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October 12, 2011  

Nicaraguan films at The Ritzy: 22 October

An afternoon of Nicaraguan films at The Ritzy Cinema.

There's an afternoon of Nicaraguan films at The Ritzy Cinema on 22 October. Image: Ritzy

At a loose end on Saturday 22 October? The Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign is screening Nicaraguan films all afternoon at The Ritzy Cinema in Brixton.

Among the films screening are El Hombre de una Sola Nota (The Man of a Single Note), a prize-winning short from 1989, and Young, Nicaraguan & Organised, a documentary about contemporary Nicaragua.

The main feature is La Yuma (2009), directed by Florence Jaugey. Yuma is a rebellious young woman from a poor neighbourhood in Managua who dreams of being a boxer.

The programme kicks off at 15.30 and there will be coffee and rum upstairs at The Ritzy.

Tickets cost £10 and can be bought from the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign website.

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September 12, 2011  

London Spanish Film Festival 2011 Preview

Joana Granero

Joana Granero is the director of the London Spanish Film Festival.

The London Spanish Film Festival begins on 23 September and offers an exciting mix of exclusive screenings, classic films, Q&As and shorts.

Venues participating in the festival include Rich Mix and Cine Lumiere in South Kensington. Vida London caught up with the festival’s director, Joanna Granero Sanchez, to find out more about this year’s programme.

Does the London Spanish Film Festival have a theme for 2011?

The main subject every year is recent Spanish cinema. Our commitment is to show what’s happening now in Spain in terms of cinema through a selection of some of the most exciting films from the previous year/year and a half.

Every year we have a special feature on someone of special relevance in Spanish cinema: this year our special feature is dedicated to Geraldine Chaplin. She came to Spain to shoot David Lean’s Dr Zhivago in the mid-60s and since then she’s worked in Spain more or less continuously.

Tell us about the special strands to this year’s festival.

Besides honouring Geraldine Chaplin, this year we also have a small homage to one of our most independent and iconic filmmakers: the late Luis Garcia Berlanga. He had a very special, ironic sense of humour that gave his films and the reality they portrayed a surrealist twist.

As in previous editions of the festival, our programme includes a Catalan Window with a selection of films produced in Catalonia.

For the second year we’re dedicating as well a small space to cinema from the Basque Country.

Lope at London Spanish Film Festival

The London Spanish Film Festival 2011 opens with Lope on 23 September.

And because Spanish artists don’t work exclusively within frontiers, we have in our selection some films that have been produced mostly outside of Spain but in which the Spanish element is very important, like Gustavo Ron’s Ways to Live Forever, which is set in the UK, or Les femmes du 6ème étage, by Philippe Le Guay.

We also have a shorts session programmed in collaboration with Sin Fin Cinema. All the shorts have been produced in the UK by Spanish filmmakers during the last 24 months.

Which special guests do you have attending this year?

We are very happy to welcome back actor Eduardo Noriega, who came to our very first edition and is now coming back to present Blackthorn, a western by Mateo Gil. Natalia Verbecke is also coming again to the festival, this time to present Les femmes du 6ème étage. Other guests are Catalan filmmakers Ventura Pons (Mil cretins) and Ramon Térmens (Catalunya uber alles!). We hope to welcome as well Alberto Ammann (Lope) and Geraldine Chaplin.

How did the festival first start, back in 2005?

In such a cosmopolitan city as London, there was an interest in Spanish cinema that was not being met because only very few Spanish films were being shown. I thought there was space in the city to try to show what was happening in Spain in terms of cinema.

Geraldine Chaplin

Geraldine Chaplin will be honoured at the 2011 London Spanish Film Festival.

How long does it take to organise each year?

It takes the whole year. Normally there were some two or three months that were ‘quieter’, but this year we started organising a London Spanish Film Festival ‘Spring Weekend’, which is a foretaste of the festival. Its first edition in April worked very well and now we plan to have a Spring Weekend every year.

Is the festival profit-making or does its money go to charity?

At the moment the little money made goes to compensate the people working on the festival. The sources of income are limited and there are many, many costs associated to the organisation and administration of the festival.

How many people are involved in this year’s festival? How can people get involved if they are interested?

We are now ten, but only I work full time. The rest of the team work part time or only during a specific period of the year, or are interns. There will be some 10 volunteers during the festival as well. For this year we are covered, but for next year we hope to get people interested in getting involved! They can reach us by email from the website.

Do you organise any other events throughout the year?

