Who we are

We believe in what Gabriel García Márquez promulgated: “An education from cradle to grave, discontented and reflective, that inspires us with a new way of thinking and encourages us to discover who we are in a society that loves itself more”.

elParlante

The entity elParlante was born in Barcelona, in 2009, with the aim of designing, implementing and evaluating education + communication strategies to promote active citizenship.

ElParlante is inspired by all the theoretical and methodological work born in Latin America, which links participation, communication and popular education with social transformation.

elParlante was born from the need to work on media literacy , promoting a critical sense of the discourses of the mass media, as well as from the need to create alternative media narratives to talk about different realities and possible universes, made invisible by hegemonic narratives, emphasizing those citizens whose rights may be violated.

We understand education as a permanent instrument of social transformation: creative, emotional, participatory and popular, focused on the person and the construction process. Likewise, we understand communication as a Participation process through which two or more people exchange and share experiences, knowledge and feelings, even at a distance and through artificial means.

It is in the educational model where we think we can build paths of dialogue and of Encounter. We are therefore committed to transformative, ethical, responsible, supportive, optimistic, committed and empowering education + communication. Always emphasizing content, values and emotions, rather than technological advances.

MISSION

Contribute to the promotion of active citizenship and the construction of a more and better educated and communicated society, through the design, implementation and evaluation of awareness-raising, co-creation, training and communication strategies, supported by transmedia literacy, the use and appropriation of digital technologies and artistic expression. We develop our strategies through community action; formal, non-formal and leisure education; intercultural and intergenerational relations; labour insertion and health, among others.

VISION

Continue contributing to educational and social transformation, developing increasingly sustainable strategies, within a scalable system, with greater social impact, and without losing sight of the most local and specific of each group and context. We intend to be recognized as a reference entity in educommunication for active citizenship, in Barcelona, Catalonia and Europe and continue to strengthen the links of collaboration with Latin America, and other countries of the South.

VALUES

Professionalism and passion for what we do
Creativity, innovation and proactivity
Sensitivity and social commitment
Teamwork and networking with other entities
Intercultural and gender perspective
Intersectional perspective committed to the fight against all types of oppression and inequality based on gender, age, origin, sexual orientation and/or social class.

Who we are

Alfredo Cohen

Director

alfredo@elparlante.es

Social Communicator and Journalist. Master in Creative Documentary from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and PhD in Communication and Education from Pompeu Fabra University. Guest lecturer at UPF in Barcelona and Universidad del Norte, in Colombia. Writer and creator of our projects in educommunication. He is the founder and general coordinator of elParlante since 2009.

Leticia Pipman

Project coordinator

leticia@elparlante.es

Trained in Interpretation and Social Intervention Theatre in several schools in Buenos Aires and Barcelona. She has facilitated scenic creation processes in formal and non-formal education and has been a trainer in social intervention theatre. She has also worked in community artistic co-creation processes in different neighborhoods of Barcelona. At elParlante she has been accompanying audiovisual co-creation projects with young people and the elderly since 2016, and since 2023 she has coordinated the production of La GRAN pantalla, Barcelona International Senior Citizens Film Festival, and the Pantalla BDC film cycle.

Lian Subirat

Project Officer

lian@elparlante.es

Graduated in Audiovisual Communication from Pompeu Fabra University with a stay abroad at The University of Adelaide (Australia) and minor in Humanistic Studies of Literature. Postgraduate in Culture, Reading and Literature for children and young people from the University of Valencia. His interests lie in the intersections between cinema, communication, literature and other forms of culture, with the world of education.

Julio Serna

Management

gestion@elparlante.es

Architect with a specialization in city management and cultural policies from the Open University of Catalonia. He is taking the first cycle of doctoral studies at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya with the Thesis Proposal: “The generation of public space in unplanned settlements”. He runs www.depapel.org from where he has produced festivals and different cultural actions related to song and word. Currently, he is part of the plenary session of the BAM Acció Cultura Viva Festival in Barcelona.

