Punto de Vista presents Lan, its new section aimed at reflection concerning imaginative and work processes in documentary film

Punto de Vista festival - promoted by the government of Navarra and organised by the public company NICDO - continues to offer advance details of the programme to run from 14th to 19th March during the festival's sixteenth edition, in Pamplona. The festival now presents Lan, one of the new sections resulting from the work of the artistic director and the festival programming committee.

The Basque word Lan means work or job, but also harvest. This coincidence is probably to be understood in historical terms: for a long time there was almost no job but farming. Perhaps for this reason an admirable pair of Portuguese film-makers, António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro, said it had always been helpful to consider themselves "farmers of film". So Lan is the name given to this new section of the festival aimed at reflection concerning imaginative and work processes in documentary film. Lan features different blocks of content: Paisaia, Termitas, a workshop with Paulino Viota, a "cine-conference" with Léa Morin, a round table about the retrospective on the origins of documentary film in Morocco, and finally NaparDocs.

PAISAIA

Paisaia, which for the last four years has grouped together sessions devoted to a certain Basque and Navarrese film scene, this year shifts to an approach of public activities: as well as screening the films, the film-makers will briefly present aspects of the production process behind their films.

This year features the films Argileak by Patxi Burillo, Rotor by Ainara Elgoibar and They Speak Too by Anna de Guia-Eriksson.

TERMITAS

In parallel to Paisaia, Termitas [Termites] will show work that is emerging or not widely screened in our immediate context, also asking the film-makers to present material about their work processes. Its name comes from the article by Manny Farber "White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art" (1962), which talks about films that "seem to have no ambitions toward gilt culture but are involved in a kind of squandering-beaverish endeavour that isn't anywhere or for anything. A peculiar fact about termite tapeworm-fungus-moss art is that it goes always forward eating its own boundaries, and, likely as not, leaves nothing in its path other than the signs of eager, industrious, unkempt activity."

The Termitas programme will be made up of Memorias de ultramar by Carmen Bellas and Alberto Berzosa, Kambá! by Carolina Kuzeluk and Diana Kuzeluk, Descartes by Concha Barquero and Alejandro Alvarado, 8 filmes sobre la guerra by Pablo Casanueva and Dreaming Alyonka by the Volga collective.

TALK BY PAULINO VIOTA: People in film: first person singular

Paulino Viota is to visit the festival to talk to us about the use of the first person in film, a point of view that is on the rise in contemporary documentaries. He will be focusing on one of the film-makers he has studied most intensively in recent years, in whose work self-absorption and the I always end up appearing: Federico Fellini.

CINE-CONFERENCE AND ROUND TABLE

The retrospective entitled ¿Quién contará la historia? Inicios del cine documental en Marruecos [Who will tell the Story? The Beginnings of Documentary Film in Morocco] in the form of a "cine-conference" by the French researcher resident in Morocco Léa Morin, as well as a round table which will also feature the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola where, in collaboration with Punto de Vista, some of the films Léa will be presenting were digitised.

NAPARDOCS

NaparDocs was set up in 2018 by NAPAR, the Navarrese association of audiovisual production companies, in order to provide a place to meet and discuss documentary film. This open meeting has grown and carved out a space for itself in the festival, maturing and extending beyond Navarrese territory.

Specifically, it is a space for debate across three working groups focused on creating and directing, film production and distribution, with discussions moderated by people invited by the festival. On the basis of these three talks, NaparDocs will provide a chance to pool experiences and forge links with other professionals.

Punto de Vista is building up the professional side of the festival with institutional and other meetings, holding NaparDocs itself, a range of training and hosting Zinema Zubiak, the meeting of Euroregion production companies. This professional angle of Punto de Vista, which includes the celebration of Zinema Zubiak and Napardocs, is supported by the Institut Français.