Once again we are opening with a gathering of all the Catalan organisations in Scotland. With the support of Centre Català d’Escòcia, Estrella Damm, Institute Ramon Llull, Screen Scotland, Film Hub Scotland and our extended family Colla Castellera d’Edinburgh.

We will have a Catalan food degustation, fresh supply of Estrellas and a programme of short films in competition and with the presence of some of the directors who made them.

What else do you need? Come along and help us celebrate the opening of the 10th edition of our most beloved film festival.

SHORTS SELECTION

Intimate, emotional stories about individuals navigating complex social / economic / political challenges, trauma, and societal pressures.

We will offer the first award of the festival to the best short film chosen by the audience.

? 8th March, 7.30pm

? St Peter’s Church Hall, Lutton Place, Edinburgh EH8 9PE

ℹ️The short film programme will be shown with descriptive subtitles, and the event will be BSL interpreted. Descriptive subtitles means that in addition to subtitling dialogue, key sounds are also transcribed, such as [bell ringing] or [crowd cheering]. St Peter’s Church Hall is wheelchair accessible.

Catalan Shorts: Programme I (75 mins)

Bona nit, rambles / good night, rambles (dir. Maria Bareche and Clara Barfull) – 29 mins

Barcelona’s La Rambla is arguably the city’s most photographed street, with thousands of people walking through it every day, making it a major tourist hub.

But what happens on La Rambla after dark? This is the question two students from Pompeu Fabra University, Maria Bareche and Clara Barfull, wanted to explore when they began filming the street night after night.

Els buits / Gaps (dir. Sofia Esteve Santonja, Marina Freixa Roca, and Isa Luengo) – 19 mins

Can the transmission of words restore a forgotten memory? Can it break the silence perpetuated between generations? At 17, Mariona was arrested and placed in a correctional facility run by the Patronato de Protección a la Mujer, an institution dedicated to ‘regenerating fallen women’ during Franco’s regime and the first years of democracy. In 2023, she and her daughter are trying to put the pieces and gaps of this story back together.

A Hakka Song (dir. Adrià Guxens) – 11 mins

As the elderly pass away and the youth depart for new horizons, only the songs survive, echoing through the deserted villages.

El bon auguri / The Good Omen (dir. Alba Bresolí) – 14 mins

A stone rests in a dry and abandoned place, on the outskirts of Barcelona, in the middle of a mountain that is no longer a mountain. Thousands of years ago it was a place to leave offerings. Sacrifices were made to ask for good omens. The stone remembers the last shepherd in the area, the only one who visited it, before disappearing with his sheep. In an eternal summer, suddenly, a visitor bursts into the stone’s existence.