Olympic Body
Experimental Film | 6 minutes | 2022

Directed by Félix Morreo Zisserman

At the age of 14, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci was the first to be awarded the first perfect score of 10.0 at the 1976 Olympic Games. Her performance symbolised an understanding of perfection, one whose cultural significance rippled out; symbolising national might for the Soviet Union, a breakthrough in acrobatics and the beginning of a life of tension and hardship for Comăneci.

Perfection is glitch. To master the body is to surpass the material conditions of flesh and blood. Material perfection thus exists only formally. However, within digitality, anything that seems to stray from perfection is abhorrent, an interruption or “glitch” in the system. “Olympic Body” adapts Comăneci’s performance in order to marry these formal and material understandings of perfection and un-perfection.

“Olympic Body” was made as part of Félix Morreo Zisserman’s Masters studies at the Escuela International de Cine y Televisión in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. The film premiered at the Festival International de videodanza de la CDMX.