An autobiographical black-and-white short in which Teo Hernández portrays his Purépecha father by holding backlit old photographs atop the Montparnasse Tower while reading a manifesto of sorts on his filmmaking.
Teo Hernández was a Mexican experimental filmmaker who filmed mainly in a Super 8 format. In 1958, he created, together with Antonio Campomanes, the Center for Cinematographic Experimentation (CEC) in Mexico. From 1966 onwards, he lived and worked in Paris, where he created MétroBarbèsRochechou Art (1980), an experimental film collective, along with Gabriel Badaud aka Gaël, Michel Nédjar and Jacques Haubois aka Jakobois. In his exploration of the relation between image, movement and body, he maintained a close collaboration with Studio dm (1983), a dance company founded in Paris by Bernardo Montet and Catherine Diverrès, who shaped a choreographic praxis strongly tied to literature and butoh. In France, his works have been linked to Cinéma Corporal or The School of the Body, an artistic research movement surrounding gender and body identity. After his death, his work was bequeathed to Michel Nédjar who has kept it safeguarded at the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Pompidou Center in Paris ever since.
Written and read by Teo Hernández
With Teo Hernández, Jakobois
Editing: Teo Hernández
Super 8 Film, B&N, w/sound
Donated by M. Michel Nédjar in 2000
Inventory Number: AM 2000-F39
Collection: Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée National d’Art Moderne/Centre de création
Industrielle