Yes, besides the London Spanish Film Festival and its Spring Weekend, Tristana Media sometimes organises other events. This year I curated the Good Morning Freedom! film season that played at BFI in June and is travelling to the AFI in Washington in September.

The London Spanish Film Festival 2011 runs 23 September to 6 October. Follow @LSFF and check out their Facbeook Page. Many thanks to Joana for taking the time to do an interview!

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September 6, 2011  

Brazilian Film Festival 2011 opens in London

Brazilian Film Festival London

The 3rd Brazilian Film Festival of London starts on Tuesday. Credit: Inffinito

The third Brazilian Film Festival of London opens tonight and runs until Saturday.

Highlights of this year’s event include Henrique Dantas’ documentary João’s Sons – The Admirable Baiano New World, Claudio Torres’ Man from the Future, and Eduardo Vaisman’s 180.

The opening night ceremony – which is rumoured to have no less a personage than Ronnie Wood in attendance – is at BAFTA, on Piccadilly, this evening. The Odeon Covent Garden on Shaftesbury Avenue will be screening the rest of the 18 films in the festival.

The closing night ceremony on 10 September features a best of the festival prize as voted for by audiences.

The London festival is the first European leg of the Inffinito Festival circuit, which has already hit New York and Miami this year. Inffinito has been running for 15 years and aims to show off the best in Brazilian cinema.

It’s set to be a busy autumn for film fans, with the London Spanish Film Festival running 23 September to 6 October, the London Latin Film Festival kicking off on 18 November, and the London Film Festival beginning on 12 October.

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August 8, 2011  

London Spanish Film Festival 2011 announces programme

Lope at London Spanish Film Festival

The London Spanish Film Festival 2011 opens with Lope on 23 September.

London’s annual Spanish film festival has announced its programme for 2011.

The London Spanish Film Festival 2011 runs from Friday 23 September to Thursday 6 October at Cine Lumiere in South Kensington, with some screenings at Rich Mix and International House.

This year’s festival mixes forthcoming Spanish films with exclusive screenings, Q&As with directors and actors, a series of films from Catalan and Basque cinema, and international co-productions not entirely in Spanish.

The festival kicks off with Lope, the life story of 16th-century Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, followed by a Q&A with star Alberto Ammann.

There will be four sessions of short films at the Rich Mix in London, including Basque shorts on Saturday 24 September, and Spanish Cinematic Experiences in London, on Tuesday 4 October, which features short films and experimental pieces by Spanish directors based in the capital (followed by a panel after).

Geraldine Chaplin

Geraldine Chaplin will be honoured at the 2011 London Spanish Film Festival.

Emilia Fox is scheduled to put in an appearance after a screening of Gustavo Ron’s Ways to Live Forever on Wednesday 28 September.

Elsewhere, Geraldine Chaplin’s career will be honoured with screenings of six of her films. The actress herself will appear in a Q&A after a showing of her 1973 film Ana y Los Lobos on Saturday 1 October. The festival has even programmed a showing of David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago, starring Chaplin, for the following day.

Another strand of the festival will be devoted to Luis García Berlanga, who died last year, with four of his films on the programme.

Actor Eduardo Noriega returns to the festival after appearing at its first edition six years ago to close out this year’s roster with a screening of his latest film, Blackthorn, on 6 October.

The full programme can be found on the London Spanish Film Festival website. Bookings are open from 12 August.

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June 10, 2011  

BFI Southbank celebrates Spanish cinema after Franco

Spanish cinema after Franco

Spanish cinema after Franco at the BFI includes Dark Habits. Image credit: BFI

The BFI is about to launch a season of Spanish films from the period after Franco.

The Generalisimo’s death in 1975 paved for the way for a rapid loosening of social mores and expression – leading to la movida movement in Madrid and an array of colourful, taboo-busting films up until the late 80s.

At the forefront of the movement was, of course, Pedro Almodovar, with films like Pepi, Luci, Bom (sex, drugs, and, er, more sex) and Dark Habits (outrageous nuns). Fans of his polished, Oscar-winning later work will find these films an eye-opener.

Good Morning Freedom! Spanish Cinema after Franco starts on 10 June and runs until 7 July. With 13 films programmed, highlights include the Almodovar films above, along with Cria Cuervos by Carlos Saura and Going Down in Morocco by Fernando Colomo.

More details are on the BFI Southbank website.

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April 28, 2011  

Spanish films at the East End Film Festival

East End Film Festival London

A series of Spanish-language films will be playing at the East End Film Festival, London.

