The screening of the short film 'César Manrique, Word and Commitments. Power is Uncomfortable', on Thursday night closed the cycle that the Torrelavega Society has dedicated to the artist in the program on the occasion of the 75th anniversary. An event with a very crowded audience that was also attended by the president of the César Manrique Foundation, José Juan Ramírez, and the director of the Pedagogical Department, Alfredo Díaz, was in charge of making the presentation of the short film interesting, which was made in the José Saramago room of La Plazuela in 2019, on the occasion of the celebration of the birth of César Manrique.
In the short film of about twenty minutes, the attendees had the opportunity to contemplate an ignited Manrique turned into a social activist and a very uncomfortable character for certain powers, who vehemently criticizes the brutal tourist growth of Lanzarote and the Canary Islands. You could also see a César who expressed himself about the guilt of the disaster, talking about the human condition, selfishness, vanity, the need to incorporate the concept of limit and the moment to stop to avoid the catastrophe, denouncing corruption and citizen apathy.
"Lanzarote, an island with a very high mobile park due to the lack of planning of public transport, apartment complexes and skeletons of hotels completely abandoned giving an image, the one I never wanted for my island", with those words at the end of the short film, all the attending public came to the conclusion that 31 years after the death of César Manrique his message unfortunately remains current.
After the screening and for the public to relax, they were able to enjoy the musical performance of the quartet formed by José Vicente Pérez -Timple and Contra, Adrián Niz, with the guitar and the voices of the soloists Fabiola Fernández and Orlando Niz, who offered a very varied repertoire with genres with Canarian and Latin American airs that were highly applauded for their great interpretive quality.
The event ended with the presentation of the distinctions to the president of the César Manrique Foundation, José Juan Ramírez, and to Mamerto Cabrera, manager of the company Cabrera Medina, with his valuable collaboration in the 'Encounter with César' events.