Paula Torné

Communication technique

comunicacion@elparlante.es

Graduated in Audiovisual Communication and currently studying the Master’s in Gender and Communication at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She has collaborated in different film festivals in the city and has a great interest in communication, culture and education, while applying a feminist and intersectional perspective in the projects she participates in and in her personal life.

Usual allies

Awards and recognitions

2014 VI Awards for Diversity in Audiovisual

The Mesa per a la Diversitat en l’Audiovisual (MDA), promoted by the Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya (CAC), recognized on May 16, 2014 the work of elParlante in the VI Awards for Diversity in the Audiovisual. The project Dismantling, supported by the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, was developed and undertaken by the Consell de Nois i Noies de l’Hospitalet. In it, stereotypes from the media were discussed and videos were produced with a new educated look towards cultural diversity

2016 MIQUEL PORTER I MOIX AUDIENCE AWARD

The short film produced by Adrian Jay, participant in our Ravalead@s TV project in its second season, has received the special mention of the jury of the MIRADOCS EXHIBITION of Barcelona. The awards are aimed at the authors of documentaries where the city of Barcelona is the protagonist.

2018 VVII Garci Awards Gala

On June 29, the VII Garci Awards Gala was held at the SAT Teatre de Sant Andreu. This initiative of the District seeks to recognize the work of the institutions, entities and groups that work in the territory. The Proyecto Prisma – Navas en Acción, was awarded among several youth initiatives by “Antena Navas”, a popular newsreel made in a participatory way by the group of young people with whom elParlante works. The newspaper is a compilation of the opinions of local residents on the use of mobile phones, an institutional campaign to rethink its use and a short film that reflects on the myths of romantic love.

2023 FiraGran Foundation Prize in the Field of Communication

The XXII edition of the FiraGran Foundation Awards 2023 awarded La GRAN pantalla , Barcelona International Film Festival for the Elderly, for its task of organizing and promoting a festival that focuses on the problems and experiences of the elderly through the seventh art. These awards aim to recognize the career of older people active in different fields such as culture, sport, professional and social. They also take into consideration organizations that work for the elderly, as well as activities and initiatives that are carried out in favor of this group.

2014 BCNZOOM AWARD

Participating in TanjaZoom was the prize awarded by the jury of BcnZoom, a short film festival made jointly by the Casal dels Infants and the Consell de la Joventut de Barcelona. BcnZoom awarded the short film “An Instant” held within the framework of Ciutat Esperança, a project by elParlante in collaboration with the Community Plan of Ciutat Meridiana and the support of the Department of Community Action of the Barcelona City Council. The TanjaZoom Social Film Festival values and rewards the educational, social and cultural work carried out by youth associations in the Beni Makada neighborhood.

2017 CONTEST FOR COEXISTENCE AND SOCIAL COHESION

The community action project La Meri Productions, in which elParlante works accompanying and providing audiovisual advice to young people in Ciutat Meridiana, he was chosen as the winner of the Contest for Coexistence and Social Cohesion 2017, among eight proposals from the Nou Barris District. The contest is an initiative of the Xarxa 9Barris Acull that seeks recognition of the initiatives that work in the District for coexistence and the incorporation into the neighborhoods of new neighbors who have arrived with immigration.

2018 X JOSEP MARIA RUEDA AWARDS

The Area of attention to people, of the Diputació de Barcelona, held on November 27, 2018 the awards ceremony of the X edition of the Josep Maria Rueda Awards, in the Espai Francesca Bonnemaison. An initiative for the recognition of community intervention projects. elParlante won first place, out of 52 works submitted, for the project Ciutat Esperança, an initiative to raise awareness and audiovisual co-creation for young people, initially created for the Ciutat Meridiana neighbourhood and has spread to the entire North Zone of Nou Barris.

elParlante in the media

GROWING UP IN THE WORLD OF CINEMA, WITH FRANCESCA LLOPIS AND TERESA GIMPERA

The artist and model are two of the stars of La GRAN pantalla, a festival dedicated to the elderly and to growing up. Francesca Llopis is the centre of the film “Francesca i l’amor”, while Teresa Gimpera will receive the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

EVERYTHING MOVES TV3 04.07.2023

CINEMA AND THE ELDERLY IN TÍSNER SQUARE IN BETEVÉ

In the round table of this ‘Plaça Tísner’

we talk about old age taking advantage of the beginning of the International Film Festival of the Elderly of Barcelona with the producer, Leticia Pipman, Mario Torrecillas, screenwriter of “Loli Tormenta” and Marta Romero, director of “Toda una vida”.

