Countdown towards Punto de Vista 2022

The forthcoming edition of the Punto de Vista Festival was presented at a press conference today. Promoted by the government of Navarra and organised by the public company NICDO, this, the sixteenth edition, is to be held in Pamplona from 14th to 19th March. Rebeca Esnaola, the Navarrese government's minister for culture and sport, Manuel Asín, artistic director of Punto de Vista and Teresa Morales de Álava, executive director of the Festival, outlined the content and programme of this sixteenth edition.

Tickets on sale now

Tickets for all the sessions at the festival are now on sale through its website, www.puntodevistafestival.com. The general ticket price will be 3 euros per session, with the exception of a programme to be screened on Saturday 19th March at the Oteiza museum, which will cost 8 euros and include a bus service from Baluarte.

Something for every audience

This year's two major retrospectives revolve around the beginnings of Moroccan documentary film on the one hand, and rivers as social and natural factors present throughout the history of film on the other. As well as screenings, presentations and talks, we will be welcoming numerous guests related to these topics and organising debate-type activities including round tables, lectures and conversations. This reflective side that is a distinguishing trait of documentary film is fundamental to the two new sections we are presenting: La ('work' in Basque), with activities centring on the creative and production processes, and Contactos, which pursues the trail blazed at the last four editions of the festival, opening up film to other fields of knowledge and creation.

Moreover, two eminent contemporary film-makers will be visiting us to present their films at the festival: Sofia Bohdanowicz, who together with Payal Kapadia features in our focus on Archive Fictions, programmed by our colleague Lucía Salas. And Manuela Serra, author of the legendary Portuguese film O Movimento das Coisas (1985), of which the copy recently restored by Cinemateca Portuguesa is to be shown.

The Navarrese presence at Punto de Vista 2022

Navarra is to play a major role in this year's festival programme, in a reflection of its healthy audiovisual industry. The opening of Punto de Vista is to feature the world première of the new feature by Navarrese film-maker Ione Atenea: Los caballos mueren al amanecer. For her part, Arantza Santesteban is to present, in the official section, 918 GAU, acclaimed by critics and winner of Best Film at the Lisbon and Turin festivals. We will also be seeing the world première of San Simón 62, last year's winner in the X Films project, shot in Navarre in the course over the last year by Irati Gorostidi and Mirari Etxabarri. The region's rivers will also be present in the retrospective with Encuentro en el río, the work of film-maker and programmer Miriam Martín. On Friday 18th March at 11 am there will be a walk along the river taking about two hours, entitled El Arga encantado (The Magical Arga), setting out from Santa Engracia bridge and open to all, without any need to enrol or to have attended the festival. Finally, Navarra will also be represented in one of the new sections, Lan, which among other things includes the two Paisaia sessions and the Zinema Zubiak event, this year features the Navarrese production companies in Napardocs.

Family-friendly commitment

This year's festival also sets out to be family-friendly, with the creation of the Red Balloon Punto de Vista play scheme. This offers a place for children between six months and twelve years old, open to both festival pass holders and the general public on 17th, 18th and 19th March. Places can be booked now on our website.

The festival image

Estampa, the artistic collective of film-makers, programmers and researchers working in the fields of experimental audiovisuals and digital environments, was behind the image that will be opening all this year's screenings.

The festival image features stereoscopic material from the collection at the Fototeca de Navarra. The 3D effect is created alternating each pair of images frame by frame, as in flicker 3D. Like this the photography regains its form and meaning. Instead of a single image, a format was chosen that allows several versions - a total of eighteen. This approach recalls where the images come from, an archive, and its nature as a collection. If every image has its own fascination, put together they resonate with one another and multiply their effects. They illustrate the echoes and relations of juxtaposition, whether of the archive they are held in or of the montage in which they are displayed during the festival.

Partners

This year once more, Punto de Vista continues to broaden its relations with the network of institutions and players it works with in the arts industry, both nationally and internationally. In this way the festival continues to enjoy the support it has received in previous years from ICAA, Acción Cultural Española, Centro Huarte, Pamplona city council through the Civivox network, Fundación Caja Navarra, Radio 3, Filmoteca de Navarra, Fundación Museo Jorge Oteiza, Goethe-Institut, NAPAR and Clúster Audiovisual de Navarra, Cineteca, Institut Français and Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola.

This year they are joined by new travelling companions including Golem, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, African film festival FCAT, the Centre Cinematographique Marocain, Archivo de Navarra, Instituto Cervantes Tánger, Le Ballon Rouge, the Canadian Embassy, Filmoteca Española, Cinemateca Francesa, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Cinemateca Bologna/The Film Foundation/World Cinema, Antartika, Injuve and the Festival Scope platform

Also worth highlighting is the continuing participation in associations that emerged from the pandemic, including Federación Pantalla, La Mesta and Red Ibero Fest.