*Fraguantes at the helm, contributors, sailors, visitors, stowaways and those who wish to remain anonymous.
ELENA ARROYO is a filmmaker and performer. Her work straddles the worlds of film and performance. She combines her artistic practice with research and specialist consultancy. She runs the space known as La Fragua Bruta, where she has been experimenting with new approaches to creative teaching for many years. She supports a significant number of artistic projects from their development phase through to their final exhibition. At the same time, she works with her body, exploring the links between creation and somatisation, as well as the connections between the visual and performing arts. Her most recent works have been video-performance pieces, on which she has been invited to speak at the Madrid Art Fair (Spain, 2025), New York University (USA), the University of East Anglia (UK) and the Camagüey International Video Art Festival (Cuba). Of particular note is ‘Del Origen’, a solo performance selected for DT, the Amsterdam International Butoh Festival (2023) and PROYECTOR’22. She holds a postgraduate degree in film directing from EICTV in Cuba, a specialisation in Photography and Contemporary Art from the UPV, and is a lifelong butoh dancer. More information here.
PATRICIA DELSO is an artist and filmmaker based in Belgium. For many years, she has been exploring self-referential cinema, poetry film, experimental cinema and expanded cinema, finding ways to bridge these genres in order to develop her own unique language. Her current medium is analogue film. Her work has won awards and been screened at numerous festivals, including Documenta Madrid, the Engauge Experimental Film Festival, the Zebra Poetry Film Festival and the New Hope Film Festival. She has also taken part in group exhibitions at venues such as the MOMA and Anthology Film Archives in New York, and the Baxton Gallery in Brussels. For some time now, Patricia has been an artist-in-residence at analogue film laboratories, such as Mono No Aware in New York, the Echo Park Film Centre in Los Angeles, Casa do Xisto in Portugal and LAV in Madrid. Patricia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Communication (UC3M, Madrid), a degree in Image and Sound Engineering (UPM, Madrid) and an MFA in Film Directing from the Edinburgh College of Art, UK.
LOLA MAYO is a writer, screenwriter, producer and documentary filmmaker. She is the co-producer and co-screenwriter of all the films by the Spanish filmmaker Javier Rebollo. These include La Mujer sin Piano (2009), which won the Silver Shell at the San Sebastián Film Festival and the Best Film Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival; and Lo que sé de Lola (2006), nominated for a Goya Award for Best New Director, winner of the FIPRESCI Prize and Best Debut Film at the Guadalajara Film Festival, and winner of the Grand Prize at the Seoul International Film Festival. She is a director and screenwriter of feature-length documentaries for TVE. For these, she has received, amongst other honours, the Reina Sofía Prize for Journalism. She teaches documentary and fiction screenwriting, giving classes at the Madrid Film Institute, ECAM, Jaume I University in Castellón, as well as at EICTV, which she is visiting for the fourth time. She recently served on the advisory committee of the Sundance Script Lab, organised by the Sundance Institute for the evaluation and development of professional screenplays. Much of her work as a screenwriter can be found here.
IRENE GUTIÉRREZ Irene Gutiérrez is a filmmaker and researcher who holds a degree in Documentary Film from the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV, Cuba), a Master’s degree in Spanish Film Studies, and is currently a PhD candidate at Carlos III University in Madrid. She teaches at this university, the EICTV, the Madrid Film Institute and the Lens Film School. She has directed Diarios de Frontera (25 mins, Spain–Morocco, 2012), Hotel Nueva Isla (70 mins, Cuba–Spain, 2014), Diarios del Exilio (43 mins, Spain, 2019) and Entre Perro y Lobo (75 mins, Cuba–Spain, 2020), four of which incorporate archive material in various formats and from different sources. His documentaries have been supported by the Sundance Institute, Tribeca, Ibermedia, ICAA and RTVC, and have been screened at over fifty festivals, including the Berlinale, the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the MoMA Documentary Fortnight. His research and films, which range from intimate portraits to documentary essays, explore the political tensions between the individual and the nation through the landscape. More information here.