BETEVÉ 29.06.2023

THE BIG SCREEN IS BACK, THE FILM FESTIVAL FOR THE ELDERLY

The BIG SCREEN, the International Film Festival of the Elderly of Barcelona celebrates its fifth edition and is consolidated as an intergenerational film meeting place to dismantle, through cinema, prejudices and stereotypes about the elderly. The program will offer thirty proposals, among which the screening of the film “20,000 species of bees”, winner of the award for best leading interpretation at the Berlinale, stands out.

LA VANGUARDIA 19.06.2023

HOPE CITY AMONG THE EIGHT ACTIONS TO REDUCE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INEQUALITY IN BARCELONA

Acord Ciutadà organized the conference ‘Culture: a tool for reducing social inequalities’, in which ElParlante participated with the City of Hope project. Representatives of various social entities have put on the table the necessary actions to face the social challenges of culture. From the debates held, eight proposals were drawn to take advantage of the social potential of culture.

XARXANET NEWS 30.01.2020

PHOTOGRAPHING ONESELF TO SHARE THE MIGRATORY MOURNING

Report on how elParlante developed the project Synchronize , with the students of the reception classroom of the Vall d’Hebron Institute, to work on their migration processes through photography. As a result of this process, we created an exhibition entitled “Migrant Objects” to give value to those objects that made part of or represent their journey. The article also highlights the testimonies collected in the Documentary made with teenagers.

PLURAL CATALONIA 01.10.2019

TVE REPORT DEDICATED TO THE FIRST SENIOR CITIZENS FILM FESTIVAL "LA GRAN PANTALLA"

The magazine “Las Mañanas de TVE” made a report at the opening of the first International Film Festival of the Elderly of Barcelona The Big Screen, its organizers and juries. This event, unique in our city, is an intergenerational and free space, created by elParlante, with the financial support of the Department for the Promotion of the Elderly of the Barcelona City Council.

LA 1 DE TVE 11.06.2019

THE GREAT COMPASS OF ONDA CERO DEDICATES A REPORT TO THE GREAT ELDERLY OF LES ROQUETES

The journalist Miguel Cáceres interviewed Palmira, Paquita and Maria, three residents of the neighborhood of Les Roquetes who participated in the project La Gran Gent Gran. On the radio program “La Gran Brúixola”, directed by Robert Calvo, they talked about the short film we made based on three situations in which they had received discrimination for reasons of age.

ONDA CERO 27.03.2019

THE BARRIS FAMILY VISITS CIUTAT MERIDIANA TO MEET THE YOUNG WOMEN OF CIUTAT ESPERANÇA

The famous Betevé program “La Família Barris” has dedicated the last episode to the neighborhood of Ciutat Meridiana, where we developed the Ciutat Esperança project more than 6 years ago. The presenter Laura Sangrà interviewed four young people from the neighborhood who are part of it, to the director of elParlante and the educator of the North Zone Community Plan.

BETEVÉ 15.02.2019

"I AM PHOTOGRAPHER" AN EXHIBITION TO BREAK STEREOTYPES ABOUT THE ELDERLY AND GROWING OLD

The Espai Jove Boca Nord del Carmel has inaugurated the exhibition “I am a photographer”. The exhibition presents a collection of photographs of elderly people taken by young people from the neighborhood. They are the result of a workshop in which participants have learned to take photographs, but have also reflected on the fact of getting older. The initiative is part of the project I’m old, and what?, which encompasses different activities in the field of seniors.

