The VIII edition of the Cali International Film Festival, taking place in the Colombian capital between 10th and 14th November, includes a special series entitled POLLET. HOME AND THE WORLD, dedicated to the work of French cineaste Jean Daniel Pollet (1936-2004). This programme, included as part of the Close-Up section (Retrospectives and focal points representative of important directors), includes six sessions and is curated by the filmmaker and scheduler Guillermo G. Peydró, member of the selection committee for the Official Section of Punto de Vista.
The retrospective on Pollet shown in February 2016 as part of the X edition of Punto de Vista was the first of its kind in the world dedicated to this French filmmaker following his death. Pollet is one of France’s best-kept secrets. Through a total of six sessions, visitors to the festival in Pamplona were able to enjoy the images and ideas of his fascinating work of constant re-writing and critical re-reading. The series was part of a dialectic of travel and confinement, trance and immobility, marking as a turning point the train accident that involved the director in 1989, following which, the filmmaker who had journeyed 35,000 km to film the memoire of the Mediterranean was confined to the limits of his own home in Cadenet; and it was then, from within the confines of this retreat, that he began to imagine a whole new era of possibilities for cinema.
As part of the series POLLET. HOME AND THE WORLD, the Cali festival is showing five films by the French director: Méditerranée (1963), Bassae (1964), Les morutiers (1966), Pour Mémoire (1979), and Dieu sait quoi (1994).
Furthermore, both in Pamplona and in Cali, the series also includes two films by French filmmaker Jean-Paul Fargier, both shot within the space of a decade: Jour après jour (2006), directed by Fargier based on Pollet’s script; and Jean-Daniel, parle moi encore! (2016), a recently completed portrait of the cineaste which premiered globally at Punto de Vista.
The inclusion of this series at the Cali Festival is another step along the path initiated with Chez les Basques, shown as part of Punto de Vista in February 2015 and presented a few months later at other festivals and cultural events around Spain and France. The eagerness to feature proposals first brought to light by Punto de Vista shows the interest generated by Navarre’s film festival throughout the world.