The international film festival Cinema Jove premieres on June 22, within its official section, the anthropological portrait of adolescence in rural China titled Whispers in May, directed by Dongnan Chen. This piece of living cinema, awarded at the CPH:DOX International Documentary Film Festival, explores the weight of tradition and the complexities of coming of age in the rural heart of the Asian giant.
The film, while using a 'coming of age' structure, stands out for its combination of improvised fiction and ethnographic documentary. Director Chen connected with the realities of girls in the Liangshan region, inspired by a student's writing: 'I have made many wishes, but none have come true.' The lives of many minors in the area were marked by the absence of their parents, who worked far away, and societal expectations that defined them as women, wives, and migrant workers before they could choose their own path.
The day of June 22 will also mark the return home of Valencian director and screenwriter Joecar Hanna, coinciding with the first anniversary of the world premiere of his short film Talk Me at the Cannes Film Festival. The piece, produced by Spike Lee, won the Best International Short Film Award at the Toronto Festival and the Silver Biznaga for Best Fiction Short Film at the Málaga Film Festival.
Hanna, of Chinese and Lebanese descent, will present his short film and his debut feature, Deliver Me, which will serve as the basis for his feature film debut planned for the end of the year in New York. After the screening, Cinema Jove director María Albiñana will host an open Q&A with the filmmaker. Hanna is also participating in the Cannes Film Festival Foundation Residency, a script development program.
Cinema Jove is collaborating this year with the Summer Campus of the Film Academy, organized with Netflix and supported by the City Council. On June 22, the Filmoteca will host the screening of Marta Matute's debut feature, Yo no moriré de amor, awarded at the Málaga Festival. Afterwards, there will be a Q&A with Matute hosted by the president of the Film Academy, Fernando Méndez Leite.
The collaboration will be completed on June 26 at Fnac with the live recording of an episode of the podcast ¡Corten! Descodificando la ficción, from the Observatory of Diversity in Audiovisual Media (ODA). The event, hosted by Jorge Gonzalo and Jesús Blanquiño, will feature actresses Patty Bonet and Celia Morán to discuss the representation of non-normative bodies in fiction.
