2023
Festival
Our New Gold Festival 2023 edition will be hosted by the Spanish and Portuguese Program in the Department of Classical Languages and Literatures (CMLL) and Céfiro, the Spanish Graduate student organization, at Texas Tech University.
WINNERS
Soy Segismundo
By Madisyn Thomas
Bowdoin College
https://bowdoin.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=9d13b775-069f-48c3-bdfe-affe00d1a720
La vida es sueño por Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Despite almost a decade of psychological treatment and medication, my mental diagnoses haunt nearly every aspect of my day-to-day life. Although this video is deeply personal, I hope that comparing my own mental health struggles to Segismundo's seemingly inescapable tower helps expose and destigmatize the invisible struggle that millions face every day. While being denied your rightful crown is not a common modern phenomenon, the disassociation, isolation, existentialism, and hopelessness that fester during Segismundo's imprisonment mirror the intangible suffering of the mentally ill whose perception of reality is frequently warped as a consequence of their disorders. Included lines are quoted from Stanley Appelbaum's translation of La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
Video Art
No Exit
By Jorge A Hernandez Camacho
TTU
La vida es sueño por Pedro Calderón de la Barca
The project aims to showcase the various prisons we end up trapped in life: vices, monotony, the accelerated pace of the times we live in, and our dreams of someday becoming free.
El proyecto tiene como finalidad mostrar las distintas prisiones en las que terminamos atrapados en la vida: los vicios, la monotonía, en el acelerado paso de los tiempos que vivimos y en nuestros sueños de algún día poder llegar a ser libres.
Short Film
Life is a Dream?
By Miguel Pavón
Bowdoin College
La vida es sueño por Pedro Calderón de la Barca
What stood out to me the most from La vida es sueño are the themes regarding isolation and illusions manifested by Segismundo’s character. Many of the systems and standards of a post-pandemic world illuminate the impact of isolation on people. Furthermore, returning to an unorthodox normality shifted perspectives and sentiments regarding solitude. Living in an increasingly technologically connected world has slowly but steadily reduced the number of reasons why any person would leave their home. Why go to your obligations when they can come to you?
Despite the convenience of staying put, it’s important to recognize the value of embracing the larger scope of the world around us. Often, news and media infatuate external perceptions of the self as critical to our happiness, status, and validity, highlighting the pressure to fix and detach ourselves from our surroundings. Thus, looking out the metaphorical window and observing the true nature of life allows one to seemingly look back at oneself and reflect on their identity and trajectory in life. Granted, our 21st century lives are unmercifully busy; nevertheless, it is reliving to take a moment to stop and see the world around you as a piece of a larger story.
Short Film
The Match of the Millennia
By Ethan Nishi
Western
Washington University
Don Gil de las calzas verdes
Act three of Tirso de Molina's "Don Gil de las calzas verdes" was my favorite of all the acts we read in our studies of the Comedias in Spain's Siglo de oro". Especially the scene in the streets of Madrid in which all of the "Don Gils" appear. Immediately, it made me think of a take on Key and Peele's "East/West College Bowl" or a raunchy dating show in which everyone feigns to be "Don Gil". I ultimately decided that those ideas were too complicated to realize as I was working solo. I soon remembered that the WWE 2k games have seemingly unbounded customization capabilities and that's when I settled into this project. Everything, and I mean just about everything, you see in the introduction of each character was curated to fit the story. Don Martin running away, Don Juan getting injured, even the seats of the fans and the shape of the wrestler's heads. I spent way too much time (and money) on this and I hope everyone has as much fun watching this as I had fun creating it! Also! Since its WWE there is no actual violence even though it looks like it. That's all. Enjoy!
Video Game / Art
I Want to Be his Ride or Die
By Zenaida Villa
Arizona State University
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wx7TE3YA72OM2g_w2QRzooJ8fx7ZrTe_/view?usp=sharing
Amor es más laberinto, de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
I love that man! I really love that man, Teseo that is
He’s known as Tito, you know
From 24th street
He just got out of prison
For something that wasn’t his fault
I might add but
I really fear that he might be killed
What if he gets shot,
what if there’s a drive by
I want to be his ride or die.
