Blog del Instituto Cervantes de Londres

The London Spanish Film Festival Spring Weekend returns from 1 to 4 June to Ciné Lumière for its 12th edition with three wonderful debut feature films.

These include Juan Diego Botto’s magnificent as well as important On the Fringe, which features powerful performances by Luis Tosar and Penélope Cruz, as well as the latest film by Cesc Gay, Stories Not to Be Told.
As part of the program, two special screenings: one paying homage to the genius of Pablo Picasso on the 50th anniversary of his death, and one about a very special journey of discovery by flamenco singer Niño de Elche.
The 19th edition of the London Spanish Film Festival will take place from 20 to 28 September 2023.

El cineclub virtual «Cita con el cine» comienza su programación de 2023 con Tótem loba, de Verónica Echegui.

La actriz y directora Verónica Echegui ganó el Premio Goya que otorga la Academia del cine español con este cortometraje basado en una experiencia real. Esta historia narrada en clave de thriller logra llevar este género a un terreno insospechado, con resultados inesperados.

Sinopsis: Estíbaliz acepta la invitación de su amiga del instituto, Raquel, a las fiestas de su pueblo. Lo que se presenta como un fin de semana divertido y excitante pronto se revela como una pesadilla, al descubrir Estíbaliz que en el pueblo de su amiga la tradición es que los hombres se disfracen de lobos y salgan a cazar a las mujeres durante la noche. Y lo que resulta más aterrador aún es que a nadie parece importarle ni alarmarle esta abominable costumbre.

La actividad está moderada por personal del Instituto Cervantes. Los encuentros, que tienen lugar en un chat en directo, cuentan con la participación de especialistas vinculados a la realización de la película (cineastas, guionistas…). ¡Disfruta del cine en español!

INFORMACIÓN

Fecha: Del 14/04/2023 al 28/04/2023

Observaciones: Actividad en línea. El visionado y la participación tendrán lugar en la plataforma del cineclub virtual de la red de bibliotecas del Instituto Cervantes. Se requiere estar en posesión de un carnet de biblioteca vigente.

Lugar: Plataforma del cineclub virtual

No te pierdas nuestro ciclo de cine en línea del mes de marzo, en el que celebramos el Goya de Honor de Carlos Saura, recientemente fallecido y uno de nuestros directores más internacionales. Podrás ver, desde el canal del Instituto Cervantes en Vimeo, cuatro de sus mejores películas, y comprobar cómo retrató a la perfección la España de la postguerra y difundió lo mejor de nuestra cultura fusionando el cine con la pintura, la música, la danza o el teatro. ¡Explora la obra de este increíble director!

La directora del London Spanish Film Festival, Joana Granero, nos invita a profundizar en la figura de Carlos Saura y enfatiza su admiración por él, no sólo por su increíble faceta como director de cine, sino también por su enorme generosidad como persona, constatada gracias a los muchos momentos que pudo compartir con el cineasta. La calidad como fotógrafo —pasión que acompañó a Saura toda la vida y que es fácil de reconocer en su costumbre de llevar siempre con él su cámara— y la sensibilidad musical que demostró en su última etapa creativa hacen de él un creador complejo y total.

Joana Granero Sánchez es fundadora y directora de Tristana Media. Después de graduarse en Derecho por la Universidad de Barcelona y vivir en Italia, se traslada a Londres, donde trabaja en publicidad y se gradúa con un máster en Teoría social y política en el Birbeck College. De su pasión por el cine nace el London Spanish Film Festival en 2005, llenando un hueco en el panorama cultural de Londres y presentando el mejor cine contemporáneo español en un contexto bien definido. En 2008, la Embajada de España en el Reino Unido le otorga la medalla de la Orden de Isabel la Católica en reconocimiento a su trabajo por el cine español. También es comisaria independiente y productora. Fashion&Cinema es otro de sus proyectos que desarrolla la relación entre moda y cine.

PROGRAMA COMPLETO vimeo.com/showcase/carlos-saura-goya-honor

▶️ 3 de marzo: «La caza» (1965) vimeo.com/794410731
▶️ 10 de marzo: «Bodas de sangre» (1981) vimeo.com/794481909
▶️ 17 de marzo: «Goya en Burdeos» (1999) vimeo.com/796563637
▶️ 24 de marzo: «Iberia» (2005) vimeo.com/795545160

HOJAS DE SALA cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/ciclo-carlos-saura.htm

Todos los títulos estarán disponibles en el canal de Vimeo del Instituto Cervantes durante 48 h, a partir de las 19.00 h [GMT, Londres] del día indicado. 
  
