MAR DEL PLATA – “It’s just like here!” the auditorium was already pitch black, an anonymous audience member shouted as the screen showed a group spot prepared by Italy’s public institutions that support Italian film production and promote Italy’s presence in the world. Although there were some lukewarm comments in the complaint, I heard someone mention the president in a clearly critical tone. Javier Millay. There, the noise grew louder, the voices of opposition and support multiplied, and the most critical voices were silenced. At that moment, the movie started and no one spoke again.
The incident occurred on Friday morning during the first screening of the Italian film festival (and international competition). Gioia on the screen. A few hours have passed since the opening ceremony, and new contributions from the audience have added to the recent political debate in Argentina. There were boos when the local mayor, Guillermo Montenegro, mentioned his dedication to the event. Christina Kirchner (distributed between applause and questions) Who did it? marilina ross When I received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Several performances over the weekend also featured whistles blaring and screens displaying the festival’s official spot with this year’s slogan, “The Return of Shine.”
The first distinguishing sign of this year’s festival was that postcard. It was a coexistence of two opposing ideological views that never crossed the threshold of noisy demonstrations in the short term. This is the second time that this exhibition has been carried out under the management of an organization (Inkaa National Institute of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences) that, like few others, expressed the essence of the Mailist discourse in the term “Kulturkampf” and made very strong adjustments, implementing measures that were strongly questioned by a large part of the audiovisual community. “This government sees Argentine cinema as an enemy,” is one of the phrases the director has heard a lot lately. Mariano Linaspresent in some of the festival’s recent Mar del Plata discussions about the present and future of Argentine cinema.
Political divisions remain, particularly due to the active activities of the Fuera de Campo (formerly known as Contracampo) group. The group attracted very large audiences through its program of Argentine films (screenings were held at the Enrique Carreras Theater), and the wide audience of audiovisual creators, students, and film fans reunited those who had sympathized with the organization of the previous artistic festival, which the current Inca authorities replaced with the current festival.
But at the same time, the festival found a way to establish a friendly coexistence between people with different ideas, typified by the presence of figures closely aligned with Kirchnerism, such as Roth and Roth. Christina Banegasthe main character of the series I don’t like it, The film was shown on the big screen at the festival this weekend ahead of its premiere. Netflix And an impressive promotional stand installed in the hall of the room in the Paseo Aldorei Shopping Center, one of the largest spaces at the Mar del Plata Festival.
This was coupled with the Buenos Aires government’s strategic integration into the festival. Axel Kisilovoffered its auditorium theater free of charge for activities (last year this operation was charged) and attended the opening with key cultural figures from the Cabinet.
All of this seems to have been resolved, but what remains unresolved is the festival’s search for an audience that has been lost through the massive changes seen over the past two editions. For example, this year a healthy decision was made to centralize all parallel activities in one central location.
However, it remains to be seen that the city itself will be fully and visibly involved in the festival, as it will be in 2024. One of the official institutional spots clearly declares that the film exhibition (now in its 40th year) finally belongs to the local identity. There they say, “Malplatense, this festival is yours.”
However, in most of Mar del Plata’s strategic and most visible locations, there is no readily recognizable poster, mention or visual campaign of the festival’s presence. Close to the epicenter of the activity, the only clearly visible sign remains on the wide, dry plaza boardwalk that separates the twin buildings of the State Hotel and Casino. The building had been left there ever since it was used as an access to the Auditorium Theater during the opening ceremony, but it went largely unnoticed as a huge fence a few meters away closed off much of the space as part of renovations to the promenade in central Mar del Plata.
Jorge Stadianos, one of the festival’s artistic directors, told La Nación this Sunday that he was “very happy” with the first interim balance. Although the number of attendees has not yet been announced, he underlined the call for a number of events and spoke above all about the success of several parallel activities and how wonderful he feels the main international guests who have arrived so far, namely the American Bill Condon and Tonatiu, who are the director and star, respectively. spider woman’s kiss Italian actor Saul Nanni and Spanish actress (Basque) Itziar Itunho.
Meanwhile, Mar del Plata continues to search for missing viewers. There’s no shortage of curious crowds looking for something new, which is the hallmark of any great festival. At the same time, the most popular titles from a wide variety of programs resonate among people, although they still lack a fully defined profile. There was a lot of applause at the end of some of the films, which reflected a wide range of expressiveness.
However, we are still a long way from that large-scale movement where people gather in front of theaters 24/7 and all performances are sold out one after another. La Nación verified during the tour that there were many free spots at some screenings that would have been empty at other times. And some titles that were scheduled at the last minute didn’t get any attention at all.
The best moment of the weekend came during the final performance on Sunday. At midnight, after a great performance, the nearly full auditorium (approximately 1,000 seats) gave enthusiastic applause for the first showing in Argentina. new wavea Richard Linklater film that is undoubtedly the jewel of this year’s festival program.
Perhaps the hope of a new direction is to bring back audiences who frequented the cinema and were accustomed to encountering international arthouse and quality films that were friendlier, more risky, and of varying degrees of artistic demand. It was the population who abandoned that habit en masse because of the pandemic, and it won’t return even when normalcy returns, and old incentives will be difficult to regain. In that sense, streaming platforms have played a role.
From another place, the youngest, most curious and film-loving audiences, who will identify with the festival until 2023 and who do not identify with the current model, confirmed their support for Fuera de Campo as a place of meeting and appreciation. Screenings of several of the great Argentine film series scheduled for this year at Teatro Enrique Carreras overwhelmed the capacity of its small room. look flowwritten by Milagros Mumenthal; Pin on board “Fartie”For example, in the work of Alejo Mogilansky there were lines a block and a half long. The same thing happened with several classical works presented by the festival’s former artistic director, Fernando Martín Peña.
That spirit also extended to a series of open and very lively debates held over the weekend at the Downtown Bookstore in 2024, also within this alternative space. The most interesting conversation on Sunday morning began with a question about how a film that sympathizes with this point of view can attract viewers.
Sitting at the same table as director Cecilia Kang and screenwriter and essayist Fran Guerrero, Linas emphatically stated, “Quantitative logic is useless. Only producers are interested in numbers.” He even considered applying that numerical perspective to: homo argentum It “didn’t work” because, despite the film’s promotion and promotion, it failed to sell more than 2 million tickets.
The Extraordinary Stories director added, recalling the failure of the system that has been in place in the Argentine film industry for the past 20 years, which guarantees incentives for the work of technicians and, above all, 100% financing for producers even before the release of a film. By this logic, it was the filmmakers who lost, who seemed less interested in building an audience.
In that sense, the question on everyone’s mind is that the most independent, radical and daring Argentine films have been picked up in the wake of their influence at local and international film festivals, and the call is not repeated when the same films manage to be released. “Movies are by nature and by definition public facts and are directly connected to emotions. We should not glorify the failures and indifference of the public,” was one comment heard during the lecture. In Mar del Plata, the two continue to search for the missing viewer.
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