Punto de Vista will pay homage to the work and figure of the artist Jonathan Schwartz with a retrospective and a publication
Non-fiction will once again have a place in the 13th edition of Punto de Vista, transforming Pamplona into a hub for the international audio-visual community from 11th to 16th March 2019. The Festival has released the first details about its programme and has published the image that will be used to represent the next edition.
The Punto de Vista programming will be organised into seven key sections: the Official Section, which will include films selected from among more than 1,160 registered from countries all around the world; Retrospectives, which will analyse essential figureheads from non-fiction; Dokbizia, a new line for the last edition, which will bring together artists from different disciplines to exchange their way of relating to reality; the Punto de Vista Labs, as a space for knowledge exchange and collective creation; the Contemporary Spots, comprising monographic sessions through which Punto de Vista focuses its attention on some of the most relevant international film-makers; Special Sessions, with programmes such as that by X Films, the meeting up of Pasaia Basque-Navarran film-makers or a cycle of films in the Planetarium; and finally; the Educational Programme, which is expanding to continue to open the Festival up to new audiences.
The image that will accompany this edition of Punto de Vista has also been revealed. In fact, this year there is not just one image, or just one poster. There are four images and four posters. The artist Dani Sanchis has created a visual universe in which together, the four posters solidly make up the identity, concept and multidisciplinary, inclusive and versatile perspective of films, just as the Festival understands it and wants to transmit it.
In terms of advances of the programming presented, it is worth noting that this year the Punto de Vista publication will be based around the figurehead of the North American film-maker, Jonathan Schwartz. As well as this book, the film will show his filmography in one of the Retrospectives. It will be commissioned in collaboration with the American curator and academic Irina Leimbacher, and will comprise a homage-cycle that will bring together his films with those of film-makers he admired. Schwartz, who died in October aged 45 years, was an experimental film-maker, who for more than a decade created over 20 short films in 16mm. These so-called “miniatures” are delicate, exuberant, contemplative films, based on the idea of a visual and audio collage. The book will be edited by Garbiñe Ortega - the artistic director of Punto de Vista - and will welcome the contribution of a long list of prestigious writers, academics and film-makers, such as Erika Balsom, Ben Rivers, Max Goldberg, Ben Russell, Michael Sicinski, Irina Leimbacher, Deborah Stratman, Jodie Mack and Rebekah Rutkoff. The contents of the book will be available in three languages: Spanish, English and Basque.
The well-known American archivist, writer, theoretician and film-maker Rich Prelinger, will be one of the leading players in Punto de Vista Labs. During his visit he will give a collective creation workshop entitled “Participative Film: Montage beyond the Algorithm”, in collaboration with the Huarte Contemporary Art Centre and with the Elías Querejeta Film School. Throughout various sessions, attendees will collectively create a documentary feature film using local film archives, which will be presented on the final day of the Festival. This way, participants will analyse the function of archive material as an active memory of the 21st century, using cases such as the Lost Landscapes, a series of “historical interventions” developed by Prelinger. The film-maker will also present two self-curated programmes and will give a master-class developed in collaboration with the University of Navarre Communication Faculty. Prelinger is at the centre of a debate about the large amount of manipulable materials and archives available in the digital era. He has opened up his enormous collection featuring thousands of films free of charge on his digital platform, Internet Archive. These issues will be addressed in these programmes, in which Prelinger will show films from his personal collection.
Another major initiative framed within this year’s edition in the Punto de Vista Labs programming, will be the holding of Museum of Clouds. With this, Punto de Vista is associating with one of the most prestigious art institutions in the world, the iconic Tate Modernin London, which opened this cycle in October 2018, and which will see Pamplona become the first venue in the worldto host this travelling project. Museum of Clouds is a programme that will bring together a cloud of professionals, whose works have changed the cinematographic scene in the past decade. As such, the initiative has been proposed as a unique meeting point for international curatorial activity. Film-makers, programmers and writers will get together to explore and share their philosophies, practices and work methodologies.
Finally, the Festival has announced its intention to expand the Educational Programme, which it initiated in the previous edition to open up to new audiences. Therefore, this year it will expand considerably, with more educational activities and a particular focus on child and young audiences. Punto de Vista aims to open up to this community with a series of audio-visual awareness and appreciation programmes, giving these demographics tools to construct their own perspectives towards the reality that surrounds them, developing critical thought and also transforming them into bearers of these values in their own environments. The Educational Programme will include the “All cities possible” workshop, given by the film-makers Maider Fernández and Aitor Gametxo; the “Activísimo!” workshop with the Columbian artist Iván Argote; a “Children’s Cycle” with short animated films and film documentaries for children; the “Matinee school sessions” with screenings for different centres around the city; the “Images via” workshop given by Arantza Santesteban and Mari Luiz Esteban; and finally the “Dràc Magic Workshop”, by the Dràc Magic group from Barcelona and about film documentaries and the perspective of gender for Baccalaureate students.
Along with all these advances, the storyline for Dokbizia has been drafted, a programme line initiated in the previous edition, which constitutes an interdisciplinary meeting calling upon artists from different practices to exchange the way they relate with reality. The theme for the first year of Dokbizia was “Give me, then, a body”, and this year, it follows the same corporeal conceptual line, using a quote from the artist and performer Meredith Monk as its starting point: "The voice never lies”. With this suggestive and provocative affirmation, Punto de Vista opens a space in which we understand “the voice to be a world and the world to be a cinema”, where film-makers, performers, theoreticians, sound and musical artists, come together to share their works related to the subtleties of the voice, (self)listening, mediation, translation and polyphony. Shortly the entire programme for this cycle will be released, which is set to include screenings, performance conferences, lectures, concerts and experimental sound interventions by prestigious international artists.
Backing up the programmed proposals, the work initiated in previous years to find collaborations and partnerships continues in this 13th edition. Punto de Vista will consolidate and extend its relationship from previous editions with entities such as the Pamplona City Council, the Caja Navarra Foundation, the Planetarium, the Navarra Film Library, the Huarte Contemporary Art Centre, and the Elías Querejeta Film School from Donostia; and it will also welcome new collaborations such as the University of Navarre Communication Faculty, and the joint proposals that are being worked upon with National Spanish film schools.
From 11th to 16th March 2019, cinematographic non-fiction will once again have a space in Punto de Vista.
VOLUNTEERS AND YOUTH JURY
Punto de Vista has opened up registrations to sign up to be part of the Festival volunteer team and the Youth Jury. Anyone interested in either proposal can sign up via the website, www.puntodevistafestival.com, before the 15th and 18th February respectively.
Punto de Vista is looking for volunteers wishing to join the Festival organisation team in positions such as room assistant, technical team assistant, production coordination, support for the communication department, support for the video team and for the official Festival photographer, guest services or general services for the public and information.
On the other hand, yet another year running we are offering the chance to participate in the Youth Jury, which will award the Youth Prize for the Best Film, comprising people aged between 18 and 25 years.
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