Toledo, Spain, Nov. 21 and 22, 2012
This year the 4th Cine y Palabra (Movies & Words) film festival organized a special hommage to Alice Guy. The formal events comprised the following:
Two screenings of The Lost Garden, the documentary directed by Marquise Lepage, and introduced by Lepage and Regine Blaché-Bolton, Alice Guy's grandaughter.
Alison, Francisco, Maria Elena
I gave a lecture on a panel with Francisco Griñán, who spoke about the films Alice Guy made in Spain.
Afterwards, the first Alice Guy award, in the form of lamps designed with Alice's image on them by Luís María García, also of La Recua Teatro, were handed out to journalist Ana Pastor and Josefina Molina. Molina could not attend, so her award was accepted by Isabel de Ocampo, who also wrote a summary of my lecture and Francisco's lecture for the CIMA website.
And there was the world premiere of Alicia and las Sombras de las Maravillas, a play by La Recua Teatro company written by Luís María García and directed by María Elena Diardes, who was one of the key organizers behind the hommage. The other organizer was Gabriel Castaño de la Rosa, the director of the CIBRA film festival. (For more about the play, watch this space.)
Regine Blache-Bolton
The Alice Guy hommage was sponsored by La Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España, the French Embassy, The Alliance Francaise, The Instituto Buñuel, CIMA (Women in Film in Spain) and individuals patrons of art and culture.
CIBRA Inaugural Event
While at the festival we also saw some excellent films, including Michael Haneke's Amour, which is nominated for the Independent Spirit Awards and has Oscar buzz.
Wilaya, a lyrical and gut-wrenching film about refugee camps in the Sahara;
the opening night film, Operación E, starring the irrepressible Luis Tosar;
and most memorable for me, Blancanieves, a black-and-white silent film in which Snow White becomes a bullfighter. A film I couldn't stop thinking about for days after I saw it.
The Cibra film festival focuses on films that are based on a previously existing literary work, such as a novel or a play, or are based on a true story.