I’m thrilled to announce that my film lessons on flight (2024) has been selected for screening at Spain’s S8: Muestra de Cinema Periférico, which takes place in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, June 3-7, 2025.
lessons on flight will screen as part of the Latin American focused program Sinais Latinoamérica, screening Sat June 7, 2025 at the Sala (s8) Palexco.
The appearance of a hummingbird is an omen, a message from a soul that is no longer physically with us. With a beginning that resembles Muybridge’s investigations of movement, Cecilia Araneda in her film Lessons on Light pays tribute to the hummingbird as a mythical bird, and with a unique rhythm that turns the material of film into a deep landscape, over which the spectral trace of the hummingbird dances with greater cadence. The pictorial material nature in the film situates us in a microscopic and material vision of the inside of a plant, or perhaps in a spiritual dimension. The film emerges from the artist’s personal experience of observing her grandparents’ house in Chile, experiencing mourning over exile and the passing of the years. The slight movements and the multiple possible directions create a moving tribute to the beauty and wisdom of a being who inhabits this Earth, flying, vibrating spiritually with the fluttering of its wings, soaring over mourning and tragedy; summoning a hopeful sound that resonates, above all, from within. / Ivonne Sheen – S8
Shot on B&W 16 mm film, eco-processed with olives and hand coloured on site in rural Chile, lessons on flight examines the flight patterns of the green-backed firecrown hummingbird.
Special thanks to Franci Duran, Elian Mikkola, Chad Tremblay, the Araneda Espinoza family and the Canada Council for the Arts for making this film possible.
In memory of María Laurina Espinoza Hernández, who planted the gardens the hummingbirds feed on, and who wished for this place to never be forgotten.