Radio l'Alternativa

In today’s programme we present the series of calls for Cinema Pendent projects, introduced by Patricia Sánchez, director of l’Alternativa PRO, and Gabriela Iacob, lead tutor of Mentoring Projects. You will also first-hand accounts from filmmakers who took part in  recent editions.

Cinema Pendent is the space that l’Alternativa PRO created in 2013 to support film project development and increase possibilities in the independent film and audiovisual production industry.

In this episode of Radio l'Alternativa we speak to Emilio Fonseca, director of Salvaxe, salvaxe, winner of Best Documentary at the MĂĄlaga Film Festival. An antinature documentary that questions the relationship between humans and nonhumans in times of ecological collapse.

 Presented by Mariona Borrull. Produced and edited by JĂșlia Gaitano and Àlex Gil. With technical support from Sergio Camacho (XRCB). Recorded at the CCCB during l'Alternativa 2024.

The director of Filmei paxaros voando is the focus of a new episode of Radio l'Alternativa. Her honest autobiographical exercise won a Special Mention in the Spanish Film Award in l'Alternativa Official in 2024.

 Presented by Mariona Borrull. Produced and edited by JĂșlia Gaitano and Àlex Gil. With technical support from Sergio Camacho (XRCB). Recorded at the CCCB during l'Alternativa 2024.

RaĂșl Alaejos stars in the latest episode of Radio l'Alternativa. The director of Objeto de estudio sets up his camera to film the Inuit and trace the story of a group of American explorers who reached the North Pole a hundred years ago. A visual essay full of doubts and flashes of humour in which viewers have to draw the line between real and fictional.

 Presented by Mariona Borrull. Produced and edited by JĂșlia Gaitano and Àlex Gil. With technical support from Sergio Camacho (XRCB). Recorded at the CCCB during l'Alternativa 2024.

This episode of Radio l'Alternativa features Sofie Benoot, director of Apple Cider Vinegar, which won a Special Mention in the International Feature Film Prize in l'Alternativa Official in 2024.  Here she invites us to examine the connections between the human body and the planet by contrasting everyday things with the big questions about life in the cosmos.

 Presented by Mariona Borrull. Produced and edited by JĂșlia Gaitano and Àlex Gil. With technical support from Sergio Camacho (XRCB). Recorded at the CCCB during l'Alternativa 2024.

Nicolås Pereda had a retrospective at l'Alternativa 2024 featuring a large part of his filmography. Since his debut, we have screened a good many of his films at the festival. Here he reflects on his career and recurring themes in his films. Plus a guest appearance from his favourite actor, Låzaro Gabino Rodríguez.

 Presented by Mariona Borrull. Produced and edited by JĂșlia Gaitano and Àlex Gil. With technical support from Sergio Camacho (XRCB). Recorded at the CCCB during l'Alternativa 2024.

We kick off the third season of Radio l'Alternativa with Anna Cornudella, director of The Human Hibernation, which after premiering in the Forum section at the Berlinale was one of our Sneak  Previews at l'Alternativa 2024 and has now just hit cinema screens.

 Presented by Mariona Borrull. Produced and edited by JĂșlia Gaitano and Àlex Gil. With technical support from Sergio Camacho (XRCB). Recorded at the CCCB during l'Alternativa 2024.

On Radio l'Alternativa we spoke with Harald Hutter during his visit to l'Alternativa 2023. The director of Up the River with Acid introduced us to his film, a vibrant and painfully beautiful portrait of his father, both deeply personal and also touchingly universal.

 Presented by Mariona Borrull. With technical support from Àlex Gil. Recorded at the CCCB.

On Radio l'Alternativa we spoke with Christian EinshĂžj during his visit to l'Alternativa 2023. The director of The Mountains introduced us to his film, a family story fashioned out of than 30 years of home videos with which he attempts to confront the hidden wounds of a family tragedy. A film about how the men in his family respond to tragedy.

 Presented by Mariona Borrull. With technical support from Àlex Gil. Recorded at the CCCB.

On 8 November we presented l’Alternativa 2023 in a special programme live from Ràdio Rambles. Cristina Riera, one of the expert hands at the helm of the festival, Sesi Bergeret, key member of the programming team, and Patri Sánchez, head of l’Alternativa PRO, looked ahead at what we could expect at this 30th edition of the festival.

Presented by Álex Gil. Recorded at Ràdio Rambles, part of the Xarxa de Ràdios Comunitàries de Barcelona.

In the ninth and final episode of our special series on _{30 Years of l’Alternativa}, RamĂłn Alfonso takes us on a voyage on board Leviathan, by  filmmakers and anthropologists VĂ©rĂ©na Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, which was first screened at l'Alternativa 2013.

