We’re delighted host the launch of Fireflies Issue #6, which explores the cinemas of Alain Guiraudie and Albert Serra. A Catalan iconoclast and a radical dreamer from the south of France, Serra and Guiraudie are two of the most compelling voices in cinema today. Witty and wistful, replete with lust and laughter – this edition reflects back on the pair's extraordinary filmographies, and grapples with the sex, the politics, the aesthetics and the philosophies found within.

Fireflies co-editor Giovanni Marchini Camia introduces Alain Guiraudie's That Old Dream That Moves, whilst Issue #6 contributor Erika Balsom will introduce Albert Serra's Birdsong. We’ll be celebrating the launch in our bar between the two screenings and copies of the magazine will be available to purchase throughout. 

Following explorations of the cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Pier Paolo Pasolini, Béla Tarr and Abbas Kiarostami, Claire Denis and Jia Zhangke, Pedro Costa and Ben Rivers, Angela Schanelec and Agnès Varda, Fireflies Issue #6 assembles an international group of critics, novelists, filmmakers, poets and visual artists across 216 pages of a beautifully designed print artefact. Issue #6 contributors include Erika Balsom, Bruce Hainley & Wayne Koestenbaum, Dennis Lim, Luc Moullet, CAConrad, Michael Koresky, Michael Sicinski, Masha Tupitsyn, Luise Donschen, Phil Coldiron, Cruising Pavilion, Veronica Scott Esposito, Howard Hampton, Kasper Bosmans, Frédéric Jaeger, James Lattimer & Dane Komjlen, Peter Polites, Paul Dalla Rosa and Pierre Senges.

That Old Dream That Moves
Alain Guiraudie
2001 | 51 min | Colour | 35mm
French with English subtitles
Introduced by Giovanni Marchini Camia

"Hired to dismantle and ship an elaborate machine, a young specialist arrives in a small town during the last days of a factory about to close. His arrival is treated with friendliness and suspicion by the few remaining workers, while his relations with their supervisor seem charged with unacknowledged feelings. Once all realize that the specialist is gay, an uneasy and ambiguous triangle forms between this newcomer, the supervisor and the oldest of the workers. This film portends the spatial strategy of Stranger by the Lake: we never leave the factory, its locker room and adjacent picnic grounds. This constraint focuses our attention on the subtleties of the ways the men interact as well as their implications, both political and erotic." – Harvard Film Archive

Birdsong
Albert Serra
2008 | 98 min | B/W & Colour | Digital
Catalan and Hebrew with English subtitles
Introduced by Erika Balsom

“Serra recasts the story of the Magi as an elemental epic of man simultaneously lost and found in the uncanny beauty of nature. Masterfully shot in black and white on remote, almost extraterrestrial locations in the Canary Islands and Iceland, Birdsong follows the slow, stumbling passage of the kings towards the mysterious birth that beckons them through the long days and dark nights. Like Knight's Honor, Birdsong adds a level of humor to gently undercut the sacred qualities of the tale, here by foregrounding the wonderfully profane corporality of the awkward kings who float and fidget in an assertively, refreshingly human manner.” – Harvard Film Archive

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With thanks to Montse Triola Teixidor and Artur Tort of Andergraun Films, and Jean-Philippe Labadie of Acis Productions for their generous support in making this programme possible.

Fireflies is a print film magazine created between Berlin and Melbourne. Each issue assembles an international group of writers and visual artists to celebrate the work of two extraordinary filmmakers through personal essays, interviews and creative responses.

Fireflies is independent, self-published and non-profit, and believe creators should be paid for their work. If you’d like to support the project further, please consider becoming a Patron.

More info:
andergraun.com
fireflieszine.com