Instituto Cervantes’ May Online Film Series explores Contemporary Rural Life and New Migration Trends

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In the month of May, Instituto Cervantes de Manila is presenting on its Vimeo channel an online film series exploring the contemporary rural life of Spain and the new migration trends between cities and rural spaces. Entitled "Geolocalizations and New Ruralities", this series of four documentaries proposes new ways of understanding rural communities, and the challenges and opportunities brought by the socioeconomic change.

Over the past two centuries, rural life has undergone countless modifications, much like urban life. Migration has depopulated vast agricultural areas, with younger inhabitants moving to cities to forge their futures, often in foreign lands. However, in recent times, a new desire has emerged to recapture the elements of well-being that rural environments offer to people and communities. Life outside of the hectic urban pace has emerged as an alternative model of sustainability and coexistence, proposing another way to repopulate rural spaces.

To illustrate these new trends, the Instituto Cervantes presents an online film program with four documentaries that bring us closer to life stories in the countryside from four very different points in the Spanish geography. These four stories open a window to the lights and shadows of this way of life and collect a contemporary perspective on traditions, as well as the problems that maintaining these new future investments entails.

The complete program is available on Instituto Cervantes’ Vimeo channel: vimeo.com/showcase/nuevasruralidades

The series will kick off on May 6th, Saturday, with the screening of Soñando un lugar (2018), by Alfonso Kint (freely available for 48 hours through the link https://vimeo.com/799800162). This documentary film shows us firsthand the most attractive aspects of life in a depopulated village in Spain, as well as the problems faced by the inhabitants of these nearly forgotten towns.

On May 13th and 14th, Os fillos da vide (2017), by Ana Domínguez, will be showcased on the channel. If you want to learn about the most ancestral Spanish traditions and everything about our country's wine, don't miss this film in which the director Ana Domínguez shows us a piece of her childhood through the grape harvest and festivities of her hometown in Galicia. You will fall in love with their millennial culture, its people, and its landscapes! (Link to the film: vimeo.com/799821212).

The third film of the cycle, 150 i una Grossa (2020), by Aurora Sulli and Núria Deulofeu, takes us to Ametlla de Merola, one of the smallest towns in Catalonia with just over 150 inhabitants. The town's central core is its theater, but due to lack of resources, it must close down. Everything changes when the town wins the Christmas lottery and the residents decide to use the winnings to refurbish the theater and prevent it from disappearing. The film will be freely available for 48 hours on May 20th and 21st through the link vimeo.com/799848938

Finally, on May 27th and 28th, the film cycle will come to an end with Los saldos (link: vimeo.com/800448839). In this documentary, released in 2022, filmmaker Raúl Capdevila bids farewell to the rural world, which seems destined for disappearance due to the fast pace of modern life. The film tells the story of his return home and how he and his father face the forced industrialization of their town in the form of a Western-style tale.

The films, presented by Instituto Cervantes in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines, will have English subtitles. Admission is free. For further information and updates on this film series, please check out Instituto Cervantes’ Facebook site (www.facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila) or the event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1456518371820323

For further information about the cultural program of Instituto Cervantes please visit Instituto Cervantes’ website (http://manila.cervantes.es), or follow Instituto Cervantes on social media (Facebook: InstitutoCervantesManila; Instagram: institutocervantesmanila).

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