Still from "L'homme a mangé la terre" (Jean - Robert Viallet, 2019)
Another way of thinking. Another way of looking. Another way to act. Another way of living. Another Way works like a mantra. the film producer Marta García Larriu, creator and director of Another Way Film Festival, it is constantly repeated. Remember that Another Way made more sense during the second edition. “That year was a particularly difficult challenge for me and every time I hit a wall or a refusal, I said to myself: come on,** there is another way, surely there is another way”.**
Another Way Film Festival is like that scene in The Matrix where Morpheus says to Neo: **“Do you want the red pill or the blue pill?”. Do you want to see or do you not want to see? **
Those of us who do want to see have a date from today until next Thursday, October 29 with Another Way Film Festival, the festival of sustainable progress that this year celebrates its sixth edition, the first also online. An edition that is arousing special interest, for obvious current reasons. “The images of nature recovering its space that we saw during confinement, in my opinion, what they have done has been put in our imagination the possibility of a global response to a global problem. Much social and political cohesion is needed, of course, but it has broken that impossibility that we thought existed and has revealed the importance of our relationship with the environment”, Marta García Larriu tells us.
"Newtopia" (Audun Amundsen, 2020) was shot over 15 years in the Indonesian jungle
Marta started the festival project seven years ago now because making a film forum at home was no longer enough for him. “Seven years ago this theme was not so common and I felt the need to talk about it and share those titles, those documentaries that had important things to tell. Now the festival has become a meeting place for different professionals and I am very interested and amused** by merging the arts with sustainability in a transversal way”.**
One of those documentaries with important stories to tell is the shocking Newtopia (Audun Amundsen, 2020), shot over 15 years in the territory of the Mentawai tribe, in the Indonesian jungle, with which the festival opens tonight. It will be at the Golem Cinema in Madrid and can also be seen online, like the rest of the films in competition, through the new online platform created by the festival for this edition. “If reality hadn't speeded up my times, we wouldn't have made this leap. Although, the truth is that we are going to see very forceful films, with very powerful messages, to which human warmth is good for them”, emphasizes the producer.
Antarctica: a message from another planet
Apart from Newtopia, among the thirty titles that we will be able to see during the next few days, Marta highlights two that we should not miss: Golden Fish-African Fish and Once you know. The first, directed by Thomas Grand and Moussa Diop, is one of those films almost impossible to see if it is not in a documentary of these characteristics. “Golden Fish-African Fish shows us life in an area of Senegal to which the inhabitants of neighboring areas have to emigrate because they are running out of resources to eat. A situation caused by the overexploitation of its seas by the Western world. She tells us about ** the consequences that our way of life ** has in places that, if not shown in documentaries like this, would never be made visible and we would never find out about it”.
Still from Golden fish, African Fish, directed by Thomas Grand and Moussa Diop
For its part, Once you know, by Emmanuel Cappellin, asks us the following: “Once you understand the implications of the global climate crisis we are experiencing, what do you do? It is a very hopeful story that leads us to go through some difficult moments of adaptation and acceptance of the problem, but that also breaks with any of the speeches that we have usually heard on this subject. Plus, it's fantastically well made. Sometimes documentary filmmakers are more researchers than filmmakers and, in this case, I think it combines the two very well”.
And it is that, indeed, once you really realize something, there is no turning back. “We inform, share, and debate, but the message is getting through. I have some friends who they have radically stopped consuming plastic and they always credit their experience at the festival as the catalyst for their decision and, from year to year, I meet people who with love (or affectionate hatred) tell me: “since last year I haven't bought a single garment clothes because of you” or “I haven't eaten fish since I saw that movie”.
Once You Know, by Emmanuel Cappellin, one of the most anticipated films at Another Way Film Festival
Change is possible and Another Way Film Festival has always stood out for offer real solutions. “Our tool is the film industry and it seems to us more than adequate and coherent help the Spanish film industry train in audiovisual practices with less impact. It is our way of adding another grain of sand”, explains Marta in reference to the workshop** “Sustainable production is possible”** that will be held tomorrow, Friday and Saturday in an online format with Fiction Changing the World and Creando Redes.
And, despite everything, Marta remains optimistic: “Hope is created through the work and decisions of each one. There will be a very difficult moment, but I have a feeling that if we get ahead of him we will have an opportunity instead of taking a risk”.
And then you, do you want the red pill or the blue one?
Poster of one of the titles of the Impact section
WHERE AND WHEN
The ten films of the Official Section they can be seen from 25 to 29 October at the Golem Cinemas in Madrid –except for the inaugural film that is screened today, October 22 at Cineteca Madrid– and on the online platform that the festival has launched for this sixth edition. In it ** you can rent the individual viewing of each of the titles or buy the subscription that suits you best. **
For their part, the four titles of Impact Section –Journey to Utopia, Antarctica: a message from another planet, L’homme a mangé la terre and The Forum– will be screened throughout this weekend at Cineteca Madrid and on the Filmin platform.
Meanwhile, in the Produced in Green section We will see three films that have followed sustainability criteria during their production –Rosa's Wedding, Dark Waters and System Crasher–. It will be in Sala Equis from 23 to 25 October . And the Origins section will screen at the Spanish Film Library in Madrid (Cine Doré), also from October 23 to 25, a retrospective with three classic titles that were ahead of their time when it came to talking about environmental issues: The Last Horse (1950), When destiny reaches us (1973) and Fitzcarraldo (1982).
In addition, in Cineteca Madrid will take place the day October 24th the fourth edition of roll for change with the screening of nine national short films whose theme revolves around sustainability.
This year, for obvious reasons, they have had to reduce the offer of parallel activities but, nevertheless, it has a good handful of proposals for all audiences that include yoga and meditation classes, experiential and collaborative workshops, family activities and children aimed at cultivating a special sensitivity towards art and nature and meetings for film professionals and entrepreneurs. These activities will take place at Cineteca Madrid during this coming weekend and you can register here.
"Surprise the future"