I recently discovered the existence of a new and exciting film magazine: OUTSKIRTS, a yearly independent print magazine of between 160-190 pages of original essays, interviews, reviews, translations, and dossiers on the past and present of cinema.
OUTSKIRTS is in English, though mostly written by people for whom English is a second language or who don’t speak English at all. Translation, in multiple senses, is an integral part of the magazine. It’s a handsome physical object, originating in the Locarno Critics Academy but speaking a different film culture: off-centre, from the margins or the periphery. In this podcast, I talk to one of the editors, Diego Cepeda (the others are Nathan Latoré, Sofie Cato Maas, Raymond Shik and Christopher Small), with filmmaker/critic Felix Cordero Bello contributing illuminating contexts and asides.
Near the beginning of the podcast Diego cites a poem by Farid Ud-din Attar,
‘The birds had departed towards a distant luminosity that attracted them.
Those who did not perish on the way would understand upon arrival that they had been transformed into that light that now attracted others’.
OUTSKIRTS is a magazine that in itself embodies a romance of movies, film culture, film history, woven through with friendship. It aims to put at the centre marginalised filmmakers and film cultures; and asks its readers to slow down, look back, look deeply, and think. The launch of each issue is accompanied by live events, often including readings and screenings. Diego cites Abraham Polonsky at the end, ‘The only fights worth fighting are for lost causes’.
Speaking to Diego and Felix, in English, a second-language for them, a whole cinema culture comes alive. They cite LA VIDA UTIL and Lucía Salas as an inspiration: a spirit of sharing knowledge, friendship and dialogue, enthusiasm for cinema, a similar way of thinking about film history. Diego and Felix both also write for SIMULACRO magazine edited by Julia Scrive-Loyer (https://www.simulacromag.com/), participate in its weekly cine-club and are connected to the Chavón School of Film and Design, itself associated with Parsons, with Diego as one of its key lecturers. ‘How can we approach the history of images and sounds from a place that maybe didn’t have (a film industry) whilst creating tools for understanding those elements that did exist (newsreels, home movies, a rich culture of filmgoing)?’, asks Diego.
The conversation ranges from the origins of the magazine, its aims (to defend cinema from this place, that is on the margins), it’s focus (to shine a light on the overlooked), how each issues tries to create a thread of thought. We detour through a brief account of a history of cinema in the Dominican Republic, where the conversation took place. All this and much more can be listened to in the podcast below:
The podcast may also be listened to on: Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT
and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546
The new issue comes out in June and can be purchased at: https://outskirtsmag.com/
José Arroyo
