¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival comes to Shrewsbury this May/June

After a 10-year hiatus, the ¡Viva! Tour of UK cinemas is back, with the support of the BFI, awarding funds from The National Lottery.

The UK’s largest and most popular celebration of Spanish and Latin American culture which celebrates 25 years of cross-border creativity, collaborations and partnerships in 2019 will be bringing the best new cinema from Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America to cinemas nationwide.

Presented by HOME Manchester and reflecting HOME’s 2019 theme Celebrating Women in Global Cinema, the touring films will all foreground female creative talent in the roles of director, writer, producer or star.

¡Viva!’s film programme is curated by Rachel Hayward, HOME’s Head of Film, Jessie Gibbs, ¡Viva! Festival Coordinator, and Andy Willis, Professor of Film Studies at the University of Salford and HOME’s Senior Visiting Curator: Film.

Rachel Hayward comments: “At a time in history when the issue of borders is predominant, we welcome our 25th annual celebration of cross-border creativity and partnerships. For a quarter of a century, we have been honoured to bring the best new film and creative work from Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America to UK audiences, and we look forward to continuing to do so over the next 25 years! ¡Disfrutad el festival!”

Films screening at The Hive Shrewsbury are:
Ana de día (Ana by Day)
Weds 8 May, 20:00
Dir Andrea Jaurrieta/ES 2018/105 mins
Ingrid García Jonsson, Mona Martínez, María José Alfonso, Álvaro Ogalla
This directorial debut feature from Jaurrieta – teacher, scriptwriter, producer, editor and actor – is a thrilling journey into the personal liberation of a woman unexpectedly expelled from her comfortable but unfulfilling life when a mysterious doppelgänger takes her place. Including echoes of Hitchcock and Lynch, an uncanny atmosphere pervades the film as Ana abandons her fiancé and career, and embraces an alternative version of herself, complete with a job in a seedy cabaret. Exploring her sexuality from this new position in society, Ana seems both vulnerable and empowered, an eerie ambiguity that holds the audience in suspense until the end. With its vibrant use of sound and colour, and masterful framing and editing, plus a whole host of quirky characters, this is great fun to watch.
Trailer: https://www.medialuna.biz/screeners_detail.asp?screener=ana_by_day&type=...

Miriam miente (Miriam Lies)
Weds 12 Jun, 20:00
Dirs Natalia Cabral & Oriol Estrada/DR ES 2018/80 mins
Dulce Rodríguez, Carolina Rohana, Pachy Méndez, Frank Perozo
This award-winning first fiction feature from Cabral and Estrada is a coming-of-age story that transports you to the Caribbean with a theme they know well: class conflict in the Dominican Republic. In this conflict whiteness is aligned with higher status, something which mixed race teenager Miriam cannot fail to see, not least in the attitude of her own (white) mother. As Miriam and her friend Jennifer prepare for the their joint 15th birthday party extravaganza, panic sets in when she realises the date she’s met online is in fact black. It’s tragic to witness the corrosive effects on all concerned of this endemic and internalised racism, but Miriam is bound to win your heart in this topical exploration of identity politics.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uWHjhDJSFI

#Viva2019