Routes of desire
By Charlotte Stace
La Virreina introduces its new online exhibition, Routes of Desire: A chart for navigating through Archipelago, inspired by female filmmakers.
Ever since 1896, women have contributed to the realm of cinema an abundance of creations worthy of admiration stemming from their particular experiences in the world. The discovery of this surprising, inspiring and significant archipelago of female culture has been the raison d’être of the work of the Mostra Internacional de Films de Dones de Barcelona.
Subverting the dictates of academia, the androcentric narratives of the History of Film, those carefully refined lists, polished and repolished, that indicate who deserves to appear, to feature in textbooks. Resurrecting the pioneering women, establishing connections between them and women filmmakers today, discrediting the narrative of exceptionality—women filmmakers as mythological beings, Amazons who emerge suddenly over the course of history to the surprise and fascination of the public. This was the basis from which the Archipelago Project was created.