

What happened on Friday 15th at Art’s Complex Edinburgh still echoes at the back of our minds. Numbers speak for themselves -one hundred thirty people attracted to an atypical Edinburgh afternoon and into a new venue, as far from the city centre as it was close to an incredible and kind support from the public and for a worthy cause. The excuse was merely enjoying an evening of Spanish first class cinema.
We were still working out the space when first attendees began to arrive. This picture may finely describe what the last three weeks before the event have been for us: a constant race running against time in the pursuit of making it real. In essence, we were all eager to just maintain CinemaAttic’s regular rate of audience yet you all know what happened...People were gradually showing up in constant flow, as much in large groups as in individual fashion. Places then began to dwindle, there were not enough seats yet people kept arriving -twenty more chairs became indispensable!
Genuine as always, not even half way through the night Angel Gavira informed us about our reaching four hundred pounds in donations! Magic made its presence with the understating of having fulfilled and space that three weeks ago was just silently barren. Our trademark underground improvised cinema packed with people that were chatting in circles and getting to know what we do. In simply doing so they were indirectly, with each coin, contributing to the education of Spanish children in need -the matter-fact cause. And yet another twenty chairs were necessary!
Seeing from the far distance of our desk at the time of writing this article -at the heat of the moment we were far from being able to comprehend what was really taking place!-, the overview of the place at the time was dream-like. The people moving sofas, their getting comfortable, their early approach to the playlist of films, the actual happening of the event itself....it was too good to be real. Besides, the selection of short films we had partnered to curate with ECAM, Mankuso Productions, I+G Stop Motion, individual directors or our friends from Marvin&Wayne was seemingly doing the job very well.
With the smooth reel of films, momentum was inching by the roaring of our ever-crucial strategy director Rafa Cueto -the very voice of experience- “Hell yeah! THIS is CinemaAttic –caringly home-made events, earthy attendants, premier Spanish and Latin-American independent films, a mixture of smiling and terrified sensations among the viewers, the sharing of deep impressions in the darkly whereabouts of the all pure underground cinema. The CinemaAttic experience has this time entered an abandoned inhabited hospital in the sake of community needs, leaving a beautiful legacy printed for the future projects to come.
And while it could be said that we did as usual by hitting the play button, the main and huge difference this time was YOU. Because it was any of you who decided to give it a go and join us at the Art's Complex to support the cause we have thrown up into the air. It was you who donated money to Spanish schools tackled by financial breakdown. It was you posting and sharing on the net, mentioning this to a friend in an any-space-whatever, café, bar or office while working. It was you who put an empty dancehall in Meadowbank upside down.
As hopefully you did, we also felt it was just different. We were witnessing a special night since wherever you looked around you could see someone with the same expression saying OMG! What is really going on?!
What happened on November 15th 2013 shows that hope can never be lost and this is part of the homage we owe you all. Thanks for making a mad idea real. Today that craze has become one of the most special nights in our short history and even most importantly: our efforts and your support brings out six hundred Euro grossed (!!!!), with which we will ensure an entire course of food for two children in Spanish primary schools. And that was all about, we made it, you made it.
Alberto M. Valverde
Press & Media
Financial breakdown is causing havoc in nowadays Spain. The consequences the actual order of things is having on areas like education ought not to be underestimated. Not only young people are finding really hard to get into higher education due to sharp university fees increase, but primary schools are also facing the unbearable thickness of budget-cutting survival.
In CinemaAttic we understood that action should be taken and the positive impact our latest events are having over plural audiences could materialize in some kind of support. This is why we have decided to turn an already scheduled free-ticketed collaboration with Art’s Complex Edinburgh into a fundraising event. Spanish primary schools on the verge of financial collapse will be the receptors of this our latest initiative:
- We produce and curate a block of films composed by unseen-in-UK Spanish top-ten short films.
- We complement the selection with a couple of masterpieces from our database of classics. These will be donated, as their contribution, by key filmmakers we have worked with already.
- We organize the film night and partner with Art’s Complex to set up a cosy cinema in their superb premises on 151 London Road EH7 6AE Edinburgh.
- A donation bar and a solidarity pot will be available on the night as well as RBS bank account (number 00263473 sort code 831824) opened for the occasion and exclusively addressed to your contributions.
- We will ultimately transfer the raised money to Educo.org -working for kids with schooling problems in Spain- and will cover the transfer fees ourselves.
