Woman on Fire Looks for Water is Woo Ming-jin’s (born 1976) third feature film (his fourth film The Tiger Factory premiered at the Director’s Fortnight this year), and consolidates him as one of Malaysia’s most prolific and exciting young filmmakers. “The story of this film is very simple. I’m not quite sure why it took so long to write it (a year and a half). I wanted to find the truth in the characters. They make decisions that may seem irrational, but are practical to them. In this manner, they are pure. But they can’t stay pure forever. Something happens. I suppose I wanted to capture this emotion.” Woo Ming-jin
In competition at l’Alternativa screening Tuesday 16th & Thursday 18th November 2010. Spanish première.
Huacho del cineasta chileno Alejandro Fernández Almendras (cuyo corto Lo que trae la lluvia estuvo en l’Alternativa 2007) se estrenó en la Semana de la Crítica en el Festival de Cannes el año pasado seguido por su estreno en salas en Chile y Francia. “Huacho es el Chile que yo veo. Quise hacer un cine social que influya y que tenga trasfondo… Sé que no es una película muy comercial, pero me gustaría que la viera la mayor cantidad de personas, que pueda conectar a la gente en Chile, que se vea a sí misma. Porque estos personajes no son el Chile de plástico que nos venden los medios.” (AFA)
Proyección en l’Alternativajueves 18 & viernes 19 noviembre 2010.
Alejandro Fernández Almendras presentará la proyección jueves 18 nov.
“I decided to make Rabbit à la Berlin when I heard that thousands of rabbits had lived free and happy, enclosed between the Berlin Walls.” Celebrated Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda wrote a letter of recommendation for the film-makers when they were raising money to make the film, he also attended an early screening of the completed project, “After the screening, he said something very interesting. He liked the film and he never expected that the rabbits would be such great actors! (…) I realized it was a unique chance to tell the history of communism and about the fates of my parents and friends (…) It took us four years to complete.” (Bartek Konopka)
Francesca de Bobby Păunescu se estrenó en el Festival de Venecia. Tras su primer pase en Venecia, el film fue suspendido por una queja de Alessandra Mussolini - la nieta de Benito - quien se ofendió por unos diálogos que salen en los primeros cinco minutos del film. El director fue llevado a juicio en Italia, pero ya está absuelto. “Tengo que decir que la película no va en contra de ninguna persona, sino de una situación. Es un filme contra el racismo, muestra la crisis de identidad por la que está pasando Rumania y que sólo se resolverá si hablamos abiertamente de ello” (BP)
Proyección en competición en l’Alternativasábado 13 & lunes 15 noviembre 2010
El director Bobby Păunescu & la actriz Monica Birladeanu presentarán el film lunes 15
“Conserva siempre en tu alma la idea de Ítaca
Llegar allí, he aquí tu destino.
Mas no hagas con prisas tu camino,
mejor será que dure muchos años,
y que llegues, ya viejo, a la pequeña isla,
rico de cuanto habrás ganado en el camino…
An unconventional love story plays out against the backdrop of a great city fallen into decay: the industrial rise and demise of Genoa and the relationship between a gangster and a transexual. La bocca del lupo is one of this year’s most successful ‘festival’ films… Teddy Award Berlinale, Signis Award BAFICI, Best Film Torino Film Festival and released theatrically in France to wide critical acclaim.
Screening in competition at l’AlternativaSaturday 13th November 2010
“We were born on the northeastern coast of Brazil. For us, the Sertão scrubland was always imagined territory, a backdrop that ran through our family conversations. It was where our grandparents came from. This film stems from our curiosity and fascination with that place. We imagined a film that could evoke the sensation of being there, relaying the enchantment and the strangeness of immersion in that place. It had to be a film close to the bone, personal, artisanal, improvised – like a family album, a handwritten love letter”. Marcelo Gomes & Karim Aïnouz Viajo porque preciso, volto porque te amo, in competition at l’AlternativaSaturday 13th & Monday 15th November 2010. Spanish première
“Queríamos comprobar cómo un pueblo se reinventa a sí mismo, remitiendo su identidad a otra que descansa en el fondo del pantano y que está repleta de Historia, desde tiempos prehistóricos al siglo XX. La conclusión podría ser lo difícil que resulta recuperar una memoria, una identidad perdida (…) Esta es una película de corte muy experimental, cercana al cine-ensayo, ante la cual la gente reacciona de muy diferentes maneras: hay quien, a los siete minutos se ha levantado y se ha ido, otros lo han catalogado como comedia o incluso como filme de terror, otros han visto pequeñas tramas y elementos de ficción en ella, con un personaje que desaparece de pronto…” Colectivo Los Hijos
Los materiales se proyecta a competición en l’Alternativadomingo 14 noviembre 2010 junto con el corto Ya viene, aguanta, riégame, mátame.Los Hijos presentarán la proyección.
