Fear: Esther Pedrós Martorell
Press Chief of The BIG Screen!
Barcelona will host, from June 6 to 9, 2019, La GRAN pantalla, the International Film Festival of the People Mayor. This new cultural event will be free and will be held at Cinemes Girona, one of the benchmark venues in the city.
This festival, unique in Barcelona, wants to offer A space for the elderly and, at the same time, seeks to become A place of intergenerational cinematographic encounter that allows to dismantle the prejudices and stereotypes about older people that spread the mass media, especially television and advertising.
In this way, with a thematic focus on the representation of older people, the Festival seeks stories that contribute to generating new readings and discourses, to go beyond the conventional representations that are usually associated with this stage of life and diversify existing perspectives. Likewise, poorly visible intersections will be placed on screen, such as ‘older LGTBIQ+ people’, ‘migrant older people’ and ‘older people and feminisms‘, among others.
The BIG screen is a space for dialogue, meeting, reflection, leisure. A place to share stories, to appreciate them, to reflect on them and look at ourselves with dignity,” says Katherina Harder, the Festival’s artistic and programming director. “On the other hand, the Barcelona International Film Festival for the Elderly is an opportunity to recognise the cinematographic work of older people and young people who are interested in their stories”, adds Harder.
The selected films and the different colloquiums that will take place during the festival will allow reflection, analysis, understanding, thinking, looking and offering new cheerful, fresh and positive looks at people in their aging process.
The Big Screen is an original idea of
elParlante
with the economic support of the Barcelona City Council, and has the special collaboration of Cinemes Girona, Goethe Institut, Fundació FiraGran, Festhome, Iosphera, ACRA, Caramel Films, Compacto, Fundació Enllaç and Cactus docs.
The programn of La Gran Pantalla will have an international exhibition of largometrajes and an international competitive section of short films, and will be divided into 5 sections: Opening Film; Closing Film; Official Section of Largometrajes; Official Short Section (international competition) and Cine Forum Section.
The film that will open La Gran Pantalla 2019 is Many children, a jumpsuit and a castle , the documentary feature film by Gustavo Salmerón, winner of the Goya for Best Documentary Film 2108. For its part, the film that will close this edition is Visages, Villages (Caras y Lugares), the latest documentary by Agnès Varda. “We want to close the Festival by paying tribute to a filmmaker who until her 90 years of life has worked making films with a unique degree of reflection and from an empathy that stands out in all her films”, explains Katherina Harder.
As for the Official Section of Feature Films , fiction and documentary genre films will be shown, which tell stories starring older people and provide a new look at vejez. Productions from Colombia, Japan, Mexico and Germany. Podéis consultar o también descargar la parrilla de programación.
The Official Selection of Short Films is made up of eighteen films, selected from more than 200 that have been received in this call, which will compete in the category of Best Short Film Award La GRAN pantalla, Special Mention of the Jury (if applicable) and Audience Award. “From this selection, we would like to highlight that all films are made by young
directors
who portray older people and create a very valuable intergenerational bond,” Harder said. With this selection of short films made in Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Peru, and narrated from fiction, documentary and animation, the audience of La Gran Pantalla will travel through different cultures, characters and different views with many touches of humor. You can check the titles in this link.
Finally, in the
Cine Foro Section
Films will be screened accompanied by a colloquium with guests from the world of culture and the social field, with whom, together with the audience, will talk about topics of great current interest and little visible. In this edition of The Big Screen, we will have two colloquiums: “older LGTBIQ + people” and “older people and feminisms“.
The Festival La GRAN Pantalla is an original idea of elParlante, who has been working for 10 years with young people from different neighborhoods of Barcelona and with older people, developing participatory projects from an independent perspective, linking various sensitivities in the same context. Interculturality, ageism, intergenerational relationships or gender diversity are some of the intersections that are currently being worked on.
The Festival is free, with limited capacity.