D’A 2023 dedicates its retrospective to British cult director
In 2013, D’A programmed Exhibition, by a then unknown and unseen director in our country, Joanna Hogg. No other festival had yet taken notice of her. Now that she is a recognized and essential name in contemporary cinema, we are dedicating a retrospective to her film work, which includes Caprice, her graduation short film, the shooting process of which inspires some moments in The Souvenir and The Souvenir Part II. Like many female creators, Joanna Hogg had a “late” debut in the world of cinema, after spending many years working in television. Her films reflect a sense of disorientation that is specifically feminine and also has to do with her place in British cinema. Above all, as a middle-aged woman who, like the protagonist of The Souvenir, had to undergo a long process to find her own vision. From her first feature, Unrelated, Hogg also positions herself in an unusual class perspective. Instead of aligning with the long British tradition of social realism, she observes from within and with first-hand knowledge the misalignments of wealthy environments. Her aesthetic owes more to Michelangelo Antonioni’s modernity, contemporary art, and feminist cinema pioneers such as Ulrike Ottinger than to Free Cinema. Under an exquisite, intimate, and delicate appearance, her work hides underground currents loaded with irony and self-awareness. And after consecrating herself with the sublime The Souvenir, with the following The Souvenir Part II and The Eternal Daughter, she has demonstrated that we are facing a filmmaker who is becoming increasingly daring and surprising. What luck to be able to accompany Joanna Hogg’s artistic evolution in real-time.
-Eulàlia Iglesias
With the collaboration of
