email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

MÁRGENES 2019

The ninth Márgenes kicks off and flaunts its audacious side

by 

- The festival of free-spirited Spanish and Latin American film begins on 20 November and continues online, free of charge, until 8 December, with Paulo Rocha as one of the honourees

The ninth Márgenes kicks off and flaunts its audacious side
Andrómedas by Clara Sanz

Starting today, 20 November, and unspooling for the next month in Madrilenian cinemas (and until 8 December via its website – with viewings of the films in its official section free of charge), the ninth edition of Márgenes is about to unfurl a programme that is tantalising and alternative in equal measure, offering movies that are not easily pigeonholed and that refuse to submit to the yoke of mainstream cinema. All we need do is mention, by way of example, one of its honourees, Portugal’s Paulo Rocha, because, as stated by festival director Diego Rodríguez, “We find ourselves in a time when the core of audiovisual production has been colonised by cloned, uniform products based on tastes that have been predetermined by algorithms. It’s precisely during this paradigm shift and, perhaps, during these changing times when the margins, the fringes, make more sense, and that’s where the most creative, authentic, suggestive and free-spirited films are born. There’s not just one single gaze, but rather multiple perspectives. And a lot of those can be found in Márgenes.”

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Standing out in its official section, among a selection of Spanish and Latin American movies, are Spanish features such as De barrio by Xurxo Chirro, which has just been taking part in the Gijón and Mar del Plata Film Festivals; Andrómedas [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Clara Sanz, about her grandmother’s relationship with her Ecuadorian carer; 7 limbos, described by its creators – Alexandre Cancelo and Berio Molina – as “a sonic journey through spectral veneers”; Double Me [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Felipe Rugeles, a co-production with Colombia about disagreements between colonists and the colonised; and Portugal’s Ordinary Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Susana Nobre, or the circle of life as narrated by various different people.

Another particularly interesting strand at the ninth Márgenes is the Escáner (“Scanner”) section, which will unspool in the Matadero Cineteca and will screen the crème de la crème of the recent and very varied crop of independent Spanish cinema, including the documentary Glittering Misfits [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, about the world of burlesque, directed by Iban del Campo; The Perseids [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Ànnia Gabarró and Alberto Dexeus, a fiction title about a teenage girl who finds out about the phantasmagorical past of her father’s hometown; the fantasy-satire Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miguel Llansó
film profile
]
, the second film by Miguel Llansó, following the rather trippy Crumbs [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
; White on White [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Théo Court
film profile
]
by Théo Court, a co-production with Chile shot on the Canary Islands and in Tierra del Fuego; Work, or to Whom Does the World Belong [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
by Elisa Cepedal, which has just been presented at Gijón; Arima [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaione Camborda
film profile
]
by Jaione Camborda, which won an award at the Seville Film Festival; and Endless Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eloy Enciso
film profile
]
by Galician director Eloy Enciso, the acclaimed director of Arraianos [+see also:
trailer
interview: Eloy Enciso and Carlos Esbert
film profile
]
(2012).

Mention must also be made of the MRG//WORK sidebar, a project-development forum that, at its fifth edition, is once again putting independent Spanish and Latin American filmmakers in contact with sales agents, producers, programmers and other professionals who may be able to help to make their works a reality. This year, six projects have been selected: Muyeres (Spain) by Marta Lallana, who rose to fame as the (co-)director of Ojos Negros [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marta Lallana, Ivet Castelo
film profile
]
, and who is teaming up once again with musician Raül Refree; Miraba caer las gotas iluminadas por los relámpagos, y cada vez que respiraba suspiraba, y cada vez que pensaba, pensaba en ti (Mexico) by Pepe Gutiérrez, a blend of fiction and documentary that explores the ever-thorny issue of colonialism; Pepe, la imaginación en el tercer cine (Dominican Republic) by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias, a ghost story set in the Colombian jungle; El cielo en la Tierra (Spain) by María Antón Cabot, which broaches human beings’ limits and those of the universe itself; Sobre las nubes (Argentina) by María Aparicio, featuring a rainy city and four protagonists who don’t know each other; and the documentary-cum-experimental noir essay En busca de…La ciudad perdida (Spain/Colombia) by the collective known as ¡Maldito cine!, which reclaims long-forgotten Spanish celluloid.

More information about Márgenes 2019, and all of its sections and activities, can be found here.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from Spanish)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy