The César Manrique Foundation will celebrate, between June 4 and 7, a thematic film retrospective, which will be developed under the title '50 years of environmental cinema', curated by David Baute, director of the Canary Islands International Environmental Film Festival. As a conclusion to the cycle, on Friday the 7th, at 8:00 p.m., the round table 'History of environmental cinema' will take place. This activity is part of the centenary of the birth of César Manrique that the institution that bears his name will celebrate until April 24, 2020.
From June 4 to 6, the activity will consist of the screening of two different films daily, the first at 6:00 p.m. and the second at 8:00 p.m. All screenings will be free admission until full capacity and will be held at the Multicines Atlántida, thanks to the collaboration agreement established between the FCM and the Spínola Group on the occasion of the centenary. Those interested must pick up the ticket at the cinema box office on the same day of the session.
Specifically, on June 4, 'Koyaanisqatsi' (Life Out of Balance) by Godfrey Reggio will be screened first, a unique documentary that reflects the collision between two worlds forced to coexist: on the one hand, the life of men in modern society, full of technology and consumerism; on the other hand, nature and the environment of planet Earth. Later, at 8 p.m., the screening 'L'ours' (The Bear) by Jean-Jacques Annaud will take place, which shows a bear trying to reach a honeycomb and dying crushed by an avalanche, leaving the bear cub Youk orphaned and helpless, who is forced to survive in a very hostile environment.
For its part, on June 5, 'Le peuple migrateur' (Winged Migration) by Jacques Perrin, Michel Debats and Jacques Cluzaud and 'Baraka' by Ron Fricke will be screened. The first of the screenings is an ambitious documentary about the migration of birds that travels through more than forty countries and has involved four years of work and more than 140 people contributing to it. As for the second, it has been shot in 24 different countries and tries to capture the essence of nature and the culture of humanity and its customs, while pointing out the ways in which human beings relate to their environment.
As for June 6, 'La tortue rouge' (The Red Turtle) by Michael Dudok de Wit will be screened at 6 p.m., a story about a castaway on a deserted tropical island, populated by turtles, crabs and birds, which tells the great stages of the life of a human being; and at 8 p.m. 'Virunga' by Orlando von Einsiede, which tells the story of a group of brave people who risk their lives to save the world's last mountain gorillas, in the midst of a new civil war and a struggle for the natural resources of Congo.
The relationship of the human being with the environment, under discussion
On the last day of the cycle, June 7, 'Encounters at the End of The World' by Werner Herzog will be screened and, later, at 8:00 p.m., the round table will be held in the José Saramago room of La Plazuela de Arrecife, in which José María Morales, environmental film producer, Jorge Gorostiza, film critic, and David Baute will participate. The round table will address "the relationship of the human being with the environment in which he develops his strategies, whether these are for survival or development, and how cinema, throughout its history, has been able to tell it in an intelligent, critical and reflective way".
For the exhibition '50 years of environmental cinema', David Baute has selected environmental films that, in his opinion, "stood out for their language and their ability to denounce what was happening in various parts of the planet at each moment". Baute explained that "the selection 50 years of environmental cinema builds a dialogue between the social and the environmental, a cinema that shows us the beauty through which our planet travels, but also what we do not want to see and is postulated as a scenario for debate".
The speakers of the round table
David Baute has been the director of the Canary Islands International Environmental Film Festival since 2009. An audiovisual craftsman, he studied audiovisual program production at the Official Institute of Spanish Radio Television. Later, at the Higher School of Arts and Shows of Madrid T.A.I. he specialized as a film editor. He also completed complementary studies in Cinematographic Direction at the International Film School of Havana, Cuba.
A professional editor, Baute works for different film production companies making commercials, video clips, documentaries, fiction? But, by desire and vocation, he began to direct his own documentaries, and it is to this genre that he dedicates himself exclusively, making or producing original and reflective proposals such as 'Los hijos de la nube' (2000), 'Ella(s)', (2011) or 'Milagros' (2017).
For his part, Jorge Gorostiza is a Doctor Architect, designs and builds buildings and develops urban planning works. He has published numerous articles on cinema and architecture in media in his locality, magazines such as Nosferatu, Nickleodeon, Academia, Lateral, Cahiers du Cinema, and in several collective volumes. Likewise, Gorostiza is the author of several books such as 'Cinema and architecture' (1990), 'Peter Greenaway' (1995), 'Builders of chimeras' (1999) or 'David Cronenberg' (2003). Between 2000 and 2005 he directed the Filmoteca Canaria. He has given lectures on architecture and cinema and has been a jury in several film festivals, such as in San Sebastián or Sitges. His blog is www.cinearquitecturaciudad.blogspot.com
As for José María Morales, he is the founder of Wanda Films and Wanda Vision, film production and distribution companies mainly from Spain and Latin America. Executive Vice President of the Ibero-American Federation of Cinematographic and Audiovisual Producers (FIPCA) from 2002 to 2012. He was a member of the Official Section Jury at the Berlin International Film Festival 2010 and obtained in 2013 the title of "Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters" from the Government of France.
José María Morales has also been the producer of more than 75 feature films that have won numerous national and international awards, including 3 Oscar nominations (2003 'El Crimen del Padre Amaro' and 'Winged Migration'; 2010 'The Milk of Sorrow'), 3 Golden Osellas in Venice (1996 'Deep Crimson'), 3 Goya Awards (Best Film, Director and Revelation Actor 2008 for 'La Soledad'), Golden Spike at the Valladolid Festival (2007 '14 Kilometers'), Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Festival (2000 'The perdition of the Hombre's') as well as the Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival (2009 'The Milk of Sorrow').