- With local and regional authorities in attendance, this last Thursday September 29 was the official launch of the 29th Valdivia International Film Festival, at Luis Oyarzún House, Universidad Austral de Chile. The event showcased the screening of the official 2022 commercial spot, an audiovisual piece created by students and teachers at the Audiovisual Creation School, in Universidad Austral, produced by the festival team, and directed by the academic Nayra Illic.
The instance was also the opening of the exhibition 30 afiches para un festival (30 Posters for a Festival) that rolls out the entire collection of festival posters, including the so-called “Year 0”, of 1993, commemorating the 30-year anniversary of the Cine Club, a celebration that marks a precedent in FICValdvia history. The exhibition, which will remain open until October 21, can be visited Monday through Friday, and is organized by the Community Outreach Office at UACh.
With a cinema program that features over 200 films from diverse countries, 29 FICValdivia will take place from October 10 to 16. The event will be completely in-person, at eight different movie houses. In addition, the festival Meeting Point will once again be the CECs Tent, a place that will host several panels, and where people can purchase festival passes.
This year, the festival returns with CINEMÁS, a series that brings together local and national music acts and Chilean cinema. The activity will take place in the waterfront, at the former heliport area, on Wednesday 12, Thursday 13, and Friday 14.
The festival launch was headed by FICValdivia Director Raúl Camargo, who stated that, “it is very important to return to in-person activity, after two years with an online festival, as Valdivian audiences, along with those that visit the city during the event, had a need to come in front of the big screen. This effort to come together once again also considers the festival’s international character, with the return of foreign press, guests, and filmmakers, all this in addition to eight film venues, panel discussions, and live open-air music.”
“I think it is a tremendously special moment to look at each other, face to face, recognize one another, and heal,” highlighted Universidad Austral Prorector Sandra Bucarey. “Our founders’ mandate is for this to be a humanist university, which involves being a highly provocative unifying agent for culture and the arts.”
“Mine are fundamentally words of gratitude, as the festival is already part of our regional heritage. It has a seal, a powerful identity that projects Valdivia and the region into national and international arenas,” said, in turn, Luis Cuvertino, Regional Governor of Los Ríos, who highlighted all the benefits the event brings to the community. “We wish this version to enable mass participation of our citizenry, with all the collateral economic effects this entails and the activity it generates, both in terms of services, and also in the public sector.”
“These are the things that help us recognize and contemplate our role, as authorities who must integrally promote the different facets of human development. No doubt the Valdivia International Film Festival is part of our history, of our heritage. It is part of the lives of many families in our region, and through it, diverse territories have featured, grown, and developed, in the recognition of our realities,” said Paola Peña, Regional Presidential Delegate in Los Ríos.
“We have to remember that the festival is the yearly culmination of permanent activity carried out by the Valdivia Cultural Center for Film Promotion, the institution that drives and articulates it. It emerges, as initiative, under university auspices, in a spirit that seems very significative to me, and that must be respected as a cultural extension, which is a vocation that all important institutions should share,” asserted Antonia Torres Agüero, Los Ríos Regional Ministerial Secretary for Cultures, Arts and Heritage.
“From a municipal perspective, we have to highlight the role the festival plays in the creative ecosystem of our community, and the consequences it generates in terms of tourism and investment, especially in commercial activity,” stated Municipal Administrator Cristian Oñate. “It is a categorical imperative that, as an organization, we continue fostering and strengthening the relationship that unites Valdivia City Hall, Universidad Austral, the Valdivia Cultural Center for Film Promotion, and everyone else involved, so that future editions of the festival have an even bigger role.”
Finally, Loreto Vega, Chair of the Board at the Valdivia Cultural Center for Film Promotion, was grateful to “have this 29th version of the festival that brings together children, the elderly, with whom we have special programs throughout the year, and also this year, in particular, the beautiful collective learning work around training and collective viewing with people with disabilities.”
This 29th edition of the Valdivia International Film Festival (FICValdivia) marks the return to movie houses. After two years of restrictions, we will once again come together in cinemas and around the city, to enjoy events, concerts, talks, and a broad selection of movies from Chile and around the world.
