Clandestí: Invisible Catalan Cinema under Franco is a selection of the least known and most secret, films with more than 30 years of history which are now furiously cutting edge. Have gained a younger audience of moviegoers in London, Berlin, Istanbul and New York before hit Cinémathèque Française in Paris.

Organized together with Cinémathèque Française and Institut Ramon Llull,  will be screened 12 films in total during six sessions between December and February. Among them several films of international filmmaker Pere Portabella, who is the best known of this type of cinema, experimental but also political.

A Special mention to our extraordinary guests . Outsiders but full of passion and energy Antoni Padrós and Mariano Lisa were present the opening night in a Q&A after the screenings of both of their films:  Field For Man and Lock Out. Both considered as contemporary master pieces, despite all those years.

Clandestí is still running until February 17th. An unique opportunity to experience the hidden side of the history of Spanish cinema.

Click here for details

We are thrilled to announce that Spanish filmmaker Elena Trapé will be in New York City presenting Blog, her debut feature film that promises to leave an imprint on the back of your brain, as part of PRAGDA’s Urban Cultures from Spain film series. Supported by Ministry of Culture of Spain, Urban Cultures from Spain showcases the brilliant and sometimes gritty reality of today’s urban Spanish experience, telling the story using four feature films, a series of short selections, and a special focus on the music video.

Join us for a bite of this unconventional, fresh and young expression of Spanish culture at King Juan Carlos I Center-NYU.  It’s September 22nd-24th, so you have time to plan ahead, and it’s free, so you have cash to grab dinner or a drink beforehand!

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Even as we’re basking in the hot summer days and dancing through the hotter summer nights, we know that autumn will inevitably come. With it awaits our annual Festival of New Spanish Cinema, pulling into ten cities across North America from September to December.

We’ve received the first confirmations for the program and we can’t be more excited. For starters, Lope, by Andrucha Waddington (House of Sand), a big-budget film full of adventure and romance, with echoes of Shakespeare in Loveand an all-star cast: Leonor Watling (Talk to Her), Luis Tosar (Even the Rain), Pilar López de Ayala (In the City of Sylvia) and up-and-coming star Alberto Amman (Cell 211).

And for those with a penchant for the new Spanish horror trend, we offer a suspenseful and masterful variation of home invasion movies, Kidnapped, by debutant Miguel Angel Vivas. Winner of the Best Horror Feature prize at Austin’s Fantastic Fest 2010, this powerful, taut, high-octane, grittily realistic thriller will leave you in a state of shock.

Stay tuned for even more announcements, and take in the rest of summer.

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Little by little, we keep on unveiling the details of the fourth edition of our FESTIVAL OF NEW SPANISH CINEMA, which will take 9 contemporary Spanish films (and a wonderful surprise, keep posted to discover it before anyone) to ten cities throughout North America. 

Festival kickoff will be in Ottawa, on September 1st, where we’ll repeat for second year in a row. After Ottawa, the Festival will travel, for the first time, to Edmonton, Alberta, at the new location of Metro Cinema in historic and renovated Garneau Theatre. The final dates and venues are:

AUDITORIUM, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES Ottawa, Canada. September 1-8
METRO CINEMA AT GARNEAU THEATRE Edmonton, Canada. September 9-15
SIFF CINEMA Seattle, U.S.. September 21-25
METRO CINEMA San Juan, Puerto Rico. October 5-12
NORTHWEST FILM CENTER Portland, U.S. Sept 3-Oct 23
TOWER THEATER Miami, U.S. October 21- November (TBA)
GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER Chicago, U.S. October-November (TBA)
AFI SILVER THEATRE Washington, U.S. November-December (TBA)
PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVES San Francisco Bay Area, U.S. (TBA)
RICE CINEMA Houston, U.S.. January 20-29, 2012

Check it out!

Will you be in August in the city? Stop complaining because you are not on holidays and join us for Window to Spain, PRAGDA’s free open-air cinema, which brings the best Spanish films and video art to the heart of Manhattan. 

On Saturday August 20th, we will be screening The Land Inhabited, a beautiful documentary film by Anna Sanmartí (former collaborator of Catalan groundbreaking filmmaker Joaquim Jordà), an atmospheric and haunting documentary investigation of a remote area in Mongolia and several of its inhabitants. Neil Young, at Tribune magazine, has said: “With minimal dialogue, an impish sense of humour and a superb eye for composition, Sanmartí takes what could have been just another etnographic travelogue and comes up with something entirely rich and strange, studded with subtle epiphanies from start to finish”.

The screening will be preceded by a funny monologue about the relationship between Spain and U.S.A. by popular Spanish TV showman and comedian Andreu Buenafuente, from the successful late night show “Buenafuente”. He will

We’ll see you there!

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Join us for Window to Spain, PRAGDA’s free open-air cinema, which brings the best Spanish films and video art to the heart of Manhattan. On Saturday July 23rd, we will be screening of Murals, a documentary film by Pilar Pérez Solano in which women muralists of ethnic Soninke, Nura and Eltono in Madrid, along with emerging contemporary artists, produce their work in the halls of the Joan Miró Foundation (Barcelona).

The screening will be preceded by a very special presentation by popular Spanish TV showman and comedian Andreu Buenafuente, from the successful late night show “Buenafuente”.

We’ll see you there!

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Are films dangerous? On June 11 – 12, THE DEUTSCHE KINEMATHEK in Berlin hosts a conference that attempts to answer this question. Dangerous cinema? Movies in conflict with the law, money and society is the suggestive title of this program devoted to conflict in German, U.S., Nigerian and Spanish cinema. Filmmaker and historian Marti Rom will talk about the Spanish case during Franco’s time. Four Catalan clandestine films will premiere. Keep in your calendar and spread the word around!

For more information

Do you have any idea how many short films are produced in Spain every year? And who the movers and shakers are in this small and fascinating world? Interesting POVs by the people who are selecting, producing and reviewing the newest talent coming from Spain are gathered in Eduardo Cardoso’s The Spanish Short Film in 100 Names.  And yes, WE are in the International section of the book. The best part is that you can download it from the website. The worse part is that you will need to save some time to read it apart from your usual subway breaks because it’s intensive and full of information!  In Spanish only, but that’s okay -- you can practice your language skills.

Go and get it by January 31: www.elcortometrajen100nombres.com.

Want to see what Pragda has been up to during 2010? Check our photo album for shots of Padros and Paul Preston, Aliaga and his fans, Tristan Ulloa’s jet lag, Alvaro Pastor and his tourist experience, and many more interesting and juicy photos and videos.

2010 has been a year full of international events in New York, Calgary, Istanbul, London, Berlin, Chicago, Miami etc. Find all this on our Facebook and our media page.

Hungry for new and fresh films, we’ll be attending the Berlin Film Festival from February 12-17. We’re ready to present our Spanish Film Club distribution program. Contact us if you are interested in Spanish films, if you produce or distribute Spanish films or to get in touch if we haven’t met for a while. Email us:info@pragda.com

Produced by Guillermo del Toro and directed by Sebastián Cordero, Rage (Rabia) will open in movie theaters this Friday. We’re especially happy because Rage was one of the highlights of our Festival of New Spanish Cinema. If you missed this suspenseful thriller, now you have a second chance to see it!

"Cordero starts out conveying the day-in-a-life naturalism of a Ken Loach film before venturing into decidedly Hitchcockian territory" - HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

NEW YORK
Where?: The Cinema Village (22 E. 12th St.)
When?: Opens January 28th

MIAMI
Where?: Coral Gables Art Cinema (260 Aragon Ave.)
When?: Opens February 11th

To watch a preview