“Masterful.
UNDEFINED THINGS is the perfect reminder
of the singularity of cinema before the vulgarization
of the moving image.”
UNDEFINED THINGS / LAS COSAS INDEFINIDAS
A film by María Aparicio
(Argentina, 2023, 81 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Winner — Cinema Tropical Award for Best Film
“In Sobre las nubes (2022), Maria Aparicio offered us a gentle, melancholic drift through lives that are dull and solitary, with a slow rhythm akin to the clouds invoked in the title. Las cosas indefinidas, which can be seen as an additional chapter, centers on Eva, an editor, and her interactions with her assistant, Rami. The two are working on editing a film about blind individuals, a project started by a recently deceased friend, as we learn at the beginning of the film.
Maria Aparicio’s precise, attentive camera follows Eva, with still frames capturing every subtle movement of the body, every hesitation, and even the faintest of silences, or allowing words to unfold directly in front of the camera, as in a monologue that seems almost directed at the viewer. Through this gesture, as Eva takes care of her friend’s film images, the intention is to care for each person, each face, each spoken word, and each being. It’s a care that finds refuge in both the image and cinema itself.
This mode of care, however, is ambivalent, as suggested by the bouquets that Eva places so much importance on: the flowers revive memories while also evoking loss. The film thus explores the delicate balance between gaze and sensation, memory and loss, in an effort to unfold a movement from the inside to the outside. It’s a tender ode to the attention given to beings engaged in undefined actions, a phrase borrowed from Robert Bresson, which gives the film its title.” —Nicolas Feodoroff, FIDMarseille
Saturday, April 5, 11:30am (in person and online!)
UnionDocs
352 Onderdonk Avenue, Ridgewood, NY
Presented as part of the series ‘Artistic Differences” hosted by Cíntia Gil.
For tickets and more information visit:
https://uniondocs.org/event/artistic-differences-maria-aparicio-2025-04-05/
Watch the trailer:
