Greater Gospel

Javier Codesal / Spain / 2021 / International Premiere / 138 min.

synopsis

Josete Massa Residence in Madrid is the world’s first retirement home for senior LGTBIQ+ citizens. Javier Codesal filmed here between 2019 and 2020, while the building was undergoing renovations. He places the residents of the home among the rubble almost like living sculptures in a gallery. Their bodies, like their souls, defy heteronormative notions of beauty. They recite fragments of biblical texts and quote Pasolini and Jarman like modern-day apostles. The religious texts flowing from their lips are not so much about faith as they are about cultural tradition. They have laid the foundations for centuries of canonical narratives that reduce the representatives of sexual minorities to a set of stereotypes.

“A woman being made from Adam´s rib attributes a mythical importance to trans people. This fable leads us to believe that the physical reality of trans expresses the original traits of our changeable corporeality.”

biography

Javier Codesal (* 1958) is a Spanish filmmaker, poet, and painter. He has been making movies since the 1980s. He graduated in audiovisual studies in Madrid and he is considered a pioneer of Spanish video art. He often deals with themes such as pain, illness or death, as in his films O Milagre da Carne (1994) and Evangelio Mayor (2021).