[SAIFF Selection for videoart] Naguala by Claudia Minerva Medina

 

"Naguala” delves deep into the rich Mexican traditions of nagualismo, loosely translated as shapeshifting, offering a captivating and immersive experience. This three-channel video and two-channel sound project explores the mystical realm of the naguala, where the boundaries between, animals, plants, earth, cosmos, reality and the supernatural dissolve and are reconfigured. The Naguala guide invites you to consider yourself beyond the human form, forever transforming, continually being woven into the fabric of life and death, the macro and the micro. The naguala asks, "Who are you outside of your skin?"

Trailer

Director Statement

My work in film, video, and sound was catalyzed by a desire to explore, interpret and share the traditions, beliefs, and histories of my mixed cultural heritage. In particular, it was the stories of my Nahua grandmother, a traditional “curandera” (or healer) that drew me to wanting to learn as much as possible about the origins and practice of healing systems that persisted and evolved through the process of colonization. It was by spending time with her, and recording audio and video of her, that I realized that the stories she was sharing not only connected me in a deeply personal way to my ancestors and family history, but also spoke to universal themes of love, spirit, pain, and transformation.

As I began to know myself as a storyteller, I looked for ways to incorporate these teachings in the mediums I came to use as my tool of communication, that of the moving image and sound. This led me on a path to creating work that attempts to reveal layers of meaning beyond the obvious interpretations with the lens of the storyteller, inviting audiences to see, hear and feel the nuances of human experience, especially the mysterious aspects of life, love, and death.

I have created fictional short films that explore these themes through characters based on family stories, where concepts of tradition and culture are reworked and re interpreted to highlight aspects that are often left out of mainstream discourse. Perspectives of rural women, of children, relationships with the natural world, and intergenerational relationships have been central themes in all of my work. I have aimed to centre my understanding of traditional knowledge that goes beyond western “folkloric” or “magical” interpretations, and raises up ways of knowing and being that are more relevant than ever and that have never been erased.

As much as the process of narrative storytelling gave me the space to develop the skills necessary to create films, I was inspired to also work with the same mediums to create non narrative and temporal work, that offered a new window into these themes through ephemeral experiences. This brought me to creating live audio and visual mixed pieces that dig into stories that often lay hidden in wait. In particular, the creation of immersive spaces, through the carefully designed placement of screens, projections and soundscapes have allowed me the possibility to explore non narrative storytelling but also go deeper into the sensorial aspects of the themes I am re interpreting.

My newest work, Naguala draws from the ancient shapeshifter tradition of which my mother’s home community is known for. Using layered imagery, three channels of video projection and two channels of soundscape, the installation looks to tear the surface off the colonized interpretation of inherent evil and fear in the concept of Nagualismo to reveal the beauty, wisdom, and teachings beneath. These are teachings rooted in our shifting and yet consistently relational connections to the non human aspects of life both on earth and beyond.

Director Biography - Claudia Minerva Medina

Claudia Medina is the proud daughter of a Nahua/Mexican mother and Italian father who left their homelands to start a new life on the Sunshine Coast of Canada in Tla’Amin territory, also known as Powell River/qathet. After many years working, travelling and studying in Latin America, Asia and Europe, Claudia eventually returned to the coast to raise her daughter Alma while continuing her art practice in film and video.

Claudia has been involved in film and video production since 1998. She established her production company, EnMedia for her fiction films and since then has expanded it to produce diverse projects in film, visual design, media education and installation.

Her immersive multi channel installations include Future Forests, 2018, and Clam Basket, 2022, a collaboration with Tla’Amin artist/weaver, Sosan Blaney and Naguala, 2023.

Claudia holds a master’s degree in Visual Culture from the University of Barcelona with a focus on installation, visual culture and ecology. She continues to create media with the goal of creating possibilities for reconnection in times of crisis.