Cine Con Cienca begins in Majorca
Published in Majorca Daily Bulletin
on Sunday 4th September 2016
By Shirley Roberts
The Cine Ciutat is a cinema complex that we all know and love. The films we have been able to watch there in the S’Escorxador area with its easy parking and great tapas food court was a treat. Unfortunately, we didn’t support it enough and the doors were almost closed but for the efforts of Pedro Barbadillo.
Pedro has been a documentary film producer and author since the mid 80s, being very active in the production and direction of reports and investigative current affairs and factual documentaries. He has worked as an independent author in around 100 film projects for various television programs in Europe. From 2010 to 2012, he was the director of the Mallorca Film Commission. At that time the only art-house cinema on this island closed it doors, and he started a movement to save and relaunch it as CineCiutat, an associative cinema with more than 1500 members. After 4 years, CineCiutat has developed a new model of community-supported cinema, where the users own and manage the whole programme.
As the President and founder of the Spanish Association of Arthouse Cinemas, CineArte, with 32 movie theatres and 117 screens, he is deeply engaged in promoting innovative changes in the way films are shown and shared. He is on the board of CICAE (International Confederation of Art Cinemas), where he is working on the project “Green Screens – Art Cinemas for the Environment”.
Christer Söderberg grew up partially on Mallorca, arriving here for the first time in 1973. Professionally Christer worked with companies in six countries on four continents, including in Brazil where between 1998 and 2002 he started a subsidiary for a Swedish Multinational. The position of CEO in Brazil created an awareness of the challenges faced by our society and the strains on our planets ecosystems. A personal journey of self-development led to developing workshops and coaching in leadership for sustainability, and promoting an international network of organic cafés and eco-villages under the auspices of the Open World Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. Christer returned to Mallorca, Spain in 2013 to build on past experiences and develop a personal model for sustainability and resilience in small communities. Christer is an active personal coach and leadership consultant. Besides developing CineConCiencia, he currently facilitates dialogues, workshops, and conferences on Energy, Economy, and Ecology through his initiatives “Sacred Valley Dialogues” (Sóller), “Downtown Dinner Dialogues” (Palma) and “EcoLab Mallorca” (Bunyola).
Michael Saari has worked in the Art Department for major motion films, TV and commercials for over 10 years in the US and Spain. When not shackled to set life, Michael has set out on journeys and projects that aspire to higher purposes. Between 2001-2005, Michael collaborated with the Prometheus Radio Project in building five community radio stations and raising awareness about the economic and social importance of community radio. Along with PRP, they politically lobbied the US Congress for the successful passage of The Local Community Radio Act. Since moving to Mallorca in 2013 with his family, Michael has also found a new professional passion for not only consulting start-ups on the island, but also creating and managing their digital content in an exciting and responsible manner. With his combination of professional experience, artistic passions and social awareness, he seeks to apply it to projects that affect positive change. 7G Impact, in his opinion, is one of those projects.
These three men and their vision are starting the life of Cine Con Cienta based at the Cine Cituit with their first cinematic occasion. The film is Human which is the cinematographic work of Yann Arthus – Bertrand. This is an opportunity to view the film and discuss the issues raised where they will encourage the audience to focus on the issues related to the socio-environmental impact. The event will feature a question and answer forum with Sandy Hemingway, the President of Friends of the Earth Mallorca. Also contributing will be Dr Daniel Wahl, author of ‘Designing Regenerative Culture’. He is also a director of Innovation Gaia Education and Advisor to the Global Ecovillage Network and smart UIB project. There will be an opportunity to ask questions about the film and talk about the relevance to Mallorca.
Human is a set of stories and images of our world that allows us to reach the depths of the human being. Through testimonies full of love, happiness, hatred and violence we confront our humanity and our own lives. Our Earth is shown enhanced by unusual aerial images accompanied by operatic arias. The images convey the beauty of our planet and foster a burst of oxygen, a moment of serious introspection.
Human is a work that allows us to capture the human condition and reflect of the very meaning of our existence.
This is the launch film of this exciting new project which is defined by Pedro, Christer and Michael in this way
‘7G Impact Cinema Summary Documentary films can be powerful drivers for change. Traditional theatres offer seating and technology to screen films, but often lack the facilities that allow for a deepening of the film experience. We curate a film “event” with before and after dialogue sessions, sometimes with the director(s) of the film, and connect theater-goers to each other. We offer prototyping sustainability projects, life changing journeys, and festivals to celebrate what documentary films and their audiences have accomplished.
We are working in close partnership with CineCiutat in S’Escorxador in Palma. Together we can build on the successes of this community-owned film association that has been instrumental in changing how “Art House” cinemas work and engage in their communities. A planned “Impact Hub/Café” will include a new screening room layout and a co-creative, co-working space in this historical building in the heart of Palma’s residential district.
Extensive test marketing over the past four years has shown that: • Community based event cinema is a popular and potentially lucrative complementary model for the globally struggling theatrical documentary market; • Film producers, exhibitors, distributors and sales agents in Europe have an interest in this complementary distribution model; • Individuals, communities, and organizations are keen to be active participants in this model for screening social, environmental, meaningful, and consciousness raising films, in combination with dialogues and prototyping sustainability projects. A movement is growing, and we are part of this movement. As active contributors in several local and international networks for social change, we have discovered the impact of connecting people with each other and films that matter.
During test screenings of 7G Impact Cinema and other events, we have asked: “How can film help in this growing movement?” The answers have been many and varied, and all centered around more screenings and more dialogue; in schools, in businesses, and a wider distribution in cinemas and cultural centres’.
The success of this project is to do with the vision of the people who embrace and support it. The intellectual experience of taking film to another dimension is loved and appreciated by so many in the Art House Cinema world. The people of Majorca have been asking for this and now the people, the place and the time have come together to start this great vision.
The opportunity is yours to join in on Thursday 8th September 2016 at 6 pm at Cine
Ciutat in S’ Escorxador. You are so welcome to be there at the beginning of this exciting new project which will bring such interesting films and meaningful dialogue to Mallorca.
