Over the course of several months, we collected visual testimonies of various labour and ludic activities and other daily practices rooted in empirical knowledge. With them we have created a fragmentary film immersed on the idea of transformation of matter, establishing intuitive relations between concrete gestures and substances, sensorial experiences and analogical thinking, generating a revolving movement that metamorphoses itself over time. Throughout a sequence of diverse quotidian activities, solutions and abilities the spectator is conducted over a series of connections in a game of interplay between forms of magic, pleasure, geometry, symbolism and labour.

A trama e o círculo (2014)
Hd video, 34 min – Portugal – Italy

Direction/ Photography/ Edition / Production
Mariana Caló, Francisco Queimadela

Sound
Jonathan Saldanha

Support / Production
Lo Schermo de’ll arte film festival

Distribution
Portugal Film – Portuguese Film Agency

Poster Design: Dayana Lucas / Drawing: Mariana Caló, Francisco Queimadela

(Trailer)

Screenings / Festivals

2020 – Berlinische Galerie, curated by Nuno de Brito Rocha (7 October – 2 November)

2020 – Biennale Gherdëina, curated by Adam Budak

2019 – Miragem – Mostra de cinema na paisagem, Ilha do Faial, PT (September)

2019 – The Portuguese Conspiracy Screenings at MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK (August)

2019 – Elemental Cinema, from the Alchemical Image to Ecofeminism, curated by Margarida Mendes, Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (June)

2018 – Domóticas para hoy y mañana, Bogotá (October)

2018 – Art space Standards, Milan (April)

2018 – Festival Issni N’Ourgh International du film, Amazigh/Morocco (April)

2018 – Encontros para além da História, CIAJG, Guimarães (January)

2017 – Le Bal, Paris (December)

2017 – Screening Room – Temporary Gallery, Cologne (July)

2017 – Cinema Português: Novos Olhares – Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon (June)

2017 – Com a linha de sombra – Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon (April)

2017 – Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (March)

2017 – Excursus, par Sofia Lemos – ISELP, Brussels (February)

2017 – I Encounter of South European non-profits – Madrid (February)

2016 – Madeira Micro International Film Festival, Ponta do Sol (December)

2016 – Indie Lisboa London Sessions, London (November)

2016 – Há Filmes na Baixa, Auditório Passos Manuel, Porto ( September)

2016 – Lima Independiente – Festival Internacional de Cine, Lima (Jully)

2016 – Festival MED, Loulé (June)

2016 -Art of the Real 2016 – Lincoln Film Society, NYC (April)

2016 – Gesture, machine and smartphone  – Jeu de Paume, Paris (March)

2016 – Bright Future – IFFR, Roterdan (February)

2015 – Experimental Film Competition – ASFF 2015, York (November)

2015 – Cinéphémère – FIAC, Paris(October)

2015 – UNDERDOX – Carte blanche für Jean-Pierre Rehm , Munich (October)

2015 – International Competition – 11th 25 FPS Film Festival, Zagreb (September)

2015 – 20th edition of Split Film Festival – International Festival of New Film, Split (September)

2015 – First Film Competion and International Competion – 36th FID, Marseille (Jully)

2015 – Competições Nacional e Internacional de curtas metragens- 12a edição do IndieLisboa, Lisbon (April)

2014 – Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival, Florence (November)

Exhibitions

In 2017 we made a presentation of an exhibition version of “The Mesh and the Circle”, constructing a display of objects that are seen on the film and installations specially created for this occasion. You can find some images here

What could make for a theoretical yet enjoyable movie? A film that attempts to subject the organization of all the tangible elements that constitute the film (images, frame rate, colour, sound, etc.) to an explicitly self-reflexive and glorious aim (as is said of Christs in glory). Not to make one think this or that, nor to formulate hypotheses or moralize, but to highlight the tangible, physical and material content of the constituents of each passing second on the screen. This is partly, as we know, the ambition of the so-called experimental cinema with its rigour and harshness. It is, perhaps, a risky bet by the young Mariana Caló and Francisco Queimadela; it is in any case the result. A film that is not afraid to wander (and the viewer with it) within the tight laces of its mesh, which plays with the «circle» and the guarantee of its self-sufficiency to break it as well, and lead it to connect to elements as varied as wrestlers, a dish of crème brulée, the pressure of a foot on a rope, a potter’s wheel, etc. To connect with the world of labour, as if it had always been about that.

Jean-Pierre Rehm, FIDMarseille catalogue 2015

The Mesh and the Circle (2014) – Still frames