Catalan Shorts, the house speciality. Short films are the backbone and the origin of the Catalan Film Festival, a festival that started in its inception as an annual showcase of Catalan short films.

Cinemaattic and the Catalan Film Festival maintain a strong support to new Catalan emerging talent and the short film format with a rich and diverse selection of short films (Catalan Curts) that will be shown in Edinburgh, Dundee, Glasgow and an additional programme of shorts only shown in the online retrospective. We are devoted to the freedom, diversity and space for experimentation that short film form allows, and this year’s selection is a proof of that, ranging from essays bringing together film and poetry to conventional fiction love stories, to tender documentaries to hilarious comedy shorts.

The programme of films this year includes 10 short films seen in Locarno, Visions du Reel, Warsaw, Vancouver, Palm Springs or BFI Flare London festivals. Films full of political commentary, dance, lightness and love, filmed letters as well as moving thought provoking films.  Stories of Catalan expats living (and dancing) in Glasgow, lovers lost in Barcelona crossing Whatsapp audios, essays bringing together poetry and film, sorority, friendship and mental health, visually mesmerising perspectives on Catalan rural world and urban queer love and despair.

This year’s online retrospective programme brings together contemporary films that approached stories taking place in the countryside. We want to explore a new trend amongst Catalan authors (both in Literature and Film) that are seeking refuge and inspiration in the rural world and the Catalan countryside. Portraying the beauty (and hardship) of a disappearing world and a world that vanishes in front of our eyes, we do so with crepuscular views, as well as contemplation of beauty and landscape, and critical takes on capitalism and depopulation in rural areas.

EDINBURGH:
Where: St Peter’s Episcopal Church Hall (14 Lutton Place, Edinburgh EH8 9PE)
When: Saturday 21 January, doors open at 19:00, screening starts at 19:30
OPENING GALA

GLASGOW:
Where: CCA (350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JD)
When: Friday 3rd February, doors open at 19:00, screening starts at 19:30
+ Q&A WITH DAVID MORAGAS AND MARGA ALMIRALL

DUNDEE:
Where: DCA (152 Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4EA)
When: Sunday 12th February, 15:30

SHORT FILMS

PONTO FINAL – Miguel López Beraza
Original title: Ponto Final
Year: 2022
Duration: 22 min
Language: Portuguese, Spanish
Subtitles: English
Showing in Edinburgh only

Synopsis: This movie is an excuse, a cure and a healing process. The director returns to his parents’ house and proposes that they play Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve, a couple of actors with whom they had a certain resemblance when they were young. This role-playing game will serve as a pretext to talk about the cancer that both his Mother and Father overcame and the fear of loss.

Festivals:

Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid – SEMINCI
Warsaw Film Festival (Winner: Short Grand Prix)
L’Alternativa – Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona
VIFF – Vancouver International Film Festival

ON THE EMPTY DANCEFLOOR – Pablo García Canga

Year: 2022
Duration: 27 min
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Showing in: Edinburgh and Glasgow

Synopsis: Do you also record audio messages and delete them before sending? An incredibly emotional film . Ana records an audio message for an old friend. Doubt. What should be remembered? What should be forgotten? What words to use to close old wounds? Sometimes the borders between admiration, friendship, love, resentment or hatred are confused in us. This is a short film that aims to capture that: the confusion of feelings, their contradiction.

Festivals:
Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid – SEMINCI, ALCINE

TOMORROW THEN – David Moragas (dir: David Moragas)

Original title: Demà ho deixem
Year: 2022
Duration: 16 min
Language: Catalan
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Showing in: Edinburgh and Glasgow

Synopsis: Marc and Jordi meet again after a few days apart. They are in an open relationship but for the first time and in the course of just twelve hours they are dealing with new emotional territory.

Festivals:
Premis Gaudi – Nominated to Best Catalan Short Film
D’A Barcelona (Winner: Audience Award)
Raindance London
Palm Springs Shortfest
BFI Flare London

LITTLE GIRLS ALWAYS SAY THE TRUTH – Virginia G del Pino
Original title: Las niñas siempre dicen la verdad
Year: 2021
Duration: 11 min
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Showing in: Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee

Synopsis: Virginia G del Pino, one of the most relevant documentary filmmakers of Spanish Contemporary Cinema brings together poetry and a playful film essay with a free adaptation of Rosa Berbel’s book of the same name, awarded Youth Poetry Award in 2021.

The year 2030, the wind, will bring an imperfect future in which a great machine will irradiate poems so that the bird-men can never touch them again.

Festivals:
FICX – Festival Internacional de Cine de Gijón/Xixón,
ZINEBI – Festival Internacional de Cine Documental y Cortometraje de Bilbao

CASTELLS – Blanca Camell
Original title: Castells
Year: 2022
Duration: 21 min
Language: Catalan, French
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Showing in: Edinburgh and Dundee

Synopsis: After breaking up with Boris, Lara returns to her hometown Barcelona. There, her friends, lovers and the Catalan traditions of the Castells will change her dreams and desires.

Festivals:
Locarno Film Festival
FICX – Festival Internacional de Cine de Gijón/Xixón

WHEN THE MOUNTAIN RUMBLES – Alba Bersolí
Original title: El día que volaron la montaña
Year: 2022
Duration: 25 min
Language: Español
Subtitles: Inglés
Showing: Edinburgh (rural Catalonia Special) & Dundee

Sinopsis: Three aging brothers must face an uncertain future and the inevitable end to years of self-imposed isolation as the abandoned village of Escó in Spain.Today, the construction of a motorway to the Pyrenees threatens Escó’s existence once again. What will be the final fate of the brothers and the curious place they call home?

Festivals: IndieLisboa, IDFA, Festival de Malaga, Sheffield Doc/Fest

THAT FLEETING ESSENCE LEFT BY WHAT HAPPENED – Carolina Asturdillo

Original title: Esa fugaz esencia que dejaron los hechos
Year: 2022
Duration: 11 min
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Showing in: Edinburgh & Dundee

Synopsis: I look for that closeness, the vestige of an alternative story to the official one that needs to be saved from oblivion. I am looking for the historical strength of those women considered by the patriarchy as exceptions, footnotes. I seek to turn the intentional trace into an object that lives and throbs, that steps out of time and thus, feel, that fleeting essence left by events (Astudillo)

WHAT STILL DANCES TO US – Marga Almirall

Original title: El que encara ens balla
Year: 2022
Duration: 25 min
Language: Catalan
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Showing in Glasgow

Synopsis: Mire and I have been friends and have loved each other since we were 5 years old. Just before she moved to Glasgow, she confessed to me that she was depressed, that she had horrible visions that would not let her sleep, and that she had not allowed herself to dance for a long time. Through film correspondence we explore together the limits of love and mutual support: can we really help each other? What role does artistic creation play?

Festivals: CineHorizontes – Festival de Cinéma Espagnol de Marseille

INERT MOTHER – Adria E. Goy

Original title: Mater inerta
Year: 2022
Duration: 28 min
Language: Catalan, Spanish
Subtitles: English, Spanish French
Showing in Glasgow and Dundee

Synopsis: Teresa works on a farm in the heart of the Catalan mountains, an environment threatened by the intensive exploitation of resources. The departure of her dog underscores the gradual disappearance of the links that the inhabitants maintain with this peaceful territory. Adrià Expòsit Goy creates a humanist fable haunted by ghosts.

Festivals: Visions du Réel – International Film Festival Nyon