One thing is for sure, I
won’t feel what I’m feeling inside
If I were to die first
That torment within me would be gone
The fear is like having heavy iron
Over my neck
Or really heavy hoops on my ears
I die of fright of the possibility of him dying
But that’s not the worst of it
There’s something else I fear the most
With my strong, caring, loving and faithful female soul
He will be the one who kills me - Inside
Tito, the one that I’m willing to die for
Because I want to be his ride or die.
Short Film
The Missing Month
BY Hadley VanLandingham
Western Washington University
La Dama Boba
In between the first and seconds acts of La Dama Boba, written by Lope de Vega, a month passes in which we never truly discover what happens, besides the general fact that Nise has been sick and Liseo has not yet married. This is an exploration into Nise’s headspace in those 30 days that are skipped over in the original work.
Short Film
SPECIAL MENTIONS
Humors Mixologist Ep. 2: La Flor del Belflor
By Kendra Sutton
Western Washington University
El perro del hortelano
A modern retelling of a scene in El perro del hortelano in podcast form where Diana spills her relationship worries with couple's counselor, Dra. Vega. In this episode, Dra. Vega helps both Teodoro and Diana tackle the issue of honor when Teodoro reveals that he is not the true son of Count Ludovico.
Chase Jackson, Kendra Sutton, Aileen Garcia
Podcast
Creative team:
Chase Jackson, Aileen Garcia,
Chase Jackson, Aileen Garcia, Kendra Sutton
Deerfield es sueño
By Camila Cushman
Deerfield Academy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKiCkW38An8
La Vida es Sueño, Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Our adaptation of the play takes place at our school, Deerfield Academy. Segismundo, the male protagonist, is meant to symbolizes a student who is under a lot of pressure to excel in school. His stress and perfectionism as a student is symbolic of his character in the play because throughout the play he becomes stressed as he is unable to make sense of the meaning of life and beauty.
Rosaura, the female protagonist, is also portrayed as a Deerfield student, but in a different manner from Segismundo. She has lost her honor because she had been caught drinking in her dorm room, and as a result she was suspended. Later, she attempts to turn her life around by becoming a proactive member of her community. However, she has a lapse in judgment again; which results in her drinking once more. As a result, she gets expelled from the Academy. This expulsion represents Rosaura's violation and loss of honor in the play.
While creating this adaptation of La vida es sueño, we implemented “code switching", which is speaking in both Spanish and English. We do this because we don't want to lose meaning within translation, as certain English words do not directly translation. Overall, we find that “code switching” helps keep our project genuine and real.
We hope you enjoy!
Short Film
Creative team:
Camila Cushman
Caroline Ghi
Cornelia Streeter
Amelia Tyler
Internal conflicts
By Madison Gard
Western Washington University
El perro del hortelano por Lope de Vega
It is a stop-motion video of the progression of an embroidery piece. The audio file is an English translation of Diana and Teodoro in Act III, vv. 2562-2671 from El perro del hortelano. The embroidered image develops into the faces of a man and a woman, with thought clouds and symbols for jealousy, anger, wealth, cages, climbing social ladders, and confusion. At the top of everything are two intertwined hearts to symbolize the bond between the two characters.
Most everything was done by myself, however my roommate Jonathan Ordaz is the male voice in the audio file.
Video Art
Male Voice by Jonathan Ordaz
Amor, clemencia, que se abrasa el alma
By Mia Clapp y Fernando Martínez Caleano.
Texas Tech University
El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra de Tirso de Molina
El texto que utilizamos es el Don Juan de Tirso, representando los diálogos entre Don Juan y Tisbea después del naufragio del barco en el que viajaba Don Juan. Montamos los diálogos sobre imágenes de una telenovela mexicana, Marimar, en la que la protagonista es una pescadora que se enamora de un joven rico y apuesto. Con este video estamos tratando de traer el Don Juan a una representación contemporánea pero todavía de cuento de hadas, como es una telenovela.
