Téo Hernández
Both similar to yet different from Jean Rouch, Teo Hernandez (1939-1992) used a Super 8 camera, which was much more economical and lighter than the 16 mm substandard one adopted in France by “cinéma vérité” followers, when filming the town, nature, mythology, the body and dance. He edited his films directly whilst shooting, the way Jonas Mekas did, without the hassle of touch-ups or pentimento. His shots, in terms of their length, never eclipse the sequences and consist of snapshots, flashes, blinks and flickering reminiscent of structural film. Between two blurs produced by sudden zooming, the image is incredibly sharp. A distinction can be drawn between the extra-cinematic movement and what is shown, even if sporadically, by the impressionistic framing, which is astonishingly vivacious. The dancer’s momentum has little to do with the apparent agitation, which is under control, the relentless spurts, the approximate focusing around the chosen or given subject. The cinema vérité, as illustrated by Teo Hernandez, plays with the dialectics of “fraternization-alienation”, based on “aesthetics of the improvised, of awkwardness, of spontaneity”, as stated Edgar Morin. In an article from 1983, Teo Hernandez touched on the type of momentum that inspired him: “The cinema is a profound and violent impulse, a reaction of complete perception, an effort to survive and to regenerate”.
In 1985, he met Bernardo Montet whose work inspired him to make the soundtrack VITRIOL (1985) and the films Pas de ciel, coproduced by the TNDI (National Theatre of Dance and Image) of Châteauvallon, and Vloof l’aigrette ! Pain de singe (1987). Among the twenty or so productions that he can be credited for, several films stand out, such as Salomé (1976), Michel Nedjar (1978), Cristaux (1978), Nuestra Señora de Paris (1982), etc.
Nicolas Villodre
“Teo Hernandez was one of the key figures in the currents “école du corps” (‘body cinema’) in France in the 1970s. His prolific and protean work, mainly filmed in Super 8 format, is marked by Baroque mysticism and sensuous attention to the male body. This programme presents several rare, unreleased films emerging from the luminous symbiosis – devoted to the duende – between the cinematography of Teo Hernandez, dancing filmmaker, and the choreographic act of Bernardo Montet.”
Teo Hernandez / Bernardo Montet, Centre Pompidou, 14 October 2009
latest update: November 2014
