It’s floating in my head the idea launched by Carla Simón during the visit that Javier Zurro made to Vigo, to learn more about the filming of his film Pilgrimage: “Talking about the 80s and AIDS is also a historical memory.”
We call historical memory a way of dealing with the past with the tools of the intimate, the personal, the familiar. Unlike historical studies, memory does not have the ambition to tell a collective story, even if it succeeds in the sum of its parts, but rather aims to share with the present a past that, for whatever reason, has been painful and therefore silenced.
We are all aware that this is what happened in many of our families, many of our grandparents having been defeated after the civil war. But pay attention to what Carla Simón points out: what about the wounds of our fathers and mothers?
What is shameful is silenced (and thus hidden from History). Whether it is the oppressive defeat of the vanquished or the social stigmatization of the marginalized. And (this is not scientific but it is part of the experience) it is necessary to skip a generation for the memory to make its way.
Concerning AIDS, it seems to me that there is still a lot of memory to explore. a few days ago Tilda Swinton said she took care of the talented (and perhaps not revisited enough today) Derek Jarman in the last years of his life, sick with AIDS and confined to his Prospect Cottage on the Kent coast, England. This story should be told. Although in England we have seen a recent, much-needed series like It is a sin, with Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander, who helped raise awareness among a younger generation about the AIDS pandemic and its effects (although in this case the focus is on young artists, while other groups continue to be marginalised in the narratives).
Returning to the Spanish case, Andrea Galaxina published two years ago Nobody Was Looking This Way, an essay on art and HIV on artistic activism around HIVlike the creations of ACT UP and others. Among the Spanish artists, we always cite the performance of Pepe Espaliú, who, ill, was taken away from the Congress of Deputies to the Reina Sofía Museum by many people, some anonymous, others famous, such as Pedro Almodóvar or Marisa Paredes.
Almodóvar has actually focused on AIDS in some films, such as All About My Motheras well as Fernando León de Aranoa in princesses. But there are not many others, apart from Carla Simón. (Summer 1993) and it’s short After too) and the documentary I am visible by Cesida and Fernanda Carvalho (2023, visible on Filmin).
There is also room to wander in the narrative. In 2020, Consonni published Jenisjoplina novel by Uxue Alberdi about a young woman who discovers in the 80s in Bilbao that she is HIV positive. Iván Zaro, used to making books with a collective vocation that collect testimonies, did the same in Life Through the Looking Glass in 2019. To give some recent examples where HIV is central.
In truth, we need more “Sidarios chronicles” like those of the Chilean Pedro Lemebel.
I’ll let you continue with the rest of the newsletter. Beam roll and you will find many other recommendations: readings, articles, films and, attention, the projects of Laura García Higueras are back.
Three recommended articles
The jury of the Venice Film Festival has decided that the best film in competition has been The next piece, by Pedro Almodovar. The second Spaniard to win it. A look at death austere and beautifulbut also about hate. Guess who did not congratulate him.
According to word of mouth, novels Black water It catches you in an addictive way. We wanted to know why and we interviewed the writer Ledicia Costas, also fascinated by This mysterious book written under a pseudonym in 1983.
Laura G. Higueras participated in the Vetusta Morla’s last apotheotic concert in the Riviera room in Madrid before seeing you again later. A celebration of friendship, overflowing with euphoria and love from his fans that we collect in this column that even includes videos.
Three recommended books
Edith Caroline Rivett She shrouded herself in mystery. I liked to sign with initials and another last name, as is the case with ER Loracunder which to pass oneself off as a man during the golden age of British detective fiction. In The case of the missing writer (Duomo Ediciones), first published in 1935, continues the game, as the plot tells the story of a writer of suspense novels who lives in isolation but suddenly disappears. In bookstores September 25.
Bibiana Collado Cabrera, who will you remember Exhausted mares, a novel that we have recommended a lot in this newspaperis back with a book of poetry titled Beef chips (La Belle Varsovie / Anagram). A work on the relationship with the women around him. In bookstores September 18.
Arthur Cravanthe fascinating boxing poet who claimed in his fanzines to be a relative of Oscar Wilde and whom Isaki Lacuesta played so well in the film Cravan against Cravan, He wrote letters of love and depression to the poet and painter Mina Loy. The publishing house Periférica publishes them in Love Letters to Mina Loy. In bookstores September 23.
Three recommended films, by Javier Zurro
Already from Madrid, with the drought in Venice and thinking of San Sebastian, here are these recommendations:
Black tea: It is not his most complete film, but there is always something in the way of filming of Abderrahmane Sissako that continues to fascinate. Few filmmakers look at Africa as he does, and if he comes here to tell the story of the exodus of Africans towards Asia and the communities that were formed through a love story, we can rejoice in his appearance without paternalism, without condescension and with personality. May he also help many to discover his previous films.
Leaf litter: one of those premieres that comes to few theaters but is worth seeing. La Hojarasca has not stopped winning awards since its presentation at the last Berlinale and is the discovery of a filmmaker like Macu Machín, who, with her cinema that blurs the boundaries between fiction and reality, shows the Canarian landscape far from the tourist postcard.
The Gulfs: that in this section Carlos Saura is revered He is well known, so any opportunity to see his films on the big screen is celebrated and announced. This Saturday at the National Cinematheque (Madrid) his first feature film is being screened, The gulfs, which, as if that were not enough, was produced by Pere Portabella, a fundamental figure of Spanish cinema who is not always recognized and whose interesting documentary was seen at the last Venice Festival.
Three projects for the weekend, by Laura García Higueras
After my vacation, I get the recommendation of three interesting plans for this weekend:
Skate Love Barcelona. For me, skateboarding seems like a risky sport, in reality, very complicated; But I have many friends who have become very fond of it and have even followed their participation in the Olympic Games with great insistence. If you are like them, this weekend is the international festival of music on wheels, with DJs like Moodymann on its lineup. There will also be master classes and performances by artists such as the Tumbleweed circus.
B-Side Festival. The last moments of summer are still full of festivals, like the one organized this Saturday by Molina del Segura (Murcia). Samuraï, Cala Vento, Iván Ferreiro, Siloé and Serial Killerz make up their line-up. If you are still out of batteries, here is a good excuse to continue the concert.
PROJECTOR. This week this video creation festival arrived in Madrid, which offers reflections on war, memory, the environment, games and video performance on social networks. The exhibition is made up of more than 100 pieces that try to capture the best of the international experimental scene.
Librotea’s recommendations
This week, Librotea offers desirable books and brings us the recommendations of two Ignacios: Escolar and Martínez de Pisón:
