Acting Together

It is rare to catch a drawing in rehearsal. Yet, that is exactly what Flores y Prats’ film “44 Doors and 35 Windows for the new Sala Beckett,” captures. It gives viewers a backstage pass past the curtain of drafting conventions to a more intimate act of architectural analysis and placemaking. The setting “Paz y Justicia” was originally built through the volunteer efforts of its members on weekends and holidays; itself functioning as a social stage offering its members a place for meetings, play, and daily necessities at subsidized prices. The film celebrates this collective effort, following the migration of salvaged doors and windows from the neglected Worker’s Cooperative to new set roles in the Sala Beckett Performing Arts Centre.

Through stop motion, they glide and shuffle across fixed plans to their new marks. Some change color, while others adorn a new costume altogether; given appendages to comfortably fit into their new roles. The objects feel lively, playful and sometimes mischievous. Always between boundaries, they entice guests to imagine alternative pasts and lost stories, turning the film into an exercise of material empathy. With a modest runtime of 3 minutes, I cannot help but admire the painstaking process taken just to usher these shy elements along and document their journey frame by frame. One can sense the invisible gentle hand that had to position and adjust each element, checking the viewfinder, and clicking the camera just to capture a single frame. The film plays out accepting uncertainties and detours as welcome opportunities in the exact same way the elements are reintroduced into the built project; where contractors set up shop room to room making precise measurements and adjustments to perfectly locate each element in their instructed place. The film technique and assets exude an honest warmth, where material imperfections and animated stutters mark a rich working process. Heritage here does not subject material realities to stratified timelines, often cleaned up to stand as a symbolic petrified carcass. The project asks the ruin, what would you like to do now? Nothing is finished, and all is welcome to participate, be worked on, and worked with. ¹

As film directors, Flores y Prats capture the magic of the existing fabric, making precise cuts and alterations to the footage of the past with the aim to stitch it all back together again. ² Remastered, the “finished” Sala Beckett is a comforting motion picture for all ages. It is a story about working together to reflect and give dignity to aged spirits; where preservation is not exclusively for the exuberant or monumental but all sites that accumulate meaning through use.

Screenshot from the film “44 Doors and 35 Windows for the New Sala Beckett” by Flores & Prats (2016-2017)