End of the Present, by Andrea Bussmann, and Hôtel Homère, by Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, and Ryan Ferko, have been selected by the Joaquim Jordà Residencies Program for their 2026 call for proposals. Both projects are intertwined in their focus on memory and technological mediation using pre-existing material, such as surveillance and radio recordings, to explore how technology redefines our relationship with time and space.
While Andrea Bussmann addresses the fragility of individual memory and familial distance through domestic video surveillance cameras and phone calls between mother and daughter, Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, and Ryan Ferko’s project focuses on how myths and stories persist in the language of modern media through an abandoned infrastructure and the latent traces of Homer’s Odyssey on the Tunisian island of Djerba, breaking down the geographical boundaries between East and West through fable. In both cases, a specific location (a house and an abandoned hotel) become a stage where structural tensions manifest. End of the Present examines the fear, anxiety, and rising xenophobia among the white North American middle class, while Hôtel Homère use an abandoned hotel to address colonial history and contemporary displacement in imagined geographies through literature and enchantment. Both film proposals are exciting examples of how to approach research in contemporary cinema in a creative, artistic, and interdisciplinary manner. The jury therefore considered them the winning projects for the 2026 Joaquim Jordà Residency.
Andrea Bussmann (Canada, 1980), End of the Present
A non-fiction essay that explores aging, memory, and migration through familial intimacy and the aesthetics of surveillance. The project is based on recordings of phone calls between the filmmaker and her mother, combined with footage from the surveillance cameras her mother installed in their home. The work explores the growing paranoia and anxiety of the white middle class regarding difference and migration, while examining how surveillance technologies blur the line between care and control.
Andrea Bussmann is a filmmaker trained in Social Anthropology. Her films have won awards at Mar del Plata, PortoPostDoc, ZINEBI, Locarno, and RIDM, and have had retrospectives at Jeu de Paume (Paris), Metrograph (New York), and KaSK Cinema (Belgium).
Faraz Anoushahpour (Iran, 1987), Parastoo Anoushahpour (Iran, 1986), and Ryan Ferko (Canada, 1987), Hôtel Homère
Hôtel Homère is an experimental non-fiction feature film that explores the intersection of mythology, geography, and translation. The film takes place over 24 hours in the abandoned Hôtel Homère on the island of Djerba (Tunisia). The project is inspired by the myth of the “Lotus Eaters” from Homer’s Odyssey, a place where Ulysses and his companions forgot their desire to return home and which, according to various interpretations, took place on this island. The filmmakers discovered echoes of this myth in the infrastructure of this place: the abandoned hotel, which was once a resort, and a local radio station called Ulysse FM. The film attempts to represent these myths through the stories of the hotel workers, incorporating elements of experimental theater and performance. The aim is to explore the persistence of myths to delineate other geographies through the power of fiction and fabulation.
Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, and Ryan Ferko have worked together since 2013. Their practice explores the interaction of subjectivities to address power in narrative structures. Their work moves between museum and film contexts and has been presented at venues such as MoMA, e-flux, Mercer Union, Berlinale, Viennale, NYFF, and TIFF. They have also participated in the Flaherty Film Institute
The jury was composed of Tsveta Dobreva and Cyril Neyrat (FIDMarseille), Hélder Beja and Cíntia Gil (Doclisboa), and Elena Corrales and Chema González (Museo Reina Sofía).
