Sensation '77: Mimicry

In documentary fashion, drag queens are shown preparing for a performance, of which clips are also shown.

Different feelings in several visual formulations.

In a forest, a woman is bound by rope and string to the trees. Gradually, she begins to remove the bindings.

A group of people, blindfolded and fed distorted German dialogue through headphones, sit at a table and feel their way towards the food in the centre.

Wearing a swimming cap and one-piece, with a bright white face, an alien-like woman circles the camera, snarling and contorting her jaw, using a rainstick as a shield.

Marie Louise Alemann, who died in February 2015, was an experimental filmmaker based in Buenos Aires. She worked on Super8 and developed a bold yet enigmatic style, frequently performing in her own films, and emphasising physical sensations and the primacy of the body. In the words of curator Federico Windhausen, her Umbrales ‘deserves to be seen as a major work of Latin American queer cinema’.