The first history of this Festival dates back to 1982, when a group of Canarians eager to protect their territory and provide it with more connections with the world mobilized to organize what was the first FICMEC in Tenerife. The painter, sculptor and activist Cesar Manrique, a key figure in the internationalization of the Canary Islands, was one of its great promoters. From that starting point, with a long pause in between due, above all, to changes in government in public administrations, the festival became a school. The new period coincided with the incorporation of David Baute, who continued the legacy of his predecessors: developing an event that is committed to the local, the care of natural resources and opening the islands to the world through environmental cinematography and From author.
This 2023, the festival began in Tenerife, between May 25 and June 4, and then began the traveling stage that occupies the rest of the year: FICMEC Tour and Cinemóbil. The first tours the entire Canary archipelago replicating the festival program, and the second takes cinema to the most remote rural towns of the islands in a vehicle conditioned to move with renewable energy. LatAm cinema spoke with David Baute, artistic director of FICMEC, about the path they have traveled so far and the path they still have ahead of them.
What other activities accompanied the growth of FICMEC in these 25 years?
The festival grew on many levels, not only with its Official Film Section, but also in a series of parallel exhibitions and activities that are very important such as Vulcanalia, an approach to the world of volcanoes from cinematography and from volcanic islands. On the other hand, we have an event called Playing in Green in which we propose that video games can be responsible and we generate discussions on this topic. In addition, everything is linked to sustainable agriculture. Thus, the film conferences are expanded to workshops, debates, talks and other activities linked to the soil and its importance for the environment. In addition, there is everything related to participation: for us it is important that the event is participatory from the local level. That meant a huge effort because we had to get young people with a lot of desire, but with no connection to cinema, to be public relations, to manage the treasury, to be responsible for film trafficking. We train young people from the region and many of them have joined teams at other festivals.
Was it a commitment to the local and to generate human resources that would stay on the island?
A festival could have been created with professionals from another place, but no. The option was to create a staff from scratch and that has been important for us. This way we understood that it was more ours and that, whatever the political changes, the event is rooted in the local people and their organizations and associations. This also generates an intergenerational dialogue together with the Magic Memory event, which takes place all year round. In it, young people look for a topic, for example, what they used to do with food waste, and work on a documentary piece. A lot of social cohesion and valuable understanding is generated between young and old.
What other challenge does it entail to make a festival for islands and from islands?
Environmental film festivals are important. It is true that within the most general cinema it is sometimes said that thematizing certain issues within festivals should not be done, but in the case of environmental issues it is a necessity because it helps raise awareness. We have seen it in recent years with people who came for cultural reasons and have become hooked and have changed ways of thinking and living by having seen a film. If we think about how much is invested by public administrations to raise awareness and change models and, perhaps, not much is achieved, it is incredible how much is achieved with a film. Economically we have also managed to be a sustainable festival without depending on an administration, adding aid from private parties and our partners and the public.
The film that won the Outbreak for Best Feature Film in the Official Selection, “La hija de todos las rabies,” is a co-production between several countries, including Nicaragua and Mexico. What link currently exists between FICMEC and Latin America?
In itself, the Canary Islands have a total connection with Latin America. The Canary Islands emigrated to Latin America for decades there and on the return trip they brought a lot of culture and customs. Latin American films are closer than any European or even Spanish film. We understand the contexts and the situation, and we have many cultural, musical, and gastronomic issues in common. This means that we have more and more Latin American cinema in the programming.
What other milestones would you highlight from the 25th edition?
The Cinemóbil has taken an interesting leap, with a greater reception than expected. The Cinemóbil reaches rural and small areas where people do not have cultural activities. They are small hamlets, with no more than 20 or 30 people. For us, no matter how many there are, we lost the fear of being with three people, watching movies and discussing them. Lately, everything was measured in terms of audience, and depending on that they give you aid or not. That issue is over for us. If there are three of them, that function we do is for them.
There is a parallel between the rhythm of life of these people and that of our cinema, slow rhythms, of observing everyday life, something that occurs in our cinema and not in the cities. It has been super important to see that people were suddenly excited about a film like “Juunt Pastaza entsari” (Inês T. Alves, Oublaum Filmes, Portugal, 2022), a documentary about children in the Amazon lasting an hour and a half, with almost no dialogue. They are films that are difficult to see and that for me is the most important thing: generating new audiences, who have always been there, but who are new for us. That’s the challenge.
And in cinematography, what is the challenge?
I remember now “Honeyland” (Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefano, Trice Films, Macedonia) that we screened it and it started to grow and grow, and one year, in 2019, it was nominated for the Oscars in two categories, Best Feature Documentary and Best International Film . Getting small pieces that perhaps no one has seen and seeing how they reach big festivals and are awarded is also important. We are a film festival and we take great care of that part, but also everything else, socially and humanly, what surrounds the festival is what excites us the most and helps us continue with the project.
2023-10-30 21:31:25
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