07/03/2019 - The fearless documentary film festival shows no sign of being superstitious as it prepares to unspool in Pamplona between 11 and 16 March, offering unexpected and courageous cinematic propositions

The Punto de Vista Navarre International Documentary Film Festival is a totally unique event in Spain, thanks to its keen sense of risk-taking and its tireless search for new film languages, uninhibited directors and avant-garde cinematic propositions. Starting on 11 March and unspooling for six consecutive days, the Baluarte, Pamplona-based gathering will be celebrating its 13^th edition this year. It will incorporate retrospectives dedicated to the USA’s Marcia Hafif and Jonathan Schwartz; the Punto de Vista Labs, a space for exchanging knowledge and for collective creation; the Contemporary Focuses, a collection of works by outstanding filmmakers such as France’s Marie Losier – whose latest opus, Cassandro the Exotico! [+see also:
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Standing out among the 30 or so shorts and feature films screening in its official section – which will be judged by Eva Sangiorgi, the artistic director of the Viennale, Dennis Lim, the head of programming for the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York, and Erika Balsom, a professor of Humanities and Film Studies at King’s College London – are a slew of European titles, such as the British-Indian co-production O Horizon by The Otolith Group, Ojo guareña (Belgium/Spain) by Edurne Rubio and Rushing Green with Horses (Germany) by Ute Aurand. In addition, besides the tribute to recently departed filmmaker Jonas Mekas, the festival will screen (out of competition) Sólo somos by Jonás Trueba, which is an integral part of the Quién lo impide [+see also:
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Worth highlighting among the most invigorating premieres at this edition is the immersive experience El sexto sol, which features a 60-minute audiovisual score performed live by Luis Macias, who also composed it: according to the organisers, “This piece of expanded cinema is designed for a 360° projection device created specifically for planetariums, and it explores unimaginable landscapes consisting of suns, moons, planets, constellations and other elements of the cosmos, whisking us away on a voyage that takes us back to a myth of creation from the future.”

Lastly, the winner of Proyecto X Films at last year’s edition of the festival, La vía flotante, which explores Navarrese landscapes where there is no visual trace of humans, but where they can still be heard, helmed by the Zazpi T’erdi collective (made up of Pello Gutiérrez, David Aguilar Iñigo and Iñaki Sagastume), will be shown to audiences at Punto de Vista 2019. Likewise, the projects by the individuals and teams vying for this edition’s production award will also be presented: Maddi Barber, the Los Hijos collective (Luis López Carrasco, Natalia Marín Sancho and Javier Fernández Vázquez) and Jaione Camborda. The most worthy candidate will be decided on by a jury comprising Maialen Beloki (the deputy director of the San Sebastián Film Festival), Alejandro Díaz Castaño (head of the Gijón International Film Festival) and Albert Serra’s regular producer, Montse Triola. The winning work will get an airing at this very festival in exactly 12 months’ time.

(Translated from Spanish)