Argentinians Ezequiel Salinas and Ramiro Sonzini compete for the Golden Spike on a day when Alfonso Sánchez, Carolina Yuste and Afioco Gnecco also presented their films.
The seventh day of the 70th SEMINCI brought with it a series of proposals that demonstrate, from personal and collective perspectives, the power of cinema as a tool for resistance and social transformation in the current political landscape in countries such as the United States and Argentina. It also highlights its role in narrating and giving visibility to stories of diversity, such as those of the LGBTIQ+ community and the Romani people.
After ten years as a projectionist at the Hugo del Carril Municipal Film Club, Pelu loses his job due to budget cuts and takes on a new position as a night watchman. ‘It’s tough, but that’s the way it is,’ says his boss, in an apparently defeatist start to a film that proves to be quite the opposite. This is the starting point for The Night is Fading Away, a film that speaks of the resistance of cinema in the face of the current political landscape in Argentina. Directors Ezequiel Salinas and Ramiro Sonzini attended SEMINCI to present the Spanish premiere, alongside lead actor Octavio Bertone. ‘Filming in a cinema was like exorcising a nightmare. The Argentine government is willing to cut anything that has to do with culture,’ said Salinas. He added: ‘We don’t know if Milei will continue or not, but what we do know is that Argentine cinema has recovered from worse things.’
History Time and Special Screenings
Italian-Chilean filmmaker and queer activist Afioco Gnecco and two-time Goya Award-winning actress Carolina Yuste have premiered This Body of Mine worldwide at SEMINCI. Directed by four hands, this documentary follows Gnecco’s gender transition process through the lens of a friendship that began years ago and was consolidated as an artistic collaboration with the previous short film Ciao bambina (2024). ‘Co-directing means understanding each other. It’s beautiful because it’s not his film or mine; it’s a mixture of our two energies, always in favour of talking about trans realities and masculinities from a positive, loving and luminous point of view,’ said Yuste. This Body of Mine is competing in the Time of History section and is also one of the candidates for the Rainbow Spike Award.
Another world premiere that took place within the Special Screenings of the 70th SEMINCI was that of Pendaripen: The Silenced History of the Gypsy People, in which actor and director Alfonso Sánchez (El mundo es vuestro, Sembrando sueños) embarks on ‘a great journey of discovery’ that spans 600 years of persecution and resistance by a people historically affected by institutional racism. The director attended the event in Valladolid accompanied by producer Agus Jiménez, screenwriter Eva Montoya, editor Pablo Vega, singer Esperanza Fernández, composer Quentin Gas and singer Lolita Flores. The latter argued: ‘Peoples that are not liked are annihilated or expelled. They wanted to take away our way of life, and that cannot be done to any human being. Respect and dignity come first.’ The screenwriter added: ‘This film is not only about the gypsy people, but also about the systematic strategy of reviling a people and justifying their persecution.’
Meeting Point and Alquimies
Dominican-American filmmaker Joel Alfonso Vargas defended the Spanish premiere of his debut feature film Mad Bills To Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), produced by Christine Vachon, at Meeting Point. Touching on themes of identity and diaspora, the film tells the story of Rico, a young man who lives in the Bronx with his mother and sister and whose 16-year-old girlfriend becomes pregnant. ‘I grew up in a part of the Bronx that is the birthplace of hip-hop and a lot of urban culture. All of that is at the core of my identity, and in the film I wanted to explore this intersection. I wanted to be true to my experience, to life itself. The narrative of what it means to be a person of the diaspora is constantly being rewritten,’ shared Vargas, who drew inspiration from people around him during his childhood to construct the character of Rico, a contradictory and deeply human figure.
The Alchemies section at SEMINCI featured Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý, directors of Hair, Paper, Water…, a film that follows a woman named Hau in her efforts to pass on the Ruc language to her grandchildren. ‘The idea for the film came about when Mrs Hau told Quý that if her valley flooded during the rainy season, she would take a boat to row back to the cave where she was born. It started as a joke, but it was an image that stuck in our minds. And to reconstruct it, we had to work with her,’ said Graux. ‘Little by little, the film expanded until it became something bigger than our intentions. It’s a very free film and we really enjoyed making it. We hope the audience will enjoy it just as much,’ added Trương Minh Quý, who returns to Valladolid after presenting his two previous feature films, Viet & Nam (2024) and The Tree House (2019), at SEMINCI.
Gala events and concerts
On the seventh day of the 70th SEMINCI, the Teatro Zorrilla hosted the UNESCO Valladolid City of Film Gala, a joint initiative between SEMINCI Factory, Valladolid City Council, Valladolid Film Commission and the Castile and León Audiovisual Platform, to support filmmakers and production companies by promoting the creation of short films and the development of audiovisual projects. During the gala, the winners of both sections were announced. Los caminos del deseo, by Rocío Gómez, and Estáis todos invitados, by El Inquilino Producciones, were the winning short film projects. The award for Audiovisual Project Development was won by Enrique García Vázquez for the feature film Marcos quiere ser mejor.
After the announcement of the winners, the two works selected for the 69th edition were screened: Cenizas mi amor (Ashes, My Love) by Pedro Tamames and Margo García, a peculiar approach to vampire cinema shot over four nights in Valladolid; and Esta no es tu casa (This is not your home), by Javier Noriega, in which Fernando Cayo plays a UIP police officer who begins to feel the emotional weight of his work as he walks the streets of the Delicias neighbourhood.
Demonstrating that cinema and music go hand in hand at SEMINCI, the Sala Concha Velasco / LAVA hosted a concert by Fantasma Sur, a group led by filmmaker Isaki Lacuesta (Second Prize, Un año, una noche). A multidisciplinary project that combines Lacuesta’s script with the electronic and atmospheric rhythms of Ylia, the lyrics and voice of Alondra Bentley, and the visual creations of Albert Coma. All this has resulted in a unique sensory experience in which the audience was able to transcend the boundaries of musical, audiovisual and lyrical arts.
Short films
The Official Short Film Section continued with its national chapter, screening the first session of Spanish short films under the title “House Party”. The works included in this session were: Casi septiembre, with the participation of director Lucía G. Romero and producer Sendy Palomino; Abortion Party, presented by its director Julia Mellen; Las colillas de mi casa, with the presence of director Eduard Amado, actress Ingrid Rubio, actor Oriol Cervera and producer Judith Garcia; La diva, mi abuela y yo, with director Inés G. Aparicio and producer Diego Herguera; and Un piso estupendo, with the participation of directors Gabriela Isabel Gómez de Arteche, Alejandra Llorens, Daniel Pérez, Camila de Lucas and Jaime Marqués Cordero.
Young Programmers
Participants in the Young International Programmers initiative through the Young4Film network today presented the film Murina (2021), directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović. After meeting with the director to discuss her creative process, the young participants prepared and moderated the post-screening discussion with the audience. The members of this group, who are participating in this European Moving Cinema initiative project in Valladolid for the first time, include Lucía Caviedes, Katarina Čupić, Oton Fratrić, Andrej Jakovljevic, Maša Nedeljković, Gabija Okeana, Dora Plantarič, Katarina Radmilović, Carlotta Sforza, Pau Vega, Kamilė Zinkevičiūtė and Noah Zoratti, accompanied by Martí Madaula and Julija Šilytė.
