Mecal: International Short Film Festival of Barcelona

This year Mecal, the short film festival that originated 13 years ago, has as many as eight venues and it is as determined as ever to show the versatility and creativity to be found in short films.

The boom in shorts, partly explained by the quality of some of the more affordable digital devices around, is also reflected in the quantity of works received by the festival, nearly 3,500 this year. The final selection is split into three competition sections, with films from over 30 countries, and an even more eclectic fringe programme that combines cult shorts with angrier contemporary ones, as at previous festivals.

Discovering the audiovisual panorama of the Czech Republic, this year’s guest country, is one of the attractions this time round. The shorts that are going to be screened range from the best of the recent batch to film school productions.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhipln

Mecal 2011
XIII International Short Fim Festival of Barcelona
April, 8th – 17th
http://eng.mecalbcn.org/

Zoomvi, Festival of VideoClips Artists

The Festival de Realitzadors de Videoclips de Catalunya, Zoomvi (Festival of Video Clips Artists), lands in Barcelona at the CCCB on 1 and 2 April to show the best productions created by audiovisual and music fans.

The festival is held simultaneously in Barcelona, Reus and Olot. The finalists in the 2010 competition will be screened, along with the documentary Bankrobber.doc , various video clip projects will be presented and there will also be a battle of video clips. Plus there will be concerts, with Le Petit Ramon and Myriads, for example, where video clip projections will be mixed with the live music.

Programme

- Screenings, Battle of the Video Clips, New Formats, Bankrobber.doc, Luís Cervero

- La Ciudad Sumergida (Dorian), I Love Ü (Murfila), Kenneth Russo, Atleta, Le petit Ramon/El Chico

A unique opportunity, then, for fans and producers to exchange practices and experiences.

6th Hong Kong Cinema Week in Barcelona

Ann Hui, representing the new wave of “made in Hong Kong” films, and the indefatigable Johnny To and Herman Yau, are just some of the names you will be hearing about in the 6th Week of Hong Kong Cinema.

With the collaboration of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Brussels, Casa Asia and the Filmoteca are once again presenting this cycle, which has been growing in fans and followers of films from China.

And that is because the Hong Kong film industry is the second busiest in the world, after Hollywood, and ahead of Bollywood.

The cycle opens with Brian Tse‘s cartoon McDull Kungfu Ding Ding Dong on Friday evening, 25 February.

From then until 6 March, will be screened Night and Fog in Tin Shui Wai, by Ann Hui, Crime Story, by Kirk Wong, with Jackie Chan, and The Storm Warriors, from the brothers Oxide and Danny Pang, Sitges regulars.

Click over the image to visit the Casa Asia website.

11-11-11 Teaser, new horror film shot at Hotel Granvia of Barcelona

A few days ago we told you that horror film director Darren Lynn Bousman was shooting his most recent film at Hotel Granvia in Barcelona. Best known for the acclaimed 3 Saw sequels (II, III & IV), he has also directed: Repo! The Genetic Opera and, most recently, the remake of Troma, The Mother’s Day (with Rebecca de Mornay) that will debut next April 1, 2011.

On rare occasions, the premiere of a film can match its title, it this a coincidence?, maybe not … But can this movie be considered a psychological thriller, a biblical apocalypse or a human disaster story? The film is about the “Phenomenon 11:11”.Apparently, there are people who claim that the numbers have appeared to them repeatedly throughout their life, which means  there are angels or guardian spirits who are trying to communicate with them. Rounding out the issue, these people suggest that 11 is a number that has been associated with important historical events.

And nothing better than including Hotel Granvia in this movie, since it has also served as a spectacular backdrop for world renowned series and films shot in Barcelona.

Robert de Niro in Barcelona by Red Lights movie

The North American actor Robert de Niro is currently in Barcelona, taking part in the shooting of the film “Red lights”, directed by Rodrigo Cortés. Poblenou’s Casino l’Aliança was the chosen location on Wednesday.

Principal photography began in Barcelona on “Red Lights”, Cortés third feature film, with a cast that includes Sigourney Weaver, Robert DeNiro, Cillian Murphy, recently favorite Sundance sensation Elizabeth Olsen (“Martha Marcy May Marlene” and “Silent House”) with such names as Toby Jones, Joely Richardson and Leonardo Sbaraglia giving life to supporting characters.

The film is a thriller with a supernatural background in which the brain’s mechanisms of perception are explored. DeNiro plays a psychic that after a thirty year retirement reappears to become the subject of a worldwide science challenge, Weaver and Murphy are two investigators trying to uncover what they think is a fraud.

After a month of shooting in Barcelona the cast and crew will move to Toronto where the film will complete photography. Cortes mentioned that “Red Lights” is a much more ambitious project than his last film “Buried”

Classical movies with live jazz music

When cinema was invented, over a century ago, it was usual for screenings of those early silent films to have commentators and musicians to liven up the moving pictures.

