Alexandra Cuesta
2021Territorio
Alexandra Cuesta
Alexandra Cuesta cites eternal wanderer Henri Michaux as one of the inspirations for her first feature. It’s curious, then, that the opening sequence of Territorio (the first film Cuesta shot in her native Ecuador) shows us a boat heading for the shore. It is very likely that, to Cuesta, the image of water hides the same connotation than it does to the author of “The Sea of Breasts”: returning home, being sheltered in the mother’s womb. Without detouring from the formal approaches of her previous work, Cuesta traces a journey that crosses the country from north to south, drawing a human cartography in which the aim is to achieve an impossible balance between the foreign traveler’s gaze and the earnest familiarity of those who return home temporarily.
Territorio
Notas, encantaciones: parte I
Alexandra Cuesta
An autobiographical collection of instances that describe the action of living in a post-industrial landscape, the end of a love story and the politics of what is private and what is public. The camera, as a device for recording and recollection, goes beyond evoking the past to become a tool for the appearance and exorcism of spectres.
Notes, Imprints (On Love): Part I
Recordando El Ayer
Alexandra Cuesta
Memory and identity are observed through textures of everyday life in a portrait of Jackson Heights, home to a large Latin American immigrant population. Images of street, people, and daily rituals render passing of time in a neighborhood that becomes a mirror not just of another place, but also of the past. The meaning of home is explored and built upon collective recollection.
Recordando El Ayer
Despedida
Alexandra Cuesta
Shot in Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles, this transitory neighborhood resonates with the poetry of local resident Mapkaulu Roger Nduku. Verses about endings, looking and passing through open up the space projected. A string of tableaus gather a portrait of place and compose a goodbye letter to an ephemeral home.
Farewell
Beirut 2.14.05
Alexandra Cuesta
A journey into a foreign country begins with a handheld camera looking through the window of a car. Raindrops in the glass abstract the cityscape separating the inside from the outside. Guided by fragmentation we see mirrors, reflections and shadows. The imminence of danger is at once palpable as it is distant. Shot during the production of Ça Sera Beau (Wale Nourredine 2005), the narrative springs from in-between moments, carrying with it a sense of urgency and chance that render like quick entries in a diary.
Beirut 2.14.05
Piensa en mí
Alexandra Cuesta
Moving from east to west and back, the windows of a bus frame fleeting sections of urban landscape. Throughout the day, images of riders, textures of light and fragments of bodies in space come together to weave a portrait in motion; a contemplative meditation on public transport in the city of Los Angeles. Isolation, routine and everyday splendor, create the backdrop of this journey, while the intermittent sounds of cars construct the soundscape.
Think of Me
