What is Xcèntric?

Films made with the freedom created by each artist’s personal space. Some people call them experimental, art house or creative documentary, but for us these films are for the “long haul”, because they form a kind of cinema which, with its ideas and its formal proposals, is or has been in the vanguard, and because, although they exist on the fringes, they occupy centre stage in the contemporary audiovisual world. They’re often made by visionaries, almost always on low budgets, and they’re also inspirational; they show that it is possible to make films outside the main industry circuits, shunning the paraphernalia of the commercial cinema.

Our programmes are curated, so the choice of films depends on the criteria of the team that is Xcèntric. We don’t ask for submissions because we are not a festival.

To start with, there are no limitations on period (films range from early cinema to recent releases), format (cinema, video), duration (we’ve shown films lasting five hours and also barely a minute) or genre (we show lots of experimental and documentary film, but we also like indefinable genres, and flirtations with other artistic disciplines). We’re always on the lookout for films that are hard to find but that we consider important despite their absence from the main circuit.

The films are screened in the original version and format (whenever possible).

The programmes usually bring together several short works on a theme, but we also show features, expanded cinema and monographics.

Each session is accompanied by a text to place it in context, but also, whenever possible, they are presented by their programmers or sometimes the filmmakers themselves.

Not just inveterate filmgoers, but also—in fact most particularly—curious spectators who are eager to discover unique forms and languages in a contemporary panorama saturated with images but always open to new ideas, whether formulated today or salvaged from the past.

Because we believe that the best cinematographic experience is still a dark theatre and a big screen, with each film projected in its original format. Because lots of young filmmakers have gone back to using photochemical techniques.

Getting hold of a film can be very easy, extremely complicated or even impossible. It depends on who owns the rights (it sometimes takes a while to find this out) and on condition and availability. When we want to show a film, we first have to locate it, then negotiate its screening and, finally, transport it from wherever it is to Barcelona. We tend to get films through distributers, cooperatives, film theatres, museum holdings and also the filmmakers themselves or their heirs, especially in Europe and the United States.

Of course, programmers have to be familiar with the audiovisual medium, but most of all they need criteria and sensibility when putting together a programme. Most Xcèntric programmes are made up of several films; when this happens, we try to get the different works to dialogue. This makes the experience of the session richer and more satisfactory for spectators, who find connections between the different films.

We have the greatest respect for this task, because we know the effects of a good programme on the spectator and on the works shown.

Our programmers have learned by meticulously piecing together programmes, and we can quite confidently say that Xcèntric has created a school in this respect.

Xcèntric has been renewed over the years, as has its team of programmers. It also invites guest programmers.

In 2001, the CCCB’s Audiovisual Department, directed by Ángela Martínez, wanted to create a regular cycle of screenings, and accepted the proposal of José Ángel Alcalde, accompanied in the original venture by Andrés Hispano, Andy Davies and Carolina López. This first team laid the foundations of Xcèntric’s orientation towards experimental and avant-garde film, and also decided on the activity’s name and image. Over the years, many programmers have contributed to Xcèntric, enriching a programme that has become the flagship of a series of related activities, such as Xcèntric Archive, workshops, talks and publications.