Between Spain and China.
Stories shaped by distance.
Roberto F. Canuto & Xu Xiaoxi
We craft films from Asturias and Chengdu, shaped by the distance and tension between both places. Our work explores desire, belonging and queer identity through intimate, character-driven stories.
Mostly fiction, occasionally documentary—always grounded in emotional presence, where silence weighs as much as words. We are drawn to fragile connections, hidden desires, and identities on the margins.
We move between realism and the poetic, drawn to what lies beneath: memory, subconscious impulses, and the way inner worlds surface through image and atmosphere.
The Gaze
What Lies Beneath
Almost Red Productions
The name Almost Red comes from the initials of its founders — RoXu CaXi — which in Asturian dialect reads as casi roxu: almost red. A color not fully defined, always in between. Close to red — to irreverence, to a certain way of looking — but never fixed. That ambiguity is intentional.
Founded in 2011 in Chengdu, Almost Red grew from a collaboration that began in Los Angeles in 2008, where Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi developed their first projects while studying filmmaking. Early works — including Toto Forever, Mei Mei, and the feature Desire Street — laid the foundations of a shared artistic voice.
After nearly a decade based in China, working across fiction, documentary and commercial production, the company developed projects such as the Invisible Chengdu trilogy, deepening a cross-cultural and observational approach to storytelling. In 2020, Almost Red relocated to Spain, where recent works like IUS of Time continue to explore memory, identity, and place through a more intimate cinematic language.
Today, Almost Red develops its own fiction films while collaborating selectively on projects that align with its vision — a practice that moves across Europe and Asia, recognized at festivals from Raindance and SEMINCI to Outfest and Kashish.
The Filmmakers
Shaped between Asturias and Chengdu, their work emerges from distance — where cultures, identities, and ways of seeing collide and transform.
Roberto F. Canuto is a filmmaker from Gijón, Asturias. He studied Audiovisual Communication in Madrid and completed an MFA in Filmmaking in Los Angeles. He also trained in music at the Royal Conservatory of Oviedo — a background that informs his attention to rhythm, silence, and sound.
After a period in London working outside cinema, he returned to filmmaking in 2008 — a turning point that led to the collaboration that would become Almost Red. Since then, his work has moved between Europe and Asia, with films presented at international festivals including Raindance, developing a focus on performance, narrative structure, and the emotional construction of each scene.
His approach to storytelling is grounded in place and emotional precision, with a focus on character, atmosphere, and the tension between structure and intuition. His work moves between control and openness, where rhythm, silence, and performance shape the inner life of each story.
Every story begins in a place — and unfolds through distance.
Xu Xiaoxi is a filmmaker and cinematographer from Chengdu, China. He studied Fine Arts at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa, where his early work in video art explored cultural identity — a line of inquiry that continues to shape his films. He later completed an MFA in Filmmaking in Los Angeles.
Working between China, Europe, and the United States, his visual language is grounded in composition, light, and the emotional presence of place. His work has been shown internationally, including at festivals such as SEMINCI or Outfest, developing a focus on framing, visual rhythm, and the relationship between image and environment.
His approach to cinematography is driven by a sensitivity to space, distance, and perception, using the image to explore what remains unspoken. His work moves between realism and interiority, where light, framing, and movement shape the inner states of the characters.
I think through images — shaping distance between what is seen and what is felt.