- We invite you upon hoping you will tell your friends hence a large solidary crowd will come over. There is plenty of space at Art’s Complex for all of us!
Films and happenings then at the base of supportive events by which not only we aim to collect funds for schools in financial problems but arousing awareness of this terrible situation is for us fundamental too. We believe that cuts in education and the disturbance of schooling processes shall better be out of the question for any modern democratic society.
When and where is the event scheduled?
Friday the 15th of November 2013 at the Art’s Complex(151 London Road EH7 6AE Edinburgh).
Doors open at 6:30pm –event starts at 7pm for as long as two hours including breaks between films.
This is a FREE-TICKETED event and entrance will be permitted up to complete capacity.
Please support and follow our website, Facebook, Twitter and/or blog for last minute changes and latest news.
See you there!
Hidden Door was created just as much for the artists involved as it is for the audience and, for their second festival, collaboration is at the heart of everything they do.
We CinemaAttic have just partnered with Hidden Door, the future of cinematic arts in the city's cultural scene. If you love cinema then plug in to Impossible Journeys, an experience that draws on what we love of cinema while transforming the medium in its own subtle way.
Curated by CinemaAttic and based on an original idea by Hidden Door, we are presenting a fresh and powerful set of Spanish short films that are inspired by that touch that captures the essence of cinema and the endlessness of the human being.
The first block of screenings curated by CinemaAttic is a set of both fiction and animation films that combines two international collaborations of Spanish filmmakers with France and Indonesia respectively, alongside two remarkable works where crucial parts of Spanish culture are wisely explored. Thus, whereas La chanson de Satie and Erase love are a beautiful and engaging exploration of universal values such as love and death, Paseo and Minotauromaquia look at capital notions of Spanishness like the Civil War in Spain of the will to power of Pablo Picasso.
Then, the second block of films shows an interaction of well-recognized filmmakers with new.born talents. Here animation reigns over as to expose the superb works of Isabel Herguera and Juan Ibañez in perspective with the master of animation in
Finally, the last block of works is again a diverse set of films presenting a disturbing reflection on mass production, the magic of sand animation or state-of-the-art proposals by recently acclaimed artists such as Rubén Coca or the superb duo Bruno Zacharias&McGrego
Title: "Norman McLaren Spanish Animation Today: converging identities?"
The festival opened at the MacRobert Centre, Stirling , on May 12th
2010, with a ninety minute programme of short films lasting between 4
and 9 minutes each.
Featured film makers were Norman McLaren, Marcos Andavert, Diego Audo
Pinilla, Florence Henrard & Carlos Porta, Arteleku (collaboratin of
different animators by composer Xabier Erkizia), Rafa Toro & Rosa
Ferrer Avila, Tomas Bases and Cesar Diaz Melendez.
Subject matter, style and tone varied considerably, making for a
memorable and enjoyable evening.
The festival, which was attended and sponsored by the Spanish film
consul, was followed by a beautifully played concert celebrating the
work of Frederic Chopin: Pianist Daniel Del Pino, violin David Otto
Castrillo, viola Ma Angeles Herroro Suarez-Barcena, cello Alvaro
Llorente.
Violinist Beatriz Pedro-Viejo was unable to come due to the grounding
of aircraft while the Icelandic volcano continued to erupt.
The MacRobert centre complimented the event with tapas served at the bar.
Day Two, Festival and Conference: 'An Approach to Spanish Short Film Animation'
The festival continued on May 13th with a programme of films followed
by a conference presented by Spain 's most prolific animation expert,
Maria Luisa Martinez Barnuevo.
Twelve films were screened by filmmakers Norman McLaren, Alvaro Leon
Rodriguez, Juan Ibanez, Javier Ideami, Mayec Rancel, Carlos Navarro,
Muyi Neira, Marcos Valin & David Alonso, Cesar Esteban Alenta, Javier
Ideami, Juan Ibanez and Sam Orti.
Once again these films illustrated the importance of the short
animated film. Imaginative, versatile, thought provoking and
inspiring, the short film can take us to places inaccessible to other
art forms.
In her presentation Maria Barnuevo described how there is no bond
between mainstream film production and the short, the two follow
separate paths.
In 1941 Fernando Morales founded an animation studio in Madrid and
don Cleque ran his first animated series. That same year Norman
McLaren joined the NFB in Canada .
By the '50s Spanish animators had turned their talents mainly towards
publicity, returning to independent abstract art in the 1960s and
'70s.