ORGANIZAN

Instituto Cervantes  
Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España

Blending resistance, dignity, science fiction, religion and mythology, CinemaAttic’s LANDSCAPES OF RESISTANCE is a programme of short films traveling across the globe to see how communities resist the ghost of progress and how our surroundings affect the way we live and inhabit this world – from Bolivia to Amazonian Brazil, to the West Sahara camps.

Watch the programme from the comfort of your home anywhere in the UK by purchasing an online pass valid 30 October – 6 November 2022!

La programación que dedica el Instituto Cervantes a la diversidad de género tiene una cita anual con este ciclo de cortometrajes que abordan diferentes aproximaciones a la realidad LGTBIQ+, y que se presenta en torno a la celebración del Día del Orgullo.

En esta edición, la madrileña Cinemateca Pedro Zerolo ha seleccionado siete obras que recuperan el espíritu militante y de sensibilización que tuvo este activista español, cuya trayectoria política ayudó a la promulgación de la ley del matrimonio homosexual. Además, el programa cuenta con el apoyo de Exterior es Diverso, la plataforma creada por personal LGTBI del Servicio Exterior español, así como por sus parejas y familias.

El ciclo «Encuentros diversos. Cortometrajes LGTBIQ+» recupera historias de vida que sirven para acercarse a personas de todas las edades, y especialmente a las que han tenido que huir de sus países por su condición sexual. En el ciclo predomina el género documental, pero también se presentan varios títulos de ficción; dos de ellos dirigidos por el cineasta Roberto Pérez Toledo, recientemente fallecido, cuya carrera fue prolífica y comprometida con la temática de este ciclo, por lo que su presentación quiere servir de homenaje a su figura.

Programa

· 8 de julio: Tarek (2021), de Anatael Pérez

· 12 de julio: Antes de la erupción (2020), de Roberto Pérez Toledo

· 15 de julio: Hidroalcohólico (2020), de Roberto Pérez Toledo

· 19 de julio: Yo soy una niña (2019), de Richard Zubelzu

· 22 de julio: Abriendo ventanas (2021), de Vicky Calavia

· 26 de julio: (A)Normal (2021), de Miguel Parra

· 29 de julio: Better Days (2021), de Fran Herrero Ansoleaga

Todos los títulos estarán disponibles en el canal de Vimeo del Instituto Cervantes durante 48 h, a partir de las 19:00 h [hora británica] del día indicado.

We are proud to support the screening of The Year of Discovery at Open City Docs Festival. The film proposes a counter-narrative to the official history of 1992, the year Spain hosted the Olympics in Barcelona.

Celebrate the #ArtofNonFiction at Open City Documentary Festival‘s 11th edition, which runs across London cinemas and venues 8-14 September. We’re delighted to partner with the festival to present a screening of The Year of Discovery / El año del descubrimiento (dir. Luis López Carrasco; 2020)
⁠
Shot entirely on Hi-8 videotape in a bar in Cartagena, The Year of Discovery is a monumental work which excavates the legacy of 1992, proposing a counter-narrative to the official history of the year that Spain hosted the Olympics in Barcelona, the universal exposition Expo’92 in Sevilla, and celebrated the quincentenary of Columbus’s arrival in the America. ⁠⁠

The Year of Discovery was hailed as one of the most important film works of 2020 and finally gets its first London cinema screening at the festival. ⁠⁠

Showing: 10 Sep | 20.00 | @ICAlondon ⁠⁠
⁠
To book tickets and find out more about the festival visit opencitylondon.com

This June we have been celebrating the centenary of Luis García Berlanga’s birth, one of the great filmmakers of Spanish cinema. His long and fruitful cinematographic career, his unmistakable signs of identity as a creator, his corrosive humour and his work in directing, make him one of the best classic filmmakers of 20th century Spanish cinema.

In our library, you can borrow some of his most iconic DVD movies such as «Placido», «El verdugo» and «Bienvenido Mister Marshall», among others, and some books about him.

