Play-Doc will bring part of its programme to historic sites across Tui (Galicia, Spain), featuring silent film screenings with live music alongside expanded cinema and live experimental audiovisual works.
From April 29 to May 3, the city of Tui (Galicia, Spain) will host the 22nd edition of Play-Doc, International Film Festival, which once again extends part of its programme beyond conventional screening venues into some of the city’s most significant locations. Cinema Tours and the silent film sessions at the Church of Santo Domingo—presented under the programme Cinema at the Church—form part of this approach, establishing a direct relationship between cinema, music and place.
Cinema Tours: live audiovisual creation in Tui’s historic centre
Conceived as a nighttime route through Tui’s historic centre for a limited audience, Cinema Tours is one of the festival’s most successful and sought-after programmes, now in its seventh consecutive edition. This project, created in collaboration with visual artist, filmmaker and educator Xisela Franco, brings together two live audiovisual interventions developed in real time, in which sound, image and space itself become integral elements of the work.
The first stop is Krakatoa, by artist and filmmaker Carlos Casas, presented live together with sound artists Nicolas Becker and Armand Lesecq. The piece takes the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano as its starting point and unfolds in real time through sound creation, musical improvisation, and live image and sound editing.
Carlos Casas is a leading figure at the intersection of cinema and contemporary art, and his work has been presented at international festivals and institutions such as Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo. Nicolas Becker is one of the most acclaimed sound designers in contemporary cinema and an Academy Award winner for Sound of Metal. Armand Lesecq is a sound artist and regular collaborator on live audiovisual projects, focusing on the relationship between sound, space and perception.
The route concludes at the Church of Santo Domingo with Variaciones para un retablo, a live audiovisual intervention by visual artist Alba G. Corral, created specifically for this space. Alba G. Corral is one of the most internationally recognised artists in the field of generative art and live audiovisual practice, with work presented at festivals and art centres across Europe, Japan, Mexico and the United States. In this intervention, she projects real-time generated visuals onto the church’s altarpiece, created by sculptor Antonio del Villar (1744), one of the most outstanding examples of Baroque art in Galicia.
The event will take place on Thursday, April 30 at 21:00. Tickets are now available here
Cinema at the Church: silent film with live piano
Play-Doc presents one of its most distinctive programmes with two silent film screenings accompanied by live piano at the Church of Santo Domingo—an uncommon experience that turns the screening into a truly exceptional event.
Built in the 14th century as part of the Dominican convent complex and designated a Site of Cultural Interest, the Church of Santo Domingo is one of the most significant historic landmarks in Tui. Its architecture and acoustics make it a particularly suitable setting for this type of screening, where live music and the building itself intensify the cinematic experience.
In this context, two masterpieces of film history will be presented: La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928), by Carl Theodor Dreyer, and 7th Heaven (1927), by Frank Borzage—two films that represent one of the most expressive peaks of silent cinema. Although very different in narrative, both explore, in distinct ways, the force of faith and love as sustaining elements in the face of adversity.
La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc reconstructs the trial of Joan of Arc based on the original transcripts and is considered one of the great achievements of silent cinema, renowned for Renée Maria Falconetti’s powerful performance and its radical use of the close-up.
7th Heaven, directed by Frank Borzage and starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, tells a love story set in Paris during the First World War and was one of the major successes of American cinema in the late 1920s. At the first Academy Awards, Borzage won Best Director and Gaynor received the first-ever Oscar for Best Actress.
The screenings will take place on Friday, May 1 and Sunday, May 3 at 22:30. Tickets are now available here.
Live music will be performed by Portuguese pianist and composer Filipe Raposo, a leading European figure in silent film accompaniment with extensive experience in film and composition.
These activities complement the previously announced retrospectives dedicated to Viola Stephan and Eduardo Coutinho, as well as the festival’s industry and training programme, which includes a new edition of VENTURA, professional meetings on international co-production, artificial intelligence and sound in cinema, and a new edition of the community filmmaking workshop.
In the coming weeks, the festival will continue to reveal the rest of the programme for this new edition.