Vinod Bhat
New Delhi: Renowned documentary director Federico Atehortúa Arteaga hosted a deeply engaging masterclass titled ‘The Philosophy of Montage: Unveiling the Folds,’ at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2026 today.
The interactive session completely changed how audiences think about film editing. Drawing from his rich experience directing acclaimed and award winning documentaries like ‘Pirotecnia’ and ‘Forensics’, Federico shared that film editing, which was traditionally called ‘montage’, is much more than a simple technical job of cutting video and sound. Instead, it is a deeply meaningful act that shapes how we understand history, trauma and reality itself.
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During the masterclass, Federico explained that older, classical movies relied heavily on strict ‘cause and effect’ logic, where every action had a predictable reaction. However, after the real-world traumas of World War II, cinema changed. Filmmakers began focusing on ordinary people and abstract stories rather than perfect heroes.
This shift completely freed film editing. Just like painting evolved from realistic portraits to free, abstract art like Jackson Pollock’s paintings, modern film editing has become poetic, dreamlike, and entirely free from rigid rules. He further explained that an image on a screen does not become powerful just because of what it shows. Its true power comes from the unexpected, deep, and complex connections that an editor creates between different images, sounds and ideas. Cinema is all about the connections, Federico said.
The masterclass inspired young Indian filmmakers, students and cinema lovers look at the art of editing through a whole new lens.
