• The twenty-third edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival offers the opportunity to watch an exquisite selection of titles that will not have a theatrical release in the archipelago
• LPGCIFF’s catalog and schedule are available at lpafilmfestval.com
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Monday, April 15, 2024. “Panorama”, the section of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival that tracks auteur cinema navigating the circuit of prestigious festivals, will show in the city “the best” of 2023 with 8 works that are “out of the public spotlight, blurred on the map of Spanish commercial theaters,” according to the programmer of this non-competitive section, Jose Cabrera.
Eight are the works selected for this international section, which Cabrera describes as “a compass of the best festival cinema.” They are feature films that have not yet arrived at Spanish theaters, through which the LPGCIFF will provide its audience an opportunity to get closer to the universe of several great filmmakers.
In the twenty-third edition of the film event, “Panorama” will show the latest work by Hong Sang-soo, returning to the Festival for yet another year, and by filmmakers Tatiana Huezo, Lisandro Alonso, Michel Franco and Radu Jude. In addition, three debut features by co-directors Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross, Asmae el Moudir and Sean Price Williams will premiere in our country as part of this section.
The first of the selected films is El Eco (The Echo) (Tatiana Huezo, Mexico, Germany, 2023, 102 min.). El Eco is a community in Puebla (México) that is home to around a hundred inhabitants. Through an immersive and humanistic gaze, Tatiana Huezo focuses on the children who live there and the difficulties that threaten families in a place trapped in a time where people still live in harmony with the cycles of nature. A story, Cabrera notes, “that takes us on a journey through the nature of a magical town, with some sequences that leave the audience breathless while sharing primary emotions.”
It will be followed by the co-production Eureka (Lisandro Alonso, France, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Portugal, 2023, 146 min.), a journey through the American continent with Eureka, a bird that flies through time and space. Three stories told “with a challenging narrative, visual excellence and a shamanic symbology permeating the entire story,” according to the catalog text.
Gasoline Rainbow (Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross, USA, 2023, 108 min.) tells the journey of 825 kilometers undertaken by five recently graduated high school teenagers from a small town in Oregon. The film is a true ode to rebellion, freedom, and youth, and, at times, we forget that it’s fiction, as it touches on feelings and situations inherent to that stage of life. This is the first joint work by the Ross brothers.
Another debut feature, which was awarded Best Documentary at Cannes, is Kadib Abdyad (The Mother of all Lies) (Asmae el Moudir, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, 2023, 97 min.). In this feature film, filmmaker Asmae El Moudir cites family and friends to discover why she keeps only one photo from her childhood. This investigation leads her to the traces left by the Casablanca riots in 1981, with hundreds of victims, and she connects her memory with the collective one.
Cine Yelmo Las Arenas will also screen Memory (Michel Franco, Mexico, USA, 2023, 99 min.). Its main character, Sylvia, a social worker with a quiet and orderly life, takes a turn when she meets Saul again at a high school reunion. The encounter impacts both of them and reopens a buried past.
The programmer of “Panorama” has once again put his trust in Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo and thus brings to the 23LPGCIFF his latest work Mul-an-e-seo (In Water) (South Korea, 2023, 61 min.), “an out-of-focus film.” In it, a young Korean actor decides to leave acting and make a self-financed short film. Accompanied by two former classmates, he arrives on Jeju Island without knowing what to shoot. Impacted by the sighting of a woman collecting trash on the coast, his brief encounter with her will mark his film.
Furthermore, the dramatic comedy Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfîrșitul lumii (Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World) (Radu Jude, Romania, Luxembourg, France, Croatia, 2023, 163 min.), “the most surprising film within the auteur cinema ecosystem last season,” according to Jose Cabrera, will arrive at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival. “An acidic approach of the bowels of contemporary labor work and male chauvinism on social media (and outside it),” as he describes it. This title features Angela, an exploited production assistant who drives through the streets of Bucharest on her way to shoot a video on workplace safety that a multinational has commissioned her to do. He convinces Marian to tell the story of his accident in front of the cameras, but the result is unexpected.
And finally, this non-competitive section will screen Sean Price Williams’ first production The Sweet East (USA, 2023, 104 min.), “an X-ray under the hallucinogenic effects of the new American sociopolitical currents, its fears and desires,” as stated in the edition’s catalog. High school student Lillian escapes during her end-of-year trip on a journey along the East Coast of the United States. Throughout her journey, she encounters all sorts of colorful characters – such as white supremacists or religious extremists, who peculiarly bring us closer to discovering contemporary America. An unabashed, wild and mischievous satire.
The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, organized by the Culture area of the Gran-Canarian capital’s City Council through Promoción de la Ciudad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has received public assistance by the ICAA [Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts], the program for the internationalization of Spanish culture, PICE Visitantes, of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), from the Consejería de Universidades, Ciencia e Innovación y Cultura del Gobierno de Canarias, as well as public support from Promotur Turismo Islas Canarias.
Among the Festival’s collaborators we may find Fundación Auditorio Teatro, Cines Yelmo, Las Arenas Shopping Center and Hotel Cristina by Tigotan, places which also function as venues or hold activities of the film event; as well as other institutions and companies such as Sagulpa, Hospitales San Roque, Jameson, Ikigai, Cientouno Group, el Centro de Cultura Audiovisual de Gran Canaria, Audiovisuales Canarias, Music Library &SFX, Blackout Films and International Bach Festival. Likewise, its market, MECAS, has been possible thanks to the sponsorship of the Gran Canaria Film Commission-Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria and the support of Canary Islands Film and Proexca.
The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Mid Atlantic University, the CIFP Felo Monzón Grau-Bassas, the Canary Islands Film Institute, the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas, Digital 104, the Audiovisual Cluster of the Canary Islands, CIMA Asociación de Mujeres Cineastas y de Medios Audiovisuales, the Cartagena International Film Festival, the Gijón International Film Festival, the Barcelona Independent Film Festival and Very Good Script are also collaborators.
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