Rosalía and Emilia at the Edge of the River is a 16mm colour and black-&-white experimental documentary. As in my previous works, the aim is to combine a poetic and a historical perspective to generate a new view of the facts. This film uses as its background the poetry, prose, and biographical information of two women writers from nineteenth century Spain, Rosalía de Castro and Emilia Pardo Bazán. Their writings are used as a backdrop for the film's hypothesis that the current political situation in the U.S. mimics the nineteenth century culture of Castro's and Pardo Bazán's world: imperialism, nobility, and nationalism. The images in the film reflect both the themes found in their writings and their actual biographical conditions. This historical perspective is used to examine the treatment of women within our own political structure and to parody how dominant culture views the feminine. My intent is not to «feminize» social issues, rather to make the case that social problems are a human issue. Techniques used in the film include optically-printed material, found footage, hand-processed and hand-manipulated film, and live action footage. The film will be in English, Español, and Galego.
This film is produced in part with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Art Matters Inc. Foundation.