We are pleased to bring a full retrospective on Teddy William’s work in February 2025.

Eduardo “Teddy” Williams started his film studies at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires before advancing to Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains in France. Initially, his short films were rooted in his homeland of Argentina; however, his more recent projects, filmed in diverse locations worldwide, have increasingly incorporated themes of travel uncertainty and the spontaneous relationships that arise in unfamiliar settings as integral elements of his filmmaking approach.

His inaugural feature film, THE HUMAN SURGE (2016), received the Filmmakers of the Present Award at the 69th Locarno Film Festival and was subsequently screened at prestigious events such as the Toronto International Film Festival – Wavelengths, the New York Film Festival – Projections, Tate Cinema, Viennale, and the Mar del Plata International Film Festival.

His works challenge viewers to see the world through a different lens, encouraging contemplation and emotional engagement. By focusing on often overlooked subjects and employing innovative techniques, Williams has carved out a unique space in contemporary cinema.

📅 8th Feb, 6.30pm
📍 Edinburgh Cinema and Video Society, 23a Fettes Row, Edinburgh EH3 6RH

THE HUMAN SURGE 1

In his first feature film, The Human Surge, Eduardo “Teddy” Williams creates another interface of the map he has developed since his first short films, specifically Pude ver un puma (2011) and Que je tombe tout le temps? (2013). In a climate close to the internet or video games It is about the construction of a world inhabited by young people who experience the features of a territorialized virtuality, where the journeys along long paths, as well as the words that travel universes to say each other, take on a consistency in an algorithmic key; bodies, paths and spaces that resemble reality, but do not contain it.

The film explores the lives of three distinct groups in Argentina, Mozambique, and the Philippines, who appear to share similar concerns and lifestyles. It portrays a generation of youth who reject their current employment and the accompanying sadness, seeking solace in a realm of virtual experiences. This escape is not merely an act of isolation or delusion; rather, it serves as a platform that broadens their experiences, enhances their communication, and deepens their understanding. Through the use of screens, they engage in a form of interaction that transcends the ordinary, even resorting to stripping in front of webcams to earn some income. The narrative presents a new representation of bodies, resembling avatars that transform under the gaze of others, thereby acquiring a distinct presence.

The subjects assume virtuality and internalize it, they are holograms that pass through discontinuous spaces, designed architectures and natural lighting with a certain naivety about what surrounds them. We are faced with an assumed reality, but at the same time a reality dressed in secrets that do not let events occur normally. In essence, Teddy Williams’ films are notoriously sensitive to the generation that surrounds him; an understanding beyond the prejudices he develops about scales, geographies, times, distances, transits and corporalities that emerge from the reorganization of the physical from another idea of ​​the world linked to the weariness of the current state of things that comprise the environment.

Despite its reference to cyberspace, the film is reflective of mediatization and apparent immateriality. It is a cinema that assumes that the gaze should not be manipulated, and lets it drift with the characters and the camera. There is no tension, modern cinema is replaced by a more relaxed and calm one, like the tranquility of a lake without a current that only seeks to remain still. The rise of the human is a primitive technology of unexpected connections that finds, where we all see a loss, the reason that makes life possible.

This event contains both English and descriptive subtitles. Note that this venue is not wheelchair accessible.