We end 2024 by revealing information that RTVE insists on hiding: how much money it contributes to the financing of which films and who makes up the commissions that decide it. RTVE, the main financier of Spanish cinema together with the film institute of the Ministry of Culture, contributed 88 million euros to Spanish cinema between 2020 and 2023. But the interesting thing comes with the analysis of the data: 60 million went to films directed by men and only 27 million went to female filmmakers. This is the great gap in the financing of Spanish cinema that we were not seeing.
Don’t miss this topic, as well as other reading, exhibition, leisure and cinema plans for the weekend.
a concert
Butt Heat (Madrid). Christmas wouldn’t be the best time of the year if it weren’t for the massive Ojete Calor concert at the Palacio de Deportes in Madrid (that place known until now as WiZink Center). This December 28, this long-awaited mass bath arrives with the best and also the worst hits of subnopop. On this occasion, it is a concert only for beautiful people: people who do not pass the beauty test will not be able to enter, as has been announced. This means that it is quite likely that all of us except Carlos Areces and Aníbal Gómez will be able to enter. It’s okay, we’ll still have fun because we know the lyrics to the songs by heart.
Three recommended books
‘Better than dead’ by Fidel Moreno (Random House). This is the literary debut of this journalist who is an expert in music and drugs (together and separately), as he is the author of What are you singing to me? Memory of a century of songs (Debate, 2018) but he is also director of Cáñamo magazine. A modern-day novel, with an irritating 41-year-old protagonist who is unemployed after a decade selling records at the FNAC. It has humor, eroticism and the miseries of a community of neighbors in pandemic Madrid. In bookstores from January 9.
‘Pop music of the space age’ by Óscar Alarcia (Libritos Jenkins). Many of us knew what the space age pop by Stereolab in the 90s. It was a gateway to discovering everything from the elegant Latin loung music of Esquivel to the pioneers of electronic music like Daphne Oram. Whether the thing stayed there or was later forgotten, this book that takes content from a reference website and has been edited by Óscar Alarcia aka Frunobulax in his small publishing housemay be the re-entry door you were waiting for.
‘Los sorias’ by Alberto Laiseca (Editorial Barrett). Last November, Editorial Barrett carried out something crazy that must be well considered: the edition of a book of more than 1,400 pages that the late Argentine author Alberto Laiseca published in 1998 (it took him ten years to write it). For Piglia it was one of the best novels in Argentine literature. It is a dystopian universe with three countries at war, one of them is called Soria. Maybe there’s no need to say much more.
Three recommended films, by Javier Zurro
‘Nosferatu’. Robert Eggers returns to the origin, to the primary source, to Nosferatu de Murnau to offer his vision of the classic that he fell in love with when he was nine years old and that somehow made him one of the directors who have revolutionized horror in the last decade. Her version gives the point of view to the female character and turns this story into a story about obsession and toxic love between vampire and possessed.
‘Saturday Night’. As an absolute fan of Saturday Night Live I have to recommend the film directed by Jason Reitman (Juno), about the first episode of a show that made history. A luxury cast to tell the hour and a half before the debut. Chaos, nerves, conservatism, envy, and a look full of affection at the comedians who changed the way of doing television and open-air humor.
‘You will return’. What better Christmas gift to see one of the best movies Spanish of the year. Come to Filmin this gem by Jonás Truebawhich in its apparent lightness hides an exciting look at routine, love and endings. It should have been nominated for everything at the Goya, so let’s vindicate it by seeing it at home and strongly recommending it.
Three plans for the weekend, by Laura García Higueras
Live the Magic (León). The city will be flooded with magic until January 1 through this festival that will feature eleven screenings of its International Gala at the Teatro Auditorio Ciudad de León, where artists such as Rudy Coby and Nunzia will perform. The contest includes free activities on the street, where squares and various corners will also become scenes of illusionism, in addition to its historical monuments, bars and restaurants.
