Javier Fuentes Feo: “We are not interested in consumer films, but those that approach reality with rigor, seriousness, conscience and responsibility”
In his first edition as director of the Film Festival of Lanzarote, Javier Fuentes Feo and the entire organizational team have managed to increase the number of visitors by 30%. It has also been the edition in which more directors have participated and sections have been created to favor the integration of cinema with the island itself. For the director of the eighth edition, the goal is still to grow in quantity, but also in quality.
What is your assessment of your first year as director of the Exhibition?
I think the Muestra is a very important project within the island, national and international film culture. With the legacy we received from the first seven years, we have tried to make an important leap forward. This year we had almost thirty-five guests from many parts of the world: Syria, France, USA, Mexico, etc. The educational project is having great success, the attendance to the rooms has grown considerably, the opening in Cueva de los Verdes was impressive, the repercussion in regional, national and international press has surprised us. However, there is no doubt that we have many shortcomings. If things have gone very well this year has been by an over-effort of the team.
The chosen themes, hard topics, loaded with doses of reality, have been chosen on purpose to load the Sample of certain aspects of the social reality that surrounds us?
Cinema, like every work of art, always speaks of the world in which it is made. No one can escape the reality in which they live. Many times, without realizing it, we repeat phrases or thoughts that are not ours, but are within the social environment in which we move. So, every movie does exactly the same, even those that belong to genres such as science fiction. The emergence of films about extraterrestrial invasions during the Cold War, for example, was a reflection of that era of fear of communist invasion. The difference that the movies that we select have is the way in which they face that same reality. How they present it We are not so interested in consumer films that use reality to entertain the public, but those that approach reality with rigor, with seriousness (even if they have humor), with conscience and with responsibility.
After 8 years, the show is established within the cultural landscape of the island, do you know what aspects should be improved or which should be growing for next year’s edition?
When I first met with Marco and Busky, the true creators of this project, I told them that I thought the show should connect much more with the island. I have always avoided thinking that cultural management is important in itself and just because. I think you always have to ask yourself: why and how should cultural management be important and necessary for a certain place. That’s why I suggested that we start the sections Trasfoco and Destiladera. Both connect with the context of our island. They think and review their characteristics and their history. But they do not do it in a regionalist or short-sighted way, but with their eyes set on a world that has globalized and that has transnational problems. I think we should continue in that line. We must also open more collaborations with other collectives and institutions, with schools and with institutes. The relationship with education is fundamental.
Many of the directors, the year that more, have approached the island. This, undoubtedly, favors the debate and knowledge of the works by the public.
Absolutely. This year almost all the directors of the Official Section have come, all the Canarian directors, many of the Trasfoco Section and several members of the Distillation Section. A success This, without a doubt, as you point out, helps to debate the films, analyze them and reflect on them. However, I think we should turn this issue of invitations around because I think we can take better advantage of the fact that the directors travel to Lanzarote. In fact, I appreciate the question because I just had an idea about it. Maybe we could take advantage of his presence here to give workshops or do some course. We will give you a return for next year.
Many of the films in the show are risky for one reason or another, very far from commercial cinema, and at the same time the show seems to increase in viewers, does this prove a need for more cinema of this kind on the island?
No doubt this year we have had a much larger public attendance, with more than two thirds attendance in the room even on Monday or Tuesday. Sometimes with the room practically full. We also have an increasingly faithful audience. People who come to almost all the films But next year we will have to work with time and with clear ideas to improve that aspect too. It would be good to improve quantitatively, but above all qualitatively, the relationship with those who come to the Exhibition. That the relationship be richer with the invited directors. Make it a more intense learning process.
Is the management of a festival very different in the rest of the works that you have done?
A sample like this has an important part of management, a part of logistics, a part of financing and financial control and, obviously, a part of cultural knowledge. In all these senses, the Sample presents aspects with which I am familiar. The aspect that perhaps knew less was that the Sample is a project of an independent Cultural Association. This gives us a lot of freedom and independence. Which is one of the best characteristics of the project. But we also face a series of financing difficulties that we have to solve urgently. It would be unfeasible to continue making the project grow within the coordinates in which we have moved this year.