Trailer de la película Anas: An Indian Film, que se estrena en Barcelona en el marco del 16º festival de cine independiente de Barcelona, l’Alternativa. Viernes 20 de noviembre de 2009 en los cines Casablanca-Kaplan. A las 19:45. Enric Miró, director de este film, presentará la sesión y participará en el coloquio que se formará tras la proyección.
Idea, production, cinematography, editing: David Reznak
Sound: Gloria Oyarzabal 42”, 35mm Color, Dolby SR
Producciones Espejo Frío for La Fàbrica de Cinema Alternatiu Catalunya, 2009
Shot in Murcia, on DVCPRO-HD
Special thanks to Martín Eller for his hard work, the ravens, the sun, and all those who once toiled in the mines to create those huge mullocks.
Screening at: CCCB, Cinema Casablanca-Kaplan, Institut Francès, MACBA, Casa Amèrica, FNAC el Triangle, Cinemes Verdi, Renoir Floridablanca, Renoir Les Corts, Cinemes Méliès, Alexandra-Alexis, Xarxa de Televisions Locals, Barcelona TV and C33.
Western Spaghetti by PES is one of the 43 short films in competition at l’Alternativa. The section includes 6 programmes composed of fiction, documentary, animation and experimental films from around the world. Most of the films will be shown for the first time in Barcelona and were selected from the 1297 short films we received.
Diletante is Kris Niklison’s debut film, and she has created a singular portrait of eighty-year-old Bela Jordán, who is the kind of woman who makes you look forward to reaching that ripe age. She’s agile, lucid and has plenty of stories and opinions to share… (“If you can have fun by yourself you will have fun your whole life”). Bela also happens to be the filmmaker’s mother and the result is both an intimate and rigorous film. Diletante won Best Argentinean film award at Mar de Plata and screens at l’Alternativa on Thursday 19th November.
Les damnés de la mer is Jawad Rhalib latest documentary and was shot in Dahkla and in Essaouira in Morocco last year. While trawlers from foreign countries drag the waters with their nets, killing an entire ecosystem, on land, desperate local fishermen who’ve been robbed of their livelihood face the prospect of their own disappearance. The film won the audience award at Visions de Réel this year and Jawad Rhalib will be at l’Alternativa to present the film on Saturday 14th November 2009 in the documentary section.
She Unfolds By Day is Rolf Belgum’s very unusual tribute to his mother, a former stand-up comedian now suffering from alzheimer’s. She plays herself in this wonderful film, which, in a series of disjointed loops, melds fiction, documentary and nature elements into a strange mixture of heightened reality and unconscious imagery. Belgum spent four years weaving visuals of tiny creatures from his backyard, animated motions of his dog and sublime expressions of wolf life with the antics of his forgetful 80-year-old mother. Screening in competition at l’Alternativa on Wednesday 18th November 2009.
Mexican filmmaker Nicolás Pereda returns to l’Alternativa with his latest feature film Perpetuum Mobile (Pereda’s first film ¿Dónde están sus historias? screened in competition at l’Alternativa 2007). Perpetuum Mobile is a remarkable film, eloquently raising questions about the nature of existence, and the absurdities and tragedies of contemporary life. Pereda’s short film Entrevista con la tierra is also in competition in the short film section of the festival. Perpetuum Mobile screens on Monday 16th November 2009, Entrevista con la tierra on Tuesday 17th November 2009.
