Cinema goers and cinema professionals would or should be interested in the offering of our friends from Instituto Cervantes this July. A roundtable talk on challenges for nom-American cinema this July 2 and a Spanish comedy film cycle starting this Saturday July 5. For the exact details please read below:
WHAT: Instituto Cervantes and Film Development Council of the Philippines present Off-Hollywood, a discussion on challenges for non-American cinema
WHEN: July 2, 1:30 pm
WHERE: #855 T. M. Kalaw, Ermita, Manila. Entrance isFREE ADMISSION on a first-come, first-served basis
Details from Instituto Cervantes.
Coinciding with the presence in Manila of several Spanish & Latin American filmmakers, who are showing their films at the World Premieres Film Festival, Instituto Cervantes and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) present onWednesday, 2 July, at 1:30pm, Off-Hollywood, a Round-Table Discussion among Filipino and Spanish-speaking directors.
At the forum, to be held at Instituto Cervantes, the filmmakers will share their views on the challenges filmmakers from Spanish-speaking countries are facing in a global scene dominated by the Hollywood industry.
Have you ever felt frustrated from trying to unsuccessfully see something new and different at the movies? A random check carried out last weekend in the cinemas of a major Manila mall showed that out of 14 theaters, the American blockbuster Transformers: Age of Extinction was screened in… all the 14 theaters! Anyone out there caring for cultural diversity?Cut against that grayly uniform background, the Spanish cultural center and the FDCP have gathered some Filipino and Spanish-speaking filmmakers to discuss cultural diversity in the cinema. Three of the directors are Spanish while the fourth comes from Ecuador. During the colloquium, they will discuss their strategies to survive a common menace –a film market that makes difficult the showing of their works not only abroad but even in their own countries.
Ecuador’s Alfredo León León, has a degree in Writing feature films of Catalonia Film School and a BA in Film and Video at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. He has made several short films and documentaries, among which stands out is Pulse, which won the Audience Award of the First Iberoamerican Zero Latitude Festival of Quito in 2003. Monkey with Hens, premiered at the World Premieres Film Festival, is his first feature film.Juan Pinzás was born in Vigo, Spain. In 1986 he shot his first feature film as a writer and director, La gran Comedia (The Great Comedy), which participated in the 34th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Among his feature films are El juego de los mensajes invisibles (1991), La leyenda de la doncella (1995),Érase otra vez (1999), Días de boda (2002) and El desenlace (2005). New York Shadows (2013), shown at the Main Competition of the World Premieres Film Festival, is his eighth feature film, in English and Spanish bilingual. It is considered his most personal film to date. Juan Pinzás is the only Spanish director recognized officially during the historic stage of the Dogma 95 movement.
Vicente Perez Herrero is a feature fiction and documentary filmmaker. He has made six feature film and three creative documentaries. He co-produced with France and Italy “Private Life” and with Colombia “Malamuerte.” As a scriptwriter he was selected in the call of the Sundance Institute “new Spanish script writers” workshop taught by SGAE/ Sundance. His documentary “Skin for Sale” was included inducted in the list of the “100 Best Documentaries” complied by critics in the edition of Documenta Madrid.
Arturo Prins holds a Fine Arts degree at Unversidad Complutense of Madrid and studied cinema at the European Film College of Denmark. He has worked as an Art Director in various advertising agencies. As a filmmaker, Prins has written and directed several short films, as well as a documentary on the terrorist attack in Madrid on March 11, 2004, entitled Boomerang 11M (2008). His latest work, Autopsia de un amor (2013) is included in the Main Section of the World Premieres Film Festival.
The round table discussion will take place at the Cinematheque of Instituto Cervantes, #855 T. M. Kalaw, Ermita, Manila. Entrance isFREE ADMISSION on a first-come, first-served basis. For further information please log on to Instituto Cervantes’ websitewww.manila.cervantes.es or www.facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila, or call 526-1482.
WHAT: THOSE FUNNY SPANIARDS; LA COMEDIA ESPANOLA
WHEN: STARTING JULY 5 – JULY 25 AT THE INSTITUTO DE CERVANTES CINEMATHEQUE:
WHERE: #855 T. M. Kalaw, Ermita, Manila. Time: 2pm. Entrance is FREE ADMISSION on a first-come, first-served basis
For the month of July the Instituto Cervantes is offering a film retrospective of Spanish Comedy. Here are the details from them:
Instituto Cervantes, in cooperation with the Film Archives of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Spanish Embassy, presents the film cycle “Those Funny Spaniards. La comedia española”, a series of Spanish films to be shown during the Saturdays of July at the Instituto Cervantes cinematheque.
Since its beginnings, Spanish cinema showed a knack for comedy. Today, in addition to the contribution of the veteran maestros of the genre, new directors are forging the Golden Age of Spanish comedy. Instituto Cervantes’ selection is an invitation to Manila movie-goers to discover some of their best works.
The film cycle will kick off on the 5th of July, at 2pm, with a classic of the genre and one of the masterpieces of Spanish cinema –the movie Bienvenido, Mr. Marshall,directed by Luis García Berlanga in 1952. It tells the story of a poor Spanish village in La Mancha, which hears of the visit of American diplomats and begins preparations to dress up as a colorful Andalusian town to impress the American visitors, in the hopes of benefitting under the Marshall Plan. The movie was presented at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival where it bagged an award for Best Comedy Film and Special Mention for the screenplay. However it missed out on a bigger Cannes prize because jury member Edward G Robinson complained of its anti-Americanism.Along with that classic masterpiece, the line-up of “Those Funny Spaniards: La comedia española” features three modern comedies tackling some of the issues of contemporary Spanish society, like family values, love, marriage, unemployment or… football.
The well-acted and crafted comedy Días de fútbol (David Serrano, 2003) will be shown on Saturday 12th July, at 2pm. A very popular movie at its release, it is about a group of childhood friends who in their 30s gather again to play football together and try to win something in their lives –even though it is just a football match. Like the typical Spanish comedies of the 1960’s, the movie gets quite well the spirit of its time. The characters are realistic and you can imagine them as real persons. As in those films also, lines are funny and acting is brilliant –specially funny are Fernando Tejero and Ernesto Alterio, who carries most of the film on his ex-convict role.
Nacidas para sufrir, directed by Miguel Albaladejo in 2009, is a black comedy about a group of women (a sweet old lady, her religious niece, her servant and the latter’s disabled mother), all so generous and selfless that they almost compete with one another to see who can make the greatest sacrifice for the others’ wellbeing. The outcome? As the well-known saying goes: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. The movie will be shown on the 19th of July at 2pm.
Directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo in 2011, Primos will close the film cycle on July 26. The movie focuses on three cousins who, on the occasion of the wedding of one of them, meet again at the village where they would spend summer vacations as kids.
All films will be shown in their original version in Spanish with English subtitles. The screenings will take place at the Cinematheque of Instituto Cervantes, #855 T. M. Kalaw, Ermita, Manila. Time: 2pm. Entrance is FREE ADMISSION on a first-come, first-served basis. For further information please log on to Instituto Cervantes’ website www.manila.cervantes.es or www.facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila, or call 526-1482.
