Argentina: 50 short films will participate in the Quarantine Images Film Festival

 

The “Quarantine Images” Film Festival is a special event that will take place from July 24 to 26.

It has the artistic purpose of raising awareness and reflecting on the Covid-19 Pandemic. The event is in charge of the Tapiales Film Festival (TAFIC), a benchmark within the variety of festivals in Argentina.

In this case, an online film festival format will be chosen so that the public can enjoy it from home and freely and free of charge.

In their official presentation, the organizers state: “During the spread of the virus, thousands of filmmakers from around the world decided to tell stories from the confinement with the theme of the coronavirus and how it impacts both daily life and the lives of millions of people” .

The initiative

Gustavo Winkler , member of SIGNIS Argentina , Catholic Association of Communication of that country, is part of the organizing team. Asked about the genesis of the festival, he expanded: “Since the pandemic grew in various parts of the world, isolation, along with social distancing, was one of the most widely used preventive measures. This led many filmmakers to decide to face the situation in a creative and artistic way, narrating their personal vision of the Covid -19 pandemic. For this reason, we decided to hold an online short film festival to learn about different perspectives from around the world on our present and, also, raise awareness among the audience about the importance of community prevention and personal care in the face of the pandemic. ”

The Festival received more than a thousand productions. The programming management selected fifty short films to make up this first edition. Asked about the decision to develop a virtual festival, Winkler reveals: “The TAFIC is a short film festival with more than 15 years of validity that is carried out in person in the Tapiales neighborhood, belonging to Greater Buenos Aires of the Argentine Republic. In its beginnings it was a festival produced by film students to bring audiovisual culture to the entire community publicly and free of charge. Over time, the same proposal was maintained, adding the support of the National Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA), the provincial government and other organizations such as SIGNIS Argentina .

This year many film festivals around the world had to cancel their dates in the wake of the Covid -19 pandemic. In our case, we decided that it would not be an option and we decided to promote and improve our social networks to strengthen communication. The “Quarantine Images” Festival will be our first experience as an online festival adapted to the reality we have to live, and it will help us to learn how to sustain the next TAFIC 2020 from a virtual plane. ”

The sections

The sections that include "Quarantined Images" are: "Official Competition"; the “Post-apocalyptic Shorts” section, science fiction short films inspired by the pandemic; “La Primera Linea”, a section that pays tribute to health workers; "Postcards of a Pandemic: focus on the cities hit by the virus".

Regarding the assembly of these sections, Gustavo Winlker declares: “Thanks to the success of the call, we have exceeded a thousand registered short films. As the works reached the Festival Programming sector, very marked aesthetics and genres could be observed in each film. We concluded that we needed to add to the competitive section some sample sections geared towards those more particular styles. ”

The judge

A group of international juries made up of Alex Dávila (Ecuador); Gretel Suárez (Argentina) and Carlos González Jaén (Panama) will have the mission of awarding the best three short films of the festival. There will also be an Award that will be delivered by the public, through their vote.

Asked about the participation of the president of SIGNIS Ecuador , the director Alex Dávila , among the juries, Gustavo Winkler said: “We met in the experience“ Communicators for a Culture of Peace ”, organized by SIGNIS ALC and carried out at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, in Colombia. From that relationship, came the possibility of summoning Alex to be part of the international jury. "

As a special activity within the festival, a “Conversation on Cinema in Times of a Pandemic” will be held, with the participation of the filmmakers participating in the festival.

The transmission of the shorts will be made from the Tafic page, with the corresponding links to YouTube that will be replicated through the festival's social networks.

For more information, you can consult the Tafic fanpage.