L.A. OLA 2017 – Spanish Contemporary Cinema Showcase
Thu, May 18 — Sun, May 21, 2017

The annual film showcase brings the best independent cinema from Spain to Los Angeles from May 18-21.The Spanish filmmaking scene is emerging as one of the most fertile and successful in Europe with a new generation of young Spanish filmmakers who are winning great acclaim at prestigious international film festivals such as Locarno, Berlin, Rotterdam, and Cannes.
Despite their critical success, these groundbreaking Spanish films have struggled to gain access to the traditional distribution channels. L.A. OLA aims to create a bridge between Spain and the U.S., giving exposure to all these extraordinary films in such culturally relevant cities as Los Angeles and New York City. The showcase is a not-to-be-missed event for devotees of contemporary world cinema and a meeting point for two continents.
In addition to the screenings, L.A. OLA Los Angeles programming will include music performances, master classes and a panel discussion titled Women in the US and European Independent Film Industries.

Esa Sensación (That Feeling)

On Thursday, May 18 at 8 pm. At the Rooftop Cinema Club at The Montalbán.
Directed by Juan Cavestany, Pablo Hernando, and Julián Génisson, Spain, 2016, 79 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles. View trailer.
Preceded by the Short film Decorado by Alberto Vásquez.
Three Spanish directors tell three stories: about a woman who gets excited by inanimate objects (such as a parking meter, kitchen steps or a metal bridge); a man who follows his father in order to unravel his secret; and a couple of friends who suddenly, as if felled by a virus, display improper behaviour without wanting to. These three interwoven storylines seem at first sight to have little to do with each other, but a common feature is that the characters experience an unexpected and slightly addictive sensation. That enigmatic feeling drags them out of their daily routine and forces them to think about issues such as love, faith and human will.

Oleg y las raras artes (Oleg and the Rare Arts)

On Friday, May 19, at 8 pm. At the Rooftop Cinema Club at The Montalbán
Directed by Andrés Duque, Spain, 2016, 66 minutes. In Russian with English subtitles. View trailer.
Preceded by the Short film Our Friend the Moon (Nuestra Amiga la Luna) by Velasco Broca.
Defying musical classification, pianist Oleg Nikolaevitch Karavaychuk is an icon in his native Russia but relatively unknown elsewhere. Largely banned from performing in public during the Soviet era, Karavaychuk instead made a career composing music for filmmakers like Sergei Parajanov, Vasily Shukshin, and Kira Muratova, and has recently expanded into multimedia performance. Andrés Duque’s affectionate, free-form portrait features the androgynous virtuoso wandering through the halls of the Hermitage while speaking about how he arrived at the museum that day, the art on the walls, and eventually his own life. In the spaces between, he performs his music with electric intensity.

Ingen Ko Pa Isen (No Cow on the Ice)

On Saturday, May 20, at 7:30 pm. At the Echo Park Film Center.
Directed by Eloy Domínguez Serén. Sweden, Spain, 2015, 63 minutes, in Swedish and Galician with English Subtitles. View trailer.
Preceded by the Short film New Madrid by Natalia Marín.
Language and landscape as a gate into a new life. A young Galician filmmaker emigrates to Sweden, where he performs different part-time jobs. His learning of a new language and fascination for the Swedish landscape become a driving force against the difficult life conditions. As he learns about the culture, society and lifestyle, he develops a new identity.

Les amigues de l’Agata (Agata’s Friends)

On Saturday, May 20, at 10 pm. At the Echo Park Film Center.
Directed by Alba Cros, Marta Verheyen, Laura Rius, and Laia Alabart. Spain, 2015, 70 minutes, in Catalan with English Subtitles. View trailer.
Agatha has just started studying at University, but she’s still regularly seeing her school friends, with whom she has shared all her parties, intimacy moments, trips, jokes and common conversations. A private space full of memories, that now confronts with the new college’s friends and with her own changes that she’s starting to discover.

Mimosas

On Sunday, May 21, at 7:30 pm. At the Egyptian Theater.
Directed by Oliver Laxe. Spain, Morocco, France, Romania, Qatar, 2016, 96 minutes, in Arabic with English Subtitles. View trailer.
A caravan escorts an elderly and dying Sheikh through the Moroccan Atlas. His last wish is to be buried with his close ones. But death does not wait. The caravaners, fearful of the mountain, refuse to continue transporting the corpse. Saïd and Ahmed, two rogues traveling with the caravan, say they know the way and promise to take the corpse to its destiny. In another world, Shakib is chosen to travel to the mountains with a mission: to help the improvised caravaners.