Presented by Álex Gil. Recorded at the Ràdio Maconda studio, at the Biblioteca Gabriel García Mårquez.

In the eighth episode of our special series on _{30 Years of l’Alternativa,} Ignasi Franch looks back at La bocca del lupo, by Pietro Marcello, first screened at l’Alternativa 2009.

Presented by Álex Gil. Recorded at the Ràdio Maconda studio, at the Biblioteca Gabriel García Mårquez.

In the seventh episode of our special series on _{30 Years of l’Alternativa,} Mariana Freijomil looks back at Counting, Jem Cohen’s documentary merging city symphony, diary film and personal/political essay, first screened at l’Alternativa 2015.

Presented by Mariona Borrull and Álex Gil. Recorded at the Ràdio Maconda studio, at the Biblioteca Gabriel García Mårquez.

In the sixth episode of our special series on _{30 Years of l’Alternativa,} Mireia Iniesta looks back at AmĂ©rica, by Erick Stoll and Chase Whiteside, an uplifting, soulful story of three mismatched brothers who are brought together to care for their elderly grandmother. It won the Don Quixote Prize at l’Alternativa 2018.

Presented by Mariona Borrull and Álex Gil. Recorded at the Ràdio Maconda studio, at the Biblioteca Gabriel García Mårquez.

In the fifth episode of our special series on _{30 Years of l’Alternativa,} Philipp Engel looks back at The Illinois Parables and Last Things, by festival regular Deborah Stratman.

Presented by Álex Gil. Recorded at the Ràdio Maconda studio, at the Biblioteca Gabriel García Mårquez.

In the fourth episode of our special series on _{30 Years of l’Alternativa,} Aaron Cabañas looks back at In Praise of Nothing, by Boris Mitić. Narrated en verse by Iggy Pop and filmed in over seventy countries, this film sets off in search of Nothing. Find out what turned up along the way in our podcast.

Presented by JĂșlia Gaitano and Álex Gil. Recorded at the RĂ dio Maconda studio, at the Biblioteca Gabriel GarcĂ­a MĂĄrquez.

In the third episode of our special series on _{30 Years of l’Alternativa,} Marla Jacarilla looks back at IvĂĄn Z, by AndrĂ©s Duque, a l’Alternativa regular (he was one of our _Satellites in 2022). In his directing debut, he tracks down cult Spanish filmmaker IvĂĄn Zulueta, creator of Arrebato.

Presented by Mariona Borrull and Álex Gil. Recorded at the Ràdio Maconda studio, at the Biblioteca Gabriel García Mårquez.

In the second episode of our special series on _{30 Years of l’Alternativa,} Ignasi Franch looks back at El silencio es un cuerpo que cae, by Agustina Comedi, a multilayered tale of left-wing activism, homosexuality and Aids that shifts between public, private and political sphere through images taken by the filmmaker’s father.

Presented by JĂșlia Gaitano and Álex Gil. Recorded at the RĂ dio Maconda studio, at the Biblioteca Gabriel GarcĂ­a MĂĄrquez.

In the first episode of our special series on _{30 Years of l’Alternativa,} Ignasi Franch looks back at It's Such a Beautiful Day, by Don Hertzfeldt, an experimental animation classic he discovered at l'Alternativa.

Presented by Mariona Borrull and Álex Gil. Recorded at the Ràdio Maconda studio, at the Biblioteca Gabriel García Mårquez.

Director María Elorza, filmmaker Éric Baudelaire, producer Carolina Caballero and programmer Pere Ginard joined us for our third episode of Radio l’Alternativa. Four very different insights into the festival. We began by discussing how films are selected for l'Alternativa, went on to look at two debut films in competition and ended by talking about the importance of cinematography.

The second episode of Radio l’Alternativa, broadcast from the CCCB Theatre, featured four guest filmmakers. We were lucky enough to speak with Ramon Balcells, director of the short film Portabella Cotidiano, in competition in our Spanish Films section. Mladen Kovacevic told us what it was like to make Another Spring, a film about the 1972 smallpox epidemic, during the Covid pandemic and how he managed to make a horror film using archive footage. Faustine Cros presented an intimate portrait of her mother in Une vie comme une autre. We ended the episode with Irene M. Borrego, who talked about her film La visita y un jardín secreto.

In our first episode, broadcast from the XRCB’s RĂ dio Rambles, we checked out the festival  line-up with Cristina Riera, a member of the festival’s artistic team; we spoke with RaĂșl Capdevila, director of Los saldos, competing in the Spanish Films section; and we invited actress Berta Prieto to present Autodefensa, the new original series from Filmin.