The team of Oliver’s Universe took part in a special screening with the participants of the Salto del Eje programme.
Tarifa, 28 May 2022. The city of Algeciras has been the scene of one of the special screenings of the 19th edition of the African Film Festival-FCAT. The film Oliver’s Universe, by the director from Algeciras Alexis Morante has had a screening at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Algeciras – UCA with the presence of its director, as well as the actor Salva Reina. The actress Kira Miró was also present, as well as teenagers from El Saladillo (Algeciras) and Puente Mayorga (San Roque).
In this edition, FCAT is participating in a project parallel to the festival entitled Salto del eje, organised by the High Commission against Child Poverty and the Pantalla Federation, in which the Márgenes y Vínculos Foundation and Coordinadora Alternativas also participate, sponsored by the Red Eléctrica Group and in collaboration with the Diputación de Cádiz and the Ministry of Culture and Sport. Its objective is to implement a cultural strategy that transforms access to filmmaking in disadvantaged environments.
Thanks to this initiative, students from the aforementioned neighbourhoods of Campo de Gibraltar will present at the closing gala two short films and a making of which they have been working on in recent months. Ana, one of the many students in the Salto del Eje project, says that with the camera “we can make them see what we want them to see. Whoever has the camera has the power”.
In this context, the students were shown Oliver’s Universe, a film set in the Campo de Gibraltar in the 80s and the life of the boy of the title and his family when Halley’s Comet is about to pass. Actor Salva Reina and director Alexis Morante had a lively discussion afterwards with the students and teenagers about the film and their film projects.
En esta edición el FCAT participa en un proyecto paralelo al festival titulado Salto del eje, organizado por el Alto Comisionado contra la Pobreza Infantil y la Federación Pantalla, en el que también participan la Fundación Márgenes y Vínculos y la Coordinadora Alternativas, patrocinado por Grupo Red Eléctrica y en colaboración con Diputación de Cádiz y Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. Su objetivo consiste en aplicar una estrategia cultural que transforme el acceso a la cinematografía en entornos desfavorecidos.
Gracias a esta iniciativa alumnos y alumnas de los barrios citados de el Campo de Gibraltar presentarán en la gala de clausura dos cortometrajes y un making of en el que han estado trabajando en los últimos meses. Ana, una de las muchas alumnas del proyecto Salto del Eje, asegura que con la cámara “podemos hacer que vean lo que queremos que vean. Quien tiene la cámara tiene el poder”.
En este marco se ha proyectado para los alumnos El universo de Oliver, un filme ambientado en el Campo de Gibraltar en los años 80 y en la vida del niño del título y su familia cuando está a punto de pasar el cometa Halley. El actor Salva Reina y el director Alexis Morante han mantenido un animado encuentro posterior con los alumnos y adolescentes sobre la película y sobre sus proyectos de cine.
Ecology and cinema in the first FCAT aperitif
The first event of this activity began today at the Hotel El Convento. Taking advantage of the fact that the FCAT is showing films such as Walking on Water and Aya, both of which focus on environmental issues, the first aperitif revolved around issues such as the use of resources, water scarcity and the climate crisis.
The aperitif was attended by Antonio Vergara, head of studies at the Permanent Education Section of Tarifa; Ana Diaz, from the European Commission’s JRC centre in Seville and Beatriz Poncela, from the association AGADEN Ecologista en Acción. The experts took advantage of this starting point to reflect on the resources in the Campo de Gibraltar. Amongst the most prominent concerns are the urban development of the coastline that destroys the coast, the lack of water for these new homes, the warming and rise in sea level and environmental aggressiveness.
The extension of Los Toruños is full of myths, tales and legends
The Cameroonian storyteller Boni Ofogo has starred in the second storytelling in the Toruños Park (El Puerto de Santa María). Boni Ofogo’s tales travel from his native Africa around the world through the myths and legends he has been sharing for years. On Sunday 30th, this extension will host the screening of Aya, by Simon Coulibaly Gillard.
Between classics and Afrofuturisms at the FCAT
Today’s screenings featured the first films Miradas españolas and La tercera raíz. The retrospective Between Ink and Screen continued with Timbuktu (Le Chagrin des oiseaux) and in Hipermetropia, Constellations of Ecuador was screened, the first time the festival has programmed a film from Sao Tome and Principe, a documentary competing in Hypermetropia that revolves around the first large-scale post-colonial conflict in Africa.
Leyla Bouzid’s A Story of Love and Desire has also been screened in Hypermetropia. The Tunisian filmmaker offers a boy-meets-girl story far removed from the usual standards of this type of narrative, and set in the heart of Arab culture. The protagonists are a French teenager of Algerian origin, raised in the suburbs of Paris, and a young Tunisian girl, full of energy, who has just arrived in the French capital. Premiered worldwide at the Cannes Critics’ Week and applauded at festivals such as Toronto and Valladolid, the film sincerely conveys the complexities of first love in a context of sexual liberation.