The London Spanish Film Festival will be showing a string of short Spanish-language films on 2 May as part of the East End Film Festival.

The group will be screening six short films on the May bank holiday, plus two extra showings of Agnosia and Julia’s Eyes, which were part of the London Spanish Film Festival Spring Weekend at the start of April.

The venue is Coffee@Brick Lane (157 Brick Lane) and the programme runs from 12pm to 8pm.

Here’s the schedule in full:

El Cortejo | The Cortège, by Marina Seresesky (2010 | 15’30)

Amona Putz! | Inflatable Grandma, by Telmo Esnal (2009 | 9′)

El Sobrino | The Nephew, by Nacho Blasco (2010 | 16’40)

Voltereta | Somersault, by Alexis Morante (2010 | 13’30)

El nunca lo haría | He’d Never Do That, by Anartz Zuazua (2009 | 14’30)

Genio y Figura | Looks and Temper, by Hatem Khraiche Ruiz-Zorrilla (2010 | 18’20)

Street logo sign of Brick Lane in English and ...

The East End Film Festival runs until 2 May. Image via Wikipedia

If you’re looking for more than short-film snackage, the festival will also be screening Agnosia, by Eugenio Mira, on Friday 29 April at 11.30pm at The Rio Cinema in Dalston, and Los Ojos de Julia by Guillem Morales at the same time, same place on Saturday 30 April.

The May Day screenings form part of the East End Film Festival’s Movie MayDay, a whole range of FREE events from screenings to quizzes at a staggering 88 venues. From the blurb:

The EEFF today proudly unveils our MOVIE MAYDAY, a FREE day of cinema, live music, cinema trails, virtual tours, filmmaking competitions, quizzes and talks blanketing the whole of London’s East End. Running over 8 HOURS from 12 – 8pm and covering a staggering 88 VENUES, Movie MayDay will feature everything from documentary to animation, experimental to music video.

Check out the full East End Film Festival programme.

The London Spanish Film Festival 2011 will take place 23 September – 6 October at Cine Lumiere, part of the Institut Francaise, at 17 Queensberry Place in South Kensington. More details can be found on the London Spanish Film Festival website.

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March 30, 2011  

London Spanish Film Festival Spring Weekend opens 1 April

London Spanish Film Festival

The London Spanish Film Festival Spring Weekend runs 1 -3 April.

The London Spanish Film Festival Spring Weekend will be showcasing seven top films between 1 and 3 April, 2011.

London’s annual Spanish Film Festival doesn’t hit town until September, making this an excellent chance to see Spanish-language films that won’t be on release in the UK until later this year.

The films on offer include Los Ojos de Julia by Guillem Morales on Friday 1 April, which is followed by a Q&A with the director and actors Joaquín Padró and Belén Rueda.

Another highlight is El Camino, Emilio Estevez’s film about the Camino de Santiago, which stars Estevez’s dad and one-time president of the USA extraordinaire, Martin Sheen.

Here’s the running order:

Friday 1 April

  • 6.15pm. Garbo/Garbo, Edmon Roch (2009, 88 min.); UK Premiere
  • 8.00pm. Los ojos de Julia/Julia’s Eyes, Guillem Morales (2010, 114 min.); followed by a Q&A

Saturday 2 April

  • 4.00pm. La mosquitera/The Mosquito Net, Agustí Vila (2010, 95 min.)
  • 6.00pm. Planes para mañana/Plans for Tomorrow, Juana Macías (2010, 90 min.)
  • 8.15pm. Agnosia/Agnosia, Eugenio Mira (2010, 105 min.); followed by a Q&A with lead actress Bárbara Goneaga (tbc)

Sunday 3 April

  • 5.00pm. 18 comidas/18 Meals, Jorge Coira (2010, 107 min.); followed by a Q&A with the director
  • 7.30pm. The Way/El Camino, Emilio Estévez (2010, 120 min.) In Spanish with English subtitles

The London Spanish Film Festival Spring Weekend takes place at Cine Lumiere, part of the Institut Francaise, at 17 Queensberry Place in South Kensington.

More details can be found on the London Spanish Film Festival website.

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November 22, 2010  

Invisible Catalan Cinema Season starts at the BFI

BFI logoThe BFI is about to kick off a short season of radical, underground Catalan films distributed in Spain during the last years of Franco’s reign.

Clandestí: Invisible Catalan Cinema Under Franco focuses on films by a generation of filmmakers who grew up after the Civil War. Many of the films featured have no credits to protect the identities of the filmmakers.

