'Brave Bunch. Children of Warsaw Uprising' will be the short film that will inaugurate this Monday the screenings of the Official Short Film Selection of the XVI Lanzarote International Film Festival (FICL2016). It will be at 6:00 p.m., at the Teatro Insular de Lanzarote. The screenings will take place until this Friday in 4 daily passes. At 6 pm you can see the documentary shorts, at 7 pm the animated ones, at 8 pm the Spanish fiction shorts and, finally, at 9 pm the international fiction films will be screened. Throughout the week, the Official Selection viewers will have voting ballots at their disposal to score the 80 short films competing. From their evaluations will come the Audience Award, which will be announced on April 16 at the closing of FICL2016.
The Polish documentary that will open the screenings, 'Brave Bunch. Children of Warsaw Uprising', narrates the Warsaw uprising, the largest civil rebellion that took place against Nazi Germany during World War II, from the perspective of a group of children. Then comes the story of Fadi Hindash, who when he arrived in Amsterdam met a group of Moroccan women who were learning to ride a bike with Mama Agatha, a phenomenal woman from Ghana who also teaches them how to relate to their new environment. It will be followed by 'Sideshow of the absurd', an exploration of the work of Pamela Joseph, inspired by the freak shows (shows of biological rarities) of the last century.
At 7:00 p.m., the animated shorts will begin with 'He who has two souls', a work based on a story by Néfissa Bénouniche; they will continue with 'Queen Bum' (audience award at the Swiss festival of Solothurner), the artisanal 'Zimbo', stop motion with cardboard and rope puppets shot by two Mexican animation masters accredited with an Ariel from the Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences of Mexico. The session will continue with the minimalist 'Another Man', by set designer and independent animator Weiyu Wang, artist in residence at the New York Film Academy, and will end with 'La Mue', the final project of two students from the Anguleme school, a valuable quarry of filmmakers.
At 8:00 p.m., 'The Last Days of Cinema' will premiere Spanish fiction. The short is directed by Chris Downs, professor at the ECAM in Madrid and assistant director to Guillermo del Toro, Ridley Scott, Jaume Collet-Serra, Jim Jarmusch and Steven Soderbergh.
Ramón Barea took only two hours to accept the proposal of filmmaker Alain Lefebvre, who is premiering 'I'm Not Dead Yet' in Lanzarote, a short that has been through the most important short film festival in Australia (Flickerfest) and that was screened at the Escalera de Jacob (Lavapiés, Madrid). Raquel G. Cimas presents 'Love is Not Blind', probably one of the most charming shorts in the section. The work of actress Adriana Gil, 'Muñeco de Casitas' (award for best performance for her actor Rafa Sandoval at the Ser o no ser festival) will close the session.
Farid Bentoumi, an emerging talent of French cinematography, presents 'Un métier bien', audience award at the Montpellier festival, which will inaugurate the International Fiction at 9:00 p.m. It will compete with 'Anrath', 'Mamie Momie' and 'All there is'.
Stories from the dictatorship of Brazil to the space mission to Mars
Already this Tuesday, at 6:00 p.m., anthropologist Ivan Golovnev (specialist in ethnographic documentaries) will lead viewers through the land of the Udehe, indigenous people of the Russian Far East. Elizabeth Formaggini directs 'Uma familia Ilustre', a chilling conversation between Eduardo Passos, psychologist and human rights activist, and Claudio Guerra, a policeman who murdered and incinerated opponents of the Brazilian dictatorship. "I am happy to participate in this festival, because it is a very important moment to screen this film. Today (this Monday) the interruption of Dilma Roussef's mandate is being voted on in the Brazilian congress. I believe that this film helps to understand the political history of my country; to reflect on the past so that it never happens again," said the filmmaker. 'Mars Closer' accompanies Paul Leeming and Pauls Irbins, two participants in the private space mission that plans to settle on Mars in 2024. A spectacular documentary that premiered at the prestigious Visions du Réel.
Animator Christoph Horch grew up in a rural area that helped him develop his imagination. The world of children, their hopes and fears are the center of his work. This is demonstrated in 'Streuner', which will open the animated section at 7:00 p.m. It will be followed by 'Peripheria', by David Coquard-Dassault (awarded in Cannes) and the metaphorical and forceful 'The reflection of power', a short with a magnificent trajectory: special mention at the Clermont-Ferrand festival and selected in Locarno, Rotterdam and the Barcelona Independent Film Festival. The pass will end with 'Jila', a work produced by the Media Ars Academy of Cologne, and with 'Many Chances', the video clip that Nicolas Sean Fong (renowned author of gifs and animated mandalas) has developed for the music group BRNS.
"We are a generation that is no longer so defined by national borders, but by cultural ones," says Pedro Collantes, director of 'Nothing stranger', a short co-produced by Spain, China and the Netherlands, selected in Rotterdam and the Seminci in Valladolid. Fresh air is what 'Call me Johnny, please' brings; it will be followed by 'De vuelta' (best first work at the Rewind festival) and 'Bla bla, bla', winner of Cortogenia and one of the best shorts of 2015, according to Fotogramas magazine.
"It is an honor that our short is screened at the FICL. 'Don't mess with the sharkies' is a horror film with elements of black comedy," explains Richard Raberlauer, director of a mockumentary with a message: there is nothing more terrifying than reality. It will be followed by the Swedish film 'Champion'; the 'Leona' by Mexican filmmaker Davek Carrizosa and 'The beasts wandering under the laurels leaves', by self-taught Théo Gottlieb.
