Debuting at Curtas Vila do Conde, Alexandra Cuesta is an Ecuadorian filmmaker whose work experiments with the concepts of private and public sphere, and whose praxis is often based on formal considerations regarding 16mm film. In her quest for establishing and understanding the relationship between camera and the object/subject approached by it, her films have been shown in events such as NYFF, Cinéma du Reel, Oberhausen, Courtisane, Anthology Film Archives, and at the Guggenheim Museum. “Notas, Encantaciones: Parte I” is the first chapter of a trilogy that explores a more personal aspect in the filmmaker’s work. The film shows Cuesta’s attempts to – through notes, impressions or, if we will, a collection of moments – portrait a foreign city, everyday life, the post-industrial landscape that surrounds her, as well as the impending end of a love story. The camera, however, remains a device that intends to go beyond a simple evocation of the past, becoming the tool used by the filmmaker to exorcize long-standing ghosts. (RM)