All film festivals, all films are aimed at the brain. We already know that many of them target the heart, or the stomach, but let's not forget that these "emotional" organs have thousands of neurons that are connected to the brain. This festival is about the brain. It targets your brain to make you think about the brain, which is the main protagonist. The Brain Film Fest is a meeting point that aims to show the different aspects of this fascinating viscera, to show us its marvelous capacities and conditions, and the diseases that threaten it. In addition to the screenings, the Brain Film Fest holds talks and workshops to encourage audiovisual creation on the different topics the festival deals with.
The 2023 edition of the Brain Film Festival
In the 6th edition of the Brain Film Festival, the central themes will be art, creativity and the brain. Is it possible to understand the effects of creativity, art or beauty on our well-being? Can artistic expression provide an outlet for experiences or emotions that the brain hides? What brain springs are activated before a painting, a symphony or an audiovisual piece? These are some of the questions that the Brain Film Fest is asking in this edition.
Most outstanding titles
This year we will be able to see the latest work by Carlos Saura, Las paredes hablan, which together with his brother, Pedro Saura, an expert in Paleolithic art, and the artist Miquel Barceló, Saura shows us the evolution and relationship of art with the wall as a blank canvas. The festival will feature the Spanish premiere of Gerardo Herrero's Bajo terapia, a comedy in which three couples participate in a very particular group therapy session. Also on view for the first time in Catalonia will be Werner Herzog's latest proposal, Theater of Thought, a documentary about the human brain in which science, thought and poetry converge.
The opening film (premiere in Spain) will be the British documentary Long Live My Happy Head, directed by Will Hewitt and Austen McCowan, and starring a Scottish comic book artist who uses art to convey his experience with the brain tumor he suffers from and to face his mortality.
Two of the most celebrated titles of the last year will also be in the Brain Film Fest 2023 program: the film that will close the festival, Un año, una noche, by Isaki Lacuesta -winner of five Gaudí Awards-, which portrays the post-trauma of a couple who survived the Bataclan attack (Paris); and La consagración de la primavera, by Fernando Franco, which deals with the experience of intimate relationships of people with cerebral palsy.
A poster created with artificial intelligence
This year's graphic image was created by Sagarzazu Studio using DALL-E, an artificial intelligence software that creates unique images from written descriptions. In the case of Brain Film Fest, the text that generated the poster image was "Image of a woman in a suit with a broken egg as a head. Magritte style".
The Solé Tura Award
The Brain Film Festival awards a prize, the Solé Tura, in tribute to the figure of Jordi Solé. It aims to raise awareness and give greater value to the act of living and coexisting with neurodegenerative diseases. The award was established in 2009 with the aforementioned objective, but has gradually been opened to all works that speak in a broad way about the brain, its diseases, but also its capabilities and knowledge. Currently, the idea of the organizers is to turn the award into a thematic festival of international reference.
The Brain Film Fest Special Award
The Brain Film Fest Special Award will go this year to filmmaker Isabel Coixet, who has dealt precisely, delicately and respectfully with the subject of trauma and post-trauma in many of her films. Her latest work, El techo amarillo, which delves with elegance and forcefulness into the issues of sexual abuse, trauma and gender inequality, will be screened at the festival.
Parallel Activities
The Brain Film Fest has parallel activities such as the CCCB's Alzheimer's Program, a proposal that brings film and culture closer to people living with Alzheimer's disease and that has demonstrated throughout its 10 years of existence the positive impact it has on the well-being of participants, caregivers and family members. This year, The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967) will be programmed.
The Brain Film Fest is promoted and organized by the Pasqual Maragall Foundation and co-organized with the Uszheimer Foundation and the Minimal Films Production Company.
Except for the workshops, admission is free, although you have to register in advance.
Some feature and short films will be available at FILMIN.
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