Mia Clapp, Fernando Martinez Caleano
Short Film
FINALISTS
I have a Dream
Ronaldo Cabral
Bowdoin College
La vida es sueño
This piece is inspired by the play “La vida es sueño” written by Calderón de la Barca. This video takes the theme of free will versus destiny and places it in context with the civil rights movement and the fight against discrimination due to the color of someone’s skin. Segismundo’s fate, in the play, was decided by his father when he was imprisoned, and it was not until he discovered his alternative life that he was able to free himself and begin to live life on his own terms. This idea is incredibly powerful and has been the impetus to massive change throughout our history. One example of this is the civil rights movement. It was the brave and free willed leaders who fought, sacrificed, and suffered for a better life for all people. The play brings forward the idea that our life is simply a dream and it is impossible to recognize what is real and what is already predetermined. I think this was true for many who suffered due to the color of their skin, including slaves, but with great desire and faith, leaders such as Martin Luther King were able to dream into reality a world that he could be proud of. As Segismundo explains, “Man dreams the life that is his.” In the same way, the powerful leaders of our history were able to dream up a better world for all. I think the iconic “I have a dream” fits perfectly with this idea and connects with Segismundo’s belief “That all life is a dream to all, and that dreams themselves are a dream.”
Video Art
Amazonas en las Indias
By Alondra Castillo
Bowdoin College
This project is focused on Tirso de Molina’s comedia suelta named “Amazonas en las Indias”, which is the second part of a trilogy centered around the Pizarro brothers and the exploration of the land of cinnamon, a legendary land that attracts many Spanish explorers, including the Pizarro brothers. I noticed that this work has not really been adapted since it is not as popular as other works, so I decided to take on the challenge. This project was a great learning curve since I have no prior experience with animation, but it was very fun learning how to animate (this work especially since I was unsure on where to start). Apart from teaching myself how to animate, I also wanted to incorporate the skills I have learned in my electronic music class for this project. The video I created starts with both protagonists Gonzalo Pizarro and Menalipe (the queen of the Amazons) fighting each other and Gonzalo begging Menalipe to lower her weapon since he has no desire to fight her (since he fell in love). Then I shifted my focus to Menalipe’s very interesting monologue. Her monologue was mainly focused on how her empire was created, which was by killing the men/husbands because they refused to submit to them.
Video Art
The Student Loses His Shadow
By John Carroll
La Cueva de Salamanca by Miguel de Cervantes
This is the story of the student after he pretends to summon demons. For his fraudulence the Devil punishes the student by taking his shadow, as is the myth of the Cave of Salamanca in which those who couldn't pay for the classes lost their shadow and which was essentially a mark of the devil.
Video Art
La vida es sueño?
Doug Bogle
Bowdoin College
https://bowdoin.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=4517358b-0895-4a30-879b-affe006155c0
La vida es sueño de Calderón de la Barca
This video centers around the idea of the dream, our perception of reality, and in connection: our skepticism of the world around us. Focusing on a monologue coming from Segismundo in Act III of the play (this English version was translated by Edward Fitzgerald), this video emphasizes the contemporary, and timeless, importance of this play. This play, mainly through Segismundo, explores the idea of escaping reality, something that many people, in order to make their life more interesting, fantasize about. This video argues, or intends to show, that questioning the reality around us can be interesting, help us cope, and even bring us joy; it is the reason why movies like The Truman Show are so popular.
Specifically, this video takes the perspective of an overwhelmed and overworked college student, who (although the exact order of events is left ambiguous) passes out from exhaustion and then dreams (or possibly actually experiences), a jumbled sequence of events. Loosely based on the experience of Segismundo, these events, real or fake, provide the student with an escape from their exhausting reality. This video intentionally confuses and questions the student’s reality because doing so acts as a valuable escape from their current life.
Short Film
PARTICIPANTS
Mr. Steal Your Girl
Cami Lindsey
Bowdoin College
https://bowdoin.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Embed.aspx?id=50db1c48-3ba6-45e3-8594-affe001be939
El Burlador de Sevilla escrito por Tirso de Molina
This short film is inspired by Tirso de Molina’s “El Burlador de Sevilla.” Specifically, the film is inspired by Act 2 Scene 2, in which Don Juan catches up on gossip with his old friend, Marqués de la Mota. They chat about the women of Sevilla, and this conversation is sexist towards these women as they call them unkind words. Marqués de la Mota reveals that he is in love with Doña Ana, a woman who is already betrothed to someone else. Don Juan tells him to still go after her, Marqués de la Mota is inspired by his advice, and plans to steal Doña Ana from her betrothed. However, Don Juan ends up planning to seduce Doña Ana, as he is a trickster who is always looking for his next conquest. In my modern adaptation, two high school friends reunite after a summer apart, and they comment in sexist ways about the way the girls in their grade have changed for the better or for the worse. In this scene, I show that the sexism of men transcends centuries, as men still talk about women as if they were objects in the modern day. I then mimic Don Juan’s trick of stealing Ana in a modern way; Gabe (who represents Don Juan) deletes a text message from Ana (who represents Doña Ana) to Jonathan (who represents Marqués de la Mota). This adaptation shows that sexism still exists, and that men still compete with each other with women as prizes.
