Carlos Castillo

This is the first of Diego Risquez’ trilogy of avant-garde cinematic treatments of historical subjects. Using a painterly style, it features portraits, still lifes, and scenes shot as tableaux vivants, the film provides an experimental interpretation of the arrival of the Spanish and their domination of the New World, as well as the Venezuelan Independence movement, focusing on the role of Simón Bolívar. There is no dialogue or narration, simply a musical score and the depiction of events from Bolívar’s career.

The Orinoko: main character in the film. The first part is set during the pre-conquest and is represented as an earthly paradise. A shaman has precognitive visions: go to Columbus and the Catholic missionary in 1498.

Reel 21 of Gérard Courant’s on-going Cinematon series.

Tierna es la Noche is a film without bullets nor sea, without mosquitoes, without peasants nor flowers. It only contains a barman, a man and a beautiful woman who lives in a bathroom. For commercial reasons, we have included two policemen, a drop of blood and a multilingual nymphomaniac. For aesthetic reasons, a tear and a negro. For both reasons, the film takes place anachronically, during the fifties and nineties in a make-believe city called Caracas. It's a story of histerics, like all stories, unfinished.

A parody of a movie, including commercials and a surreal trailer. They are the striking prologue to a disappointing film, which consists of the presentation of the characters of a story that is not told. The type of estrangement that the director seeks, to which is added the direct appeal to the public, is a questioning of the role that this type of spectacle assigns to the spectator, and of the conditions that make him distinguish cinema itself from advertising and allow him to enjoy detective narrative. The mockery, moreover, is directed equally at the consumer society and at the radicals who believe they can combat it with graffiti.

A parody of a movie, including commercials and a surreal trailer. They are the striking prologue to a disappointing film, which consists of the presentation of the characters of a story that is not told. The type of estrangement that the director seeks, to which is added the direct appeal to the public, is a questioning of the role that this type of spectacle assigns to the spectator, and of the conditions that make him distinguish cinema itself from advertising and allow him to enjoy detective narrative. The mockery, moreover, is directed equally at the consumer society and at the radicals who believe they can combat it with graffiti.

Tierna es la Noche is a film without bullets nor sea, without mosquitoes, without peasants nor flowers. It only contains a barman, a man and a beautiful woman who lives in a bathroom. For commercial reasons, we have included two policemen, a drop of blood and a multilingual nymphomaniac. For aesthetic reasons, a tear and a negro. For both reasons, the film takes place anachronically, during the fifties and nineties in a make-believe city called Caracas. It's a story of histerics, like all stories, unfinished.

Experimental Super-8 film by Carlos Castillo.

Experimental Super-8 film by Carlos Castillo.

Experimental video by Carlos Castillo.

Experimental video by Carlos Castillo.