• From left to right, top to bottom: TOP / Antonio Delgado, first director of DocumentaMadrid (2004 - 2010); Teresa Gómez Hermida, photographer selected in DocumentaTuMadrid; Jacobo Rivero, communications director at Madrid Destino; Andrea Guzmán, artistic director of DocumentaMadrid; Mario Cano, Graphic Identity at Madrid Destino; Juan Patiño, photographer selected in DocumentaTuMadrid; BOTTOM / Carol Caicedo, photographer selected in DocumentaTuMadrid; Antonio Pérez Río, Director of the Lens school; Javier Corcuera, creative coordinator at Cineteca Madrid; David Varela, artistic director of Documenta Madrid; and Yolanda Pividal, artistic coordinator at Cineteca Madrid.

The International Documentary Film Festival, DocumentaMadrid, presented its new image on February 15th at the center for contemporary cultural, Matadero Madrid. Now in its fifteenth year, the festival will be held between May 3 and 13, 2018. 

Those participating in the press conference were the artistic directors of DocumentaMadrid, Andrea Guzmán and David Varela; the creative coordinator at Cineteca Madrid, Javier Corcuera; the artistic coordinator at Cineteca Madrid, Yolanda Pividal; Jacobo Rivero, Director of Communications and Media Management at Madrid Destino, and one responsible for the festival's new visual identity, Mario Cano, member of the Graphic Identity team at Madrid Destino. We were also joined by Teresa Gómez Hermida, Carol Caicedo and Juan Patiño, the photographers whose series were selected from #DocumentaTuMadrid to be featured in the festival's new identity.

On the occasion of DocumentaMadrid's fifteenth anniversary, the festival's artistic directors Andrea Guzmán and David Varela explained the reasoning behind the revamping of the identity after showing a video showing the festival's earlier images. "We wanted to refresh the festival image with a new aesthetic and graphics that visually represent the future goals of the project," said Guzmán. "The purpose of the new image for DocumentaMadrid 2018 is to serve as a reflection on the vitality and multi-faceted nature of a city in which diverse backgrounds and ways of life flow together," explained David Varela during his talk.

Some of the goals for the new DocumentaMadrid, as Varela pointed out, are "to find new audiovisual languages ​​and experimental ways of approaching reality, in addition to our goal of creating a non-hierarchical and vibrant place for thought and reflection." Likewise, the directors expressed their desire to bring in other contemporary artistic disciplines and their commitment to disseminating documentary film and creating new audiences. As far as the festival's relationship with Madrid and its fifteen years there, Andrea Guzmán discussed how they propose to encourage "greater participation of Madrid audiences beyond their traditional role as a spectator", emphasizing that the goal is "for the festival to live on beyond the festival itself, so that at the end of each edition, something in the city has changed".

Along these lines, Javier Corcuera took the floor not only as the creative coordinator at Cineteca Madrid, but also from his experience as a filmmaker with ties to the history of the festival: "I think DocumentaMadrid is now the Festival of Madrid in its own right. It is a festival that is held not just for the city of Madrid, but also with Madrid. " "It is really a privilege for the city of Madrid to have a major public festival, one that has been growing for fifteen years with support from the Madrid City Council."

From the team at Madrid Destino, its communications director Jacobo Rivero praised the work of the current artistic management team, "which it already demonstrated last year with its intention and ability for making documentary film more accessible to the public and for growing this project".

The DocumentaMadrid Festival moved to the Matadero Madrid Cultural Center in 2010, and held its first screening at Cineteca Madrid during its 2012 edition. Yolanda Pividal, the artistic coordinator of Cineteca Madrid, has shared some of the activities being planned to celebrate the festival's fifteen years, such as the exhibit "Madriles" by Rafael Jaramillo, creator of DocumentaMadrid's first visual identity and the one in charge of its image up until 2012.

Yolanda Pividal noted that this year there is a new feature, the Cineteca Madrid Audience Award, which will give cash prizes totaling 7,500 euros for the films most highly rated by the audiences; to be divided into two awards, one worth 5,000 euros for the winner in the feature film category and another worth 2,500 euros for the short film category.

#DocumentaTuMadrid receives over 500 photographs in 4 weeks

Mario Cano, the graphic designer behind the festival's new identity and member of the graphic identity department at Madrid Destino, explained how the new image was created: "Right from the start of this new design, we have sought to express the willingness for opening up new spaces for public participation at the festival and its relationship with other artistic disciplines, which is why the call for photographs was opened in December with #DocumentaTuMadrid". From the images submitted in that campaign, a creative process was opened up in collaboration from the festival's own audience. During the presentation, Cano explained that "the goal of the call was to create a visual map of Madrid by means of an organic, horizontal structure."

DocumentaTuMadrid is a photo contest launched on Instagram in collaboration with the Lens School of Visual Arts, the goal of which is to get diverse perspectives on the city of Madrid that would go on be used as part of the festival. A total of over 500 photographs were received, out of which four series have been selected:

The series selected for the main poster is composed of photos by Javier Domínguez "Jadoga", which is entitled “Madrid, con cabeza” ("Madrid, with head"). Another series selected to be part of this year's image is "A veces llueve en Madrid" ("It sometimes rains in Madrid"), by Teresa Gómez Hermida: "As a native of Galicia, in sunny Madrid, rain is a journey in time for me, the time when you forge your identity" On her series "Notas sobre cabestro” (“Notes on cabestro”) Carol Caicedo (who has just published a book about this work) explained how "the urban layout of Cabestreros Square turns into prison architecture, and explores the idea of ​​the physical, social and psychological limits of space". The fourth photo series selected comes from Juan Patiño, who spent a summer collecting snapshots to prepare his project on the Gran Vía. "Some time has passed since these photos were taken, it was my first project as a photographer and I like that these images are part of DocumentaMadrid".

Over 1,500 movies submitted

The DocumentaMadrid Festival has received 860 feature films and 690 short films from 106 countries. The films are being evaluated by the Festival Management and Selection Committee, made up of Sandra Ruesga (filmmaker and film curator), Guillermo G. Peydró (filmmaker and film curator), Jara Yáñez (film critic and curator), Laura Gómez Vaquero (teacher and film curator), Miquel Martí Freixas (film critic and curator) and Ruth Somalo (filmmaker and curator).

In addition, the call for entries for CORTE FINAL, the 1st Professional Documentary Film Forum of Madrid is open through February 18. This new Forum will hand out major awards to independent documentary productions that are markedly auteur-film in nature and that have already reached an advanced state of editing or postproduction. One again this year, the DocumentaMadrid team is working to offer the best in national and international documentary film, the most interesting visions in independent documentary filmmaking and, as always, to provide a meeting place to bring together filmmakers, audiences and professionals.

During its fifteen years of history, the festival has established itself as an unmissable international event for documentary filmmakers and as a space for promoting new Spanish filmmakers. The audiences of Madrid have gotten the chance to discover and meet with such great filmmakers as Frederick Wiseman, Rithy Pahn, Alanis Obomsawin, Luciano Emmer, Basilio Martín Patino, Patricio Guzmán, Margarita Ledo, Carlos Saura, Carmen Cobos, Nicolas Philibert and Helena Třeštíková, among many others.

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To arrange reporting / interviews, please contact:

Beatriz Asín
DocumentaMadrid Communications Team
Las Espigadoras. prensa@documentamadrid.com (0034) 637 941 980

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