With his artistic research Super(im)positions: subverting melodramatic representation through personal unpredictability, Emilio Santoyo explores the possibilities of using outdated melodramatic elements of cinematic representation in a new way, dissolving the intersection between the personal and the fictional as a tool for creating a redemptive act of filmmaking. He created the concept of the New Melodrama; a self-reflective genre deviation that, by acknowledging it’s perversity; aims to destroy melodramatic toxic knowledge, portraying a contemporary, complex, and personal way of feeling.

“By dissolving the intersection between the personal and the fictional, and by using a contemporary, polyphonic, and playful film language, I aim to propose a different form of melodrama. Perhaps one that, by acknowledging its perversity, can challenge its toxic knowledge, portraying a contemporary, complex, and personal way of feeling. A critical, boundary-pushing, and relevant melodrama of self-reflexive possibilities. I’m temporarily calling this genre deviation, this redemptive act of filmmaking and knowledge production proposal, the New Melodrama: a trojan horse that makes a valid critique of the genre, through the use of the very system that is being criticised.”