El mar nos mira de lejos

The Sea Stares at Us from Afar
When moving images in colour replace the black and white photographs, little changes. The grass, sand and sky look no different than they did back then, back when the tower was new, back when they arrived from across the sea to mark out the land and extract its riches, back when you could stand at the top of the highest dune and still almost make out the city of Tartessos, far off in the distance. And the past is still here, in the solitary figure who gathers pinecones to burn in his beachside hut, in the two fishermen out at sea at sunrise, in the endless shovelling that keeps the rising sand at bay. As the camera calmly circles the same fixed axis, the radius gradually increases, bringing with it the present: the bus carrying tourists who spread out along the shoreline, the officials wanting to know if the huts are inhabited, the modern development that looms large on the horizon. This is no portrait of contrasts though, but rather of simultaneity, of unceasing shifts in light and texture that know no time, of modernity as just another element to be woven into the landscape. We stand on the shore and look to the sea. The sea stares at us from afar.
by Manuel Muñoz Rivas Spain / Netherlands 2017 Spanish 93’ Colour Documentary form

Crew

Director Manuel Muñoz Rivas
Screenplay Manuel Muñoz Rivas, Mauro Herce
Cinematography Mauro Herce
Editing Cristóbal Fernández, Manuel Muñoz Rivas, Pablo Gil Rituerto
Sound Design Jeroen Goeijers, Manuel Muñoz Rivas
Sound Joaquín Pachón
Producers José M. Rodríguez Calvo, Sara Sánchez García, José Alayón Dévora, Rosan Boersma, Denis Wigman, Irene M. Borrego

Produced by

Azhar Media

El Viaje Films

CTM Docs

59 En conserva

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Manuel Muñoz Rivas

Born in Seville, Spain, in 1978. He studied Communication Studies before enrolling at the EICTV, the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. In addition to being a filmmaker, Manuel Muños Rivas works as an editor and also teaches at film schools.

Filmography

2008 Sendero 2009 Con el viento (With the Wind) 2014 Pájaro 2017 El mar nos mira de lejos (The Sea Stares at Us From Afar)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2017