In 1980, Luis García Berlanga was interviewed  in the TV programme A fondo:

We also recommend the consultation of Digitalia database – for users with a library card – where his name is mention in 140 books on Spanish cinema:

Digitalia (oclc.org)

Las grandes películas del cine español (oclc.org)

The 10th Spring Weekend of the London Spanish Film Festival comes back, 28 – 30 May 2021, after missing one very strange year, full of energy and positive vibes setting the mood for an exciting 17th edition in September.

To celebrate Spanish cinema and its artists, as part of this weekend, you’ll find the latest film by veteran Fernando Trueba, three impressive debuts by three promising women, a hopeful and moving reflexion on what life is… and a special screening of the latest treat from Maestro Almodóvar.

For the full programme go to www.londonspanishfilmfestival.com

LAS NIÑAS
Schoolgirls
dir. Pilar Palomero | with Andrea Fandos, Natalia de Molina, Zoe Arnao | Spain | 2020 | 97 min | cert. 15 | London premiere | In Spanish with English subtitles
Celia is an 11-year-old girl studying at a nun’s school in 1992. She’s a responsible student and a considerate daughter but the arrival of a new classmate will open a little window Celia is willing to look out from to discover about the outside world. Together with her group of friends she’ll give her first steps into adolescence and first-times even if that means confronting her mother and questioning everything that meant comfort and security. The film has won several awards among which Best Film, Best New Director, Best
Cinematography and Best Original Screenplay Goya Awards.
Fri 28 May | 6.30pm | £13, conc. £11

EL OLVIDO QUE SEREMOS
Memories of My Father
dir. Fernando Trueba, with Javier Cámara, Nicolás Reyes Cano, Juan Pablo Urrego | Colombia | 2020 | 136 min | cert. PG | In Spanish, Italian and English
with English subtitles | Distributed by Curzon
Trueba’s latest film tells the story of Héctor Abad Gómez, one of Colombia’s most beloved national heroes, through the eyes of his son. He balances a nuanced portrait of Abad Gómez’s family life in Medellín and the harsh reality of the country in the turbulent 1970s and 1980s, in which corruption is common and the government cannot be criticised. Based on the book written by Abad Gómez’s son, Memories of My Father is a memorable work, a love story and the portrait of a man fighting for the basic human rights of his
people: food, water and adequate shelter.
Fri 28 May | 8.35pm | £13, conc. £11
Sat 29 May | 5.50pm | £13, conc. £11

LA VOZ HUMANA
The Human Voice
dir. Pedro Almodóvar, with Tilda Swinton | Spain | 2020 | 30 min | cert. PG | In English and Spanish with English subtitles
Jean Cocteau wrote The Human Voice in 1928 and, since then, many artists have staged or filmed their own vision of this woman’s dramatic moments after her lover of the last few years leaves her to get married with to another woman. Almodóvar’s stunning version brings to The Human Voice his sense of aesthetics, of rhythm and his peculiar, subtle sense of humour, making the pièce his own. Chameleonic Swinton, in what seems a wonderful and perfect tuning with Almodóvar, captures the essence of his style bringing to it some
delightful British exquisiteness. A must.
The film will be followed by a 40 min video-Q&A with Pedro Almodóvar and Tilda Swinton with Mark Kermode. It will be preceded by a video-presentation by Prof. Maria Delgado
Sat 29 May | 4.15pm | £13, conc. £11

LA INNOCÈNCIA
La inocencia | The Innocence
dir. Lucia Alemany | with Carmen Arrufat, Laia Marull, Sergi López, Joel Bosqued | Spain | 2019 | 92 min | cert. 15 | London premiere | In Catalan and Spanish with English subtitles
Lis is a teenager whose dream is to become a circus artist and go traveling. While she knows she’ll have to confront her parents and fight for it, she spends the summer playing around with her friends and with her boyfriend, a few years older than herself and the relationship with whom she tries to keep hidden from the constant gossip of the neighbours. Lucia Alemany’s impressive first feature film is a fresh coming-of-age story that captures perfectly the rural and festive mood without losing any realism nor honesty.
Sat 29 May | 8.45pm | £13, conc. £11

MY MEXICAN BRETZEL
by Nuria Giménez | Spain | 2019 | 73 min | cert. PG | London premiere | In English
Giménez’s debut film offers, through archive footage of home made movies, a glimpse into the life of a wealthy European couple, Léon and Vivian Barrett, after WW2 and up to the 1960s. The quality of the footage is superb and is accompanied by text from Vivian’s diary offering details of their lives, her thoughts, gossip… Mesmerising and compelling, this is a clever work of direction and of editing by Giménez, and has won her, among others, the Found Footage Award at the Internation Film Festival of Rotterdam last year.
Sun 30 May | 6.10pm | £13, conc. £11