OPENING
The opening ceremony will be on Monday October 10, at Cervantes Theater, hosted by our dear friend and actress Mariana Loyola. It will also feature the screening of the unreleased Un sueño como de colores (1972), by Valeria Sarmiento, a short documentary recovered 50 years after its making, about two young women that work as strippers at the cabarets Mon Bijou and Tap Room, respectively.
OPENING FILM
Mato seco em chamas, a movie codirected by Portuguese filmmaker Joana Pimenta and Brazilian director Adirley Queirós, that follows the story of a group of women that extract and distribute oil in a favela, in Ceilândia, Brazil, will be the Opening Film of the 29th edition of FICValdivia.
MAIN FEATURE
The Main Feature this year is Unrueh, second full-length by Swiss director Cyril Schäublin, about the inhabitants of a Swiss village, in 1877, that must deal with the changes in watchmaking brought on by industrialization. The picture obtained the award for Best Direction in the Encounters section at the Berlin International Festival.
CLOSING FILM
During the final days of the festival, the Awards Ceremony, on Saturday 15, at Teatro Cervantes, will showcase the screening of the short Étude cinégraphique sur une arabesque (1928), by filmmaker and theoretician Germaine Dulac. The viewing will be accompanied by the award-winning score at the Third Contest of Musical Composition for Heritage Short Films, organized by the festival, together with the Valdivia Chamber Orchestra, which will also be in charge of playing the chosen piece.
That same Saturday, at 9:30pm, at Aula Magna, Notas para una película, Ignacio Agüero’s first foray into fiction, and this year’s Closing Feature, will celebrate its world premiere.
FOCUS
A highlight of this year is the dedicated Focus on directors that will travel especially to Valdivia to show their filmography: João Pedro Rodrigues, Elena López Riera, and the iconic Colectivo Cine Mujer, from Mexico. Also, the award-winners of the online 2020 edition will be visiting the festival to show their productions on the big screen: Vladimir Léon, Andrea Testa, and Gustavo Ribeiro, together with Ana Poliak, who will show her 3 full-length pictures in 35mm copies.
GALA
The long-awaited program will present the new motion pictures by Hong Sang soo, Carla Simón, Ruth Beckermann, Albert Serra, Damien Manivel, Alessandro Comodin, and Elisa Eliash.
CINEMÁS: MUSIC AND CINEMA RETURN TO THE WATERFRONT
The Valdivia International Film Festival has always been interested in pairing cinema with music shows by acclaimed artists. The Cinemás program brings many of them together at the Valdivia waterfront. Free of charge, this is a can’t-miss opportunity to enjoy with family and friends.
A renowned rap/soul singer of Mapuche Williche origins, Isleña Antumalen will perform on Wednesday 12, at 8pm. Later, at 9pm, Catana, another acclaimed exponent of Mapuche urban music, will take the stage. These concerts are the perfect preamble to the 10pm screening of Mis hermanos sueñan despiertos, second feature-length by celebrated Mapuche filmmaker Claudia Huaiquimilla.
On Thursday 13, at 8pm, the audience will be treated to the compositions and cuecas (traditional Chilean songs) of Panguipulli singer-songwriter Hemiola del Sur, continuing later with urban cuecas by Daniel Muñoz y Los Marujos. These two tasty condiments spice up the projection of Zurita y Los Asistentes, at 10pm; the documentary, directed by Jael Valdivia, details the incursions of poet Raúl Zurita in rock music.
At 8pm on Friday 14, the Valdivian band Malicia will show their enticing blend of pop, new wave, electronica, and trip-hop, followed at 9pm by Javiera Parra y Los Imposibles, who will review their musical career spanning almost 30 years. The singer will also be onscreen later, at 10pm, in Violeta existe, the documentary that follows her brother, Angel Parra Orrego, playing Las Últimas Composiciones, the final legacy of the immortal Violeta Parra.
DIALOGS IN VOCES CINE AND VOCES CIUDADANAS
In addition to screenings and concerts, every year, FICValdivia offers panel conversations about compelling and current topics. These will take place in Carpa CECs, at the festival Meeting Point.
