Artist Film Programme

Curated by Juan delGado, the Common Ground Artist Film Programme brought together a curated programme of short films and animations produced by young people, mainly from Syria, who have become part of a growing diaspora: a young generation of filmmakers who were thrown into one the most terrible conflicts in living memory. This is the cinema of urgency, a cinema born out of rockets, rubble and the colossal cataclysm of this ancient and diverse society. There was no time to learn cinematic techniques, no resources to produce a steady shot, a nice composition… the cruel reality of bombs did not allow a moment to write a film-essay. And yet, the extraordinary talent of these young artists is evident in these films, their stories narrated with the primary necessity of being seen and acknowledged.
 
Common Ground also featured Juan’s own work Altered Landscapes - an immersive multimedia installation, which traces a personal narrative through the scarred vistas of Europe in the midst of the largest mass migration in living memory.