From the BFI blurb:

While this body of work represents a margin of Spanish film history, it nevertheless contains some of the most crucial, first-hand documents of the end of Franco’s dictatorship, revealing problems of housing and social services, immigration, the fate of political prisoners, and restrictions on expression and free speech.

The season runs from 25 – 30 November and follows on the heels of the South American film season at the BFI in August.

The BFI also showed a fistful of Spanish-language films at the London Film Festival this year.

Also showing as part of the season are two episodes from the award-winning documentary series Cronica d’una Mirada, which tells the story of clandestine filmmakers in Franco’s Spain between 1960 and 1975.

November 16, 2010  

Discovering Latin America Film Festival Programme Announced

DLAFF poster 2010

DLAFF 2010. (C) DLA

The full programme for the Discovering Latin America Film Festival has been announced.

The festival runs from 18th November to 2nd December and locations include Odeon Covent Garden, Odeon Panton Street, Tate Modern, Birkbeck Cinema, Shortwave and Birkbeck College.

There are screenings of over 20 films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, and no less than six gala nights, four culture nights (including Q&As) and finally an award ceremony on the last night at the Odeon Covent Garden.

The festival is sponsored by Dusted, Guarana Antartica and Journey Latin America and all proceeds go to support a small town in El Salvador. I spoke to the festival’s artistic director Germán Martínez Martínez about the charity’s aims in September.

Things kick off at the opening gala this Thursday with a screening of Tear This Heart Out (Arráncame la vida), a 2008 period drama from Mexico.

The festival boasts a retrospective of three of Argentinean director Daniel Burman’s films: Empty Nest (2008), Waiting for the Messiah (2000) and a gala screening of Brother and Sister (2010).

On 20th November there’s a screening of the 20-minute short The Invisibles, a hidden journey across Mexico from Marc Silver and Gael Garcia Bernal, in collaboration with Amnesty International.

Other highlights include the Costa Rican film The Cold Water of the Sea and a talk with the film’s director, Paz Fábrega, a London Film School graduate, on the 24th.

Thursday 25th November sees a double bill of Bolívar sinfonía tropikal, directed by Diego Rísquez from Venezuela, and El husar de muerte by Pedro Sienna, a classic movie from Chile filmed in 1925.

The festival wraps up with its Awards Night on Thursday 2nd December, 8pm, at the Odeon Covent Garden with a special screening of the enchanting The Window (2008) by Carlos Sorín.

Make sure you check out the full programme of the film festival for loads more features, shorts and documentaries.

Don’t forget the London Latin American Film Festival is also running this month.

November 3, 2010  

London Latin American Film Festival announces its programme

London Latin American Film Festival 2010

(C) London Latin American Film Festival 2010

The second half of November sees the 20th anniversary edition of London’s Latin American Film Festival.

A whole series of features, shorts and documentaries will be screened at Bolivar Hall in the Venezuelan Embassy, Riverside Studios in Hammersmith and the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley between Friday 19th and Thursday 25th November.

Founded by Eva Tarr Kirkhope and her late husband Tony Kirkhope in 1990, the festival has brought films such as Buena Vista Social Club, Strawberries & Chocolate and Like Water For Chocolate to UK audiences.

This year’s festival kicks off with the Cuban animated feature Chico and Rita. Other features include City in Red, a look at life in 1950s Cuba; Dos Veces Ana, set in Miami; and Memories of Overdevelopment, the sequel to Memories of Underdevelopment.

Chasing Che is a documentary telling the story of Iranian businessman Alireza Rofougaran, who spent four years in Latin America following Che’s footsteps.

My Kidnapper documents Mark Henderson, a victim of Colombian kidnappers, and his return to Colombia in attempt to make sense of his ordeal.

Short film The Bridge charts the obstacles faced by Latin American immigrants coming to the UK to make successful careers.

On Saturday 27th November at 6pm there’s a screening of Oliver Stone’s South of the Border and a Q&A with Dr Francisco Dominguez.

The website has the full programme for the LLAFF and info about previous editions.

This festival is not to be confused with the Discovering Latin America Film Festival, now in its 9th edition, which runs 18th to 28th November. It opens with the UK Premier of the Mexican film Tear this Heart Out (Arrancame la Vida), 8pm at Odeon Covent Garden on November 18th.

I caught up with the artistic director of the Discovering Latin America Film Festival, Germán Martínez Martínez, for an interview in September.

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