Azucena de la Fuente (Jury) Imagineindia 2018

Azucena De La Fuente is an actress and director, known for Muerte en Granada (1996), Al salir de clase (1997) and Aquí no hay viva (2003).

Shee worked with Andy García in ‘Muerte en Granada’ (1996). A year later, she gave life to Marisol Garrido in one of the emblematic series of spanish television, ‘Al salir de clase’. That to name just two of the works of one of the co-founders of the General Union of Actors.

Now, after passing through the production of TVE ‘Medical Center’, is about to pack to return to the Mecca of cinema for the project Brothers of justice.

Counterfeit Kunkoo (Reema Sengupta) India. Imagineindia 2018

Counterfeit Kunkoo
Reema Sengupta
India. 2017. 14 min

Reema Sengupta’s film is India’s only short film entry at Sundance Film Festival in 15 years.

Counterfeit Kunkoo is unpretentious and realistic to its core. The film is about a separated single woman looking for accommodation in Mumbai and minces no words (or visuals) in underlining the desperation of her situation. With a satirical bent, the film showcases how women in India, even today, are expected to be accompanied by a man for finding a roof over their head. Says director Reema Sengupta, who wrote the film a few years back when her father asked her mother to find her own place after 24 years of marriage: “The idea was to address housing discrimination and the shift of attitude towards a woman after she decides to separate from an abusive marriage. I didn’t know how to channelise the deep sense of anger and helplessness I was feeling. So I chose to write a film about it.”

Javier Aguirresarobe (Jury) Imagineindia 2018

Obtained the diploma in Optics, initiated studies of Journalism. Later he entered the Official School of Cinema, where he coincided with Imanol Uribe, Ángel Luis Fernández and Julio Madurga, among others. He graduated in 1973.

His first feature was What does a girl like you in a place like this? by Fernando Colomo (1978). In his beginnings he worked a lot with Imanol Uribe and Montxo Armendáriz, which gave him great popular recognition in the Basque Country.

His consecration at the national level came from the hand of Alejandro Amenábar, with whom he collaborated in Los otros and Mar adentro. With Sea inside Oscar winner for the best foreign film of 2005, he won his sixth Goya award as director of photography. His professional career is plagued with multiple awards. This year also a compilation music video by Joaquín Sabina entitled Punto … y seguido.

In 2006 he made the film The Ghosts of Goya by Miloš Forman.

In 2007 he worked with Woody Allen in the movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

In 2009 he worked with John Hillcoat in the film The Road, based on the Pulitzer Prize novel by Cormac McCarthy.

In 2009 he worked as cinematographer with Chris Weitz on New Moon and with David Slade on Eclipse.

In 2013 he worked with Woody Allen in the movie Blue Jasmine.

Since 2007 he has been a member of Jakiunde, Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of the Basque Country.

Arturo Cardelús (Jury) Imagineindia 2018

Cardelús was born in Madrid, Spain in 1981. He studied at the Superior Conservatory of Music (Salamanca, Spain), Royal Academy of Music (London), Franz Liszt Academy of Music (Budapest), and Berklee University of Music (Boston).

In 2013, Cardelús attracted national attention for his composition Con Aire de Tango, which was commissioned by members of the Berlin Philharmonic after they saw a video of his work on YouTube / YouTube. Other pieces by Cardelús have been presented in venues such as the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid.

In 2012, Cardelús made music for the movie The Paperboy. In 2015, he made music for the Italian film Chiamatemi Francesco. Cardelús has also worked on independent Spanish and American films.

In 2016, Cardelús was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM). In 2017, Cardelús made music for En un Heartbeat, a film that received universal praise for its animation, progressive message and emotional resonance.

Cardelús lives and works in Los Angeles.

Miriam Díaz Aroca (Jury) Imagineindia 2018

She was born on March 4, 1962 in Aranjuez, but grew up in Santander (Cantabria), growing up in the neighborhood of La Albericia. She studied journalism at the Complutense University of Madrid. She started working in Radio Minuto Fórmula de la Cadena SER, as an announcer and control technician.

Her first appearance on television was in the musical program Aplauso, in 1979, as a contestant in the section La juventud baila, presented by José Luis Fradejas being in third place behind Edel Bezanilla and the Madrid-born Rosa María Velasco, who won a prize of 25,000 pesetas. Professionally, she would debut with Javier Basilio in the contest Don Basilio’s boat, which was broadcast on the program of Jesús Hermida Por la mañana (1987-88). Later she went on to present a children’s program called Cajón desastre (1988-1991). She presented the contest of Un, dos, tres … together with Jordi Estadella (1991-1993).

