Super(im)positions

Subverting melodramatic representation through personal unpredictability

Emilio Santoyo

With his artistic research Super(im)positions: subverting melodramatic representation through personal unpredictability, Emilio Santoyo explores the possibilities of using outdated melodramatic elements of cinematic representation in a new way, dissolving the intersection between the personal and the fictional as a tool for creating a redemptive act of filmmaking. He created the concept of the New Melodrama; a self-reflective genre deviation that, by acknowledging it’s perversity; aims to destroy melodramatic toxic knowledge, portraying a contemporary, complex, and personal way of feeling.

 

As his graduation project, Emilio will presenting a “Work in progress” cut of his new feature film: Vera, Vera Vera (Or the bizarre behaviour of broken hearts), which he developed and shot during the MA programme, using a wide range of capture formats and supports. Through an essayistic approach, the film blurs the lines between fiction and reality through an experimental fictional narrative. Made in close collaboration with Mei Liu, David Calderón, Valerya Le, and Malaz Usta -who also participate as on-screen actors-, the film follows an invisible storyteller reflecting about a lost love, while contemplating at Vera, a young filmmaker living in Amsterdam, who attempts to overcome a depression by making a film about her romantic breakup. Meanwhile, in Mexico, Edu – Vera’s ex- edits a telenovela, while thinking about getting her back. A melodramatic kaleidoscope of love and violence unfolds, where fiction and reality become indistinguishable.

By dissolving the intersection between the personal and the fictional, and by using a contemporary, polyphonic, and playful film language, I aim to propose a different form of melodrama. Perhaps one that, by acknowledging its perversity, can challenge its toxic knowledge, portraying a contemporary, complex, and personal way of feeling. A critical, boundary-pushing, and relevant melodrama of self-reflexive possibilities. I’m temporarily calling this genre deviation, this redemptive act of filmmaking and knowledge production proposal, the New Melodrama: a trojan horse that makes a valid critique of the genre, through the use of the very system that is being criticised.

Emilio Santoyo

Emilio Santoyo (Mexico, 1990) is an artist and filmmaker. He directed the short film “The perfect absent” (2019), a well as the fictional feature-length films “Ana’s desire” (2019), “Silver heart” (co-direction, 2023) and “This savage beast” (2025). In 2015 he founded Anomia (anomie), a film production company and platform for innovative Latin American arthouse cinema, where he collaborates with a a group of artists.

Emilio holds a BA in film direction from CENTRO de Diseño, Cine y Television (Mexico) and is a Berlinale Talents alumnus. In the context of the Master of Film (NFA) he developed an Artistic Research project concerning the subversion of Mexican Melodrama through personal unpredictability. As one of the outcomes of his research, he currently edits his new feature film, “Vera, Vera, Vera (or the bizarre behaviour of broken hearts)”. His work investigates themes such as the representation of love and violence, family and memory, questioning and expanding the possibilities of fiction in cinema through multi-disciplinary methods of production.

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