“Wielding the soul”
It not easy that a theatre director let a camera record the rehearsals of a play for so long. 'Wielding the soul' is a trip with LLuís Pasqual and his actors while they rehearse ‘El sueño de la vida’ by Alberto Conejero who, in this text, ended the unfinished play by García Lorca ‘Comedia sin título’. From the reading of the play to the opening, we witnessed how Pasqual helped his actors to embody their characters. ‘Wielding the soul’ is a director’s notebook, a notebook not only to talk about theatre but to see how you can make it.
Director Biography
Arantxa Vela Buendía (Madrid, 1962) is a documentary filmmaker, and has been a full-time employee of RTVE (National Spanish Television Corporation) since 1984.
She has specialised in shows and series on the performing arts since 2000; first as a documentalist and then, from 2010 to 2013, as the producer and senior editor of “Mi reino por un caballo” (My Kingdom for a Horse) - RTVE‘s weekly magazine programme on events and headline news from the theatre world.
Filmography:
'Wielding the soul' ('Empuñando el alma', 2021) Writer and director. It received 25 awards in different international film festivals and 9 nominations.
'The alchemist's dance' ('El baile de la alquimista', 2024) Writer and director.
She is also a member of the editorial board of the journal ARTESCÉNICAS since 2018, and of la Academia de Artes Escénicas de España (The Performaning Arts Academy of Spain).
Co- author with Declan Donnellan of the book “Donnellan on Shakespeare”. Ten years of interviews with the theatre director about Shakespeare.
She wrote and directed two theatre plays: ‘Cabaret paranormal’ (2017-22) and ‘Reality Cabaret Show’ (2018)
She produced, wrote and directed six short films (1990-94)
Director’s Statement
I've been recording for Spanish National Television (TVE) rehearsals and interviews about theatre for more than 20 years and it is the fist time that I could see a play growing from the begining. Sharing this process with the Lluís Pasqual, one of the best theatre directors of the world, was an ashtonishing priviledge.