Jonathan Lerdau, Gabriel Gitter-Dentz, Olivia Deane
Short Film
Creative team:
Cami Lindsey
Jonathan Lerdau, Gabriel Gitter-Dentz, Olivia Deane
Segundo Paso
Matthew Hicks
Arizona State University
El mágico prodigioso, by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Adaptation in English from a fragment shown in the second act of The Prodigious Mage (El mágico prodigioso) by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Other
The Modern-day Cave
Joseph Park
Bowdoin College
https://bowdoin.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=486001af-bb72-4ff5-8189-affe00366a74
La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
I reinterpreted Segismundo’s monologue from La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderón de la Barca in the context of contemporary societal expectations of individuals, especially with the advent of social media. In the context of the play, this monologue occurs in the third scene of the third act: after a soldier declares Segismundo as king of Poland after his father surrenders, Segismundo declares that life is a dream due to all of the deceptions that he had faced at the hands of his family. Using Stanley Appelbaum’s translation of the play as English captions while reciting the monologue in Spanish, I use the monologue to express the rejection of what many perceive to be reality. In the creation of this project, I was thinking about the way that the theme of Plato’s allegory of the cave is present in contemporary life, as it is in La vida es sueño. With the role of diet and fitness culture and the pressure to present oneself on social media in a perfect way, I wanted to portray societal expectations as an analogy for a life that is not real and temporary and that life is so much more than what people and societal expectations tell us that it is.
Short Film
La más constante amor
Miles Berry
Bowdoin College
https://bowdoin.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=3eea06a7-2ee4-493f-ba25-affe017bb11b
La más constante mujer
While reading Isabel’s monologue from La más constante mujer by Juan Pérez de Montalbán, I was inspired by the way that the work viewed love as a transcendent and all-important value. In the play, the strength of true love is put in direct conflict with a dominant political and social power—and wins. In creating this piece, I hoped to explore and expand the definition of love posited by La más constante mujer, staying true to the spirit of the work by further removing love from the gendered, hegemonic context that the play inhabits.
In Oliverio Girondo’s poem “12”, I noticed a similar attitude about love. This poem, composed of a long list of reflexive verbs, places our focus on the various actions of love itself, leaving the subjects obscure. In this sense, I see this poem as an extension, or a fulfillment of the spirit of Isabel’s monologue from La más constante mujer: a definition of love that reigns supreme over any form of oppression or exclusion. By blending Girondo’s poem with the monologue, this piece asks the question of whether love is exclusively human or if it transcends even our own conceptions or perceptions of it.
Short Film
A Play With One Actor
Jack Callahan
Bowdoin College
https://bowdoin.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d4333b49-19cb-43fe-8f2c-affe00d984ee
La vida es Sueño
This video is titled A Play With One Actor. In this video, I examine what it means for Segismundo from Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s La vida es Sueño to live in a world that has been constructed for him. All of the people surrounding him are simply playing the roles assigned to them so that he will continue to believe the fantasy that has been designed to test and deceive him. I do this by only reading aloud the lines spoken by Segismundo, giving the illusion that the observer is viewing only the residents of the constructed reality. While Segismundo finds himself surrounded by family and servants for the first time in his life, he remains alone – the sole resident of a world designed just for him. I specifically chose the scene where he awakes in the castle for the first time, astonished by his surroundings and desperate for understanding. I feel that the dynamism of the original scene is effectively subverted here to show just how isolating and absurd Segismundo’s situation is. In a situation where he has more power than ever before, he remains effectively isolated – the sole victim of a cruel experiment.
Jack Callahan.
Video Art
Rosaura’s Crisis
Stephanie Lemus
Bowdoin College
https://bowdoin.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=4bd39c9b-3d91-4e9e-b5f2-affd0064770e
La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderon de la Barca
This piece is inspired by the story La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderon de la Barca. For this short video, I chose to focus on the deuteragonist of the comedy, Rosaura. In 17th century comedies, it was common for the stories to have a “mujer varonil” or the “manly woman” in English. When studying 1600th century literature in class, this has always been my favorite theme. Not only were women fighting against their assigned gender roles—to be submissive to their male counterparts—they were also proving to be independent, brave, and strong. By the end of the story, however, this deception would always come to light and the women would be revealed to have only disguised themselves as men.
