In the words of the Artistic Director, Oskar Alegria, “this year, the festival lasted one day less as it was not the 10th anniversary, but the festival has grown outside Baluarte and the attendance figures have been satisfactorily maintained”. 

In total, the 11th edition of the Navarra International Documentary Film Festival has brought together 8,329 people who have participated in the activities organised in Baluarte and at other external venues, such as the Gayarre Theatre, Navarra Film Library, Huarte Contemporary Art Centre, Katakrak or Nébula. This figure maintains the upward tendency that has been seen in recent years, with 7,120 participants registered at Punto de Vista in 2015, reaching 8,115 last year. 

In 2017, the different sessions held in Baluarte have attracted 5,319 people. In addition to the spectators who visited the three cinema halls (Cámara, Gola and Corona), 100 people came to the presentation of the X Films projects in the Bulevar Hall, 50 attended the painted tribute to Oteiza on the façade of Baluarte, 60 people participated in the different meetings of the Youth Jury and 275 spectators were at the concert and party in the bar that took place in the lobby, with the artist and musician, Amorante. The press conferences each day accumulated 145 visits.

Two sessions in the Cámara Hall, with a capacity for 440 people, were sold out: Converse on Thursday at 8pm and the closing gala and film, Our Century, on Saturday at 8pm.  Four sessions were also sold out in the Gola and Corona Halls, more specifically, the three sessions devoted to the Oteiza cycle and The Movie Never Seen, which attracted the Spanish-speaking audience.

3,010 people participated in the events held outside Baluarte. The acts at the Gayarre Theatre with two theatre plays and the opening of the screening on its façade brought together 600 people. 30 people participated in the workshop by the filmmaker, Sergio Oksman, at the Huarte Contemporary Art Centre and 50 people attended the screening of B-52 by Hartmut Bitomsky and the debate at the Film Library. There were 150 participants in the auto-theatre, Etiquette, who sat in couples at the different tables set up throughout the week in three cafeterias: Niza, Plaza Baluarte and Cafeteria Civican. 

120 students participated in the workshops on How to narrate film which were held at the Vázquez de Mella Public School and at the Ikastola Jaso, and a selection of them participated in the bilingual session The Movie Never Seen-Inoiz ikusi gabeko filma.

The recording of the special programmes of El Séptimo Vicio on Radio 3 at Katakrak with live musical performances over four days (Sherpa, Kokoscha, Gari, Iñigo Cabezafuego) attracted 187 people each day, with an accumulated figure of around 750 people in total. The Katakrak bookshop also held a cultural meeting on Saturday 11th, which brought together 150 people and Casa Manolo held working lunches attended by 200 people, accumulating a total of 350 participants. 

The Closing Cocktail at the Medialuna bar attracted 250 people. The evenings in Nébula, with DJs and each night at Nicolette included the participation of 700 people.

MEDIA REPERCUSSION

This year, the festival organisers would like to highlight the extensive and important media coverage received in this eleventh edition, which is considerably higher than that of previous years. This diffusion contributes significantly to the projection of the image of Pamplona and Navarra and the strengthening of the Punto de Vista Festival as one of the country’s leading cultural events. It is worth highlighting the words in the press of one of this year’s most illustrious visitors, Víctor Erice, who highlighted the rigour and seriousness of the programme and the festival, during his presentation of the Oteiza, the filmmaker without a film cycle.

During the festival and in the weeks running up to it and following it, over 1,000 press, radio, television and Internet appearances have been registered. In 2017, 72 media accreditations were granted. Therefore, Punto de Vista has been present in national television programmes, with reports in the Telediario on TVE 1 or La 2 Noticias. We have also been visited by a Días de Cine team and daily newspapers, such as El País, which has sent a reporter to Pamplona for the third year in a row and has devoted six articles to the festival in the printed and digital editions. Reporters from El Confidencial have also been present and the festival has appeared in supplements, such as El Cultural in El Mundo and in magazines, such as Dirigido Por, So Film, DON, Transit, Playground, Transit, Cinemanía, VOS, A Cuarta Parede, Magnolia, Otros Cines Europa, El Asombrario, Zinema, Cine Divergente, Visual 404, Astoria 21, Canino Mag, Videodromo, Found Footage Magazine, Viejo Topo… Magazines specialised in performing arts, such as Teatron and Artez, have also included reports on the festival.  

The specialised magazine, Caimán, has  devoted a booklet to Punto de Vista and Punto de Vista has been the object of extensive coverage by diverse local and regional newspapers, radio stations and television channels, such as Diario de Navarra, Diario de Noticias, Gara, Berria, Diario Vasco, the magazines, La Faktoria or El Mono, Cope, Onda Cero, EITB (on radio and television: Iflandia, El Bulevar, Graffiti, Transit, Teleberri…), TVE Navarra, Navarra TV, Onda Vasca, Euskalerria Irratia… Punto de Vista has also worked each day with Cadena SER Navarra, boasting a space during the whole week of the festival. Furthermore, Cadena SER, has given extensive national coverage of the festival in its news reports and in programmes like Hora 25.

Radio Nacional de España has also given extensive coverage to the festival, in programmes like Punto de Enlace and El cine que viene.

The festival’s closing gala was covered by a news team from Teleberri on EITB, which gave two live reports from Baluarte, in addition to two from the Gayarre Theatre on Tuesday 7th, coinciding with the performance of Nadia.

Punto de Vista has also worked with the filmed magazine, Cultura Film, which has conducted numerous interviews with the leading people of Punto de Vista and has worked on the legacy of the festival as a film archive of interviews with filmmakers, such as Alain Fleischer, Hartmut Bitomsy and Aleksandr Balagura.

Radio 3 (from RNE) has once more been the festival’s official radio station with four special El Séptimo Vicio programmes devoted to Punto de Vista recorded in Pamplona. These programmes were A large audience gathered there and it became one of the most followed and successful events of this edition. 

This year, the festival has also received international media coverage from Veto Magazine, Cineuropa or Sentieri Selvaggi and the presence of correspondents from Cinema Scope and Film Comment.

VOLUNTEERS, YOUTH JURY, STUDENTS

In this edition, 21 volunteers participated in Punto de Vista.  Half of them came from outside Pamplona, from places such as Bilbao, Barcelona, Madrid, Bordeaux and other parts of Navarra. Many of these volunteers have repeated the experience after having participated in previous editions, which marks one of the best signs of the state and health of an event, according to the festival.     

The participation of the Youth Jury, which is present for the third consecutive year, has also been consolidated, with 21 members. In their evaluations, this Jury has only narrowly suspended one of the films in the Official Section (From Vincent’s House in the Borinage), whilst the audience passed all of the films, which has never happened before. It is worth mentioning that the public vote has doubled in active participation with respect to other years, which highlights the awareness and involvements of the public, who are becoming regulars of the festival.

For the first time ever, Punto de Vista has drawn up an agreement to enable students from Masters’ Degrees in Documentary Film and Creation to attend, such as MasterLav, UPV-EHU, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Pompeu Fabra,   ECAM, Navarra University, Navarra Public University and the agreement has included the DocNomads International Masters’ Degree, which is between Lisbon, Brussels and Budapest. 

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

The Punto de Vista festival generates a considerable business volume. On one hand, directly, as the team of five people working on the festival for five months a year is increased to around 40 people during the festival. Indirectly, through income generated in the hotel and catering sector in Pamplona, where rooms have been closed in three new spaces and hotels. In 2017, festival visitors and accredited professionals generated 248 overnight stays in four hotel establishments. Furthermore, food and drink tickets valid in diverse establishments of Pamplona have also been issued.