Surplus Cinema

The Surplus Cinema research group is a gathering of artists, writers and thinkers fromGreece and intersecting diasporas, working at the crossroads of performance, film making, collective action-based research and cultural activism. It engages in intersectional feminist methodologies and decolonial practices as a way to position their diasporic experiences, and as a starting point for forming collective constellations and communities.

We move as body-cameras, as ciné-dancers. Our bodies’ relationship to land, gesture and imaginaries becomes a means of exploring polyphonic and diasporic filmmaking tools. We hold dialogues in cyclical forms and acknowledge the ongoing practice of learning with eachother, questioning white patriarchal narratives which frequently misread, misrepresent or invibilize women’s and non-binary artist’s work.

At workspacebrussels, we will deepen our methods of programming and research on selected films. Holding readings of Dimitra Kotouza’s book Surplus Citizens and other texts, interacting with a range of materials, we wish to create a vocabulary of playful gestures: images, video performances and ciné-notes. Through this process we will develop a workshop format on camera-body movement and lay the groundwork for a series of texts towards a forthcoming publication.

This residency is part of the process of preparing for the first public program Surplus Cinema which will take place on November 23-25 at Beursschouwburg. The 3-day program includes screenings, public discussions and a workshop exploring feminist filmmaking through the greek context, veered at decentering eurocentricism and engaging in feminist lineages of the moving image.

With a love of handmade, hybrid, minor and activist cinemas, Surplus Cinema wishes to make a space for community, crafting cinema as a placemaking and space-taking practice where we can nourish, dream and experience joy together in liberatory ways.