This exhibition is expresses, from a simple display, the multiple appropriation of cinema by art. And not only of the obvious, but also of certain invisible mechanisms that succeed in vibrating and modifying each one of these pieces.
Selection of audiovisual works made in 2018/2019 at the Larrotxene Cultural Centre.
The Screening of Chinese Opera Films at 67th San Sebastian International Film Festival was sponsored by the Shanghai Film Distribution and Exhibition Association.Shanghai Film Distribution and Exhibition Association was established in June 2013. It undertakes government functions and is committed to industry management and cultural exchanges with foreign countries. Chinese opera is the quintessence of Chinese culture. It is one of the most representative, unique and popular cultural heritages in Chinese traditional culture. The four China opera films are shown in this section which are all one of the best Chinese opera films in recent years. They all show the elegance of Chinese opera in the form of films.
The Kursaal Press Club will host a presentation of the film El verano que vivimos. Images will be screened and the film team will answer the journalists’ questions. In El verano que vivimos, a series of mysterious death notices falls into the hands of a young female journalist. They are never signed. They are always dedicated to a certain Lucía. They reveal a tale of love, friendship and betrayal which took place in the vineyards of Jerez during the summer of 1958. An immortal love that its protagonists, despite the fact that forty years have passed, don’t want to forget. Some moments last for a lifetime.
The image assembles 61 photographs, the majority in black and white, in which the actor John Malkovich transforms into the people who protagonised some of the most iconic images in the history of photography (Albert Einstein, Che Guevara, John Lennon, Andy Warhol, etc.), selected and produced by the photographer Sandro Miller.
On Saturday, September 21, the San Sebastian Festival will host the presentation of the first images of Patria, the television adaptation of Fernando Aramburu’s bestselling novel. The series consists of eight episodes written and produced by Aitor Gabilondo. Directed by Félix Viscarret and Óscar Pedrada and starring Elena Irureta, Ane Gabarain, José Ramón Soriz, Iñigo Aranbarri and Susana Abaitua, among others, the series is filmed in locations in the Basque Country and Madrid.
Patria tells the tale of Bittori and her family, whose lives change completely the day ETA kills her husband, Txato, on their doorstep.
The San Sebastian Festival, in collaboration with the San Telmo Museum and the Parenting at Film Festivals community, and the support of CIMA (Association of Women Filmmakers and Women in Audiovisual Media), promotes Puxika Gorria / El Globo Rojo (The Red Balloon), a childcare service for accredited Festival guests.
Twinned with Le Ballon Rouge, the Cannes Festival initiative, Puxika Gorria / El Globo Rojo will offer a space of 100 m2 at the San Telmo Museum. Said museum is one of the Festival’s main hubs, home of activities for Industry professionals, such as the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum.
The space, organised by a company of professional carers who will look after the sons and daughters of accredited guests in Basque, Spanish and English, will remain open from 10:00 to 18:00 between the 20 and 28 September for children between the ages of 6 months and 6 years. The childcare service will have a breast-feeding area and a meeting point for mothers and fathers.
The service will cost 50 euros per child for the whole Festival. Sixteen-hour vouchers will also be available at a cost of 30 euros.
“Family-friendly services are gradually coming to festivals too. Modestly, with this childcare service, we want to add our grain of sand to achieving fairer and more inclusive social development”, said the Festival Director, José Luis Rebordinos.
“At Parenting at Film Festivals we’re very happy to collaborate with Puxika gorria / El Globo Rojo at the San Sebastian Festival. We hope it contributes to work-life balance in our industry and serves as an inspiration for society in general", say the Parenting at Film Festivals co-founders: Sarah Calderón, Michelle Carey, Aurélie Godet and Olimpia Pont-Chafer.
The documentary Santuario (Sanctuary) directed by Álvaro Longroria (Dos Cataluñas, The Propaganda Game) and starring Javier and Carlos Bardem, will screen in the San Sebastian Festival’s Other Activities section. Produced by Javier Bardem, Carlos Bardem and Álvaro Longoria, Santuario is the story of how to create the biggest marine sanctuary on earth, in the Antarctic Ocean, through a media, scientific and political campaign aiming to protect the last remaining pristine area on the planet. “In the 21st century we are constantly bombarded with information. The social media and the Internet have changed the way any message is communicated to all corners of the world. The environmental struggle can’t stay on the sidelines of this kind of tools for mobilising people to support these causes”, say the film’s producers. The director, with the Bardem brothers, will introduce the film on Thursday 26, in the Victoria Eugenia Theatre.
Santuario is a production by Morena Films and Pinguin Films intended to address the environmental problem occurring in the Antarctic Ocean. The documentary is filmed in English and Spanish in numerous locations in Antartica, Madrid, Berlin and London.
Keler, the San Sebastian Festival's official beer since 2015, will this year offer silent screenings, free of charge, at which the public can enjoy the films while drinking the beer from San Sebastian. The bill is double, with two films programmed in the Zinemira section: Elcano y Magallanes: la primera vuelta al mundo / Elcano and Magellan: The First Voyage Around the World, and Soinujolearen semea (The Accordionist's Son).
The first round-the-world trip. A voyage into the unknown which began in the command of Magellan and was completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano. Storms, hunger, tribes... Five ships set sail from Seville. Three years later, only one made it back. An incredible adventure around a planet whose round shape was finally demonstrated.
David Imaz had to flee from the Basque Country in the mid-seventies, repudiated by his people, accused of betrayal. Despite having found happiness in California, his past still weighs heavily on him and the feeling of guilt prevents him from being able to peacefully enjoy the last days of his life. Joseba Altuna, his childhood friend, comes to say goodbye and to settle the score while he's at it. It's been a long time since they saw one another, but the time has come to face the truth. Based on the novel of the same name by Bernardo Atxaga.
El último adiós de Bette Davis / When Bette Davis Bid Farewell, directed by Pedro González Bermúdez, reconstructs the actress's visit to the San Sebastian Festival to receive the Donostia Award in 1989. Enclosed in her room for six days, she planned every detail of her public appearances, perhaps in the knowledge that it could be her last performance. She died only a few days later in a Paris hospital. That visit, surrounded by unforgettable moments and anecdotes, soon became one of the great legends in the Festival's history. The documentary is produced by TCM, a pay-TV network offering a selection of the greatest movies of all time. With close ties to the San Sebastian Festival, TCM was formerly the sponsor of the Audience Award and of the Zinemaldia Get-togethers. At the 2019 edition it will sponsor the Youth Award.