Maite Abella

Visual Artist

Short films

2019 “Being and Becoming” 9 min. Video HD
2012 “Mijn vader is super mega sterk” (My father is super mega strong) 9 min. Super 8mm.
2011 “Rosi, a legendary figure” 15 min. Video HD
2009 “O quam tristis” (O, how sad) 9 min. Super 8 mm
2008 “Het Wachten” (The waiting) 15 min. Super 16 mm
2001 “I am stronger than trees” 10min. Super 8mm.

SHORT FILM: BEING AND BECOMING

2019 “Being and Becoming” 9’11” Video HD

Synopsis:

When I hear “There is no failure”, there are only lessons! I feel uneasy. When I was seventeen, a fortune teller told me: “You will enter the world of art through the main door”. She was right, I work in one of the most admired museums in the world. Just that my job is not exactly what I expected.

Awards:

. Best Short Film 39th International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA), Montréal (Québec) Canada 2021 https://lefifa.com/en/39th-edition/awards

. 3rd place Short Independent Category at On Art Film Festival, Poland 2020

. Special Mention at Sirene wAVe Movie Film Festival. Extended Eye. Milan, Italy 2020

. Best Experimental Film, Premi Remedios Varo, 31è Girona Film Festival, Girona, Catalonia 2019

. Best Film Extraworks, Working Title Film Festival 4, Vicenza, Italy 2019

. Finalist Award, Dolgoji Experimental Shorts, Seoul, Korea 2019

Selected at Film Festivals and Art Centers:

. XXIV International Encounters Traverse Vidéo, Les Abattoirs, Musée-Frac Occitanie (Toulouse, France) 2021 

. Chi c’è c’è Mittwochs in der WS, Weighstation, Italy, 2020 

. Experiments in Cinema V15.1, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 2020 

. Independent Days, International Filmfestival Karlsruhe, Germany, 2020 

. 51Zero Arts Festival. Wishful Images Programme, Moving Image Research Centre (MIRC) University of East London, UK 2020 

. Wishful Images at 51Zero Arts Festival, Herbert Read Gallery at the University of the Creative Arts in Canterbury, U.K.(2019) 

. Gimli Film Festival, Future Work Programme, Gimli, Canada (2019) 

. FilmFest Bremen, Innovation Programme Bremen, Germany (2019) 

. UNSEEN Film Festival, The Divine Way Programme, Counterpath Gallery, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. (2019) 

. We Make Movies International Film Festival, Hollywood, Los Angeles, U.S.A. (2019) 

. World Premiere: Noflash Video Show Festival, Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.A(2019)

SHORT FILM: MY FATHER IS SUPER MEGA STRONG

2012 “Mijn vader is super mega sterk” (My father is super mega strong) 9 min. Super 8mm.

Synopsis:

A middle-aged man followed by his seven-year-old son are walking through a forest. For the son, the forest is not pleasant: the father brings trees down by shaking them loose and pushing them over. Analogy between the father-son relationship and the destruction of nature because a toxic capitalism. What about the next generation?

Selected at Film Festivals:

. Cambridge International Super 8mm. Film Festival: “Flicker: Artists & Super 8” Smiths Row Gallery and

. Abbeygate in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. (U.K.) 2013

. Carrboro Film Festival, Carrboro City NC. U.S.A. 2013
. Strange Beauty Film Festival, Durham NC, U.S.A., 2013
. Experiments in Cinema Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A., 2013
. World Premiere: Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival Hawick, Scottish Borders (U.K.)

SHORT FILM: ROSI, A LEGENDARY FIGURE

2011 “Rosi, a legendary figure” 15 min. Video HD

Adapted text from the short story “The swimmer” by John Cheever, published at The New Yorker in 1951. Narrated on the short film by Emma Tucker.

”She seemed to see, with a cartographer's eye, that string of canals, that quasi-subterranean stream that curved across the city. Rosi had made a discovery, a contribution to modern geography; she would name the stream Rosi. She was not a practical joker nor was she a fool but she was determinedly original and had a vague and modest idea of herself as a legendary figure. The day was beautiful and it seemed to her that a long swim might enlarge and celebrate its beauty”

“The day was lovely, and that she lived in a world so generously supplied with water seemed like a clemency, a beneficence. Her heart was high. Making her way home by an uncommon route gave her the feeling that she was a pilgrim, an explorer, a women with a destiny, and she knew that she would find something special all along the way of this Rosi Stream”

SHORT FILM: O QUAM TRISTIS ( O, HOW SAD )

2009 “O quam tristis” (O, how sad) 9 min. Super 8 mm

Synopsis:

Mother and my sister have always been fighting.
I remembered the William Wyler film The big country (1958) where the actors Gregory Peck and Charlon Heston are fighting in the middle of a vast landscape the whole night long until the next day – strangely enough, that was the way to solve their problems. Somehow, with these last battle, the same thing could have happened to mother and sister.

Selected at Film Festivals and Art Centers:

. Arsenal 3 Open to all. Arsenal Online program. Institut für film und videokunst, Berlin (Germany) 2020

. “From behind the screen” Screenings in Cinematheque, Goethe Institut, El Cairo, Egypt 2018
. MMCA Film and Video. National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea 2015
. Werkleitz Jubilee Festival “Utopien vermeiden” (Avoiding Utopias)
Film Programme: Übung am Phantom–Revisited II: Count Me In. Festivalzentrum Holzplatz, Halle, Saale (Germany) 2013
. “The world will devour you, so you better taste good” Milton Keynes Gallery, London (U.K.) 2012
. E-flux screen “The world will devour you, so you better taste good” Columbia University, New York (U.S.A.) 2011
. Go Short Film Festival, Nijmegen (The Netherlands) 2011
. International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Rotterdam (The Netherlands) 2011
. ATA Film & Video Festival, San Francisco (U.S.A) 2011
. Experiments in Cinema. Albuquerque, New Mexico (U.S.A.) 2010
. European Première: Berlinale Film Festival. Forum Expanded Berlin (Germany) 2010
. World Premiere: Strange Beauty Film Festival, Durham, NC (U.S.A.) 2010

SHORT FILM: HET WACHTEN (THE WAITING)

2008 “Het Wachten” (The waiting) 15 min. Super 16 mm

Synopsis:

A middle-aged woman runs through the streets of Amsterdam. The city is abandoned. As she is running, this image is interrupted eight times with a brief fade-out to white that each time introduces a group portrait. The composition of each of these tableaux is inspired by sixteenth and seventeenth century Dutch painting.

Sound Creation:

A woman is running through a deserted city. While she is running, we see eight group portraits inspired by the composition of Dutch XVI-XVII Century paintings. Each time we see a portrait we listen to Schubert’s Piano Sonata in Be Flat Major Opus 960, played by the pianist Lluís Castel Fort. At the first portrait, the music is played at a normal tempo. But from the second portrait until the last one, the Piano Sonata is slowed down in order to create a lengthening or extension of the time. A music distorsion is created. The coordenates used for extending the sound change in progressive proportions.

Selected at Film Festivals and Art Centers:

. La Elástica. Art center. Montréal (Canada) 2011
. Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (Germany) 2010
. Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid (Spain) 2010
. 19 Semana Internacional de Cine Experimental de Madrid (Spain) 2009
. Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid, Cinema Réflet, Paris (France) 2009
. Film Festival L’Alternativa de Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain) 2008
. Première: Nederlands Film Festival, Utrecht (The Netherlands) 2008