Elena Pardo: Pulsos subterráneos
(with live score by Millie Wissar)

View IN-PERSON at The Cinematheque: Saturday, Sept 3, 5:30 pm

Pulsos subterráneos is an invitation to observe and listen to the visible and subterranean/physical and intangible territories of two regions of Mexico that experience or resist the mining industry: Zacatecas and Oaxaca. The images were shot in Ixtlán de Juárez, Capulálpam de Mendez and Guelatao in the Sierra Juárez of Oaxaca; in Vetagrande, Mazapil, Concepción del Oro and Salaverna in Zacatecas. To guide ourselves during this exploration we listened to and recorded the stories shared by some of the people in these communities. The interviews and research materials can be found in: http://pulsossubterraneos.com/

Pulsos subterráneos es una pieza de cine expandido que observa y escucha los territorios visibles y subterráneos / físicos e intangibles en dos regiones del país que experimentan o se resisten a la actividad minera: Zacatecas y Oaxaca. El proyecto de investigación se puede consultar en: https://pulsossubterraneos.com

ELENA PARDO

Elena is an audiovisual artist who lives and works between the state of Oaxaca and Mexico City where she has positioned herself as one of the representative filmmakers of experimental cinema, combining the making of documentaries, expanded cinema and animation.
She has made animations for the musicians Lila Downs and Los Pellejos; for the artists Demián Flores and Francis Alÿs or for projects such as Ambulante, Oaxaca Cine or the Oaxaca Book Fair.

Elena’s short films such as Juquilita, Mi Barrio, Nico et la Berlue, and Fuego have been screened at festivals and shown in Mexico, Turkey, Spain, France, United States, Colombia, Canada, and Korea and are part of compilations such as: (Ready) Media. Media Archeology and Invention in Mexico (Alameda Art Laboratory); Cinema against the Current: Latin America and Spain (Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona); Collectif Jeune Cinéma (French experimental film distributor). Her expanded cinema piece Disappear (2017) was made for the opening of the L’Alternativa festival in Barcelona, ​​and has also been presented in Colombia, Argentina, Portugal, Switzerland, and Mexico.

MILLIE WISSAR

Millie Wissar is a sound artist from Lima, Peru. She currently lives in Vancouver where she works as a sound designer and audio director for indie games at A Shell in the Pit Audio. She’s designed sounds for games, VR projects in The Museum of Other Realities and given talks on ambisonic sound. As an artist, she has collaborated on projects with Cities and Memory, Santo Noise and the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. In 2020 she worked with filmmakers Alexandra Gelis and Jorge Lozano for the program, LUXANDO, part of the VUCAVU Expanded project supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. Her sound piece was a sonic interpretation to Joyce Weiland’s Handtinting. 

Through her field recordings Millie explores topics that revolve around memory, noise and nature through archival, binaural and ambisonic sounds. Her curiosity for acoustic ecology led her to take an artist residency in Camp – France 2019, where she met her mentors, Leah Barclay, Annea Lockwood, and Grant Smith. Performing in front of them inspired her to continue exploring soundscapes through field recordings, live streams, and active listening, as well as participating more in the acoustic-ecology community. As an electronic music DJ she plays at clubs and festivals around Vancouver.