CityLife

Preview: Viva! Film Festival 2011

A scene from Colours Of The Mountain

Cast your eye over the plot lines for the 25 feature films showing at Cornerhouse over the next three weeks as part of Viva! – the venue’s annual Spanish and Latin American film festival – and you could see every one catching the eye of the Oscars judging panel.

From the beguiling tale of love, corruption and murder in Tear This Heart Out to tales of bloody revolution in The Desert Within, absurdist satire in Fat People, discovering sexuality in For 80 Days and gender politics in The Last Summer Of La Boyita, the stirring storylines have universal interest.

The reason you didn’t hear about them at the Academy Awards? They are all Spanish language films – made by buoyant movie industries in Spain, Mexico and Argentina as well as emerging studios in Colombia, Chile, Guatemala and Peru – and Cornerhouse’s curator Rachel Hayward is determined to prove that language need not be a barrier to enjoyment.

“Offering foreign language films and special festivals like Viva! is all part of our appeal – it’s what people expect from Cornerhouse,” says Rachel.

“People want to see these films in their original language – if we dubbed any, there would be uproar! There’s a real hunger for the foreign films and we get emails very early in the year asking when we’re announcing the
Viva schedule.” Now in its 17th year, Viva remains one of Cornerhouse’s biggest draws. Thousands of people will visit the Oxford Road venue over the next three weeks to watch movies, attend bolt-on events and enjoy the opening and closing parties.

From tomorrow until March 27, Cornerhouse even changes its restaurant menu to create a little corner of Spain and Latin America in its bars and galleries.

“People comes from miles away to be part of the atmosphere,” says Rachel. “They’re here every day of the festival.”

Sadly, Viva! won’t tour this year. Faced with nationwide cutbacks in the arts and sponsorship, Cornerhouse made a condecision to refocus its efforts on modelling a sustainable future for Viva!; they’ve extended it to a full three weeks while cutting down on the number of films – allowing the curators to organise more complementary events to make the most of this year’s impressive shortlist.

“Pretty much every film in the programme has an event to go with it now, whether that’s a film director talk and Q&A, a podcast, a study guide or multilingual gallery tour,” explains Rachel. “You can’t do that when you have 40 or 50 films.”

To support the programme, festival partner Instituto Cervantes – which has a city centre based academy – presents Cine en Construction, five newly developed full-length features (some extended from shorts) that look at crime, justice, road trips, survival and redemption.

And there’s more. “We’ve also chosen to work on an exhibition again as well, because all the aspects of what we do at Cornerhouse are brought together then: culture, entertainment, arts, creative industries, food, education,” says Rachel.

“Oscar Munoz is a Colombian artist and he examines loss and memory in his native country. His video installation traces the impact of years of conflict in Colombia by creating unique portraits from coal dust and water.”

His video, Biografias, shows these portraits being distorted and washed away as the water is drained, questioning the permanence of image, identity and life.

A single screen projection, Linea Del Destino, is also showing in the galleries from 6pm today and throughout the festival. “An exhibition will become a regular offer because it works really well with the Cornerhouse ethos,” adds Rachel

“We don’t often programme in terms of country but in this context we have chosen three films to go alongside the exhibition because they’re by Colombian film makers. There’s a boom in the Spanish language film industry at the moment and Colombia is coming through as one of the interesting regions for film making. There are three films, Colours Of The Mountain, Sins Of My Father and The Wind Journeys which all stand out.

“Nicolas Entel’s documentary (Sins Of My Father) about his father, the drug baron Pablo Escobar is particularly compelling. Nicolas is an exile and changes his name so he can go back to Colombia and meet with some of the children of his father’s political enemies who were orphaned by his his father’s activities.”

Gala parties bookend the festival tonight (Cornerhouse, £10.50/£8.50) and on March 26 (Instituto Cervantes, Deansgate, free from Cornerhouse box office with three used Viva! ticket stubs) to build on the community atmosphere conjured up during the festival. “The party atmosphere is something that grows and grows throughout Viva!.

“Packaging it up as we have keeps that going and makes it a more special event for people.

“People make friends in the bar and talk in Spanish and Catalan. It’s really wonderful.”

Viva! opens tomorrow at Cornerhouse, Oxford Road, Manchester, until March 27. For a full programme, go to www.vivafilmfestival.com. La Pantera Negra is no longer in the programme and has been replaced by Isobel Coixet’s Listen To The Judge. A festival pass (eight films) is £44/£32 concs. Tickets; £5.50/£4 matinees, £7.50/£5.50 evenings.