Eleven days of screenings and meetings, a national premiere (the documentary Homeland) and a selection of films that make up the best European cinema of the year. The V European Film Festival of Lanzarote has already presented its program, which will take place from November 24 to December 4 in the auditorium of Jameos del Agua, the Multicines Atlántida, the Pancho Lasso Art School, the Charco de San Ginés and the Teatro de San Bartolomé.
The filmmaker Víctor Moreno will direct this fifth edition of the cinematographic meeting, which will once again be the official venue for the Lux Awards, cinematographic awards that the European Parliament grants to films that illustrate the diversity of European culture. "My intention is to continue the tradition of bringing the best auteur cinema to Lanzarote. That it doesn't just stay in Madrid and Barcelona. I believe that we can contribute to making the island a cultural reference and a place of reference at a cinematographic level," explained the Tenerife filmmaker.
The highlight of this edition is called Homeland, a "monumental film" by Abbas Fahdel, which narrates the before and after of the American occupation in Iraq. It will be a national premiere and the first time that this work, which has just received the award for best European documentary at the Visions du Reél festival, will be screened in Spain. Fahdel will present the film, hold a discussion with the public and participate in a meeting at the International Museum of Contemporary Art of Lanzarote (MIAC).
Inauguration with an eye on Lanzarote
The Exhibition will be inaugurated on the night of November 24 in the auditorium of Jameos del Agua, with the screening of 'Without God or Santa María', a short film shot in the town of Yé, selected at the Toronto Festival. In addition, 'The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari' will be screened, a key work in the history of cinema, with 20 extra minutes of footage and the original pigments with which it was hand-colored in 1920, thanks to the recovery work carried out by the German Film Archive. The feature film will be screened with live music by the Lanzarote NoteBook musician (pseudonym of Nico Hernandez).
The program is made up of films released in 2015, which reflect on the evolution of contemporaneity and reflect milestones in our recent history: 'Over the years' (ten years of filming to narrate the dismantling of a factory in Austria, and the effect it has on its workers), a "majestic" version of 'One Thousand and One Nights' located in contemporary Portugal that suffers the same structural changes as Spain; 'Dead slow ahead' (a work about life on a ship in this post-industrial era, awarded at the Locarno Festival), etc. "Through different perspectives and forms of representation we will approach the state of contemporary affairs and debate in a colloquium. It is very important that the room is a place for meeting and reflection," Moreno points out in this regard.
Talks, workshops and exceptional guests
Filmmakers such as Abbas Fahdel, José Luis Guerin (National Film Award, Goya and Special Jury Prize at the San Sebastián International Film Festival for En construcción) and Mauro Herce, as well as short filmmakers Samuel M. Delgado and Helena Girón, will travel to Lanzarote to present their works.
There will also be time for reflection, with a round table that will be hosted by Bodegas El Grifo in which several Canarian filmmakers will analyze what it means to make films in an ultraperipheral region such as the Canary Islands; and on how tax incentives are specified in the filming that takes place in the archipelago. On the other hand, the filmmaker Luis Macías will give a super 8 initiation workshop at the Pancho Lasso Art School, a venue that will also host screenings and talks to "generate viewers among young people".
The president of the Cabildo highlighted the "undoubted quality" of the program, the importance of returning to an "idyllic" setting such as Jameos del Agua and that Lanzarote is known as a setting for film shoots. Óscar Pérez, Minister of Culture, underlined the close link between the Exhibition and Lanzarote: in addition to 'Without God or Santa María', 'Gran Hotel' ("an experimental short about an emblematic building in the capital"), 'En el banco' (shot on the banks of the Charco), 'Sixty Spanish Cigarettes' (a personal vision of La Graciosa), 'Sobre el cielo' (Portuguese production, shot on the island) and the documentary 'Pistol' (about the drummer of the legendary Canarian band Ataúd Vacante) will be screened.
The Exhibition is sponsored by the Culture area of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers (CACTS), the Government of the Canary Islands, the European Parliament, the Arrecife City Council, the San Bartolomé City Council, the Spínola Group, Cabrera Medina and Bodegas El Grifo. Invitations for the opening day can now be collected from the Culture area of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, at the CACT headquarters (C/ Triana. Arrecife) and the Haría City Council.