Manhole (Vidhu Vincent) India. Imagineindia 2018

Manhole
Vidhu Vincent
India. 2016. 86 min

Manhole is a Malayalam movie directed by Vidhu Vincent depicting the life and struggles of a manual scavenger’s daughter. The film was adjudged the Best Film of the year 2016 by the jury for the Kerala State Film Awards 2016 and the Director of the film was selected as the Best Director of the year 2016. This made Vidhu Vincent the first woman to win the Best Director Award in the history of Kerala State Film Awards since its inception in 1969. According to jury chairman Apurba Kishore Bir, Manhole was the unanimous choice among the jury members for convincingly bringing the plight of the marginalised on screen.

The film was also chosen as one of the only two Malayalam films in the competition category of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) 2016. This has made Vidhu Vincent the first woman director to enter the competition section in the twenty-year history of IFFK. Manhole is the first feature film directed by Vidhu Vincent. The film also grabbed the FIPRESCI : Best Malayalam Film Award during the IFFK 2016. The film was selected for the award “for the raw reality with which the film sheds light on the persistent inhumanity of manual scavengers in India, despite its being legally banned, in a cinematically eloquent manner.”

Sand Castles (Akash Basumatari, Arjun Chavah, Maanvi, Priyamvada Jagia) India

Sand Castles
Akash Basumatari, Arjun Chavah, Maanvi, Priyamvada Jagia
India. 2015. 24 min

What is a ‘home’? Is it the same as a house? Or does it mean something else? Sand Castles or Raeton ka Mahal (2015) is a film that looks at homelessness in Mumbai through the eyes of people living on Girgaum Chowpatty. In the process of looking at ‘home’, the film discovers intertwining issues of sustaining livelihood, stereotypes about the poor, dignity and self-respect, ineffective laws and unreal demolitions in the city. When Tulsi Thakur, one of the many living in Girgaum Chowpatty is able to find a house, the questions assume another form, unravelling the unending struggle for a roof to live in the ever changing, harsh and liberating city of Mumbai.

Interview with Reema Sengupta

Interview done by Women Making Films

http://www.wmfindia.com/

“Representing your country is both exhilarating and nerve-racking” – Reema Sengupta on the Sundance 2018 premier of her film Counterfeit Kunkoo”

Reema Sengupta, a name that is going to make a tumultuous entry in the feature-length Indian independent scene very soon, has made a fabulous one with her short fiction ‘Counterfeit Kunkoo’ already. The wearer of many hats, Reema is a writer, director, and an editor, has done some stellar work via the advertising agency that she founded called CATNIP. Reema is known for her documentaries, stop-motion animations, interactive video installations, and fiction films that she has made and worked in across India, UK, South Korea, & the US. Continue reading Interview with Reema Sengupta

Lola Forner (Jury Imagineindia 2018)

Her sudden jump to the popularity takes place when in 1979, after being crowned Miss Madrid, she becomes winner in the Miss Spain Contest, celebrated that year in Lloret de Mar. In addition, she would be Semifinalist in Miss World 1979 and 2nd Lady of Honor in Miss Europe 1980. The notoriety reached allows her to start her career as a model and above all, make her first incursions into the world of interpretation. Only a few months after winning the contest, the director Pedro Masó claims her to play the small of the children of Alberto Closas in La familia, the third of the titles shot around the adventures of a large Spanish family .

During the eighties she developed a discreet cinematographic career, intervening in not especially memorable titles like the revenge of the black wolf (Duel to death) 1 (1981), the black wolf (1981) (both of Rafael Romero Marchent), the last penalty (1984), by Martín Garrido or Pareja enloquecida seeks mother for rent (1990), by Mariano Ozores. She also made incursions into the environment of international co-productions, working in meals at home (1984) and the armor of God (1987), along with Jackie Chan.

Since the nineties she has focused her appearances on television (in which she debuted in 1983 with Las Pícaras, which she followed a year later Los Desastres de la Guerra, along with Sancho Gracia), and she has been able to find introducing (Rich and Famous, 1990, magazine broadcast by Antena 3 in its first months of existence) and performing (Amor de papel, 1993, telenovela shot in Venezuela, La forja de un rebelde, 1990, by Mario Camus, Calle nueva, 1998, The family … 30 years later, 1999, The secret, 2001 and In the name of love, Televisa 2008).