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Selections
from L'Alternativa Festival
curated by Elena de la Vara, Barcelona
PROGRAM
SPONSORED BY INSTITUTO CERVANTES DE CHICAGO
Wednesday, March 5 at the Chicago Cultural Center 6:30pm
Saturday, March 8 at Heaven Gallery 3:00pm
Every 3 minutes a film festival is inaugurated somewhere in the world, so naturally
one has to consider what the role of a film festival is nowadays; audience,
filmmakers and organizers reflect on the intentions, programming, criteria and
dream of the event. It’s a reflection we make each year at L’Alternativa,
and we reiterate our stance: the need to create spaces, bring together people,
watch films, talk, not only about films; because there’s still a need
to celebrate and in so doing, make visible a film culture which is personal,
innovative, committed, controversial and vital. What unites the films and authors
presented at L’Alternativa, is their loyalty to the need to make
films without concession to commercial production values, despite the many restrictions.
L’Alternativa takes pleasure in opening the screens to not always
easy pleasures....
Hidden Star by Peter-Conrad-Beyer. 16mm, 9min. Germany 2002
compleks@web.de
Hidden Star is the hidden star you find after the battle with yourself. It is
in every one of us-surely you can light it up!
Pommes d'Amour by Nicolas Provost. DV, 5min, Belgium / Norway 2001
'provost@online.no'
A series of 3 mirror image videofilms about love and sorrow, narcissism, loss
and Freud’s anal phase. UIT rewritten synthetic dialogues and recomposed
sound-image the filmmaker uses scenes from Alain Resnais and Ingmar Bergman
films to evoke a surreal, alienating and bizarre nostalgic mood.
Texas Sunrise by Luis Escartin. DV, 17min, Spain 2002
Visual Haiku of words and images as an outcast talks about ancient values, which
were apparently exterminated by capitalism. Ideals and the American dream confront
images of the desert and metallic ruins, as poetics and politics meet on dusty
highways.
Polsky Buty by Matt Hulse. 16mm, 4min. Scotland 2002
'unconsoled@hotmail.com'
God, it is sometimes said, can be found in the details. But human carácter,
secrets and dreams, I suspect, are revealed through what people wear on their
feet. The good polish people of Wroclaw show what they are made of, feet first,
through their lovely shoes. Kocham wasze polskie buty!
Telling lies by Simon Ellis. Betacam, 4:20min. UK 2001
simonellis@bubtowers.com
The morning after the night before, a rapid spiral of disastrous telephone conversations
chart the certain ruin of young Phil’s day as he attempts to fib his way
out of one scrape after another.
Freedub 1 by Stephane Elmadjian. DV, 8min. France 2002
'stephane.elmadjian@free.fr'
The animal is a thinking human.
God Save the Queen by Matt Hulse. 16mm, 4min. Scotland 2002
'unconsoled@hotmail.com'
A fresh version of the Sex Pistols’ classic of 1977, shot in British Sign
Language (BSL), and timed to coincide with the queen’s jubilee (50 years
on the throne). Silence is golden?
I must be beautiful too by Hester Scheurwater. DV, 3min. Holland 2002
hester.scheurwater@freeler.nl
The title gives a bitter meaning to the uneasy image of a women who is brushing
her hair over her face with fierce movements. Mostly, the face remains impersonally
hidden under her hair; when it is uncovered, we see how the rough scratches
of the brush against the skin have smeared her lipstick.
Casa Paco by Ignacio Nacho. 16mm, 8:10min, Spain 2001
europamerica@europamerica.jazztel.es
CASA PACO. At your disposal is a large room ideal for celebrating all types
of events: weddings, baptisms, communions...