-
The release of the documentary about Pepe Dámaso, El pintor de calaveras, officially starts the Festival. Its director, Sigfrid Monleón, the painter Pepe Dámaso and the producer Andrés Santana will give a press conference tomorrow, Friday, April 6
-
El Gran Wyoming‘s presentation, 2RC Teatro‘s direction and the music of a renew Monkey Business Band will shape the opening ceremony of the Festival tomorrow, Friday, April 6, at 8 pm at the Pérez Galdós Theater
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria will begin tomorrow Friday, April 6, ten days of authentic film celebration: it starts the eigtheenth edition of its International Film Festival. The Pérez Galdós Theater, the Monopol Multiplex and the Elder Museum of Science and Technology’s screen will show 210 sessions of a total of 136 films -out of which 90 are features- thanks to which the audience will receive a quite approximate radiography of less conventional cinema’s current state and paths while giving a significant look to our past. In addition to the competitive sections -the Official one, with a notable Eurasian presence, and Canarias Cinema- the 18th edition of the festival includes the film series May 68, Red Star and Radu Jude 4½+4 -devoted to the Romanian filmmaker- as well as the regular Panorama, Panorama Spain, The Freakiest Night and The Magic Lantern, some sections whose programs, like those of the rest, can be found at lpafilmfestival.com.
The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival officially opens its eighteenth edition tomorrow Friday, April 6, in a ceremony that will take place at the Pérez Galdós Theater and in which the documentary film about prolific Gran-canarian painter Pepe Dámaso, El pintor de calaveras, is premiering. The film, directed by Sigfrid Monleón and produced by Andrés Santana, offers a new insight on the winner of the Canarias Fine Arts Award, “an island allegory about the artist’s plastic universe”, accordgin to Monleón. The film will be screened again on Sunday, April 8, at noon at the Monopol screen 4. The director Sigfrid Monleón, the painter Pepe Dámaso and the producer Andrés Santana will give a press conference tomorrow Friday, April 6, at 1:30 pm at the Pérez Galdós Theater.
In addition, in the morning the competitive section Canarias Cinema will start the screenings at the Monopol Multiplex with the feature films Raíces (Mi hoa Lee, Spain, 2017, 63 min.) and El mar nos mira de lejos (Manuel Muñoz, Spain, 2017, 93 min.).
It thus begins for Las Palmas de Gran Canaria an edition that will show in ten days 136 films -90 of which are features- in 210 sessions. The Pérez Galdós Theater, the Monopol Multiplex and the Elder Museum of Science and Technology’s screen will be the venues for the screenings, whose tickets are already for sale. In addition to the competitive sections -the Official one, with a notable Eurasian presence, and Canarias Cinema- the 18th edition of the festival includes the film series May 68, Red Star and Radu Jude 4½+4 -devoted to the Romanian filmmaker- as well as the regular Panorama, Panorama Spain, The Freakiest Night and The Magic Lantern, some sections whose programs, like those of the rest, can be found at lpafilmfestival.com.
Memories from those May events in France in the opening ceremony
Starting at 8 pm, El Gran Wyoming, a model of satyrical shows in Spanish television, will be the one in charge of conducting this 18th edition’s opening ceremony at the capital theater. An official presentation marked by the spirit of cultural agitation and formal and aesthetic breakdown of May 68, a historical landmark that now celebrates its 50th anniversary and in whose honor the Festival has prepared one of this edition’s film series: “May 68”. Music will undoubtedly contribute to such celebration, having a special protagonism during the opening ceremony with the renew Monkey Business Band. The group, born to musically dress the opening ceremony of the last edition of the Festival, changes in 2018 to pay musical homage to May 68. Under Sergio Miró’s direction -he will also be on drums- the Monkey Business Band shall revive the musical memory of that period with compositions that go from the French chanson to the soul and funk, the incendiary rock and even the popular song in Latin America.
2RC Teatro, one of the Canaries’ most renowned theatrical companies, will be in charge of the direction of the opening ceremony, under Rafael Rodríguez’s general coordination and José Luis Massó and Luis O’Malley’s stage and artistic direction.
El pintor de calaveras, a journey through Pepe Dámaso’s universe
Shot between 2016 and 2017 by the Valencian director, a four-time Goya nominee, El pintor de calaveras offers an unknown view on Pepe Dámaso, winner of the Canarias Fine Arts Award, whose works have reached theaters in Dakar, Lisbon, Copenhagen, New York, Paris, Venice, La Habana, Belgrade or Jerusalem. Monleón and Santana have followed the Gran-canarian artist through a journey that has taken him around different islands of the Archipelago, making him go along his past and present, while revealing new questions to the audience.
The film, according to Valencian screenwriter and film and theater director Sigfrid Monléon, feeds from the cultural and anthropological ferment of the landscape that saw the birth of the outstanding and prolific Dámaso (Agaete, 1933), who has managed to build an original plastic universe in which transience of life and art dissemination are bound together.
Monleón, author of works such as L’illa de l’holandès (2001) or the short film Adopción, within the multi-part feature Hay motivo (2004), thanks to which he was nominated to the Goya awards in the categories of Best Adapted Screenplay (2002) and Best Documentary Film (2005) , presents in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria his third documentary film alongside Gran-canarian producer Andrés Santana, a key figure of Spanish current cinema with whom he has made projects such as El último truco (2008), nominated to the Goya for Best Documentary Film, and Ciudadano Negrín, which went to some important festivals around the world.
The official section, supported by Cajamar Foundation, is opening with this out-of-competition film and then will continue with the screenings of twelve competing features from Saturday April 7 on, besides another title that, like El pintor de calaveras, will be shown out of competition, Hmyz [Insect] (Jan Svanjmajer, Czech Republic, 2018, 98 min.). The official section includes as well twelve competing short films.
The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival has in 2018 the support of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) [Spanish Cultural Action], through its Programa para la Internacionalización de la Cultura Española (PICE) [Program for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture]; the Canarian Government, through Canarias Cultura en Red [Canarias Culture in Network]; the inter-island council of Gran Canaria, through the Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria [Gran Canaria Economic Promotion Society] and the Gran Canaria Film Commission; the Cluster Audiovisual de Canarias, the Pérez Galdós Theater, the Elder Museum of Science and Technology, the Guiniguada Theater and the Canarian Film Library, as well as The Paper Club. The festival is sponsored by Cajamar Canarias Foundation, Hospitales San Roque, Dorada Especial and Binter, and it also has the collaboration of IOC Clínica Dental, Schweppes, Tirma, Mutua Tinerfeña, Jean Leon and Guaguas Municipales.
Share this Post