Cornerhouse

Our Media & Comms Officer Elisa Ruff is talking ¡Viva! 2012…

It’s finally snowing in Manchester and Christmas is now only a couple of days away, but I’m already excited about next year’s ¡Viva!, our annual Spanish and Latin American film festival.

It’ll take place in March and will showcase the very best of Spanish and Latin American cinema. The 2012 programme will include special guests, sizzling premieres and hot previews alongside an exciting array of feature films, short films, documentaries, director Q&A’s and a new exhibition of work by inspirational Mexican artist Minerva Cuevas.

You’ll even be able to take Spanish language study session here at Cornerhouse (there will be something available for all levels), and our restaurant & bar will offer tasty Spanish beer and tapas.

The film I’m personally looking forward to the most is Pa negre (Black Bread), Agustí Villaronga’s drama investigating a crime during the dark years after the Spanish Civil War in an isolated rural community. Awarded with nine (!) Goya Awards including best film, best director and best-adapted screenplay, Pa negre was the first ever movie in Catalan to represent Spain at the Oscars.

I also really want to see Daniel Sánchez Arévalo’s Primos (Cousinhood). I’ve heard a lot of good things about this playful comedy that the director himself has described as a treatise on male stupidity. It’s about groom-to-be Diego, who is ditched by his fiancée just days before the planned wedding. His crazy cousins, Julián and José Miguel, rally round as he looks set to go off the rails, and the trio plan a trip to their home town to help him recover.

Definitely worth a peak will also be Minerva Cuevas’s show Landings which opens on Sat 3 March. The exhibition will present installation, video pieces and public interventions that examine our relationship with nature. Minerva will use old magic lanterns and 19^th century microscope projectors to transport us back in time when scientific research was only linked to a human desire to make sense of the world. It’ll be a fascinating and thought-provoking show.

¡Nos vemos en marzo!