by #MAKMAAudiovisual
Interview with Rafaela Pareja and Carlos García Aranda, directors of CICEMA
II CICEMA Manises International Ceramic Film Festival
Germanías Auditorium
García Lorca 6, Manises (Valencia)
From May 31 to June 2, 2024
The second edition of CICEMA arrives in Manises with a bang. The festival that, in 2023, opened its halls to a world where clay and ceramic techniques had a place, sees in this present excitement, surprises, hopes and, above all, variety.
Although, a priori, These may seem incompatible, the Manises International Ceramic Film Festival brings together cinema and ceramics, fervently defending that they are not as disparate as they may seem. However, its directors, Rafaela Pareja and Carlos García Aranda, confess to being amazed at the high level of participation and commitment to an event that is unique in its characteristics in Europe.
The exquisitely varied programming has nearly thirty proposals that will be screened at the Germanías Auditorium in Manises between May 31 and June 2. A whole weekend in which we can enjoy the films selected for the official section and the student section, as well as complementary films out of competition.
Likewise, those in charge encourage us to attend the complementary activities –among which are big names like Javier Mariscal–, and they guarantee us a unique and unparalleled experience.
How was CICEMA created? Where did the idea of forming this festival together come from?
Carlos García Aranda (CG): [Antes de CICEMA] Rafaela had made two films. The second one was in post-production, almost finished, but there was a fragment, an important moment, where they didn’t like the music they had. I was a semi-professional musician when I was young and Rafaela asked me to make some music for that scene. I did it, she liked it and from there I started to get involved with the subject of movies. Although I met Rafaela when she was my teacher.
Rafaela Pareja (RP): So all that came together. On the one hand, the technique and processes; on the other hand, wanting to tell different stories, very creative in the audiovisual field. Because we didn’t want to make a typical documentary. Our films were like experiences, also looking a lot for what the image and music were, more than the text: for it to be very visual.
Is that in relation to the festival or in terms of making films?
(CG): No, exclusively to make films about ceramics to highlight some of the artistic references in Spain and around the world. But first we went to China, specifically, to Jingdezhen – which is the birthplace of porcelain – to make a film. They accepted the project and a Chinese entity subsidized our trip, our stay, and all expenses.
(RP): And then, they themselves wanted us to do a film exhibition there.
So, the idea of the festival came from them?
(CG): Well, maybe we proposed it. Because they wanted each of us, individually, to do something, a conference or a course. So, we put together a film exhibition about ceramics.
(RP): Focusing on what the origin of the festival is, it began because we began to do film shows – in Zaragoza, Manises and València – so that these films could be seen because, truly, there was a very large fund of audiovisual material with the ceramic theme. , but then there was no place where you could see it.
(CG): We had the idea – as a result of all our experience with ceramic films, the ceramic film exhibitions that we did both in China and here, etc. – of organizing the festival. We ended up presenting the project already completed to several City Councils. They told us no; and, one day, in Manises they told us yes, that they were interested, three years ago.
How many proposals has the second edition of CICEMA received?
(RP): There has been a lot of participation, more than we imagined, even from students. I believed, after going to the schools, that they were not going to cheer up because it was already too late. But, in the end, very good films have been presented.
(CG): Yes, the truth is that we are very happy with the response there has been. We have received more than 60 films from 18 countries. We have films from the American continent, Asian films – both from Korea and Japan, mainland China, Taiwan…–, from Europe…
What would be your diagnosis regarding the quality of the short films presented?
(CG): There’s a little bit of everything. The committee selected about 30, and the truth is that among those films there are some very interesting ones. Also, every genre imaginable. There are different types of documentaries, but there are also experimental films that are more poetic. There were films closer to video art, to performanceanimation and fiction.
(RP): It’s very diverse. Perhaps what we have received the most from Spain is the ethnological documentary –for example, about the Agost or Fresno de Cantespino botijo–. But it’s very good because it gives a variety of the last remnants of what we have known as artisanal ceramics, and I see it as a super interesting document because people have made it for the festival. If it had not been like that, that memory is not fixed, and that is what we have always tried to manifest as ceramic memory.
What are the objectives of the festival?
(CG): One of them is to encourage people to make films about ceramics of any kind. What Rafaela says is very important: documenting techniques, traditions that are disappearing and of which there are very few exponents and for which there is no generational change.
On the other hand, we want to encourage people to make films about ceramics not only within the world – many of the films are made by ceramists. We are also interested in broadening the view from the outside, so that the world of cinema is encouraged to make films about ceramics. Ceramics have a lot of play.