One of the early animators, Robert Balsar, also known as Bob Balser,
went on to be the animation director for Beatles' 1968 feature,
'Yellow Submarine,' where he was described as the level head who kept
everyone together.
By the 1990s a new generation of animators focused mainly on the
plastic arts using a variety of techniques.
The past ten years has seen the beginning of a unique author/audience
link through the Internet, greater use of clay stop-motion,
socialisation, and further development of new technologies.
The Spanish Ministry of Culture Archive accepts copies of films on
35mm, a luxury affordable only to those who enjoy solid funding. The
cost of making an animated film is typically around six thousand euros
per minute and the main potential for profit comes from prizes won at
festivals.
Funding sources for Spanish animators include Animadrid, Animacor,
Animac and 3D Wire with preference given to those who attract the
largest box office.
The conference was well attended and concluded with a questions and
answers both in English and in Spanish.
Day Three, May 14, CinemaAttic Animation Festival: Roxy Art House Edinburgh
Spanish film makers flew over specially for the event and the films
played to a full house.
The programme opened with Norman McLaren's witty film, 'Neighbours,'
where the arrival of a flower results in two neighbours
destroying one another.
Featured filmmakers were Norman McLaren; Irene Iborra, David Gautier &
Eduard Puertas; Marcos Valin, Maria Monescillo & David Prieto;
Giovanni Maccelli; Fernando Cortizo; Anna Solanas & Marc Riba and Coke
Rioboo who answered questions at the end.
The films were Stop motion animations and, as before, included a wide variety
of stories and witty ideas.
The festival continues on May 20th at 6pm in the Wee Red Bar, 74
Lauriston Place Edinburgh , and concludes on May 22nd at the Roxy Art
House.
CinemaAttic is the brainchild of Carlos Redondo and is named after
his private cinema.
Websites:
cinema Attic - www.cinemaattic.com
graphic designer Luis Ancillo - luisancillo.com
MacRobert Centre - www.macrobert.org
University of Stirling School of Languages , Cultures and Religions -
www.slcr.stir.ac.uk
Roxy Art House, 2 Roxburgh Place EH8 9SU (nr the Festival Theatre) -
www.roxyarthouse.org
Wee Red Bar 74 Lauriston Place EH3 9DF (nr Tollcross) - www.weeredbar.co.uk
Spanish organisations:
Animadrid - www.animadrid.com
Animacor - www.animacor.com
Animac - www.animac.info
3D Wire - www.3dwire.es
Chopin Circle In Scotland : Mr A Graham, Chopin Circle , 15 Carnbee
Park, Edinburgh EH16 6GE.
Further Resources:
A new website that may be of interest to animators -
www.brianlemay.com / history / timeline1941-1950.html
Useful links - www.animationpost.co.uk/novice_notes/animation-links.htm
Cinema Europe in Spanish, English, Italian and French - cineuropa.org
European Animation News (over a hundred links to Spanish studios) -
www.euanimationnews.com
Film-O-Tech (on-line short film screening) - www.filmotech.com
International Movie Database - www.imdb.com
END OF REVIEW
The Roxy Art House screened the final show from the
five-day Spanish animation
festival on Saturday May 22nd.
Despite excellent posters, flyers and art work, attendance for all but one event was
below full capacity, the rare dose of blazing hot sunshine no doubt being a
contributing factor.
The short animated film holds a unique place in the world of the creative arts, no
other medium allows the same kind of ingenuity and engagement.
Many of the films screened would also look good in a digital photo-frame,
their stylish visuals being viewable again and again.
The rendering of faces was one of the high points that characterised the festival
overall.
Films that stood out include "Minotauromaquia" (2004) by Juan Pablo Etcheverry, "The Garden Of Earthly Delights" and
‘’Shot’’ both by Juan Ibanez, ‘’The Werepig’’ by Sam Ortí and "Said's Journey" (2006) by Coke Riobóo, a twelve and a
half minute story of the dream of crossing the Mediterranean sea and living in the 'paradise' of Spain, a clay-animated
film where even the waves on the sea rippled realistically (and that, I was told afterwards, was no small feat).
Thanks to CinemaAttic Coke Riobóo flew over for the festival and answered questions from the floor.
New screenings are seemingly on the way for all those who could not attend the
official ones.
END OF REVIEW
Sender:
Geoffrey Alexander
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