18 films will be competing in the Punto de Vista Official Selection, a show of diversity from thirteen different countries.

01/26/2023

This morning saw the presentation of the Punto de Vista festival - promoted by the government of Navarra and organised by the public company NICDO - the seventeenth edition of which is to run from 27th March to 1st April in Pamplona. This was the presentation of its Official Selection, the flagship of its programme. This year 18 films will be competing, among them the latest works by established directors like Sharon Lockhart, Miryam Charles, Ignacio Agüero and Alassane Diago, alongside new faces like Peru Galbete, Malena Zambrani and Varga Gábor.

The Official Selection is made up of six world premières, one international première and two European premières, as well as eight Spanish premières. The selection committee stressed the quality and diversity of the entries, which offer an overview of the current state of documentary production in the world.

In total, nearly 800 films from nearly 60 countries were entered. The 18 films selected were made in thirteen different countries including Peru, the United States, France, Spain, Senegal, Japan, Argentina, Mexico and Germany, among others. The films were selected by a programming committee, made up of Lucía Salas, Miguel Zozaya, Lur Olaizola and Pablo García Canga, together with the artistic director of the festival, Manuel Asín.

The films in the Punto de Vista Official Selection will be competing for one of the prizes awarded by the International Jury (to be announced soon), the Youth Jury and the festival audience itself. Among these are the Punto de Vista Grand Prize for best film, worth 10,000 euros, the Jean Vigo prize for best director, worth 5,000 euros, the prize for best short film, worth 3,000 euros under the auspices of EITB, the special audience prize, worth 1,650 euros, and the youth prize, with the support of the Navarra Youth Institute and worth 1,500 euros. Also, the International Jury may award up to two special commendations, with no prize money.

 

Films in the Official Selection of Punto de Vista 2023:

 

1. Al borde del agua, Maria Elorza & Iñigo Salaberria. Spain. 20'. World première.

 

2. APOCALIPSIS 20 21 22, Julius Richard Tamayo. Spain. 65'. World première.

 

3. Bide bazterrean hi eta ni kantari, Peru Galbete. Spain. 9'. World première.

 

4. Boulevards de la Senne, Juliette Achard & Ian Menoyot. Belgium. 11'. World première.

 

5. Cette maison, Miryam Charles. Canada. 75'.

 

6. Chaylla, Claire Teper & Paul Pirritano. France. 72'. Spanish première.

 

7. De songes au songe d’un autre miroir, Yunyi Zhu. France. 16'. Spanish première.

 

8. Éclaireuses, Lydie Wisshaupt-Claudel. Belgium. 90'. Spanish première.

 

9. El polvo ya no nubla nuestros ojos, Colectivo Silencio. Peru. 25'. Spanish première.

 

10. Eventide, Sharon Lockhart. United States. 35'. Spanish première.

 

11. Maayo Wonaa Keerol, Alassane Diago. Senegal, Germany, France. 105'. Spanish première.

 

12. Miyama, Kyoto Prefecture, Rainer Komers. Japan, Germany. 97'. International première.

 

13. Nagyapám kertje, Varga Gábor. Hungary. 24'. Spanish première.

 

14. Notas para una película, Ignacio Agüero. Chile, France. 105'. Spanish première.    

 

15. Notre Village, Comes Chahbazian. Belgium. 67’. European première.

 

16. Teléfono, Navidad, Malena Zambrani. Argentina. 14'. World première.

 

17. Tembiapo Pyharegua, Elvira Sánchez Poxon & Christian Bagnat. Spain. 120'. World première.

 

18. Tótem, Unidad de Montaje Dialéctico. Mexico. 65'. European première.

 

The Punto de Vista image for 2023

Today also saw the presentation of the image of this year's edition of Punto de Vista, the work of visual artist Misha Bies Golas. The photographs of which it is made up are part of a set of around a hundred shots taken, like a catalogue, of offcuts collected among the waste from a leather goods workshop.

Using the parchments left over from making the menus for a traditional Castilian tavern, apart from the straight lines cut by the leather worker, the artist also makes more sinuous, curved cuts, to which he also adds a series of stress points using the holes already made by the tanners when stretching the hides in their workshop. Viewed one by one over a light box, these fragments were photographed with the aim of emulating the mechanics of some types of shadow theatre from south-east Asia and Turkey. The tonal variations in them are the result of free interpretation by the camera of the movements of the fluorescent lights.

Nor is it naive; perhaps in the way it treats its materials, in its shapes, atmospheres and the decision to capture them in photographs, it is a nod to certain authors like Julio González, Ángel Ferrant, the Vallecas school or Eugenio Granell. Consequently, many of the shapes resulting from this multi-person process were used to create a series of movable sculptures and installations whose aim is to generate different ways of playing with space by projecting their shadows.

 

Peter Nestler and the Mediation Programme, among other content already announced

In recent weeks Punto de Vista has already announced some of the content of this year's programme. The festival will be presenting the first retrospective in Spain on German director Peter Nestler, a key figure in contemporary European documentary film to whom this year's annual publication will also be devoted. A film event at national level, which will subsequently be travelling to Barcelona (Filmoteca de Catalunya), Madrid (Cineteca), Coruña (CGAI) and Valencia (Filmoteca de Valencia).

Also announced are the activities in the Mediation Programme, which sets out to bring the festival to younger audiences through a workshop for children, a short film screening for families about the animal world, the second edition of the Jóvenes Programadores x Punto de Vista scheme for young programmers and a session for students at the Filmoteca de Navarra.

Details of the rest of the Punto de Vista programme are to be announced shortly. This year it includes seven sections: the Official Selection, Retrospectives, Focus, Lan, Contacts, X Films and the above-mentioned Mediation Programme.