With the expansion and establishment of the Internet in our lives, it seemed that a new time of global openness was opening in regard to the traffic of information and content.. The network of networks connected all the inhabitants of the planet, which opened the possibility of online culture exchange, a phenomenon whose expansion would not have, in principle, no limit. However, Over the years we have realized that this imagined arcadia was very far from being fulfilled.. Or it has not been fulfilled at all, we could say. The reasons for this are very varied and this is not the space to discuss them in depth.. But among these reasons I did want to highlight one that, to my understanding, is relevant: the lack of imagination that has occurred over time when it comes to taking advantage of a medium with very wide possibilities (text, video and audio distributed with few resources) to a few really notable spaces.
Those who do seem to have understood very well these possibilities of the network of networks are those responsible for the Film at Lincoln Center in New York. Founded in the year 1969, This non-profit institution has dedicated its efforts to the support and dissemination of cinema, both North American and international. Among its many activities, Film at Lincoln Center is responsible for organizing the dinner festival from the city of New York itself and the publication of the prestigious film diffusion and criticism magazine Film Comment, whose online version you can look at here. To get a more precise idea of what this institution means, we invite you to visit its page web, and especially the very interesting interactive tour of its history that you will find in this link. We are already talking about forty years of uninterrupted activity of a space through which the majority have passed, if not all, the most relevant figures of today's and yesterday's cinema. Tour the timeline of this story, organized for decades, in which those responsible for the center offer us a tour, in text and images, for all the personalities who have visited its facilities, it's a real marvel. Just looking at the list of participants at the New York festival already gives us an idea of how world cinema has evolved in recent times.. Better or worse? There, Let everyone solve this question in their own way.. In any case, a directory of im-pres-cin-di-bles authors. As a curiosity, point out that the first screening of the festival was, no more no less, what The exterminating angel by Luis Buñuel (that honor remains with us).
But where they really break the cord at the Film at Lincoln Center (and this is the reason for this article and my introduction) It's on your amazing channel Youtube. Only on the main page, we already found many gems. Apart from the trailers and announcements related to your programming, The most interesting thing is that the institution offers, complete, interviews and conferences (Q&A, in festival slang) of all the directors, actors or technicians passing by your room. So, we see on this first page, in the Interviews and Q section&A, that we can spend a time of entertaining face-to-face conversation with directors, perhaps still little known today, as Eliza Hittman, winner of the silver bear at the last edition of the Berlin Film Festival with her film Never rarely sometimes always. O Corneliu Porumboiu, movie director The gomera, which will soon be released in commercial theaters in our country. If we look a little further down, Today we find the Female Filmmaker Q section&A, selection of interviews featuring female directors. And here things are starting to get very serious.. Let's imagine, well, an hour of talk with Maren Ade, Juliette Binoche, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, Julie Delpy, Laura Dern o Jopdie Foster, among other. But, even so, this may not seem like much to us, so we look a little further down and in the Parasite at Film at Lincoln Center section we find all the videos with the interventions of the director Bong Joon Ho, director of Parasites, winning film of the last edition of the Cannes festival and the Hollywood Oscar and, definitely, one of the phenomena of this year.
But this may still seem too little to you., so now we open the tab video and that's where, Yeah, we found real manna. Apart from the videos already mentioned, We can find, For example, a long conversation with John Sayles about social classes in cinema, or a chat with Marc Ruffalo and Tod Haynes about their latest work together, dark waters. Without going too far, and to give other examples, Below we find a long discussion on space in cinema (in this case about New York City), con Steven Zillian (screenwriter of The Irish o Schindler's list), Gilliam Robespierre, Geoffrey Fletcher y JC Chandor (The most violent year) directed by, no more no less, Paul Schrader. Or the brothers Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne talking about their latest work, The young Ahmed. Or the entire team Story of a marriage: Noah Baumbach, Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Ray Liotta and Alan Alda. Or Joaquim Phoenix along with Todd Phillips and part of the production team of Joker. ¿Céline Sciamma, Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant in torno a Portrait of a woman on fire? ¿Albert Serra about Freedom? Pedro Almodovar talking about Joseph L. Mankiewicz, John Cassavetes, Roberto Rossellini or Luis Buñuel? Or with Antonio Banderas chatting about Pain and Glory? And what if we put Martin Scorsese together on the same stage?, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Havey Keitel and Joe Pesci to talk to us about The Irish? Or Richard Linklater with producer Ginger Sledge on Where’d You Go, Bernadette, His last work? ¿ Bi Gan y su Long journey into the night? ¿ Y Jia Zhangke? ¿Yorgos Lanthimos? Alfonso Cuarón on Roma? How about we get the Cohen brothers together so they don't talk about each other for a while? The Ballad of Buster Scruggs? Claire Dennis and Robert Pattison on High Life? And a couple of hours with Lucrecia Martel around The swamp o Exist? Looking back in time we can find, to give one last example, a chat between Jim Jarmusch and Tilda Swinton about Only lovers survive.
And so, to infinity. The talks are in English, Of course, but you can put on the automatic subtitles that, although they are not perfect, they can help you a little.
We continue… GERARDO LEÓN
