We have reached the last appointment with the interviews with the directors and collaborators who were guests during the 2021 edition of Cinema e Ambiente Avezzano. For this final appointment we interviewed Arianna Rodriguez, co-producer of “Built Lands”, a feature film directed by Arturo Dueñas Herrero. The film is in competition in the section “Earth’s Breathe” and tells the story of how Félix Cuadrado Lomas is the only person left in a small village in deepest Spain, after a group of artists decided to settle there in the 1960s. The artist, in fact, took this decision to continue to reflect and depict the landscape that surrounds him such as the lands built by those who work them. Arianna caught up with us in Avezzano and told us about her experience at this year’s edition of the Cinema e Ambiente festival, the first one she participated in, even heartily, and which she told us was fundamental in her knowledge of audiovisuals.
Hi Arianna! What were your impressions of the festival?
It was the first film festival I attended and it was the most interesting and beautiful experience I had because there was a very good organization and the films they presented were very interesting. It was great especially because it was an opportunity for a Spanish film that is about the landscape, the history, the people and about nature and the environment to be screened. And so to have this opportunity to show Italian people, people from Avezzano, that there are people and artists in Spain who care a lot about certain aspects like, for example, staying and taking care of the place and the land where you live, was really exciting. Our film talks about this, about how in the past there was an abandonment, there was a transition for the villages of Spain in the late 70s/early 80s from being full to being empty and then we also wanted to show how there are people, there are artists like Félix Cuadrado Lomas who want to tell through art and painting their land and their deeper connection with it.
When you meet with the director again, what sensations will you give him about what you experienced during the days of the festival?
My sensations will be very positive. I will explain to him how there really is a world of cinema in Italy that focuses on such an important theme for our society, which is the environment, and I will also tell him how both our film and the others have the same thought, the same will to change, to make some change through film and cinema. It was a unique experience that I will always remember.
What do you think is the importance of a festival like this?
The importance of a festival like this is to communicate a social discomfort and having these types of festivals in a country like Italy or like Spain shows that there are people who have a great concern for an important part of our lives which is the environment. So if we have an opportunity to show, to leave a message through audiovisuals, we can create activities like that of a festival that focuses precisely on this, and in the end such an event also helps the place, in the sense that it makes people aware that this place, Abruzzo, Avezzano, exists and in some sense has woken up and is aware of this worldwide issue.
What do you think is the relationship between cinema and the environment?
I think sometimes it’s important the form of communication and creating the simplest and easiest form possible to get a message out to every person who is part of the country and obviously part of the world, let them know different realities and different ways of doing things. For example, there can be different ways of planting trees and, in a bigger perspective, you can make that known through cinema because it’s a very powerful communication tool that we have and that we use to show a rarity that because of the excess of technology or because of the excess of knowledge, of misinterpretation of communication doesn’t come through as well as it really is. Many times this rapidity of social media or different media of communication does not let us think about what is important, as it can be the environmental issue. This issue must come in real form and this can be done through film, through audiovisual communication.
We greet Arianna and thank her for giving us the opportunity to know and show how there are people who live cinema and the environment in such a heartfelt way and to understand that there is a connection between countries thanks to cinema and this is, perhaps, the most beautiful thing.
