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SAN SEBASTIÁN 2021 San Sebastián Industry

Ikusmira Berriak puts five new projects on the starting blocks

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- The new selection of training schemes supported by the San Sebastián Film Festival includes upcoming Works by Manuel Muñoz Rivas and Eduardo Crespo

Ikusmira Berriak puts five new projects on the starting blocks
(from left to right) Directors Magdalena Orellana, Manuel Muñoz Rivas, Mina Fitzpatrick, Marina Palacio and Eduardo Crespo, this year's Ikusmira Berriak participants (© SSIFF)

The support programme for the development of audiovisual projects Ikusmira Berriak, run by Tabakalera-International Centre for Contemporary Culture, the San Sebastián Film Festival and (since 2018) the Film School Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, will present, during the current 69th edition of this Basque event, five projects by five selected emerging moviemakers. This week the participants are finishing up their residential course in the seventh year of the scheme, working and promoting possible collaborations with professionals interested in taking part in these projects, which they developed for six weeks between March and April, mentored by experts from the organising institutions.

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Some of the participants in this year’s course have already been noticed for previous work, such as the Seville-born film maker Manuel Muñoz Rivas, who was selected at the Berlin Festival for his first feature film The Sea Stares at Us from Afar [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Manuel Muñoz Rivas
film profile
]
, or the Argentinian Eduardo Crespo, who has already released three full-length movies, the latest of which, Nosotros nunca moriremos (We Will Never Die) was a candidate in this same event last year. In addition there are three more movie makers preparing their first films: Argentinian-born and Spain-based Magdalena Orellana, North American Mina Fitzpatrick and the Spanish Marina Palacio.

The short-listed projects are:

Hasta que el lugar se haga improbable (Until the Place Becomes Improbable) - Magdalena Orellana (Spain/Argentina)
The characters in this film experience a series of fortuitous events under the effects of a mysterious force that seems to deprive them of everything they have ever learned. At the same time the magnetic north is deviating from its usual axis and scientists cannot explain why. The film is still being written and hopes to be a primarily Spanish production with some Argentinian co-production.

La gruta del viento (The Wind’s Cave)Eduardo Crespo (Argentina)
Production: Francisco Márquez, Luciana Piantanida, Andrea Testa (Pensar con las manos), Santiago Loza (Primera Casa)
A film that looks at connections, the force of nature and emotions, following an Argentinian immigrant in Italy and his introverted daughter as they take a journey that leads them to the middle of a mountain, where they talk about all those things that they have never talked about. This project, currently at the scriptwriting stage, is seeking to make contact with potential European co-producers (mainly Italian).

Manantial (Spring) - Manuel Muñoz Rivas (Spain)
Production: Jamie Weiss, José Alayón (El Viaje Films)
After having surgery, an elderly man goes on a trip with his wife, from the mouth of a river to its source, taking a route that will put their stamina to the test, and night falls before they get there. This project is in the funding stage and set to start filming in Andalusia in Spring 2022. It is on the lookout for potential co-producers from Andalusia or overseas, as well as distributors and sales agents.

Wandervogel - Mina Fitzpatrick (USA)
Production: Nevo Shinaar, Abby Lynn Kang Davis (Site)
This hybrid documentary (an extension of the original short from 2017) takes a deeper look into Estrella Vista, a remote ranch in the Chihuahua Desert, where young are sent after serving time for killing their parent(s), through the eyes of veteran Dan Dailey and young Derek King. The project is in the initial stages of production and is due to start filming in March 2022, seeking funding and potential European co-producers, as well as broadcasting and/or streaming deals.

Y así seguirán las cosas (And Thus It Will Go On) - Marina Palacio (Spain)
Production: Silvia Cruz (Vitrine Films)
A group of children live and then move away from in a small town in Tierra de Campos; all their lives change, and the film does so with them. This project, which hovers between fiction and reality, is due to be filmed over the course of five years, remaining open to the Dynamic of its protagonist’s lives. It is currently in the first stage of filming and is looking for funding and potential international co-producers, as well as sales agents.

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(Translated from Spanish by Alexandra Stephens)

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