Not all films are reduced to Hollywood cinema and cinema marketing chains, they are this and much more, the reason for which L’Alternative Festival is being celebrated again this year from the 12th to the 20th of November in Barcelona. This contest will allow participants to find out about film language, and screenings range from experimental to the most promising films in the future of cinema.
The festival features three official sections, with up to 60 films including feature length, short films, and documentaries, where the spectator will be able to watch different screenings from 24 different countries, in one of the only events where the film directors will be attending to help viewers understand and make comments about their powerful, emotional, hard, and risky films. This year’s highlight includes a line up of many Latin-American films, such as the Chilean film Huacho, the Mexican “Verano de Goliat”, and films from other countries such as the Romanian “Francesca” in the Europe section under realist dramas.
With regards to the documentaries, films such as Ràbbit a la Berlin, and La Boca del Lobo, amongst others will be competing for the seven European film title awards. In the short films section, there will be screenings from different countries such as Canada, Turkey, Bolivia, and Austria, with films such as Five Lessons and Nine Questions About Chinatown, and Yanqui Walker and the Optical Revolution, amongst the dozens of other competing films in this official section.
A great festival always has parallel sections comprising attractive activities for spectators and festival-goers and the L’alternativa is no exception. It has other sections including tributes, space for new and legendary film makers, retrospectives, and chats, etc. in which the tribute to the French filmmaker, Raymond Depardon, paying homage to his extensive filmography, has to be the highlight. L’alternativa will be paying particular attention to six of his films, such as Profils Paysans, and Reporters. In addition, this year the only film from Luis Miñarro, Blow Horn will be screened, as well three other Spanish titles regarding the brutal reality in for example Gaza, or the situation with the Georgia and Russian border.
And, the events don’t stop there. Film fanatics will have the opportunity to carry on watching free films in the Barcelona Contemporary Culture Centre (CCCB) hall that is going to be transformed into a Hall Screen and opened to the public. They will be able to watch films from festivals related to Film Exchanges, the presentation of advanced audiovisual projects such as Audiovisual Playtime, and Invisible Cinema, as well as watch diverse talks and conferences with film directors. There is even something for the kids in this L’ Alternative festival as they have a new section called Small Experiments aimed at children offering animated and 3D films, as well as origami with a heavy emphasis on learning to make children aware of, and instil a taste for alternative films from a young age.
We can enjoy all this and much more in Barcelona thanks to the L’Alternative Festival that is celebrating its 17th edition this time, and which has strengthened to now become a platform for giving the most daring, political, honest and universal films of top emerging creators on the national and international scene, a voice. A once in a lifetime opportunity for the most devoted film fanatics between the 12th and the 20th of November, in the Barcelona CCCB.
Claudia – Marketing Team