Voces Cine (Cinema Voices)
This instance will feature a conversation between FICValdivia Director Raúl Camargo and Cintia Gil, Documentary consultant at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, along with Rosa Martha Fernández, Guadalupe Sánchez, Maricarmen de Lara, and Sonia Fritz, members of Colectivo Cine Mujer, in Mexico. The occasion will take place on Thursday, at 11:30am.
The panel conversation “Derecho a la cultura: TV pública y su vínculo con la producción audiovisual nacional” (The right to culture: public TV and its ties to national audiovisual production) will be moderated by actress Blanca Lewin, interacting with Faride Zeran, Chair of the Board at CNTV and Andrea Fresard, Chair of the Board at TVN. The instance will happen on Friday 14, at 6pm.
Kawin/Voces Ciudadanas (Citizen Voices)
“Rights and neurodiversity”, organized by the Los Ríos Regional Government and the Los Ríos Corporation for Neurodiversity, will be held on Wednesday 12, at 6pm.
The panel discussion “Gender and democracy” has the aim of reflecting on the effective incorporation of gender perspectives and women’s participation in the nation’s public duties. It will be moderated by Lieta Vivaldi, a Counselor at the National Institute for Human Rigths (INDH), with participants Constanza Valdés, trans activist and counselor at INDH, Human Rights Lawyer Karina Fernández, and Mapuche activist Antumalén Antillanca. The event will occur on Thursday 13, at 6pm.
“Conversations from WALLMAPU after the constitutional process” will be moderated by Beatriz Zamorano, with the attendance of renowned writer and journalist Pedro Cayuqueo Millaqueo. The exchange will take place on Friday 14, at 11:30am.
CHILDREN AND TEENS FROM THE REGION OPEN THE FESTIVAL
The festival opens screening the award-winning micro-movies of the 6th Explora el Cine Contest, on Monday 10 at 10:30am, at Cine Club UACh.
This year, 28 productions were in competition, hailing from municipalities across Los Ríos Region. From the applicants, 9 pictures were selected to be part of the 2022 program. The award-winning micro-movie will be revealed in the Awards Ceremony of the 20th Valdivia International Film Festival.
In this new edition of the contest, the topic centered on children’s and teens’ rights against abuse and discrimination. Thus, selected under the motto “My story, my rights”, different visions from this age group depict their queries, experiences, and emotions around their fundamental rights, through the creation of audiovisual narratives. Submissions hailed from Valdivia, Mariquina, Paillaco, and La Unión.
This inaugural program will also feature selected and award-winning films from festival editions in 2020 and 2021. The show is free and open to the whole community, after registering at ficvaldivia.cl.
Works selected to Explora el Cine are:
- Guardián, Dir. Andrei Mancilla Gheorghe, 2022. Valdivia
- Por ti, por mi…por ellos, Dir. Josefina Arriagada Díaz, 2022, Valdivia
- Hogar, dulce hogar!, Dir. Sofia Esparza Sandoval, 2022, Mariquina
- Maltrato infantil, Dir. Vicente Llanquiman, 2022, Valdivia
- Las Sonrisas Salvan al Mundo, Dir. Emerson Barrientos Norambuena, 2022, Valdivia
- Mi amigo Matius, Dir. Martina Guarda Cárcamo, 2022, Valdivia
- Wake Up!, Dir. Paula Soto Fideli, 2022, Paillaco,
- Devenir, Dir. Johan Ortiz Reyes, 2022, La Unión
- Por Ella, Dir. Antonia Pinchulaf Galeano, 2022, Valdivia
FICValdivia is funded and organized by Universidad Austral de Chile; produced by the Valdivia Cultural Center for Film Promotion; convened by the Great City of Valdivia, the Los Ríos Regional Government, and Codeproval; financed by the Audiovisual Fund, the Collaborating Festivals Program of the Audiovisual Arts and Industry Council (Call 2021-2022), and the Collaborating Cultural Organizations Program of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage.