NOEMÍ GARCÍA is an audiovisual creator, lecturer and researcher. She is a lecturer in audiovisual practice and theory at the University of Fine Arts (UCM) and a programmer specialising in documentary film. She has worked for festivals such as Documenta Madrid and for institutions such as the Cineteca de Matadero. She has extensive experience as a lecturer and as a consultant on documentary projects. She specialises in collaborative artistic practices and in reflective, first-person filmmaking.
JAVIER REBOLLO is a filmmaker and cultural activist. He directed the feature films La mujer sin piano (Woman Without Piano) (2009), Ce que je sais de Lola and El muerto y ser feliz. Among other honours, he won the Silver Shell for Best Director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2009.
VALENTINA CORBELLA is an actress. She is a member of the KYU theatre company, led by Ernesto Correa, a director and acting coach. Since 2018, through regular practice with KYU, Valentina has internalised the company’s training in her body and its philosophy in her mind and spirit. She has also trained with Lab Teatro in Madrid alongside Andrés Acevedo, with SCOT Company in Japan, with SITI Company, and has been introduced to Butoh by Jonathan Martineau. Training alongside such admirable artists has served as a springboard for her to explore her own method. Practices that have led her to “walk like a cat along narrow ledges with chasms on either side. Vertigo and expansion. Softening the skin through strength. Breathing in wonder”. She continues to train regularly alongside Lucia Reyes, a Colombian actress. Recognising that it is an ongoing process, Valentina trains actors, growing alongside them as they explore these questions.
BRENDA BOYER (Alicante, 1984), who holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication and master’s degrees in Documentary Film Direction and Production and in Audiovisual Experimentation and Contemporary Creation (LAV), is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist. Her work focuses on the body, movement and the image as forms of experimentation and exploration of the haptic and phenomenological dimensions, as well as the body as a space of resonance. Her work has been screened at Documenta Madrid, Cinespaña, Intermediaciones, the Muestra Itinerante Colección Privada and the Muestra Internacional de Cine Periférico (S8), amongst others. She is currently working on the performative activation of tortuga, an analogue film piece developed at the BAICC International Residency (LIFT and AC/E).
DAMIÁN S. RODRÍGUEZ. “I was delivered by forceps on 12 December 1984, a technique involving hooks similar to two large salad spoons that the doctor uses to guide the baby’s head out. This procedure is now banned due to the risks it poses to both mother and child. I didn’t want to come out and ended up with a broken collarbone; perhaps that incident shaped my resilient personality and my difficulty in leaving cosy places. I’m a Sagittarius and a bit dyslexic, though you wouldn’t notice it here because spell-check helps. I’m also left-handed; I kick, grab, paint and film – all with that side of my body. I was born in Uruguay, which for ‘everyone’ is like being Argentine until proven otherwise. I’m based in Barcelona, but I’ve lived in Lima and Buenos Aires. I like moving house and starting afresh. I take photos, film people doing things, act as ‘myself’ and paint strange faces on found objects. I’m interested in experimenting visually with each discipline and exploring its possibilities in depth. With Lerulerufilms I use a camera and with Rumián a paintbrush. I’m this jumble of intentions divided into sections.”
EVA TIRADO is an actress, performer and creator. She is a movement researcher and visual artist. Since 2002, she has worked as a theatre and screen actress. Within the performing arts, she specialises in physical theatre, experimental theatre and performance art. She has trained in various dance styles, specialising in the classical Indian dance form Kathak and its traditional staging, having studied in India under the Prayat Sangeet Samity system. Since 2017, she has focused her work on research and experimentation at the intersection of movement, self-image and the audiovisual medium. She has developed her practice around post-dramatic theatre, autofiction, video creation and video art. Using this artistic language, she has created various pieces for her own projects, for other artists, and for local councils and public bodies. She combines her work as an actress and creator with her role as coordinator of the AEC, the Spanish Association of Directors of Photography.