Free for the screenings at Echo Park Film Center. Buy tickets for the Egyptian Theater and for the Rooftop Cinema Club at The Montalbán.
More information: L.A. OLA
Organized by La Panda Productions and Playtime Audiovisuales, in partnership with Spain Fresh and Curtocircuito, directed by Rocio Mesa. L.A. OLA is organized with the support of Consulate General of Spain in Los Angeles, Trade Commission of Spain ICEX, Institut Ramon Llull and ELMA; and the collaboration of SPAIN arts and culture, Rooftop Cinema Club at The Montalbán, The American Cinematheque, Los Angeles Filmforum and The Echo Park Film Center.

For the first time this year, the festival also hits the East Coast from June 2 to June 4 with L.A. OLA: NYC edition at the prestigious Anthology Film archives.

Adriana Rosalez
Department Coordinator
UCLA Department of Spanish & Portuguese
5310 Rolfe Hall
Office: 310.825.1036
Fax: 310.206.4757

Almudena Solana and Mario Vargas Llosa
at Chapman University’s Literary Arts Reading Series

Spanish author Almudena Solana and Spanish-Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa take part in the XX Anniversary Celebration of The John Fowles Creative Center at Chapman University.

The John Fowles Center for Creative Writing serves to promote and advance the discipline of creative writing in all its aspects: fiction, poetry, drama, creative non-fiction and film. The Center offers students and non-students alike an opportunity to gain a greater appreciation for the “written word” and those who write it. Each year a distinguished group of national and international writers is invited to Chapman University, making these writers available not only to the Chapman community, but to the Orange County and, by extension, the Southern California community as well.

Almudena Solana

On Monday, May 8 at 5 pm. At George Bush Conference Centre, Beckman Hall 404. Chapman University.

Lecture: The importance of the useless.
Almudena Solana, currently living in Los Angeles, is working on her fith novel and continues developing her own concept of portable art: poetry through unique scarves. Some of those pieces have been recently acquired by LACMA Store. Solana has been translated into English and her novel, The CV of Aurora Ortiz, has also been adapted to theatre in England.

Mario Vargas Llosa

On Friday, May 19 at 2 pm. At Argyros Forum 210 BC, Chapman University.

Peruvian-Spanish writer Mario Vargas Llosa is one of the most significant Latin American personalities of his generation. He is also a politician, journalist and essayist. Llosa was awarded the 1994 Cervantes Prize, and the 2010 Nobel Prize in literature. Having written more than 30 non-fiction works in addition to plays and novels, Llosa’s anti-totalitarian intellect covers a wide range of human experiences.

Chapman University, 1 University Drive, Orange, CA 92866
Free Admission
More information: http://www.chapman.edu/research/institutes-and-centers/john-fowles-center/

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0f12caaf34b681301d56a3924/files/06bb46d4-94e3-4122-978f-81fc8d126949/OfBooksandRoses_program_final.pdf
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“Of Books and Roses: First California Symposium on Catalan Studies”

April 24-25, 2017, at UCLA

“Of Books and Roses:  First California Symposium on Catalan Studies” grew from the idea of offering a point of reference on the west coast of the United States for scholars and students interested in Catalan Studies or related areas.  This year, we will hear presentations on urban cultures, literary studies focused on exile and historical memory, studies on Catalan phonology and syntax and research on language in digital communications.  Participants include speakers from Canada, Catalunya, Colombia and Valencia as well as the United States on the 24th and 25th of April at the University of California, Los Angeles.  And so, to be sure, the celebration will be accompanied by books, roses and good conversation.
Nota bene:  In keeping with the spirit of the traditional celebration of the Diada de Sant Jordi in Catalunya, attendees at the first day of the symposium will receive the gift of a book and a rose at our afternoon reception.
All events are free and open to the public.  Full program appears below image.  Limited seating.
–With the generous support of the UCLA Department of Spanish & Portuguese, the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the Institut Ramon Llull, the UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies, the Casal dels Catalans de Califòrnia and the UCLA Department of Linguistics.

Monday, April 24 – UCLA Royce Hall Room 306

8:30-9:00
Coffee and Registration

9:00-9:15
Welcome                                                                                                
—Hector Enrique Calderon Valle, Chair, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, UCLA
—John Dagenais, Professor, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, UCLA
—Gemma Repiso Puigdelliura, Director, Catalan Language Program, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, UCLA

9:15–10:45
Session I:  Urban Barcelona: Literature and Cultural Representations
Moderator: Isabel Villanueva (UCLA, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya)

“A la sombra se cobija el amo y señor de esta ciudad muerta”: l’urbanisme assassí de Ciutat morta.
—Alba Marcé (University of California, Davis)
La necessitat i la dificultat de ser traduït a l’anglès.
—Francesc Borrull (Universitat de Vic)
Un Raval Imaginat.
—José Antonio Jódar Sánchez (University at Buffalo-SUNY)