This short video is a modern interpretation of Rosaura’s thought process at the potential of this illusion being spoiled. When reading Rosaura’s monologue after her conversation with Estrella, it reminded me of the way I immediately tell my friends when something bizarre like this happens to me. I thought it would be fun to give Rosaura the opportunity to rant about the situation to her friend, whoever it may be. I did this by taking parts of her monologue and conversation with Estrella to relay important dialogues back to her friend through text messages.
Other
Salvación
Marc Rosenthal
Bowdoin College
https://bowdoin.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=945e6b17-4131-4595-a04e-b00000e0c9df
Don Juan Tenorio - José Zorrilla
My film, Salvación (Salvation) addresses the theme of salvation through Don Juan, the main character in José Zorrilla’s 19th-century comedía suelta Don Juan Tenorio.
The film asks its viewers how perception of the play and the character of Don Juan might be affected by narrative changes. How would Don Juan’s monologues be received differently if he didn’t receive a response from Don Gonzalo’s ghost? What if Don Juan wasn’t saved by Doña Ines?
The film is in first person, as you look at a statue that doesn't respond to your lamentations. The silence that you sit in before and after each of Don Juan’s monologues is meant to place you in the shoes of Don Juan, waiting for demise and damnation that seem to be inevitable. The only words in the film that are not Don Juan’s are in the final line, a response from Don Gonzalo that simply reads, “it is too late.”
Salvation is a privilege, and given the life Don Juan led, it is fair to say he might not have deserved it. Through a modern lens, the viewer can imagine that Don Juan faced real and significant consequences for a life of debauchery, betrayal, and sin.
Marc Rosenthal (just myself)
Short Film
Adaptación de "Los empeños de una casa"
Obed Kouassi
Arizona State University
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10mNestmgvE4MCrA7pdxqM6-iofvVGuVk/view?usp=sharing
Los empeños de una casa, by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.
The love intricacies of a comedia de enredo can be easily understood today as the gossip one shares with their friends about someone else's love affairs. This piece is inspired in Sor Juana's play "Los empeños de una casa".
Short Film
The Demise of the Monarchy
Georgia Murphy
Bowdoin College
https://bowdoin.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a80c06a7-f2fe-4aeb-aec8-affe0047d221
La Vida es Sueño
This piece is inspired by the role of dreams, fate, free will, and false realities in Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s 1635 play La Vida es Sueño. In his play, King Basilio imprisons his son, Segismundo, at birth in a tower in the middle of the mountains due to a prophecy by an oracle that the Segismundo would kill his father and cause destruction to Poland. However, I wanted to adapt this so that the protagonists were females, to change the narrative about gender roles. In this version, Clotaldo both drugs Segismunda so Queen Basilia can give Segismunda a chance at ruling the monarchy and so that he can sabotage the monarchy. When drugged, Segismunda awakens thinking that she is still in prison and questions whether her experiences are reality or in her dreams. Clotaldo plays into this questioning and tries to get Segismunda to think she is dreaming so she will make a mistake and Basilia will send her back to prison. This adapted version explores the role of jealousy, gender roles, dreams, and false realities. In this version, Clotaldo not only uses Segismunda’s confusion because of the drugs as a reason to call her unfit for the throne, but he also blames this on gender. This video highlights gender inequalities and perceptions that still permeate politics today.
Christopher Thompson, Becca Meyers, Anju Chenaux-Repond
Short Film
Creative team:
Georgia Murphy
Christopher Thompson, Becca Meyers, Anju Chenaux-Repond
Adaptación de la escena 2 de Divino Narciso
Hayden Brown
Arizona State University
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sP6vzYQbXmnD1u5yNX8lzMSyq77kCDmv/view?usp=sharing
Scene 2 Divino Narciso, by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Este video será una versión moderna de la Escena 2 de El Divino Narciso, de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, donde una mujer escucha un drama entre Celo, Religión, Occidente y América. Acude a Instagram después de su estudio bíblico para compartir con todos sus seguidores el “té”.
Other