The Círcol Maldà has taken up this idea again with a programme of silent films accompanied by jazz. Every Sunday you can see the silent classics of Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Snub Pollard, accompanied by music from the maestro, Josep Maria Borras, on piano.

The movies selected on these projections are Charles Chaplin’s One AM, Buster Keaton’s The Goat and Snub Pollard’s It’s a Gift.

When: Every Sunday at 8.30pm
Where: Círcol Maldà
Pi, 5 <M> Liceu

Scarlett Johansson was delighted to be in Barcelona

The American actress Scarlett Johansson was the big star at the 3rd Edition Mango Fashion Awards ceremony last night, Wedenesday 20/10 at the Palau Nacional on Montjuïc.

The star of Lost in Translation and the new image of the Catalan brand said she was delighted to be back in Barcelona, where she came for the shooting of the Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Israeli designer Lena Lumelsky was the winner of the awards. You can see the collections of all the finalists on Passeig de Gràcia.

Free activities in Barcelona during summer!

Whatever you’re into, you can enjoy summer to the full in Barcelona! Even if you’re on a budget, there are many free activities this August.

Outdoor cinema buffs can head to the CCCB in the Raval for the annual “Gandules” cycle, which this year complements the contemporary culture centre’s intriguing exhibition on labyrinths.

Films such as Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville or David Lynch’s Lost Highway are screened from Tuesday to Thursday at 10pm. Get there early to grab a sandwich and a seat.

For the ideal combination of art and air conditioning, check out one of the many free exhibition centres in town. They include the Caja Madrid Espai Cultural in Plaça Catalunya, Gaudi’s Pedrera, and Palau Robert on Passeig de Gràcia, which takes you on a tour of the Mediterranean. Caixa Forum on Montjuic explores the work of internationally renowned Majorcan artist Miquel Barceló.

What’s more, other museums and galleries waive their entry charge on Sunday afternoons, including the Picasso and the nearby Design museums in the Born, or the CCCB and the Virreina photography space in the centre.

For those that prefer to be outdoors, the many lovely parks in the city offer a shady haven from the heat, and a very special experience at night, set the scene for free concerts in classical music, jazz and sarsuela.

And if you’re in party spirits don’t miss the lively and colourful street celebrations in Gràcia, in the third week of August, and Sants in the last week, with their extravagant street decorations and live bands in the evenings.

43th Sitges Film Festival – Catalonia

This year’s disturbing programme pays tribute to The Shining by Stanley Kubrick, “an undeniably great film in this genre that has outshone the book it is based on”, according to the festival director. Film fans will have the chance to see the full-length original American version in digital format, plus an extra thirty minutes.

This is not the only tribute paid to great fantasy classics at the 2010 festival. Two films which could not be ignored are Back to the Future, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and Psycho, which celebrates its 50th.

Nor could one of the festival’s icons be overlooked, who passed away recently. A posthumous tribute will be paid to Paul Naschy with a screening of the documentary The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry.

The opening film will once again be a Catalan production, Julia’s Eyes, by Guillem Morales, starring Belén Rueda and Lluís Homar.

For fans of Takeshi Kitano, the Oficial Fantàstic section will see the return of the yakuza and gangster movie director with the “extremely violent” Outrage. There is also room for comedy with A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, the Cohen brothers’ remake of  Blood Simple, and Kaboom, which mixes a gay ambience with witches and teenagers.

For those of you with strong stomachs, take note of this. The festival shocker is going to be A Serbian Film, an extreme, polemical film about pornography in Serbia. One of the crazy films, meanwhile, will be Rubber, the story of an abandoned killer tyre with telekinetic powers.

The festival’s regular film sections Anima’t, Noves Visions, Seven Chances, Midnight X-treme and Brigadoon, are the regular festival sections that “give it its prestige” according to Sala, that will continue to satisfy the tastes of any film buff.

Finally, this year will also see Zombie Walk!!!

Gandules’10: open air cinema at the CCCB in Barcelona

More than ever Gandules 2010 is full of fiction: lost, aimless characters, endless searches, journeys to the unknown… The cinema has often shown labyrinths and has made them explicit. But this cycle drives us through other labyrinths, those that are often unseen: the invisible labyrinths that lock individuals in social circles, or the imaginary ones that create desires and mental escapes. What does it happen when the labyrinth is not an image, but a state?

Lost, lost, lost is a cycle about the desire for movement: get out of a place, escape, change or get transformed, conceive another world. Because what is important may not be to chose the wrong path, but the possibility to start a new one.

Director/s: Ray Ashbury, Luis Buñuel, Vittorio de Seta, Claire Denis, Maya Deren, Morris Engel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Alexander Hammid, Abbas Kiarostami, Barbara Loden, Joseph Losey, David Lynch, Chris Marker, Ruth Orkin, Óscar Pérez, Alain Resnais, Elías León Siminiani

Gandules 2010: Lost, lost, lost | Open air cinema festival: from 03/08/2010 to 29/08/2010
Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) -> Montalegre, 5 | Ciutat Vella

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