Jacob Dalmau is passionate about cinema, which led him to study Audiovisual and Show Production, as well as advertising. In 2009 he joined the Anima’t cultural Association, an entity of which he has been president since 2015. Among the Anima’t projects, the commitment to provide the city of Tarragona with a stable program of original version cinema stands out (VO ). Dalmau is also the programmer of the Reus Cultura Contemporània live music cycle, as well as the Club, de la Selva del Camp, which, as its name suggests, is a club of members who have access to multidisciplinary shows, whether dance or magic. or theater, among others.
How has VO cinema evolved in this time?
The audience has been increasing progressively, paradoxically at a time when people have larger screens at home and of better quality. We went from having an average of 60 viewers per session in 2012, to 190 people in 2019. There were about 4,400 people in one season, paying six euros. Even for some it was routine. That is, sometimes our audience does not know what movie we will show, but they trust the programming criteria.
What are the scheduling criteria?
When we programmed in bovine it took a little longer to have recent films because they were much longer in commercial theaters. But this has changed with the arrival of digital, as it allows us to get closer and closer to the release date, in such a way that this is one of the current criteria, although it is not the most significant. The most important thing is that they are author’s and quality titles, as well as that they have not been seen very much in the Camp de Tarragona. One thing that does limit us is the format because the theater in which we project does not have DCP, the system used by cinemas.
Should it be changed?
It would be a great advantage to have this system because we could show the premieres earlier, but economically we cannot assume it.
Has the pandemic affected them?
Totally. Like everything else, we had to suspend the cycle and then we moved it to the Eutyches room that belongs to the Palau de Congressos. The capacity was also reduced, so there were people who could not see the film. In addition, we have a public with an average age of 55-60 years, which means that many are 70. So, when the pandemic began, these people were the most scared.
I imagine that in the dubbing debate, you are clear about your position.
Yes. In Spain the dubbing comes from the dictatorship, also to be able to manipulate the dialogues and it is the country in the world where it is best dubbed, even today. In most countries, especially the smallest ones, dubbing is non-existent. In fact, when I lived in the Czech Republic, I watched The Simpsons with subtitles. I do not understand cinema in a way that is not in VO. I find it difficult to see it bent.
For what reason?
The fact of doubling causes you to lose a part of the real audio of the film, of the direct one. The VO has much more ambient audio than the dubbed because this is recorded in a studio and they do not add it to it. And later, if we see an actor or actress, I like to hear their voices.
In which languages does Anima’t program?
We do not show movies in English. We spend in French, Japanese or Italian, for example and the people are not polyglot. But when you get used to watching movies in VO, there is no going back and it is easy. You have to think that we have an audience that is already an age, that consumes VO and maybe in this sense they are more modern than their grandchildren.
There are precisely criticisms for the little dubbing in Catalan.
They can subtitle it in Catalan. In fact, I would eliminate the dubbing, although I understand that it is an established and expensive process. But I would appreciate it if more theaters would screen in VO. La Rambla de l’Art in Cambrils is one of the few that offers this possibility. Although there is more VO lately than before. While the number of viewers, in general, has decreased, the audience in VO is maintained or increased in theaters, even in commercials. It is one of the reasons why multiplexes have incorporated some films in their original versions in recent years.
What kind of movies do you watch?
Everything, although right now, for different reasons, I am not a great consumer of cinema and I do not program on Anima’t. I watch the movies, but I’m not the one who discovers the titles. Programmers are people who consume a lot of cinema and even go to festivals like Sitges, San Sebastián or Malaga.
What movie would you recommend?
Druk, which in Spanish was titled Another Round, by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg. He is a filmmaker who I find very interesting and I would also recommend The Hunt, a thriller that makes you think.
Does the work that Anima’t does have anything in common with the REC Festival?
No. The REC is a festival of debut operas and what Anima’t intends is to provide the city with a stable program of films in OV. We appreciate that the administration supports our project, but we would prefer to be able to manage it directly, since we would not make 22 films a year. We would probably schedule two a week because now we are far from the offer we had in 2009, when we were showing about seventy movies. In fact, an interesting thing that we did in the summer of 2020 thanks to an agreement with the City Council were screenings at Camp de Mart, outdoors. And we would like to repeat.
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