Stanley Sunday, the underground Spanish director with a wicked sense of humour

Date
18 August 2016

Little is known about Spanish director Stanley Sunday. He is also referred to as David Domingo or Davidson, so who knows his exact name either. Luckily, his films display his eccentric and warm character, one with a wicked sense of humour. He comes across as a director you’d like to go for a pint with.

Based in Barcelona, the majority of Stanley’s work consists of music videos created for Spanish bands, usually shot on 16mm film. This format is what Stanley is known for. He got his first Super 8 when he was 20 years old: “I had a friend who’s father sold me a camera and a projector”, he explains. His first short, back in 1996, was selected to be part of travelling exhibition, From Ecstasy to Rapture, 50 Years of Alternative Spanish Film, and saw his work displayed at the Anthology Film Archives in New York and the Tate Modern. Since then Stanley has become a key figure in underground Spanish films.

Over the past twenty years he has embraced and honed his style, giving “free rein to his vivid imagination expressing his fantastic personal universe in a delirious, iconoclastic stream of associations”. This has resulted in work that never holds back. Stanley is unapologetic, using cheeky references to popular culture and features a recurring frankfurter sausage as a representative of “sexual symbolism”. However these odd but confident character traits allow the viewer to think of everyday objects in a completely alternative way, it has become the reason why bands want Stanley to represent them visually.

Due to the rising cost of shooting with 16mm film, Stanley has had to find a contemporary medium to represent his brilliant but absurd outlook. He experiments with various digital programmes, appropriating and manipulating footage to become otherworldly, can be found on his Instagram which allows him to “conquer new textures, effects and possibilities of layer upon layer with 3D beings, drawing back to his domestic realm”.

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Stanley Sunday: Papa Topo – Lagrimas de cocodrilo

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Stanley Sunday: Papa Topo – Lagrimas de cocodrilo

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Stanley Sunday: Sound of the sun

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Stanley Sunday: Sound of the sun

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Stanley Sunday: Doble Pletina – Igual O Mayor Que

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Stanley Sunday: Doble Pletina – Igual O Mayor Que

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About the Author

Lucy Bourton

Lucy (she/her) is the senior editor at Insights, a research-driven department with It's Nice That. Get in contact with her for potential Insights collaborations or to discuss Insights' fortnightly column, POV. Lucy has been a part of the team at It's Nice That since 2016, first joining as a staff writer after graduating from Chelsea College of Art with a degree in Graphic Design Communication.

lb@itsnicethat.com

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