7:30 Wednesday, May 1st
137 Isenberg School of Management
UMass Amherst
Sis Dies Corrents
(2021, Neus Ballús, Catalonia, 85 min, Amazigh, Catalan & Spanish w/ English subtitles)
An “odd couple” comedy and a witty commentary on migration, race, class, and masculinity, Ballús’s film revolves around Valero, a handyman and Barcelona resident, and his newly hired apprentice, Moroccan immigrant, Moha, who is training to replace Valero’s aging partner, Pep. The men travel across the city, their jobs bringing them into the homes of an array of colorful characters across Barcelona, exposing (and cleverly subverting) cultural prejudices. Deceptively lighthearted, Sis dies corrents offers an incisive portrait of difference, conflict, and reconciliation.
Film Screening
Wednesday, May 1st
Free and open to the public
Co-Sponsored by:
Film Screening
Introduced via Online
Neus Ballús
(Filmmaker and Screenwriter)
Neus Ballús (born 1980) is a Catalan film director and scriptwriter. She has a degree in Audiovisual Communication and a Master in Documentary Making from the Pompeu Fabra University. She released her first film La plaga (The Plague) in 2013, which was screened at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. It won 4 Gaudí Awards and was nominated for the LUX Prize, the European Film Awards and the Goya Awards. The film portrays everyday life in a rural zone of the periphery of Barcelona, named Gallecs. Before, she had done some shorts like La Gabi (2004), L’avi de la càmera (Grandad with Camera, 2005) and the documentary Immersió (2009), awarded with the Best Short Film Prize at the ALCINE Festival.
Celia Sainz
Celia Sainz is a PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, specializing in Visual and Performance Studies. She earned her Master of Arts from the same university, with her video essay ‘Cinema Turns: Catalan Creative Documentary.’ Her work includes numerous video essays, some of which have been featured in [In]Transition and Feminist Media Histories, as well as recognized in the Sight and Sound ‘Best Video Essay’ poll in 2021. She is working on her doctoral thesis titled Ecopathic Imaginaries: Iberian Visual Cultures in the Anthropocene, a project that combines ecocriticism and affect studies to examine the representational challenges of the ecological crisis in audiovisual media. Alongside her academic endeavors, she is part of the video essay editorial team for the peer-reviewed journal Teknokultura, while also contributing to curatorial efforts for various film festivals. Presently, she holds the role of Assistant Curator at the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival.
Trailer