back

13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Forum Expanded 2021
© Stenar Projects
Taking its title from the poem by Wallace Stevens “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” the film is composed of a series of attempts at looking and being looked at. Beginning as a city state commission under the name and attitude of Unschool, the film became a kaleidoscope of the experiences, questions, and wonders of a couple of high school students after a year of experiences with filmmaker Ana Vaz, questioning what cinema can be. Here the camera becomes an instrument of inquiry, a pencil, a song. “The film is a song you can see,” wrote one of the students in a collective constellation of phrases and drawings made during one of the workshops. The phrase is a perfect description of a film that explores a nascent ecology of the senses.
by Ana Vaz
with Vera Amaral, Mário Neto, Paula Nascimento, Ana  Vaz, Nuno da Luz Portugal 2020 Portuguese 31’ Colour & Black/White

Part of the Berlinale Summer Special

With

  • Vera Amaral
  • Mário Neto
  • Paula Nascimento
  • Ana  Vaz
  • Nuno da Luz

Crew

Director Ana Vaz
Cinematography Ana Vaz, Vera Amaral, Mário Neto
Editing Ana Vaz, Deborah Viegas
Sound Design Ana Vaz
Sound Mário Neto, Nuno da Luz, Catarina Boieiro
Producer EGEAC - Galerias Municipais de Lisboa
Co-Producers Anze Persin Stenar Projects, Ana Vaz

Produced by

Stenar Projects

Photos

Berlinale Meets | Interview

Ana Vaz

© Ana Vaz

Ana Vaz, born in 1986 in Brasilia, Brazil, is an artist, filmmaker, and founder of the in(ter)disciplinary collective COYOTE. Her film-poems are underpinned by experimental collages of images and sounds, discovered and produced, to reflect upon situations and contexts which are historically and geographically marked by narratives of violence and repression. Expansions or consequences of her films, her practice may also be embodied in writing, critical pedagogy, installations, film programs, or ephemeral events. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Kazuko Trust Award presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in recognition of artistic excellence and innovation in her moving-image work.

Filmography

2007 Sacris Pulso; 15 min. 2012 Entre temps; 12 min. · Les mains, negatives; with Julien Creuzet, 15 min. 2013 A idade da pedra; 30 min. 2014 Occidente; 15 min. 2015 A Film, Reclaimed; with Tristan Bera, 19 Min. 2016 Ha terra!; 12 min. · Amérika: Bahía de las flechas; 8 min. 2018 Olhe bem as montanhas; 30 min. · Amazing Fantasy; 3 min. · Atomic Garden; 8 min. 2019 Apiyemiyekî?; 28 min., Forum Expanded 2020 2020 Pseudosphynx; 9 min. · 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird · 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird; 32 min., Forum Expanded 2021 · Pseudosphynx; 8 min. 2022 É Noite na América; 66 min. · A árvore

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023