Monstro Cabaret (Barcelona). The monthly celebration of the Ocaña dissident cabaret will feature this Saturday with a special guest to say goodbye to the year, Estefanía Vidal. The iconic artist of post-dictatorship Barcelona will accompany Sara Brown and Santa Catalina at the age of 70 in this celebration of the cabaret tradition that defined the most scoundrel of Barcelona during the golden years of the Parallel.
Estopa (Madrid). After triumphing in their Christmas Eve Special on TVE, in which they celebrated their 25-year career, the Cornellá brothers perform this Saturday at IFEMA, as part of the Starlite Christmas festival. A perfect occasion to enjoy their ‘classics’ such as Through the slit of your skirt, Like Shrimp, Your Heat and Red wine; along with the rest of their extensive discography since they published their first album in 1999, Tow.
Three comics, by Gerardo Vilches
‘Akari’ by Marco Kohinata (Ponent Mon, trans. Víctor Illera Kanaya). One of those manga that we are quick to describe as “intimate”, but that knows how to go beyond the margins of that label with originality. The young author imagines the relationship between a young artist and a veteran glass craftsman who mistakes her for his granddaughter, whom he has not seen for years. From this situation, Kohinata develops a story full of sensitivity towards art and feelings, in which silence and the purely visual, those handmade lamps that end up uniting the two protagonists, take over everything.
‘Graphic delirium’ by Calonge (La Cúpula). It represents the compilation of all the material published by Calonge in El Víbora, a necessary vindication of a raw talent forgotten by the majority. Revered by his colleagues during the 80s, Calonge published a handful of scattered stories, drawn with multiple techniques, occasional collaborations with some scriptwriters, literary adaptations and unclassifiable pieces, which have in common a paranoid vision of society, an absolute distrust of the human race, the fascination with violence and an indisputable ability to capture the essence of the urban.
‘The Gaza War’ by Joe Sacco (Reservoir Books, trans. Montse Meneses Vilar). It is the comic that we would never have wanted to end this year of recommendations with, but the one that we have no choice but to read. Joe Sacco, the most important author of journalistic comics, returns to the issue of the conflict between Palestine and Israel with a tone between the furious and the satirical, in pieces published online during the last year, in which he attacks Israel’s criminal policy , but also against the cynical support of the United States and European indolence. An annoying read, but inevitable.
Three exhibitions
‘The song of the caecilians’ (Madrid). Any excuse (or none) is a good one to visit one of the best museums in Spain, that of Romanticism. But it is interesting to take advantage of the visit to learn this temporary installation (ends on February 2) in the Madrid costumbristas room created by the artist Cecilia Barriga. It is a video recorded in three spaces in Rome with a choir of 42 “cecilias” who rewrite the song Poor Cecilia by Gabriella Ferri based on her experiences of abuse and mistreatment.
‘Guests: two looks from Zuloaga’ (A Coruña). In cooperation with the Reina Sofía, the Museum of Belas Artes da Coruña presents two works by Ignacio Zuloaga in which we can appreciate his art as a portrait painter, his Parisian influences and the masters Velázquez and Goya. Both portraits have curious stories. One of them is dedicated to the Russian painter Victoria Malinowska, who participated in two exhibitions held in Vigo in the early 1920s. Until February 25.
‘Operate to a Black Venus. What would the ocean floor tell us tomorrow if it emptied of water today?’ (Madrid). The most complete exhibition that has ever been dedicated in Spain to the Portuguese artist Grada Kilomba, curated by Manuel Borja-Villel at the Reina Sofía Museum, talks to us about memory, trauma, gender and postcolonialism. It can be visited until March 31.
Librotea’s recommendations
We like personal diaries as a literary genre. Esmeralda Berbel, who has published her own, also recommends those by Rafael Chirbes or Cristina Rivera Garza.
#subnopop #mass #bath #vampire #cabaret #plans #weekend #year
