16/11/2021 - This event for the analysis, development and production of arthouse projects from Spain, Portugal or Latin America– is held under the umbrella of the Márgenes Festival

Director Guillermo Benet, who is participating in the initiative with his new project Arcadia (© Matteo Rovella)

The Márgenes Madrid Independent Film Festival has announced the projects selected to take part in the 7^th edition of MÁRGENES/WORK, its training and project development section: there are ten works –seven audiovisual and three review and research projects– originally from Spain (6 projects), Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. The choice of projects was made from more than 400 applications received from 18 Iberian American countries and Italy. The work sessions will take place from 16 to 21 November, with a team of professionals who will advise the participants on boosting their creative potential, as well as ensuring their access to the market and circulation. The audiovisual projects are candidates for the 1^st La Casa Encendida Audiovisual Creation Award, with a 4000€ cash prize and sponsored by the Montemadrid Foundation, which support independent creation and new talent.

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MÁRGENES/WORK is also a part of the RAW Residential Courses: an initiative created in 2019, as a result of the collaboration between the Márgenes  Festival and Doclisboa, supported by the Ibermedia Programme, and which is also open to the area of research and review. As well as MÁRGENES/WORK, the finalists from RAW have also been taking part in the laboratories Arché, the Doclisboa project development forum, from 21 October to 21 November.

Márgenes Work 2021 will also include the Spanish film maker Guillermo Benet (Los inocentes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillermo Benet
film profile]) con Arcadia, which presents the life of Julia, from birth to death: a series of moments where childhood, adolescence, maturity and old age make up the story of a life; another Spanish director, Chiara Marañón and the Colombian Juan Soto with Elena dio a luz un hermoso niño, which explores the footprints of time, made into marks of light, darkness, colour and stains over the image and story of a family and a country in the shadow of dictatorship; Catalan film maker Xisi Sofía Ye Chen with La noche de la infancia: the daily routine of a Chinese businessman who migrated to Spain as a child; a business trip, a secret karaoke party and then afterwards in a hotel suite outside Madrid are the backdrop for his story as he is forced to reconcile his gangster past with his present; and the Madrid film makers Antonio Llamas, Lucas G. Torralbo, Alejandro Pérez and Jorge Rojas with Mitología de barrio: a glossary and full map of the working-class suburbs of Madrid, which are going through an unstoppable process of displacement and gentrification.

At Raw Creation the projects come from Uruguay (Astarsa, by Álex Piperno, film divided into three parts), Argentina (BEA VII, by Natalia Garayalde, which tells how Leoncio Ríos travelled to Croatia in 1995 as part of the United Nations Peace Mission Protection Force) and Spain (Hombres y días, by Arnau Villaró: a unique testimony of the creation of a gay identity in 1990s Barcelona). and under the Raw Review and Research section we have: O personagem em interrogaçao, a book by Francisco Miguez (Brasil); Dos o tres cosas que sé de José, by Adrián García Prado (Spain); and Las videocartas como experiencia colectiva, by Bibiana Rojas (Colombia).

The selected projects are:

Márgenes Work

Arcadia - Guillermo Benet (Spain)
Production: Ainhoa Ramírez, María Herrera

Elena dio a luz un hermoso niño - Chiara Marañón, Juan Soto (Spain /Colombia)
Production: Luis Ferrón (LaCima Producciones)

La noche de la infancia - Xisi Sofía Ye Chen (Spain)
Production: The South Project

Mitología de barrio - Antonio Llamas, Lucas G. Torralbo, Alejandro Pérez, Jorge Rojas (Spain)

Raw Creation

Astarsa - Álex Piperno (Uruguay)

BEA VII - Natalia Garayalde (Argentina)
Production: Eva Cáseres

Hombres y días - Arnau Villaró (Spain)

Raw Review and Research

O personagem em interrogaçao - Francisco Miguez (Brasil)

Dos o tres cosas que sé de José - Adrián García Prado (Spain)

Las videocartas como experiencia colectiva - Bibiana Rojas (Colombia)

(Translated from Spanish by Alexandra Stephens)