Americana festival dedicated to North American independent cinema, turns 10 years old. In its next issue, which will take place in different theaters in Barcelona from 28 February to 15 March, it examines what has produced the latest fictional and documentary ‘indie’ cinema in long and short format. We highlight some titles and assets.
1. Todd Solondz
With ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse’ in the second half of the 90s, ‘Palindromes’ and the brutal ‘Happiness’, With a stunning performance by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, about a family in suburban New Jersey, Todd Solondz has become one of the greatest figures of true American independent cinema and a dark whip of the middle class. He has since continued to work on the margins with unclassifiable films such as ‘Storytelling’ and ‘Wiener-dog’ with songs by Belle and Sebastian. The festival commemorates him with a full retrospective and A ‘master class’ that will take place on February 27 at the Blanquerna Auditorium.
2. Lena Dunham is back
The creator, screenwriter, director, producer and actor of ‘Girls’ (2012-2017) has had a hard time returning to the forefront after such an impactful work. ‘Camp’ Miniseries Didn’t Succeed, Then Entered ‘Industry’ -another drama about women in their twenties but this time linked to high finances-and made the feature film in 2022. ‘Sharp Stick’, A heartbreaking comedy about a 26-year-old virgin, a married man, and a porn actress. The film will be screened in Girona cinemas on March 9 and 10. In a very productive year, Dunham completed another film, ‘The Catherine Book’, a youth adventure comedy set in a medieval English town.
3. Elvis Presley’s grandson
Actress Riley Keough She has survived the label of being the daughter of the recently deceased Lisa Marie Presley, and thus the granddaughter of the rock’n’roll king. Based on good performances in movies and TV shows “American honey”, “Girlfriend experience”, “What hides Silver Lake” and “Jack’s house”, Keough has overcome the family burden and now faces direction with the ‘Battle pony’, a direct depiction of the life of the adolescents of the Oglala Lakota tribe. He won the Camera d’Or at Cannes and Americana is showing him in the Tops section on March 8 and 11.
4. Nan Goldin and “The Beauty of Pain”
The subject of this film, which will open the competition on Tuesday, March 7 at 8 p.m. at the Phenomena cinema, is documentary photographer Nan Goldin, a historian of New York’s Bowery counterculture and punk, and an expert in self-portrait art. :30 pm But it’s definitely not a documentary about him, it focuses instead The Sackler family’s fight against the pharmacist, who is responsible for an opium-based drug that causes a tremendous addiction. The film by Laura Pointras won. Golden Lion in Venice and was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary.
5. The rise of TikTok
Another interesting movie that can be watched in the documentary section is Shalini Kantayya’s ‘Tiktok, Boom’ presented at Sundance last year. As agile and fast assembly as this successful application, The film explores its features, additions, virality, virtues, flaws, contradictions, possibilities, impact, privacy, freedom and the great work it carries with the testimonies of Generation Z members, ‘influencers’, journalists and the subject who use it. experts. Friday the 10th in the Zumzeig room.