BETEVÉ 29.01.2019

ELPARLANTE WINS FIRST PLACE IN THE RUEDA AWARDS OF THE DIPUTACIÓ DE BARCELONA

The Area of Attention to People of the Diputació de Barcelona presented the X Rueda Awards in recognition of the community intervention work of various entities in Barcelona. elParlante won first place for the project Ciutat Esperança, which has become a meeting place for young people from all over the North Zone of Nou Barris.

LA VANGUARDIA 28.11.2018

OCUPA'T BCN: A PROJECT TO PROMOTE THE LABOR INSERTION OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE NORTH ZONE

Ocupa’tBCN is a project carried out with young people, in the process of training and labor insertion in kitchen and catering, from the Centre Cruïlla de Zona Nord. The proposal was to give them new tools, audiovisual and personal marketing, to promote their own image in networks and in front of their future employers. To achieve this, all the entities working in the territory have joined forces: Salesians, Youth Foundation, Zona Nord Community Plan, Pla de Barris and Barcelona City Council.

LA VANGUARDIA 28.11.2018

AN AUDIOVISUAL PROJECT BRINGS YOUNG PEOPLE CLOSER TO NAVAS

Young people and adolescents from the Navas neighborhood have worked, for the second consecutive year, issues related to classism, racism, machismo, gender diversity and cultural diversity. It has been within the framework of the Proyecto prisma – Navas en acción. The result of this year has been ‘Antena Navas’, a news program in which they have addressed the use of mobile phones or the idea of romantic love under the prisms worked in groups.

BETEVÉ 18.04.2018

USERS OF THE CASAL DE GENT GRAN CAN NOVELL SHOOT A SHORT FILM

The Great Seniors group He has made a short film to break the myths surrounding the elderly. The project, led by the entity elParlante and the district of Les Corts, aims for older people to work on the clichés and prejudices that they believe exist about getting older, such as that they cannot control their money without help or that they do not fall in love. All this has been captured in a short film in which they have been in charge of writing the script and acting.

BETEVÉ 20.06.2017

A CITY WITH HOPE

Claim the potential of a neighborhood, a very young neighborhood, to banish stigma. With this objective, Ciutat Esperança was born, a project promoted by the Community Plan of Ciutat Meridiana and the ElParlante association, in collaboration with the Centre Cruïlla. The initiative seeks the involvement of young people in the community through the creation of videos and audiovisual projects that reflect the social diversity and strengths of the neighborhood in the face of stereotypes and negative visions of it.

EL PERIÓDICO 02.11.2016

YOUNG PEOPLE PHOTOGRAPH THE ESPERANZA CITY, THE MOST POSITIVE VISION OF CIUTAT MERIDIANA

The group of young people from Ciutat Esperança show in 38 photographs the most positive and beautiful aspect of their neighborhood: solidarity, nature or the friendliness of the neighbors. This project, coordinated by the collective El Parlante and the Community Plan of Ciutat Meridiana, aims to turn around the negative image we have of the neighborhood, closely linked to evictions and the crisis. The Zona Nord Civic Center exposes this month the embodiment in images of the vision that young people have in their neighborhood, an exhibition they have entitled “City of Hope, neighborhood portraits”.

BETEVÉ 02.10.2015

THE SPEAKER

A whole world interviews Alfredo Cohen as director of elParlante. The collective bets on some of its projects such as Barribook TV or Ravalead@s for intercultural dialogue; in an intercultural city like Barcelona. The result is a debate among young people about the stereotypes and visions assigned to people and groups of different origins, workshops where the active participation and audiovisual expressiveness of the young participants are enhanced.

TV3 16.07.2013 A WHOLE WORLD

AGAINST RUMORS

Jéssica González, member of elParlante and youth promoter in the Xarxa BCN Antirumors, talks with the volunteer Cesca Camps in Tot un Món, also an anti-rumour agent. Her activity combats the rumorology present in the media and society towards the immigrant population, based on stereotypes and prejudices.

TV3 15.07.2011 A WHOLE WORLD

Transparency

elParlante was born in 2009 as an entity in Barcelona, with the aim of designing, implementing and evaluating education + communication strategies to promote active citizenship. Inspired by all the theoretical and methodological work born in Latin America, which links participation, communication and popular education with social transformation.