Founded by…
Ambra Reijnen (1993) is a Dutch-Italian director, producer and editor working between The Netherlands and Barcelona. With a background in documentary filmmaking, visual communication and critical media studies, she operates at the intersection of film, research and activism.
Her first short documentary Galatée à l’Infini (2017), co-directed during her M.A. in Creative Documentary, was awarded at ZINEBI and dokumentART, and screened internationally at festivals such as Hot Docs, DocumentaMadrid, and Cartagena IFF, as well as institutions including UnionDocs (New York), Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), and Tabakalera (Donostia/San Sebastián).
In 2017, she founded Promono Multisensory Productions, through which she develops and co-produces creative documentaries and socially engaged media. Her first feature-length documentary Junax, thread by thread (2020) premiered as the opening film at DOQUMENTA Querétaro (Mexico) and was shown in multiple Dutch cinemas.
In addition to her own projects, she collaborates as an editor and advisor, and develops campaigns and narrative strategies for NGOs and cultural organisations.
What’s behind the name?
Perspective is shaped through the senses. Ambra Reijnen sees the world through a bicultural lens, but also through a particular way of hearing: microtia, a congenital condition affecting the shape of the ear, causes her to hear in “mono.”
At first glance, microtia may seem like a limitation,but it has led to unexpected gifts: a singing voice born from the constant presence of sound within the head, empathy for what it means to be “different,” and a passion for justice.
In that sense, microtia becomes a metaphor for all the darkness in the world that, when seen from a different angle, can begin to lighten up. Documentary is an art form that does exactly that: it sheds light onto social and political realities and difficult conditions, in order to spark transformation.
Not everything has to follow the status quo. That’s why we can choose to see “less” as “more”, and recognise imperfection as inherently human. We can be “pro mono” and still give everything we have to bring multisensory storytelling into the world.
After all, we don’t believe in one objective reality: it all depends on how you look at it.
Publications
2023 - “Luma and Gunda Stare Back: Integrating Non-human Animal Perspectives in the Ecofeminist Documentary.” Animal Ethics Review Vol. 3.
2022 - Reijnen, Ambra. The outsider’s gaze in documentary: is a decolonial approach to ‘Otherness’ a possibility?
http://hdl.handle.net/10230/57974