What is the projection to which you want to elevate the festival?
(RP): If there is not a strong economic commitment to the festival, it will not grow. Now, if there was a budget for a team to take this in another direction… Maybe it would come to Valencia in other larger cinemas, do more activities and with more succulent prizes. That film directors thought about telling stories about ceramics. Then he would not stay with the boring topic of telling the life of a ceramist, but would open up to telling stories that are happening.
What is happening now, in the ceramic heyday in the cities, is that everyone wants to touch the clay, make their piece; There are people who are working as architects, for example, and they leave everything and start working on ceramics… There are many stories to tell. If the filmmaker is involved in these processes, the quality of these films will be higher and there will be much more themes.
Enric Mestre has commented on some occasion that in Japan he was shocked by the way in which ceramics was understood. In your case, have you found any differences between countries?
(CG): There we are talking about cultural concepts, while when we talk about films we are talking about personal and individual creations. Yes, it is true that ceramics have a privileged, prestigious place in Asian culture, but we must keep in mind that we now live in a very interconnected world.
(RP): I do believe that there is a lot of difference in the sense that there are countries where porcelain has not been worked. In African and southern countries people have worked with pastes, and the technical process has been very different from that in China, the cradle of porcelain. They are processes that, normally, you are not familiar with. He gave us a flash seeing what they were capable of doing in China, for example.
When selecting, have you tried to balance quality and what you can show or teach the public with these films?
(CG): I wanted the selection process to be as rigorous as possible. I insisted that the selection committee have people who come exclusively from cinema. In fact, on the committee there were people from cinema and people from the world of ceramics to balance what you say.
In the world of ceramics – in what is often called “the ceramic family” – there are things that fascinate us a lot, but to a normal viewer they may seem like a scratch or very bland. Having the opportunity to read and learn from it is absolutely fascinating. But, perhaps, from a cinematographic point of view it is not of much interest to the general public.
In fact, that is another objective: hybridization. The hybridization of film and ceramics has some intrinsic benefits. The two disciplines benefit each other. This hybridization also allows ceramics to have visibility to a much broader audience. The festival wants to use the media of cinema to disseminate ceramics and reach more people.
What would you highlight about this edition?
(RP): We have received and we have been surprised. I think it has a lot of quality because there are, above all, works by students that give a lot of hope that this is moving and that they are telling very creative stories.
In animation, which I was already seeing a type of documentary that was being lost –because that takes an impressive task of modeling and then recording–, there is a push: there are young people who are doing this. I see infinite possibilities and there we will contemplate a lot of creativity and also respect for what the ancestor is, the references that are there. I am very happy with the material we have.
(CG): What I would highlight about the festival’s programming is the tremendous variety, both from the point of view of the origin of different films and the themes and genres. I think we have a program to have a fabulous weekend, very attractive to gorge on, if you want, to watch movies about ceramics.
And this year you have opted to bring a figure of great relevance. Why Javier Mariscal?
(RP): This festival is very small. We need people who can attract an audience. Mariscal can bring in a design audience, not just ceramists and potters. It opens it up, too, to many creatives. And, then, he has worked with ceramics from the point of view of design to decorate, being very groundbreaking.
One last exhortation to attend CICEMA?
(RP): We want to encourage people to attend because there are going to be many surprises. And at the inauguration there will be an opening show [con la compañía Animal Religion] very interesting. Actors and musicians also use ceramics and everything is related here.
The surprise at the festival is going to play a lot of role. You will be surprised because the ceramics are taken from the pot: it is no longer the pot – understood as the utilitarian piece – which has always been, especially in Valencia and Spain, very second to none. It wasn’t art if you worked with ceramics because the material had suffered a negative label.
(CG): Keep in mind that ceramics have always played a practical role. The largest ceramic production that has been carried out in Spain and in many other countries has been a utilitarian production. Within that production, there were many levels: in Spain a ceramic made in Agost was not the same as another made in Talavera or in the Royal Factory of Alcora.
The ceramic material was replaced in the 20th century by other materials that were cheaper and could be made on a large scale, especially plastics. The festival sees the transition from the utilitarian use of ceramics to artistic practice as we understand it today, that is, as something that is more expressive, more personal, more loaded with meaning.
(RP): And then, there are many artists who choose ceramics as an expressive material, who do not want oil, but clay. Now it is being given the value it has, when it has always been below.
Student of Art History at the University of Valencia.