SAMUEL DELGADO has, alongside Helena Girón, directed the films Irmandade, Plus Ultra, Burning Mountains That Spew Fire, Without God or Saint Mary, and the installations and performances Here Too the Gods Are Present, There Is No Land Beyond and Listening Exercises. What will be his first feature film, Eles transportan a morte, has been selected for the Ikusmira Berriak programme at the San Sebastián Film Festival and Tabakalera, amongst projects from Spain. He teaches at the EICTV in San Antonio de los Baños (Cuba), ECAM, EQZE, the Madrid Film Institute and IFIC. More on Samuel here.
HELENA GIRÓN has, alongside Samuel M. Delgado, directed the films Irmandade, Plus Ultra, Burning Mountains That Spew Fire, Without God or Saint Mary, and the installations and performances Here Too the Gods Are Present, There Is No Land Beyond and Listening Exercises. Her forthcoming debut feature film, Eles transportan a morte, has been selected for the Ikusmira Berriak programme at the San Sebastián Film Festival and Tabakalera as one of the projects from Spain. After graduating with a degree in Audiovisual Communication, she completed a Master’s in Film and TV Screenwriting at Carlos III University in Madrid and a Master’s in Film Editing at ESCAC. She teaches at ECAM, EQZE and IFIC. More about Helena here.
MANUEL MUÑOZ After graduating with a degree in Information Sciences from the University of Seville, he settled in London, where he made his first videos and short films as an amateur. He moved to Cuba to enrol at the EICTV, the International Film and Television School in San Antonio de los Baños, from which he graduated in 2004 after specialising in editing. Since then, he has co-written and edited films such as ‘Blanco en blanco’ (2019), ‘This film is about me’ (2019), ‘Derechos del hombre’ (2018), ‘Dead Slow Ahead’ (2015), ‘Slimane’ (2013), *Arraianos* (2012) and *Ocaso* (2010), and has directed several short films, including *Pájaro* (2014), *Con el viento* (2009) and *Sendero* (2008). ‘El mar nos mira de lejos’, which premiered at the Berlinale in 2017, is his first feature film. He balances his work as a filmmaker with teaching, having led workshops since 2010 at venues such as the EICTV (Cuba) and Altos de Chavón (Dominican Republic). Find out more about Manolo here.
GUILLERMO PEYDRÓ is a filmmaker and holds a PhD in Art History. His films have been screened at museums such as the Louvre and the Reina Sofía, and at festivals around the world; since 2016, he has also been working on exhibition projects involving expanded cinema in collaboration with the French sculptor Jeanne de Petriconi. He has also worked as a programmer for the Punto de Vista and Documenta Madrid festivals, and has taught courses at universities and film schools in Spain, Mexico, Cuba and Ecuador. His book *El cine sobre arte. From the Dramatisation of Painting to the Film Essay’ (Shangrila, 2019) is the result of a decade of research in international archives into the possibilities of filming the arts. More on Guillermo here.
EMILIO PASCUAL is a sound artist and sound designer who works on audiovisual, performing arts and musical projects. His practice focuses on listening, public space and forms of communication as material for sound pieces, performances, installations and video. He specialises in sound recording for documentaries, collaborating with the BBC, ITV, Sky, ARTE and RTVE, as well as in live music productions and television programmes, including Later… with Jools Holland. He works as a sound designer with artists such as Niño de Elche, Luz Arcas, Raül Refree, Pedro G. Romero, Isaki Lacuesta, Alondra Bentley, Ylia, Albert Coma and Sumrrá. His recent work includes sound designs and installations presented at institutions and festivals such as the BoCA Biennial, the São Paulo Biennial, Klankenbos, the Reina Sofía Museum, the Círculo de Bellas Artes, the Teatre Lliure, the Mercat de les Flors, the Teatro Español, the Teatro de la Abadía, the Centro Conde Duque, the Sónar Festival, the Teatro de la Zarzuela, the National Music Auditorium, the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, the C3A, the CA2M and the National Drama Centre. He also teaches sound design at Rey Juan Carlos University and at the TAI University School of Arts.