I 2021, or DOBRA – The International Experimental Film Festival reaches its seventh consecutive edition, reaffirming the power of creating new worlds that drive experimental cinema. Dobra is held in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, an institution sponsored by Petrobras, Itaú and Ternium through the Federal Culture Incentives Act and the PetraGold Collection.
Opening the festival programme, MAM Rio is promoting a meeting on August 16 with the DOBRA team, when selected films will be presented, as well as exhibitions organized by guest curators. The presentation will be held live at 4pm (via YouTube and MAM’s Facebook) with the participation of Christiana Miranda, Festival Director and Curator. Mediation of Domi Valance (Mam Rio).
Between September 6-30, DOBRA will be held again online and the schedule will be shown through the website www.festivaldobra.com.br. The close relationship between experimental cinema and the visual arts was even more evident at the 2021 edition of the festival. This year’s program includes national and international productions, which have previously undergone exhibitions and exhibitions in galleries and museums in many countries. All DOBRA sessions are free and do not require registration. In addition to screenings of nine film programmes, the festival includes an online course and chats.
The call for the 2021 release, which opened again in the middle of the pandemic, has resulted in 1,006 entries for films from 43 countries. More than half of the posts are national films. These numbers illustrate the strength of Brazilian artists to remain active in a country sick of suffocation.
Among the entries, the festival selected 42 films, which were divided into eight thematic programmes. Curator formed by Christiana Miranda, Lucas Morari, and Luis Garcia identified themes that have emerged in the artists’ work, such as political issues, the search for a representation of the space city and the space object, and a poetic creation that responds to the need for artists to remain active in the face of the long pandemic and archeology in Latin America.
The programs follow a broad panorama of contemporary global experimental productions, with a major focus on Latin America. In addition to films from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico and Uruguay, the program also includes actors from Germany, Belgium, Canada, Spain, USA, Finland, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan. . The Brazilian production stands out with a very expressive representation: 23 were selected. To strengthen the bonds of international solidarity, in 2021 DOBRA presents a guest program that offers audiences a valuable role that expands the mapping of experimental cinema.
The guest program was proposed by American Curator Steve Bolta, Artistic Director of San Francisco Cinematheque (San Francisco Cinematheque / USA), Director and Curator of Crossroads, the annual experimental film festival produced by San Francisco Cinematheque in association with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Comprising eleven works presented at CROSSROADS 2019 and 2020, “Rituals of Regeneration” evokes both the toxic and the transcendent, and the violent and the sublime, while reflecting on the contemporary psychological landscape. The intimacy and delicacy unearthed in nature and domestic space contrasts with the brutality of the capitalist Anthropocene as computational myths are explored.
All nine programs will be available on the DOBRA website (www.festivaldobra.com.br) during the festival period from September 6-30. The schedule includes online conversations between curators and the public, and a discussion on the digitization of motion pictures.
Complementing the intensive programming for the 2021 edition, DOBRA will conduct the theoretical course Experimental cinema and ethnographyPresented by curators Christiana Miranda, Lucas Murari and Luiz Garcia. The course proposes a discussion of the various ethnographic features of experimental cinema practice, divided into three modules. Registration will open in mid-August and will be free.
In the words of director and curator Christiana Miranda: “Reaffirming itself as a space of resistance through good experimental production, which understands Rio de Janeiro as a city integrated into the international circuit, the Dobra Festival invites the audience to experience a cinematic line of combat. We want another world and affirm that revolutionary experimental cinema. , free from industrial conventions and devoid of formal invention, can help us build it. We will continue to fold margins and cross borders. We affirm once again that films are important, encounters matter, and cinema is a force that imagines and builds enduring ways of living.”
full programming Access to the full schedule over here.
Services
folding | International Experimental Film Festival. Joint Organization: MAM Rio
From 6 to 30 September 2021
Format: online | all over the world
Tickets: free entry
Sweetened: www.festivaldobra.com.br | www.mam.rio/cinemateca
Charlotte Whitmore is a contributor at Mediarunsearch.co.uk, covering a broad range of topics including news, politics, business, technology, sport, entertainment, and lifestyle. She focuses on delivering clear, balanced reporting and practical information that helps readers stay informed about current events and emerging developments. Her work highlights stories that matter to everyday audiences, with an emphasis on accuracy, relevance, and accessible journalism that keeps readers connected to the issues shaping the UK and beyond.