will.

I wanted to make a film about polyamory, because I firmly believed that I would love all partners equally. As a relationship became more intense, the foundations I wanted to explore began to conflict with the reality I was experiencing, and the direction of the film changed.

João, an actress from Lisbon, as she stars in a biopic about Liberada, a gender-nonconforming figure persecuted by the Portuguese Inquisition in the 18th century. The film's production becomes a battleground as João clashes with the director over how Liberada’s legacy should be portrayed. These tensions deepen as João's dreams are increasingly haunted by Liberada's ghost, blurring the lines between past and present. When the director succumbs to a mysterious paralysis, leaving the film unfinished, João is left to navigate the unfolding chaos. She faces unanswerable questions, not only about the film's future but also about her own connection to Liberada’s spirit and story.

El tercer paisaje / The Third Landscape is a film project that has as its protagonist the fungus that made the painted forest of Oma sick, the work that the Basque artist Agustín Ibarrola carried out in the 80s in the province of Bizkaia. This artwork belongs to the Land Art movement, which is mainly characterized by its ephemeral nature. Within this current, artists leave their works exhibited at the mercy of weather conditions and other elements alien to human will.

During a dynastic crisis in 14th century Portugal, the 10 year old Beatriz enters into a forced marriage to become the country’s new queen. At the Monastery of Sancti Spiritus in Toro, where the tomb of Beatriz is located, this story is re-enacted, re-imagined, and recreated with children of the same age. As their imagination is allowed to roam free, a different way to interact with their country’s history opens up.

An adaptation of “Sea Foam”, a chapter from Cesare Pavese’s “Dialoghi con Leucò” published in 1947. The ancient Greek poet Sappho and the nymph Britomartis meet beside the sea and have a conversation about love and death. Sappho is said to have thrown herself into the ocean from lovesickness. Britomartis apparently tumbled off a cliff and into the water while fleeing from a man. Together, the two discuss the stories and images that have emerged around them to try and understand, at least for a moment, the bittersweet nature of desire.

A strange weapon of optical complexity is able to project an enormous dazzling light over the territory. Precisely aimed, the ray can cause the spread of colossal heat, enough to destroy everything. The night is extinguished, the earth burns, the creatures run away groping towards the depths of the world. In the dark holes of the earth the space expands enough to imagine a refuge where another imaginary may appear.

A baby is bathed by its mother, who sings: “When I was a young girl…”. Later, a little girl’s voice will pick up the thread: “When I’ll be an old lady…”. Between the two, the film sketches an anthropology of all the different games, wonders, and plays with auditory perceptions that children carry out with water in all its shapes (baths, sprinklers, lakes…). But other dimensions are hinted at: an exploration of its meanings for mankind, a kaleidoscope of its movements, textures, and reflections, a spectrum of the scales in which it is to be contemplated. (Nathan Letoré)

The making of a soldier in Peru. A group of young men, some of them teenagers, voluntarily enlists in a rigorous military program within the Peruvian Armed Forces. They are driven by their desire to engage in an ongoing armed conflict in the VRAEM, an area with military intervention framed by a 'war on drugs' policy. They aspire to become ‘men of war’ and embark on a transformative journey from hopeful adventurers into soldiers. Amidst the violence in the secluded military environment in Peru, intimate moments unfold beyond a prejudiced gaze, where compassion and care blossom among them.

In a spa surrounded by mountains of salt, guests relax while workers collect the glowing crystals in the sun. Children slip away, a woman drifts through. As night falls, the space transforms, shaped by the desires of its visitors.

In the ruins of the Disibodenberg monastery, the voice of Hildegard von Bingen sneakes through the walls. As the day goes by, the space empties of people, and with the arrival of the night, a vision emerges.

A father took photos during the Chilean dictatorship. His daughter plays with him in the darkroom, developing other images. Images to resist and invent other futures.

Authorities have prohibited access to a forest on the outskirts of the city. Strange vegetation has infested the area, and those who have been questioned report sightings of rare species, human-sized birds, or figures that appear and disappear. Despite the restrictions, several people decide to visit the place. Once there, they coexist and play without fear of the warnings. Little by little, reality begins to distort, blending with their memories, dreams, and fantasies.

Alone in the mountains: Olivia, her Father, and their home. By the foothills, a slaughterhouse, where Father works. When Father disappears Olivia descends the mountains in search of him.

After nights of heavy partying, a trans performer goes to the Botanical Garden of Lisbon to get sober again.

Video installation study between landscape, a woman, and the portrait of both.

In a village in the Extremadura province of Spain, where bullfighting and the Catholic faith have long been a way of life, 16-year-old Tristán is training to become a bullfighter. His mother silently but anxiously observes his preparations. He practices graceful moves and posture, but he is plagued by insecurity and fear of the fight to come. TO DIE BEFORE DYING tells a personal story about a controversial reality of the 21st century.

My father only used a camera once in his life. Thirty years later, he asked me to digitise the material he had filmed. I was wondering what he remembers. Created from an impulse to rethink and rewatch personal archive footage, the film explores memory and its relation to documentation and non-institutional archive practices. Connecting politics with intimate spaces, the documentary questions both the influence of war on private archives and the role of gardens as places of new begginings.

This film essay proposes to consider feminism historically, connecting the past with the present. The images filmed today (March 8, 2024 in San Sebastián) interact with the sound and archives of the 1971 film "L'aggettivo donna," made by the Collettivo Femminista di Cinema-Roma.