HE VENIDO A LEER LA NOCHE

Manuel Fernández-Valdés is a film director and photographer whose films uncover the truth of the people who stand in front of his camera. He made his debut as a filmmaker in 2008 with the documentary Manuel and Elisa, a film about the day-to-day exploits of a couple that had been married for 53 years; a story of love without caresses and of coexistence without words. In 2012, he premiered, Fraga and Fidel however, a personal journey through the 48 hours during which Fidel Castro visited the house in Láncara (Galicia) in which his father was born. In 2016 he directed Angelica [a tragedy], a portrait of the artist Angelica Liddell which was screened in international festivals.

Fernández-Valdés combines his work as a filmmaker with that of a television and film scenery photographer. However, in 2017 when he met Mónica Valenciano, the choreographer, dancer, poet, painter and winner of the National Dance Award, he devoted himself to her figure. For more than a year, he witnessed the creative process behind her work ACOUSTIC PRINT in (14 smudges) .. of an APPEARANCE (IMPRENTA ACÚSTICA en (14 borrones) .. de una APARICIÓN), which she prepared in Naves Matadero, and the result is his latest film I have come to read the night (He venido a leer la noche), a film about the artist’s universe.

“Mónica Valenciano explores the forms of a random dance inspired by the observation of gestures and words in her everyday life. An introspective dance that finds its reason in the words of Zeami, a zen monk and creator of Noh theatre: “Move the spirit ten centimetres and the body seven”. With no intent, no speech, nothing to explain. Only attention and the present. With I have come to read the night I wanted to follow the movements of her body during their indecipherable path”, Manuel tells us.



CREDITS

Performers: Mónica Valenciano and Raquel Sánchez

Executive producer: Manuel Fernández-Valdés

Head of production: Rafa L. Manzanara

Script and direction: Manuel Fernández-Valdés

Director of photography: Jacobo Martínez

Live sound: Alberto García Altez

Edition: Andrés Federico González Pérez

Original music: Isasa

Language: Spanish
  WORLD PREMIERE