multidirectional Miguel Herrero Herrero is a filmmaker known for his work as a director, writer, editor, and curator of the Sax Film Festival. This weekend he heads to Sitges Film Festival where he will present three books devoted to fantastic cinema and the early chapters of the audiovisual world.
The first title Herrero will introduce on Saturday, as part of the Catalan fantasy film competition, Retro fantasy. Perspectives of an imaginary past is a collective volume edited by Cinestesia and coordinated by Herrero. It gathers essays and reflections from the fantasy cinema community that gathered at the FantaElx festival. Contributions by Mario-Paul Martinez and Fran Mateu will be signed at the Fnac tent in Sitges on Saturday at noon, inviting attendees to dive into a curated dialogue about the evolution of fantastical storytelling on screen.
In the same area later in the day, Herrero will host a second event at 17:00. He will discuss two forthcoming works that illuminate the roots of cinematic language. One is an annotated edition of the visionary 18th century master of phantasmagoria, a pioneer of image-making long before moving pictures existed. The other examines the intersection of Witchcraft and media archaeology, a theme that resonates with the earlier title by tracing how fantastical narratives and early technologies influenced each other. Both works have earned recognition, including the Mervyn Heard Award for outstanding contributions and research into the origins of cinema and audiovisual history conferred by The Magic Lantern, a British association dedicated to early film and projection practices.
The session will culminate with a live projection of the presenter’s slides and notes, followed by an initial glimpse of a documentary in progress, Chiaroscuro. This project, directed by Herrero, continues the exploration of cinema’s origins and the evolving relationship between light, shadow, and storytelling on screen.