LA VIDA ERA ESO
That Was Life
dir. David Martín de los Santos, with Petra Martínez, Anna Castillo, Florin Piersic Jr., Ramón Barea | Spain/Belgium | 2020 | 109 min | cert. PG | UK premiere | In Spanish and French with English subtitles
When María and Verónica end up meeting and sharing a hospital room in Belgium, the only thing they have in common is that they are Spaniards who came to work to this country with the hope to find more opportunities than back at home. Slowly a bond grows between them and one of them will start a
journey to Almería, where the roots of the other are, initially to meet her family, finally to discover principles beyond those on which she had based her whole life. The film is poignant in his humble and intimate approach. The subtly nuanced acting of Petra Martínez in the lead role as a woman pushing herself
out of the boundaries of the role in which she felt confined, adds emotion to this wonderful film.
Sun 30 May | 7.55pm | £13, conc. £11

• The London-based organisation is continuing to hold its events despite the pandemic by screening the latest film from Margarita Ledo online
• On Wednesday 19 May there will be a live online Q&A with the director
• The film will be available from 15 to 23 May via Vimeo On Demand and only in the UK

The London-based Galician Film Forum (GFF) will be celebrating the Day of Galician Literature this year with the UK premiere of ‘Nación’, the latest film from Margarita Ledo. From 15 to 23 May, the film will be available on the platform Vimeo On Demand exclusively for viewers based in the UK. There will also be an online Q&A with the director on Wednesday 19 May at 7pm British time which will be shared live on the GFF’s social media channels. The event has been supported by the Office for Scientific and Cultural Affairs at the Spanish Embassy in London.

The film will be screened in Galician with English subtitles and viewers will be able to rent it for 48 hours for £3.95 (the number of tickets is limited). This screening takes place seven weeks after the film premiered at cinemas in Spain, where it is still showing. ‘Nación’ was shown for the first time at the 17 Festival de Sevilla where it won the prize for Best Direction of a Spanish Film. It has also received the Mestre Mateo 2021 award for Best Documentary.

A struggle without end

In this non-fiction film, Margarita Ledo looks into how long it took women to receive rights ‘not only to vote, but to attain a paid job and to have the opportunity to become independent. In summary, how long it took us to become Nation’. At the core of the film is the closure of the Pontesa ceramics factory in 2001 and how, twenty years after the long-awaited sentence on the pending debt claim, a group of workers recalls the symbol of their individual liberty, their economic freedom and their struggle as a union.

These workers have kept the fight for women’s rights in Spain alive in the twentieth century. Their life story is told through the presence of a sphinx, played by Eva Veiga, who seeks out the memories of the women working in the textile, ceramic and conserves industries and announces voices and archives that link different times and bodies together.

In ‘Nación’, archive images are interspersed with acted scenes from Mónica Camaño, Mónica de Nut, Laura Martínez Iglesias and Xoana Pintos. The film also includes some ex-workers from Pontesa including Nieves Pérez Lusquiños, Manuela Nóvoa Pérez, Ester García Lorenzo, Carmen Portela Lusquiños e Carmen Álvarez Seoane.

Margarita Ledo Andión (1951, Castro de Rei, Lugo) is a very important cultural figure who is known for her work as a filmmaker and a writer. She is also a professor in audiovisual communication at the University of Santiago de Compostela where she was also dean. Her first book, a book of poems called ‘Parloar cun eu,cun intre,cun inseuto’ was published in 1970 followed by further poetry, fiction essays and research.

She has founded and directed several publications that focus on the importance of the Galician language and tend to have a militant spirit behind them. Her filmography includes the two feature-length films ‘Santa Liberdade’ (2004), ‘Liste, pronunciado Líster’ (2007) and the fictional film ‘A cicatriz branca’ (2012) which was based on her novel ‘Porta Blindada’. She has also directed various experimental short films and documentaries. In 2017, the international film festival Documenta Madrid held a retrospective for her. She was awarded the National Prize of Galician Culture in cinema and audiovisual production in 2008 and the Otero Pedrayo award in 2017. She is also a fellow of the Royal Galician Academy.

Tickets ‘Nación’:https://vimeo.com/ondemand/nacion/