A visual artist born in Porto, Helena Estrela has split her personal and professional life as an artist between Portugal and Spain, having studied film at ESTC and EQZE (San Sebastián). Her films — which blend the realms of the personal and historical, the natural and the poetic — have been screened and received awards at a range of film festivals, such as FICUNAM, Oberhausen and Viennale.

Displaying an experimental language and a strong but delicate aesthetic, Estrela’s films are often presented as a kind of stream of consciousness, where dreams and words are at the forefront.

This New Moon comprises a selection of Estrela’s short films, synesthetic experiments captured on film, with a subtle sense of humour that finds connections between clouds, conversations with plants, internet tutorials or ancient legends. In the same way that in dreams there are no barriers between magic and our daily lives, so in her films we find a vocabulary of blurred boundaries and overlapping worlds.

Screening followed by talk with Helena Estrela, and Ana David and Lídia Queirós (moderation). Programme notes by Missouri Williams.