D’A 2014 – Festival Internacional de Cinema d’Autor de Barcelona
From the 25th of April to the 4th of May, the 4th edition of the festival features chats and workshops in an attempt spotlight the presence of directors and communication with the public
As is customary, the 4th edition of D’A, the Festival Internacional de Cinema d’Autor de Barcelona, offers a carefully chosen selection of the best of local and international independent film and the programme for this year includes screenings of approximately 60 films in three locations: the Cines Aribau Club, the CCCB theatre and La Filmoteca. One of the features of this edition is the emphasis being placed on the presence of directors at the festival and communication with the general public, two factors which will be addressed via conferences and workshops in the local offices of the Spanish Society of Authors Composers and Publishers (SGAE).
The festival opens with Un château en Italie, a semi-autobiographical film by Italian actress and film maker Valeria Bruni Tedeschi which was shown at the latest Cannes festival, and closes with one of the recent surprises in Catalan cinema, 10.000 Km (aka Long Distance), a film by Carlos Marques-Marcet dealing with love across the miles.
D’A has been divided into three sections: Directions presents fifteen films by the current top names in film de auteur, Hong Sang-soo (Our Sunhi), Philippe Garrel (La jalousie), Miguel Gomes (Redemption) and Tsai Ming-liang (Stray Dogs), among others, while the Talents section focusses on upcoming film makers with a maximum of three films to their credit, for example White Shadow, the Tanzanian revelation produced by actor Ryan Gosling, or the North American independent film Things People Do, by Saar Klein.
One of the tours de force of the programme is the section entitled A Collective Impulse, a wide-ranging perspective on state-produced films by young directors which includes post-humorous, non-fictional, experimental and underground films such as El futuro, Uranes, Sobre la marxa, Paradiso and Las aventuras de Lily Ojos de Gato, among many others. The programme also includes a section dedicated to films about adolescents which includes Harmony Lessons, Puppylove and Somos Mari Pepa, as well as the habitual section dedicated to films by Catalan directors which includes the debut fictional film by Lluís Miñarro dealing with the reign of Amadeo of Savoy, Stella Cadente, and Els Anys Salvatges, a documentary by Ventura Durall filmed in Ethiopia.