10:45-11:00
Coffee Break

11:00–12:30
Session II:  Catalan Syntax and Phonology                                                            
Moderator: Victoria Mateu (UCLA)

Lateral Darkness in Barcelonan Catalan: What Has Become of the ela catalana?
—Justin Davidson (University of California, Berkeley)
Non-Personal Catalan Clitic Pronouns: Language Change in Progress?
—Adriana Soto-Corominas (Western University)
La restricció dels sintagmes nominals escarits postverbals en els verbs psicològics catalans. Una explicació des del punt de vista informatiu.
—Carles Royo (Universitat de Barcelona)

12:30–13:30
Lunch for Program Participants

13:30-15:00
Session III:  Catalan Collective Memory: War, Exile and Dictatorship
Moderator: Elizabeth Warren (UCLA)

Forbidden Behavior and Cultural Spaces in Jordi Grau’s Film A Love Story (1966).
—Hugo Pascual Bordón (University South Carolina)
“Fugida” y “Homenaje a Cataluña” dos relatos testimoniales del exilio y de la huida catalanes durante la Guerra Civil Española.
—Carlos Arturo Arias Sanabria (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana)

15:00–15:15
Coffee break

15:15–16:15
Session IV:  Communication and Language                                                                                  
Moderator: Javier Moreno (UCLA)

The Catalan Language and Electronic Communication.
—Anna I. Montesinos López (Universitat Politècnica de València)
Digitalización e internacionalización de la cultura catalana: los casos de Opera Oberta y Catalunya Música.
— Isabel Villanueva Benito (UCLA, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya)

16:15-18:00
Sant Jordi Celebration: Books, Roses and Refreshments

Poster: What do UCLA students know about Catalan?
—Carla de Aguilar-Amat (UCLA)

Tuesday, April 25 –  UCLA Rolfe Hall, Lydeen Library

9:30–11:00
Session V:  Catalan Syntax and Phonology II                                                                     
Moderator: Ji Young Kim (UCLA)

Argument Structure of Nouns in Catalan: A Descriptive Approach.
—Elga Cremades (Masaryk University)
What We Don’t Know about Catalan Pronoun Clusters, and Why We Need to Know It.
—Adriana Soto-Corominas (Western University)
Schwa-Zero Alt[ə]rnations Cat[ə]lan Singular Determin[ə]rs.
—Calvin Cheng (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3)

11:00–11:30
Coffee break

11:30-13:00
Session VI:  History, Literature and Culture                                                                           
Moderator: John Dagenais (UCLA)

Seasonal Economic Patterns in the Medieval Catalan Pyrenees: The Example of Puigcerdà (1321-1322).
—Elizabeth Comuzzi (UCLA)
Grotesque Europeanization in Bigas Luna’s La teta y la luna.
—Elizabeth Warren (UCLA)
Yearnings, Failures, and the Recuperation of Memory: Re-Writing Gender in Margarita Aritzeta’s  L’herència de Cuba and in àngeles Aymar i Ragolta’s La indiana.
—Jennifer Monti (University of California, Los Angeles)

13:00–14:00
Closing Discussion, Remarks and Brindis offered by Prof. Hector Calderon, Chair, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, UCLA

Advanced registration not required. No fee. Limited Seating.
More details at http://ofbooksandroses.weebly.com

HOLA A TOTS! HELLO EVERYBODY!

Vols veure el partit del Clàssic 2017 Real Madrid contra FC Barcelona?

Diumenge dia 23 d’abril a 1/4 de 12 del migdia a

THE BREW KITCHEN ALEHOUSE
10708 Los Alamitos Blvd.
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
562 431 3900
www.brewkitchenalehouse.com

Veniu a animar al millor equip del mon i com que es Sant Jordi, Dia del llibre i la rosa, porteu llibres per intercanviar hi hauran roses per regalar.

Apa, confirmeu que hi sereu part de la cleca!
PER CONFIRMAR ENVIEU UN MISSATGE DE TEXT A 310-383-0619
Fins diumenge!

El Casal

Join us to watch the most expected soccer game of the year!
Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona

Sunday April 23, at 11:15AM at

THE BREW KITCHEN ALEHOUSE
10708 Los Alamitos Blvd.
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
562 431 3900
www.brewkitchenalehouse.com

Since it is “Sant Jordi” the day f the book and the rose, bring books and so we can exchange them.
There will be roses for all.

Please confirm that you will attend and so we can reserve a seat for you.
RSVP WITH A TEXT MESSAGE TO 310-383-0619
See you on Sunday!

El Casal