Familystrip

Colour, DIGIBETA
Spain, 2009, 75 min
WP – World premiere
Section: Another View

Synopsis

This film is dedicated to the young artist Francesc Herrero, who died before his time. He paints a family portrait of the director and his elderly parents who, as they sit for him, tell the story of their long journey through life. In this improvised film, originally intended to document the immediate present and portray the couple as they approach 65 years together, we ultimately become witnesses to a family chronicle. The oral testimonies of a generation which is gradually disappearing pass on the resonances of a country marked by Catholicism and the Spanish Civil War… The theme of the film presents the most intimate confessions of Miñarro’s closest family, thus the producer could not entrust the direction to anyone but himself. The director states: "Where there is culture, there will always be a place for an original film and new directors. I think that, in Europe, it will never cease to exist, since it is a part of the special gift of Europeans.”

About the director

Luis Miñarro (b. 1949, Barcelona) established a film club in Barcelona when he was 18 and organised film screenings in Andorra during Franco’s regime. From 1980 he wrote film reviews and made commercials. In 1995 he founded the production company Eddie Saeta S.A. and succumbed to the magic of film direction and screenwriting. Since then he has helped a series of directors whose films were screened at international festivals. He has produced films for Albert Serra, Marc Recha, José Luis Guerín, Lisandro Alonso and Manoel de Oliveira. He also produced films by director Pablo García which were shown in Karlovy Vary: Fuente Álamo, The Cares of Time (2001) and Butterfly (2007), and also In the City of Sylvia (2008) by director José Luis Guerín. Familystrip is his feature debut as a director. He is currently completing the film Blowhorn.