Helena de Llanos earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. Her innovating dissertation ¿Hacemos Una Peli? Negrablanca y Los Entornos De Un Cine Hecho En Comunidad explored the possibility of collective, nonprofessional filmmaking in a small Spanish village whose participants produced a 90-minute feature-length film, Negrablanca. Since graduating, she has edited and published the complete theatrical works of Fernando Fernán Gómez, has appeared as a member of juries on Spanish film festivals, and has made appearances on Spanish television and in cultural events dedicated to cinema. Viaje a alguna parte (2021), her first feature-length film, presents a highly personal and experimental documentary on the weight of inheriting her grandparents’ house in which she is forced to confront the vestiges and artifacts associated Fernando Fernán Gómez and Emma Cohen, two highly celebrated Spanish actors, filmmakers, novelists, and playwrights. The film won the Premio Rizoma award for Contemporary Surrealism in 2022.
The conversation will include an overview of the film (with clips) and commentary. Online access to the entire film is available to the Penn community on Vimeo using the following link and password:
password: visionadoEEUU
This talk is sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Department of Cinema and Media Studies.
Location; Fisher-Bennett Hall, room 401, 34th and Walnut Sts.