Dr Elisa Cepedal


I’m a writer-director, film editor, researcher and lecturer. My current practice-led research explores the lost collectivity in de-industrialised communities and the experimental nature of political cinema. My films have been shown in renowned international festivals such as Mar del Plata, Sheffield Doc/Fest, BAFICI, DocLisboa, Art of the Real, Guadalajara, New Directors/New Films; and in venues such as MoMA, Film at Lincoln Centre, ICA, and The Anthology Film Archives. I have over ten years’ experience cutting drama, documentary and short form works, and have edited films for television broadcast and theatrical release as well as the international festival circuit. I hold a PhD by Practice from the University of Exeter and a MA in Filmmaking from the London Film School.


My practice-based research focuses on the cinematic representation of the people in late capitalist society and its translation into an aesthetic of resistance. My first feature film Work or To Whom Does The World Belong (2019) narrates the end of the coal mining industry and the working class movement in the Spanish region of Asturias. The film engages with hybrid storytelling forms, exploring the loss of class-consciousness in the community through a prism of ethnofiction. My latest film El Cine, 5 (2023) continues my work with the Asturian mining community while reflecting on the potential of film to resignify images and reconfigure counterdiscoursive narratives through the use of the archive. 


Awards
Europa Film Festivals - Audience Award to Best Director

Gijon International Film Festival