SEMINCI creates the DAMA Dialogues, a new gateway to Spanish cinema with more than a dozen encounters between audiences and filmmakers

The company Derechos de Autor de Medios Audiovisuales (DAMA) thus initiates a new alliance with the Festival in a conference to analyze the current situation of Spanish cinema, which will be held in movie theaters and at the University of Valladolid

The Valladolid International Film (Seminci) incorporates into its program the DAMA Dialogues, a meeting point, debates and shared reflections between authors and the public, as a reflection of the good state of the Spanish film industry. The talks, following the screenings of the competitive sections of the 68th Seminci, will be approached from different points of view such as writing, the formal aspect or the production of cinematographic creations. The activity also counts on the collaboration of the University of Valladolid (UVa), which will host several of these dialogues.

The meetings, free of charge and open to the public, will take place at the usual screening venues of the films programmed for competition in the different competitive sections. Among others, directors Antonio Méndez Esparza (Que nadie duerma), Víctor Iriarte (Sobre todo de noche) and Carlota Nelson (Cristina García Rodero: La mirada oculta), participating in the Official Selection; Marta Lallana (Muyeres), María Gisèle Royo and Julia Castro (On the Go), the four members of Colectivo Negu (Negu hurbilak), competing in Punto de Encuentro; Luis E. Parés (La primera mirada: La mirada oculta), participating in Memoria y Utopía; and Luis E. Parés (Memoria y Utopía), competing in the Competition Section. Parés (La primera mirada), participating in Memoria y Utopía, and Rafa Alberola (Elogio del horizonte), whose feature film will have their world premiere in a special screening at Seminci.

Spectators will have the opportunity to have an open meeting with these outstanding national filmmakers as well as enjoy the presence of representatives from other creative fields such as literature, music or photography.

Antonio Méndez Esparza will open the DAMA Dialogues on Sunday 22nd at 7pm after the screening of his latest film Que nadie duerma. Accompanied by producer Pedro Hernández, Méndez will talk to the audience at the Calderón Theater about the relationship between fiction and documentary genre with the meeting ‘How fiction feeds on documentary and vice versa’. Spectators will be able to enjoy this meeting again after the screening on Monday 23rd at the Teatro Carrión.

Víctor Iriarte will also be present at the meetings with the public on the occasion of the Official Selection screening of the film Sobre todo de noche. The world premiere of his latest work will kick off the meeting ‘Mixture of genres and the survival of auteur cinema‘, scheduled on Sunday 22nd at 4pm after the screening of the film at the Teatro Calderón and on Monday 23rd at 10.15pm at the Teatro Carrión. Iriarte will be accompanied by producer Andrea Queralt. 

On Monday 23rd at 22.15h will be the turn of Manuel Martín Cuenca and his meeting with the public ‘Rodar sin red‘. On the occasion of the world premiere of his latest film El amor de Andrea, the director from Almeria will answer the questions of the audience along with screenwriter Lola Mayo on the first day of the screening of the film at the Teatro Calderón.

The second feature film by Marta Lallana Muyeres will give way to a meeting with the director and the musician Raúl Refree in a colloquium entitled ‘Y las raíces permanecen’ (And the roots remain) in a first appointment on Monday 23rd at 9.45pm after the screening of the film. The DAMA dialogue can be followed again on Tuesday 24 at 7.15pm after the session scheduled at the Broadway Cinemas.

On the same day, Luis E. Parés will be in charge of the dialogue ‘Rediscovering the archive’. After the screening of the film La primera mirada, which will have its world premiere at 7.30 pm at the Broadway Cinemas, the director will hold this dialogue with the public that will close the DAMA meetings on Monday 23rd.

During the day of the 24th, the DAMA Dialogues will also be present in the animation cinema with the meeting after the screening of El sueño de la sultana (The Sultana’s Dream). With the presence of the director Isabel Herguera and the producer Chelo Loureiro, the public will be able to attend the dialogue with the guests, ‘Towards a new perspective of animation’, after the screening at 9.45 pm in the Sala Fundos. 

Within the framework of the Special Screenings and the Meeting Point section, the DAMA dialogues will also be present after the screenings of the films Elogio del horizonte and Negu Hurbilak. On Wednesday 25 at 17.30h Rafa Alberola will share a table with colleagues such as Jimena Merino, Perig Guinamant and Guillemo Benet in a dialogue with the public entitled ‘Cinema as a collective creation’, on the occasion of the screening of his latest work at the Broadway Cinemas. The meeting will be repeated in a second session with the Negu Collective after the screening of the film Negu Hurbilak on Thursday 26th at 10.15pm at the Teatro Zorrilla and on Friday 27th at 5pm at the Broadway Cinemas.

The screening of the road movie On the go, included in the Meeting Point section, will give way to the colloquium ‘Filming from underground cinema to the feminist road movie‘ during the day on Wednesday 25th and after the screening of the film, scheduled at 10 pm in the Sala Fundos. The directors María Gisèle Royo and Julia Castro will hold a second meeting with the public on Thursday 26th at 7.30 pm after the second screening at the Broadway Cinemas.

Closing these encounters with the public on Friday the 27th will be director Carlota Nelson and the honored Cristina García Rodero in the dialogue ‘The Portrait of the Artist’. With the work Cristina García Rodero, la mirada oculta, Nelson pays tribute to the acclaimed Spanish photographer and the two will hold a dialogue with the public after the screening scheduled at 7 pm at the Teatro Zorrilla.

Seminci brings cinema closer to students

In addition to these meetings in movie theaters, the DAMA Dialogues will be held at the University of Valladolid, which also joins these cinematic encounters as a new venue for bringing film and spectators together. Filmmakers such as Paula Ortiz (Teresa), Lois Patiño (Samsara) and Laura Ferrés (La imatge permanet), whose feature films are premiering in the Official Selection, will be the special guests at these three open dialogues with the public, which will take place at the Paraninfo of the University on October 24, 25 and 27 at 12:00 noon. In these dialogues, the creators will talk with the students about their works and their creative process.

Paula Ortiz will be in charge of inaugurating these activities at the Paraninfo on Tuesday 24 at 12 noon with ‘The strength of the word, the strength of cinema’. The filmmaker’s main theme will be her experience directing Teresa, the fourth feature film in her filmography, which will have its international premiere at Seminci during the Spanish Film Gala.

On Wednesday 25th, Lois Patiño will take over with ‘Traveling with the spectator towards unexplored territories’, in which she will use her latest feature film Samsara as the starting point of the meeting. The audience will also be able to enjoy this dialogue with Patiño on the 24th and 25th after the screening of the film, unpublished in Spain, in the programmed sessions of the Official Selection.

On Friday 27th Laura Ferrés will close these dialogues at the university headquarters with the meeting ‘Y la vida se coló en nuestra película’ (And life snuck into our film). The public will have the opportunity to attend again to this meeting in the colloquiums after the screenings of the film La imatge permanent, scheduled on 26 and 27 at the Teatro Calderón and Teatro Carrión respectively.

24 years at the service of creators

With more than 20 years of experience, DAMA is the only Spanish entity specialized in the collective management of audiovisual works rights, and has become the industry benchmark thanks to its transparency in collection and distribution.

It also works to promote and defend audiovisual creation through various assistance and training programs.

Chaired by screenwriter and television series creator Virginia Yagüe, DAMA has more than 2,000 members and manages the remuneration rights of audiovisual authors (directors and screenwriters) from 40 countries.

With this alliance between the copyright management company and Seminci, DAMA reinforces its commitment to protecting the rights of creators and, with this initiative, encourages dialogue between authors and spectators.