On Saturday May 30th aemi will screen two works from Juana Robles’ Bodyverses series at the Irish Film Institute. These screenings focus on the work of performance artists Frances Mezzetti and Alastair MacLennan both of whom will be present for the screening and will join a discussion afterwards alongside Juana Robles and aemi Co-Director Daniel Fitzpatrick.
The screening is presented in partnership with Bealtaine Festival and the IFI. Tickets now on sale.
Film info:
Nalam Nalam, Super8/16mm-2K DCP, 30:00, colour & b/w, 2026
Alastair MacLennan’s cyclical practice is approached through a psychogeographic journey across Northern Ireland and Scotland.
2nd Lock (Frances Mezzetti) 16mm-2K DCP, 19:20, colour & b/w, 2025
A collaboration, developed through a year-long process across site-specific performance, intimate family history, and lived experience. The work moves through care, memory, and release, alongside Frances Mezzetti’s relationship with her sister Maria, whose transition between home, hospital, and nursing care unfolds in parallel to the process. Performances take place at the Second Lock on the Grand Canal in Dublin and in Frances’s studio.
Bodyverses is an ongoing series of film works by Juana Robles. Employing mainly 16mm and Super 8mm film these responsive portrait projects features consider the work and practices of performance artists and organisations based in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The films reflect on the significance of performance art, honouring its emphasis on presence, simple yet impactful actions, and body language, while also capturing the process of creating objects and the use of everyday, simple, or found materials. These works explore themes of overcoming both collective and personal trauma, while fostering direct connections between performers and audiences in public spaces. The collaborations within Bodyverses explore the evolving relationship between performance and medium, where film is not merely a means of documentation, but a vital component of the performances themselves. At the core of Bodyverses lies a commitment to personal connection and encounters developed over extended periods of time
The screening will be followed by a discussion with the director, Juana Robles, as well as Frances Mezzetti and Alastair MacLennan, chaired by aemi Co-Director Daniel Fitzpatrick.
Bealtaine is Ireland’s national festival celebrating the arts and ageing. The festival is run by Age & Opportunity, the national organisation working to enhance wellbeing for older people through participation in sport and physical activity, arts and creative engagement, personal development, community collaboration and active citizenship.
To learn more about Juana’s practice and process visit aemi’s artist in focus page.
Juana Robles photographed by Helio León
Juana Robles (b. 1983, Tortosa, Spain) is a Kilkenny-based artist-filmmaker. Her work, often created with analog techniques like 16mm and Super 8, explores the body, identity, memory, and resilience through immersive, tactile cinema. Drawing from performance and ritual, she blurs personal and collective histories.
Juana has studied at the Lucerne School of Art and Design and Zurich University of the Arts. Her films have been shown at festivals worldwide, including Perth International Film Festival, Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, Bogotá Experimental Film Festival, Paris Festival for Different and Experimental Cinema, Videoex Experimental Film & Video Festival Zurich, and exhibited in art contexts like CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel, VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow and Askeaton Contemporary Arts. Single works by Juana Robles are distributed by Light Cone (Paris) and Collectif Jeune Cinéma (Paris). In October 2025, Juana participated in BAICC International Artistic Residency for Filmmaking in Toronto, developed by (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico in collaboration with the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT). In February 2026, a two-program retrospective at La Inesperada Film Festival in Barcelona, curated by Miquel Martí Freixas, will feature nearly her complete short-film history.
She is also a co-founder of Out of Focus, an initiative in Kilkenny dedicated to avant-garde cinema, and has contributed to the experimental film community through her roles at festivals like Videoex and the Lausanne Underground Film Festival (LUFF).
