The 13th International Film Festival of LPGC looks at avant garde African cinema in collaboration with Casa África

The 13th International Film Festival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which will be held from the 16th to 24th March, devotes the cycle África Hoy to one of the less well known contemporary cinematographies. A selection of six recently produced African films and two titles that have not been produced on the continent, reflect social, political, cultural and economic reality, in collaboration with Casa África and the African Film Festival of Cordoba,  bringing the event closer to the public with work undertaken by young African filmakers.

The cycle África Hoy was presented this morning at Casa África's headquarters by the General Director, Ricardo Martínez Vázquez, the councillor for Culture of the Town Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, María Isabel García Bolta, and the Festival's director, Claudio Utrera.

True to the Festival's philosophy, committed to reality without commercial alibis, Africa Hoy is displayed as a film space between two worlds, a space between north and south, between the narrative, document and a formal search. Works that reflect the social, political, cultural and economic uncertainty in which the fifty four countries that make up the neighbouring continent move today.

Both Ricardo Martínez Vázquez and Claudio Utrera have pointed out that the films are "risky and innovative," something that links up well with the profile of a festival that precisely promotes different cinematographies and proposals that find it hard to fit into the usual commercial circuits.

For the Festival, the collaboration cycle with Casa África is born with a vocation for continuity, and Martínez and Utrera admitted that as well as the possible inclusion of specific cycles in the next few years, they are talks to see if the programme of African films in Las Palmas of Gran Canaria, as part of the Film Festival could continue throughout the year.

More information on the África Hoy cycle