The Shortest Day 2021
Short Film Celebration
Festivals + Audiovisuals
Free
Once again, this year we're unfurling the short film flag to celebrate its international day. A day to discover absolute gems and bring together some of the format's most outstanding filmmakers.
The world short film festival is celebrated annually around the shortest day of the year. The two sessions planned to enjoy this short film festival at the CCCB are the Perles (Pearls) programme, a black comedy, and a new proposal, Xat Curt (Short Chat), with screenings and brief discussions.
Xat Curt will be attended by filmmakers with a long track record such as Clara Roquet, who's about to release her first feature film, Libertad, and Alex Brendemühl, actor and director of highly original pieces. But we'll also be showcasing new talent, such as Lucía Aleñar Iglesias, in the orbit of the Cannes Festival where she premiered her first short film, Forastera (Foreigner), and who's also developing her next feature film as part of the festival's own Résidence programme. And Tuixén Benet, choreographer and dancer for over a decade who's recently focused on her career as a director, debuting in fiction in 2020 with Aloma y Mila, whose most recent film, Solució per a la tristeza (Solution for Sadness), co-directed with Marc Martínez Jordán, we'll be screening. As well as the duo made up of Florencia Aliberti and Sílvia Subirós, who'll present their latest work, previously unseen in Catalonia, entitled Can Gardell.
The Perles programme consists of pieces by well-established names in Spanish independent cinema, such as the animator and cartoonist Alberto Vázquez with Decorado; the Canódromo Abandonado collective (Lorena Iglesias, Julián Génisson and Aaron Rux) together with Velasco Broca in Dioses Autonómicos; and Misterio (Mystery) by Chema García Ibarra, internationally renowned for his short filmmaking, also coinciding with the imminent arrival of his first feature film, Espíritu Sagrado (The Sacred Spirit). The programme also includes international filmmakers such as Zia Anger, scourge and critic of North American independent cinema, with the aptly named My Last Film, as well as Nicolás Prividera, Argentine teacher, writer, critic and cineaste with his extremely sarcastic film, also in the form of meta-cinema, Yo maté a Antoine Doinel (I Shot Antoine Doinel).
Xat curt (Short chat) | 18.00, Hall
Films talk, and so do filmmakers. We'll be screening pairs of short films with common themes and invite their authors for a quick chat.
El adiós, Clara Roquet (Catalonia-Spain, 2013)
Forastera, Lucía Aleñar Iglesias (Catalonia-Spain, 2020)
Rumbo a peor, Alex Brendemühl (Catalonia-Spain, 2009)
Solució per a la tristesa, Tuixén Benet, Marc Martínez Jordán (Catalonia-Spain, 2020)
El somriure amagat, Ventura Durall (Catalonia-Spain, 2012)
Can Gardell, Flor Aliberti, Sílvia Subirós (Catalonia-Spain, 2021)
Perles, for an end of the world | 22.00, Auditorium
Our aim was to create a comedy session but it didn't quite come out as planned. It's a bit apocalyptic. But what can you do?
My last film, Zia Anger (2015, USA)
Yo maté a Antoine Doinel, Nicolás Prividera (Argentina, 2019)
Misterio, Chema García Ibarra (Spain, 2013)
Decorado, Alberto Vázquez (Spain, 2016)
Dioses autonómicos (Cap. I, II, V), Velasco Broca, Canódromo Abandonado (Spain, 2017)
¿Qué sabemos del asesino?, Marc Ferrer (Catalonia-Spain, 2020)
Organised for the last 8 years by Catalunya Film Festivals, an association that brings together Catalan film festivals and screenings, and Marvin&Wayne, a distributor of short films, The Shortest Day is celebrated in several countries simultaneously around the 21st of December, the shortest day of the year.
