she makes noise turns five, confirming its status as one of the most eagerly anticipated highlights of the autumn cultural calendar. It seems like it was only yesterday when we began planning this bold, risky niche event, and now we’ve got a solid track record of opening “doors and windows” to contemporary creativity from a gender perspective.
This festival was originally created to meet a pressing need—to make the work of women in audiovisual experimentation more visible—but now, five years on, it’s still flowing, mutating and reinventing itself, turning into a multidisciplinary event that refuses to rest on its laurels and continues to take risks in its programme, year after year. Our sights are set on emerging artists and audiences with a taste for novelty.
The fifth she makes noise will take a peek at the future, at the sounds and proposals that will set new trends, with performances by Abyss X, Hibotep and Juliana Huxtable. However, this year we will also shine a spotlight on the past thanks to the presence of a pioneering woman in electronic music and the digital arts, Electric Indigo. In addition to giving a live performance, this guest of honour will join us for a special encounter to talk about her platform, female:pressure. Rounding out the concert programme, we’ll welcome the Colombian composer and performer Natalia Escobar, aka Poison Arrow, to Spain for the first time, and host the Madrid premiere of “META”, an immersive experience by CLON + NWRMNTC. Plus, visual artist Elena Juárez will lead a digital workshop.
The festival’s film cycle features seven titles, including the Spanish premieres of the latest directorial efforts of Pia Hellenthal, Cauleen Smith and Kathryn Elkin, and will continue throughout the month of October with a special programme and the family activities of En Familia at the weekend, featuring Mursego and an audiovisual concert by SLVJ and Rayuli.
FILM PROGRAMIn this fifth edition of the festival, the film series curated by Enrique Piñuel, will have three sessions on October 4, 5 and 6, which will take place at 7 pm in the audiovisual room of La Casa Encendida.
The program will start with the premiere in Spain of Searching Eva, a performative portrait of Eva Collé, a young Italian woman with a punk soul and a changing identity based in Berlin. Poet, sex worker, model and feminist, Collé has become the most “outsider” influencer on the web, making her life an open book to show people that you really can be whoever you want to be.
The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. It has also been presented at festivals such as Jeonju (South Korea), Hot Doc (Canada) or Sheffield Doc (United Kingdom), being recognized with a special mention of the jury at the CPH: DOX (Denmark) and the audience prize at Outview Festival (Greece).
Saturday, October 5 will be the day dedicated to short films, with a session in which Motherhood, autobiography, historical memory and the refugee crisis are just some of the themes explored in the shorts programme at this year’s she makes noise festival. The selected films, all being screened in Madrid for the first time, are marked by a high degree of formal experimentation, with a strong emphasis on sound and music
Five short films will be screened, the premieres in Spain of Sojourner, Cauleen Smith and Queen, Kathryn Elkin, next to them we will see The Glass Note, by Mary Helena Clark, Veslemøy's Song, by Sofia Bohdanowicz and I hope I ́m loud when I ́m dead, by Beatrice Gibson. We’ll close the festival, on Sunday, October 6 with the screening of Knives and Skin, the last film by Jennifer Reeder, who returns to the festival after the spotlight focus that was dedicated to her in 2016. In Knives and skin, Reeder, From a Start of Lynchian dyes reminiscent of Twin Peaks, with the disappearance of a young woman, proposes a rereading of the teenage universe that for decades has reflected American cinema: stereotypes around the institute, the football team, the cheerleaders, the relationships. The desire are questioned and redefined through a self- conscious use of classical genres such as thriller and musical.
Friday, October 4- Searching Eva, directed by Pia Hellenthal. Germany, 2019. 90’. Original soundtrack with Spanish subtitles (Spanish premiere)
Saturday, October 5- The Glass Note, directed by Mary Helena Clark. USA, 2018. 9’. Original soundtrack with Spanish subtitles- Veslemøy's Song, directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz. Canada, 2018. 8’. Original soundtrack with Spanish subtitles- Sojourner, directed by Cauleen Smith. USA, 2018. 22’. Original soundtrack with Spanish subtitles (Spanish premiere)- Queen, directed by Kathryn Elkin. UK, 2019. 12’48”. Original soundtrack with Spanish subtitles (Spanish premiere)- I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead, directed by Beatrice Gibson. UK, 2018. 20’. Original soundtrack with Spanish subtitles
Sunday, October 6- Knives and Skin, directed by Jennifer Reeder. USA, 2019. 111’. Original soundtrack with Spanish subtitles