The academic institution will screen three films, including the Spanish premiere of 'El Estudiante' (The Student), by Santiago Mitre, and it will hold open meetings to the public with international directors and a symposium about Spanish cinema.
Showings, meetings with directors and talks about cinema are the guiding thread of the ExTra cycle: Extensiones y Tramas del FICXixón y la Universidad de Oviedo (Plots and Extensions of the FicXixón and the University of Oviedo), organized by the Asturian academic institution and the Gijón International Film Festival. The LAUDEO Cultural Centre from University Extension (Historical Building) and the Campus of el Milán will be the necessary stages for the Asturian film festival programme in Oviedo, from the 21st to the 24th November. All the events will be free until full capacity.
The cycle has been presented this morning by the rector of the University of Oviedo, Vicente Gotor, accompanied by the vice-rector for University Extension, Culture and Sports, Vicente Domínguez and the director of the Gijón International Film Festival, José Luis Cienfuegos. This contest includes the premiere of the film El Estudiante, (The Student), by Santiago Mitre, which provides a political perspective from the university world. This film, which competes in the Festival's official section, will be screened in the Severo Ochoa Hall located in LAUDEO, on the 21st November, one day before its presentation at the FICXixón.
Auteur and social criticism films, ExTra will also screen La Forteresse, (The Fortress), by Fernand Melgar, a documentary which explores a political refugee's life, and Workingman's Death, directed by Michael Glawogger, a film about extremely hard work. The audience will both approach the work and the author, meeting the directors after the films' exhibition.
Extensiones y Tramas del FICXixón y la Universidad de Oviedo will also explore French cinema by the hand of Bertand Bonello, one of the directors who will receive a tribute in this festival. He will attend a meeting at the Campus of El Milán and spectators will have the chance of talking to him. The review to the Spanish cinema situation will be left to Fernando Lara, former director of Seminci and jury's member for FICXixón's current edition and Jaime Pena, who is in charge of the Centro Galego de Artes da Imaxe's programme, in a symposium which will take place in the Aula Magna of the Historical Building.
This cycle reflects the commitment acquired by the University of Oviedo with the dissemination of culture to society and the desire to expand the cooperation channels with Asturian culture associations, in this case with such an important and rooted event as the Gijón International Film Festival.
Apart from the programme in Oviedo, the Asturian academic institution takes part in the in the FICXixón with the premiere of the documentary First we take Milán, in collaboration with the Programmes Producer of the Principality and the RTPA. This project, co-directed by José Braña and Chus Neira, traces the history of the 90's musical explosion which was born at the Campus of El Milán, and it has the concert that the academic institution organized to homage Leonard Cohen as guiding thread.
