From 2 to 7 June, A Coruña will once again become an international hub for avant-garde cinema as it hosts the 17th (S8) Peripheral Film Festival, which this year revolves around the theme of eclipses. The Galician city will be one of the best places to observe the solar eclipse taking place in August. This global phenomenon also shapes the opening session, featuring the programme The Cosmic Shutter, a journey through different perspectives on witnessing an eclipse, including films by filmmakers such as Larry Jordan, Georges Méliès and Bill Morrison; and New York-based filmmaker Jeanne Liotta will invite audiences to imagine their own eclipse with her work Path of Totality.

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Highlights of the festival programme include special features and retrospectives dedicated to Jeanne Liotta, a key figure in American experimental cinema; as well as Canadian John Porter, “the king of Super 8”; Mexican filmmaker Bruno Varela, known for his political and futuristic films; and Belgian Els van Riel (Elliptic), whose films constitute an empirical exploration of light. Another special programme will feature the Kinothek Asta Nielsen, a Frankfurt-based organisation devoted to preserving and promoting films made by women and queer creators.

Avant-garde cinema from Galicia, Spain and Portugal takes centre stage the SINAIS section, with three screenings featuring established artists such as Esperanza Collado, Valentina Alvarado, Rocío Mesa, Álvaro Feldman and Area Erina, alongside first-time festival participants including Delfina Vázquez, Antonio Trullén, Iria Silvosa and the Super8eres Collective. Juana Robles will also present the world premiere of Béal, a work created during the BAICC residency.

The SINAIS Latin America section brings together short films from Brazil, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Ecuador and Peru, exploring themes around sensory memory and identity as a source of creativity. Featured filmmakers include Daniela Delgado Viteri, Javiera Cisterna and Bibiana Chauchi.

The Desbordamientos section, one of the festival’s main attractions, presents film performances that exist only in that specific place and at that specific time. The section will open with the world premiere of the performance version of the film Descubro el rayo, tus ojos tiemblan by Asturian filmmaker Guillermo Braga. It will also feature Galician artist Pablo Agma, Madrid-based group Los Caballos de Düsseldorf (LCDD), Colombian artist Paola Guzmán Figueroa, Portuguese artists Tânia Dinis and Beatriz Freire, and Canadian artist John Porter.

The Paraíso gathering for Fine Arts students, the INPUT project mentoring space, the professional meeting at the Atalaya, the Xpresa creative workshop on social inclusion, and the sessions for educational institutions round off an edition of (S8) marked by record figures. With 161 works on display, nearly 80 artists, professionals, specialist journalists and guest students, and 35 world premieres, the film festival once again demonstrates the dynamism of the experimental film scene.