María José Navia: "During the pandemic I feared that cinema would disappear"

Talking about the pandemic is something that María José Navia (Santiago de Chile, 1982) tries to avoid at all costs.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
18 February 2023 Saturday 21:46
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María José Navia: "During the pandemic I feared that cinema would disappear"

Talking about the pandemic is something that María José Navia (Santiago de Chile, 1982) tries to avoid at all costs. Like everyone else, the health emergency caught him off guard and brought him bitter moments. Also new fears, such as the fear that cinema would become extinct. “It was part of my everyday experience and I seriously feared it would go away. I always loved the idea of ​​sharing the darkness with a group of strangers with whom you might never interact again but with whom, for a few hours, you were moved and shared laughter and tears. That reflection was the starting point of his book of stories Everything we learned from the movies (Foam Pages), which has just arrived in bookstores after being crowned last year as a finalist for the Ribera del Duero award.

At a meal with journalists during her visit to Barcelona, ​​the writer confesses that her intention was none other than "to recognize all those fictions", in addition to "recovering that love for the experience of going to theatres". In some of her stories, she reflects a dystopian world in which cinema has died and whose inhabitants, curious to learn about the past, observe what the experience was like through a projector. "I hope this never happens. It would be horrible and we already had our dose of terror because what greater dystopia could there be than the one we are living in, ”she reflects.

The ten plots that Navia poses are part of the same feature film. They are what she calls "chained stories" and, despite the fact that each one can be read individually, it is recommended to follow the established order. The strange and uncomfortable seep into the everyday scenes of each one of the stories, which, beyond the big screen, deal with topics as diverse as ties and maternity. "Always from the perspective of 'almost'", says the author. “The almost mothers, the almost fathers, the almost couples. All those who do not fit in the boxes and in the usual categories.

As in his previous works, houses are also very present. “They backbone my stories. I like to show how they are haunted by their tenants. The same house can be inhabited by different people who will make it change”. The author thus does not hide her domophilia and her love for home. Despite this, she admits, “I have always lived in small apartments that forced me to write in the kitchen or in the living room. After the pandemic I have found a house where for the first time I have my own room and there I write more than ever. Virginia Woolf was absolutely right."

When he titled his work, Navia was afraid that “readers would think that this is an erudite book on film history. But it has nothing to do. What interested me was the presence of this art as one more element of a person's biography. Little by little, movies are permeating our vocabulary, our way of expressing ourselves and our lives”. For this reason, at the beginning of each chapter, she winks at some of his favorite films, including some of those that she considers his references, such as Tim Burton, Tarantino or Sofia Coppola.

Juan Casamayor, editor of Páginas de Espuma, assures that the reader will not go unnoticed by “María José's great love for the Wizard of Oz”. Something that becomes evident just knowing the author, since she always carries two pins with her, one from Emerald City and the other from Dorothy's red shoes, which "were actually silver," she recalls. A fact that she discovered precisely during the confinement, since she took the opportunity to read the fourteen volumes that Lyman Frank Baum wrote about this magical world.

Now, he advances, "I am writing a novel in which the literary saga, very unknown beyond the first volume, the filming of the film, and Judy Garland meet." Also present will be the Herman brothers and filmmaker Joseph Mankiewicz, cousins ​​of his great-grandmother. "I was delighted to discover that it had a link to one of my favorite works of all time," she concludes happily.