Residential workshop with Davoud Gerami: 27, 28, 29 June 2025

Cinematic Abstraction: Unlearning the Moving Image

Introduction:

This is an Introductory Intensive Residential Workshop of Experimental and Avant-garde Cinema for people from 18 years of age, with an artistic interest. No previous experience or education in cinema and video arts is necessary. The only requirement is a love for the moving image, and the willingness to learn, play, and explore.

Dates:

27, 28, 29 of June, 2025 (Friday – Sunday)

Hours:

Friday: from 17:00 to 21:00

Saturday: from 10:00 to 14:00 and from 16:00 to 20:00

Sunday: from 10:00 to 15:00

Total: 17 hours of activities

Price:

Complete Package (Workshop + Lodging in Dome + Food)

• Early birds (reservations until 27, May): 290 €
• Normal (reservations between 27, May and 27, June): 330 €

Campers Package (Workshop + Lodging in Own tent/camper + Food)

• Early bird (reservations until 27, May): 240 €
• Normal (reservations between 27, May and 27, June): 280 €

No Lodging Package (Workshop + Food)

• Early bird (reservations until 27, May): 200 €
• Normal (reservations between 27, May and 27, June): 240 €

Inscriptions:

To register for this workshop, use this form. Soon after registration you will receive a confirmation email. If you do not receive a confirmation email, first check your spams, and then contact us.

 

“We are the humans of the age of Profilicity. We live in a world oversaturated with images. Images that tend to instruct, dictate, and persuade, but fail to stimulate. Images that intend to portray us as seen by the others, but fail to kindle any feelings, cause any thinking, or create anything new. In such a quagmire, we need to unlearn and learn again. We need to find alternative ways to see, think, and communicate. Experimental and Avant-garde cinema can be our way out.”

Davoud Gerami

Content:

In this intensive workshop our goal is threefold: to learn to see afresh, to learn to think anew, and finally, to learn to communicate non-linearly. Camera will be our pen, our window to the outside world, and the prism to our inner feelings.

We will walk on a less beaten track, but still we will be stepping onto the footprints of the pioneers of Experimental Cinema and the philosophers who identified the need for a new artistic expression. Through an intensive theoretical introduction, we will familiarise ourselves with the works of those who came before us. From Walter Benjamin, to Dziga Vertov, from Stan Brakhage, to Maya Deren, from Godfrey Reggio to Theodore Adorno.

On the practical side, we will learn the basic vocabulary, grammar, and syntax of cinema, only to betray them and create a new form. We will learn about the basics of shot composition, the principles of camera movement, the fundamentals of film editing, rhythm, and pacing. We will learn about the role that sound plays, the musicality of things, the use of text and narration, performance, and acting.

Last but not the least, we will pick up our cameras and go out to the world to play. To see again, to film again, and to come up with new visual words of expression through the act of deconstruction. We will bring back these images and words back to the editing suite, and through the process of montage, we will put them together, forming sentences and paragraphs.

We welcome participants to think in advance about a particular theme, or feeling that they want to explore and express during this workshop.

This creative workshop aims to be a safe space where participants can create and play freely and confidently, without fear of the outcome. The films created in this workshop will be projected on the last evening for participants and their invitees. These films will also be eligible for screening in one of the upcoming film festivals at O Castro Art Village with the consent of the filmmakers.

Facilitators:

Davoud Gerami

Davoud GERAMI is a Persian-Canadian filmmaker and media artist. He is academically trained in the fields of engineering, media studies, cinema, and documentary media, and Expressive Arts. He considers himself an autodidact, a voracious interdisciplinary reader, cross-examining the humanities, from psychology and history, to literature and philosophy, all to know better the conditions of humanity and planet Earth.

His documentary films are mainly focused on Capitalism and its inevitable by-products; conflict, East vs. West, labour and recourse abuse, and environmental degradation. They have been presented in various Human Rights and independent film festivals across the globe. His gallery works were mainly exhibited in his adopted hometown, Toronto, Canada.

For the past five years he is the sojourner of an abandoned village in Lugo, Spain, where he has dedicated his time and life to his passion project; O Castro Art Village, a centre for arts, creativity, and cultural tourism, a meeting place per se, for artists and art-lovers on a local and international level.

What to Bring:

• – For the requirement of this course the participants should ONLY have access to their own personal smartphone equipped with a camera, and any video editing software. They should know how to use the camera, and the editing software. We will not have the time or the opportunity to provide specific instructions on the use of cameras and various software. There are many tutorials on YouTube to learn from.

• – More advanced participants can bring their own camera(s) to shoot with, ONLY if they can also provide their own laptop with an editing software. O Castro Art Village will not be able to provide any equipment for this workshop.

• – Optionally the participants are encouraged to think in advance about a feeling, a motif, or a theme that they would like to work with for their final film project.

• – We encourage the participants to bring along any image-making, or image-altering device of their interest, to play with new ways of seeing and image creation. Some examples would be: old camera lenses, Polaroid cameras, prisms, glass balls.

• – We encourage participants to bring some simple props to experiment and play with. Some examples would be: fabric, clothing, tools, mechanical gadgets, cylinders, etc.

• – We encourage those participants who are musicians to bring their instruments in case they want to incorporate their music into their final film project.

Lodging:

We will stay in two glamping-type geodesic domes of O Castro Art Village, which have an air conditioning system, private bathroom and everything you need to enjoy a comfortable stay. Each dome will house a maximum of four people in single beds. To see our facilities, access this virtual tour.

Activity Hall:

The activity hall is located in a renovated old barn, with a glass design that allows for stunning views of the Ribeira Sacra. It is equipped with a climate control system and wooden flooring.

Food:

We will enjoy healthy meals made with local ingredients and preparations that blend Galician products.