Punto de Vista registers record attendances in its latest edition

Punto de Vista closed the doors on its 14th edition last Saturday 7 March. After a week dedicated to showing the best of national and international non-fictional cinema and encounters among filmmakers, sector professionals and students, the festival -promoted by the Department of Culture and Sports of the Government of Navarra and organized by NICDO- takes stock.

More than 9,000 people took part in the activities programmed by the festival, a record attendance in the history of Punto de Vista. Of this figure, 7,179 attended in Baluarte, the main venue of the festival, and the remaining 1,900+ were spread over activities held in venues such as the Film Library of Navarra, Planetarium of Pamplona, Civivox network, Civican, Huarte Contemporary Art Centre, Teatro Gayarre or Katakrak. The good response from the public shows that the programme and the parallel activities were attractive, together with the consolidation and maturity of the festival, which sold out sessions on 24 occasions to the audience, comprising local people, visitors, and accredited professionals and students. Among the sold-out sessions were film screenings, particularly the retrospectives programmed in this edition, workshops in the educational programme or the Radio 3 broadcasts in Katakrak.

The number of credential holders also hit a record high against previous editions: more than 400, of which over 200 were professionals from different areas of the audiovisual sectors (filmmakers, artists or academics with a film or an activity in the festival, directors, producers, distributors, professors, programmers and festival directors), 179 students and more than 70 journalists. Among the national and international festivals, museums and cultural institutions represented in Punto de Vista 2020 were the San Sebastian Film Festival, the ICAA, the Centro Pompidou, the Museo Reina Sofía, DocLisboa, Harvard Film Archive and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, plus others. We would highlight the special importance that a number of universities and film schools in Spain attach to Punto de Vista, as students from ESCAC (Barcelona), ECAM (Madrid), EQZE (San Sebastian), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), EFTI (Centro Internacional de Fotografía y Cine), the Master’s Course in Creative Documentary from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Universidad del País Vasco, Universidad de Navarra and the LAV Master’s course (Madrid) swapped their usual classes to attend at the festival.

The sessions with films from Navarra, such as the world premiere of “Gorria” by Maddi Barber (the winner of X Films 2019), the two screenings of “Zumiriki” by Oskar Alegria, “Enero” by Ione Atenea (both first screenings in Navarra) and “La vía flotante” by Zazpi T’erdi were a great success, filling the Cámara auditorium of Baluarte and Civivox Condestable.

A total of 69 sessions were held between film screenings and other activities. Most of the programme was concentrated in Baluarte, where the Cámara, Corona, Gola and Luneta spaces were used. Another seven venues in the city were used for the festival: Film Library of Navarra, Planetarium of Pamplona, Civivox network, Civican, Huarte Contemporary Art Centre,, Teatro Gayarre y Katakrak. Other parallel activities were held in places such as Club Nicolette, Bar Nébula, Geltoki, Hotel 3 Reyes or Bar Medialuna.

INTER-INSTITUTIONAL SYNERGIES
A cultural event like Punto de Vista could not be organised in its present shape and form without the alliances woven with a series of local, national and international institutions.
Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), Goethe-Institut and Institut Français have helped to bring filmmakers and jury members, while the Instituto Cervantes has developed the X FILMS X programme together with the festival; it will organize film screenings in its centres in 2020. The retrospective on Ute Aurand, Helga Fanderl, Renate Sami and Jeannette Muñoz will travel to the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid, the CCCB (Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona) and the CGAI (Centre of Arts and Images of Galicia).
At local level, the festival was able to call on the collaboration of Pamplona City Council, Fundación Caja Navarra, the Film Library of Navarra, the Planetarium of Pamplona, the Faculty of Communication of the Universidad de Navarra, the Teatro Gayarre, the Huarte Contemporary Art Centre, Reyno Gourmet and Bodegas Artazu.

LOCAL PRESENCE
Although Punto de Vista holds a prominent and singular place in the international ecosystem of film festivals, it does not neglect the local dimension. As well as the well-attended screenings mentioned above, another section was Paisaia, with two recent films by filmmakers from the Basque Country and Navarra, including a meeting between them and programmers. The educational programme included activities open to the community, with three workshops in Civivox Mendillorri and Civivox Condestable, one of them given by the Navarrese filmmaker Marina Lameiro, and two screenings for children in the Planetarium and Baluarte. One of the workshops had continuity with a small exhibition of the work produced by the participants in Baluarte. Also as part of the educational programme, Drac Màgic organised a workshop and two commented film screenings for higher secondary school and vocational training students. Finally, the second edition of NAPARDocs was organised, an encounter of documentary makers from Navarra under the auspices of Napar, the association of audiovisual producers and professionals, which was represented by three guests of the festival as moderators of round tables.

REPERCUSSION IN THE MEDIA
The festival received considerable media coverage, placing Pamplona -and by extension Navarra- as a cultural driving force at both national and international level. Punto de Vista has achieved impacts in the national, general and specialised press, and also in other publications beyond our borders. The festival also generated extensive coverage in all the local and regional media, which focused strongly on the festival this year.

Radio 3 dedicated 4 full programmes to Punto de Vista this year: three editions of ‘El séptimo vicio’ (film programme) and one of ‘Tres en la carretera’ (weekend magazine). They were all recorded with Katakrak almost sold out, including performances by the music groups La Furia, Iseo & Dodosound and Melenas.

VOLUNTEERS AND YOUTH JURY
Almost 40 applications to be part of the Youth Jury and 60 for the team of volunteers also show how the festival is expanding, particularly among young people from both Navarra and other provinces.
Twenty-four people were finally selected for the Youth Jury, which awarded its prize to “Queen” by Kathryn Elkin, and 29 as volunteers in the areas of communication, videography, photography and assistance to the public in screenings, etc.

KEY FIGURES - PUNTO DE VISTA 2020
More than 9,000 people took part in the activities of Punto de Vista 2020.
24 of the sessions were sold out.
During the festival a total of 139 films were screened and 69 were held between screenings and other activities.
More than 400 credential holders among professionals, journalists and students.
Punto de Vista received representations from more than 25 countries around the world: films were screened from Egypt, Japan, Syria, Colombia, the UK or the Dominican Republic, among many others.
Punto de Vista 2020 was mainly made up of films directed by women, a reflection of the growing presence of women in filmmaking that has emerged totally organically. Of the 23 films in the Official Selection, 12 were directed by women. Moreover, the three retrospectives in Punto de Vista were dedicated to, or curated by, women: Anne Charlotte Robertson, Erika Balsom, Ute Aurand, Renate Sami, Helga Fanderl and Jeannette Muñoz.
8 venues hosted the festival: Baluarte, Film Library of Navarra, Planetarium of Pamplona, Civivox network, Civican, Huarte Contemporary Art Centre, Teatro Gayarre and Katakrak.