Today, December 15, is the first registration day for the PUNTO DE VISTA International Seminar, being held in Pamplona from February 22 to 25, 2012. If you are interested in participating in this new activity organised by the Punto de Vista Festival, you can register online at the Punto de Vista website until February 15. Users who register by January 20 will get a discount off the seminar fee.

Many years passed from the moment Sylvain George (1968) decided he wanted to be a filmmaker until he shot his first images: twenty, to be precise, from his initial idea at 18 years of age until 38, when he finally filmed something. In contrast to the immediacy allowed by digital technology, George put off pressing REC for the first time for a number of reasons. Perhaps, in all those years, that time of reflection, is where part of the strength of his filmmaking lies, one of overwhelming and surprising energy. Filmmaking that combines –without contradictions– the reflective gaze of someone who has thought a lot before picking up the camera, with the violence and urgency of someone who knows that the position of the camera is very similar to that held by someone shooting a weapon.

Born in 1972 into a Muslim family in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Amir Muhammad is one of the most unusual film directors on the contemporary non-fiction scene. A writer rather than a filmmaker (he describes himself as a “writer and occasional filmmaker”), he made his first film in 2000 (Lips to Lips) which he says was so bad that from then on he could “only make better films”. In 2002 he presented a series of six short film essays –6 Shorts– in which he applies the basic principles that have guided his work since then: a clear desire to create essays, political content, a new look at his country’s recent history and a refreshing sense of humour.

Nine months after being premiered in Pamplona, Notas de lo efímero/Notes on the Ephemeral, the film by Chus Domínguez that won the X Films Project in 2010, continues to scoop up awards at film festivals. After being awarded the prize for best short film at the Alcances festival in Cádiz in September, it got the third prize at Alcalá de Henares Film Festival, ALCINE. The film embarked on an international tour in April, screening at the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival, BAFICI. Since then, it has been shown in many festivals and cultural centres in Spain.

As we announced last September, Punto de Vista will offer next February a non-fiction programme in the Film Library of Navarre to keep the spirit and essence of Punto de Vista alive. The chosen format is a seminar, with a core idea: to continue looking at non-fiction films from the angle of new propositions generated on the edge of independent filmmaking that are socially committed.