Javier Álvarez Galeano is a prominent figure who passionately and patiently advocates for exhibition spaces for artists and experimental filmmakers who find in moving images the ideal medium to express their creative needs. The CINE TORO festival, which he co-organizes, exemplifies this, having become the leading event that fosters the work of audiovisual storytellers in southwestern Colombia. Below is an interview he granted us at the nature reserve where he lives.

MEY productions: WHY IS A FILM FESTIVAL IMPORTANT?

Javier Álvarez Galeano: In general terms, film festivals are important because they are the windows that can be opened for filmmakers who are producing works that are not necessarily going to be shown on the big screen, that is, that are not originally intended to be distributed in movie theaters, although on some occasions they are, let's say in special cases.

Film festivals, specifically, are channels for the alternative distribution of films and audiovisual content. They serve as a meeting point for filmmakers, producers, exhibitors, and distributors. Furthermore, festivals enable certain projects and films—audiovisual works, cinematographic pieces, animations, and so on—to reach audiences in different parts of the world, especially for productions not planned or intended for standard distribution channels like movie theaters or television. In the specific case of our festival, it is an event dedicated to promoting and fostering experimentation in audiovisual media. Its objective is to highlight the efforts and work of individuals both nationally and internationally who lack access to mainstream exhibition platforms. This is the fundamental mission of festivals: to connect these works with an audience or cultivate one, and simultaneously serve as an academic or extended training ground for people who hope to find in audiovisual media an alternative way of life to address the various conflicts that arise in areas that have been hotspots of violence for many years. But ultimately, what the festival aims to do is provide life options for people who believe it is possible to do things related to the arts.

MEYprod: WHY IS CINETORO IMPORTANT?

Xavier: Initially, our work with the festival was like taking up a machete in front of a vast jungle and starting to clear a path, and along the way, we learned how to wield that machete. In Colombia, there's perhaps no example of anything quite like what we are or were doing. In recent years, there's been a boom in the term "experimentation." This word strikes me as very curious because when we started promoting ourselves as an experimental film festival, it wasn't very common in the national scene. Now it's a term that has become popular or commonplace, which indicates that in Colombia there wasn't a clear reference point for what we intended to do, and it was all a very intuitive learning process that later began to be structured and organized using trial and error, as well as research. Globally, there are festivals dedicated to works with these particular characteristics, and although it might seem strange or misguided, one of the first points of reference is Cannes. Everyone wants to be associated with Cannes and wants to do something related to it. But as ideas develop and years go by, one becomes aware of the limitations, the successes, and the characteristics that make one's work unique, and it begins to resemble other events more closely. There are other rural festivals like ours, for example, the Gibara Film Festival in Cuba and others located in rural areas. Being outside the big city and the academic context allows for a different kind of development, a different kind of dynamic. Creation is less limited or constrained by established patterns, and this generates a kind of creative freedom. There are also experimental festivals like EXPERIMENTA MADRID, which is a showcase of experimental video. Especially in the more "avant-garde" countries of Europe, there are festivals that mix visual arts, music, experimental cinema and other types of activities and are somewhat related to what we are developing.

 

MEYprod: WHO ARE THE TEAM MEMBERS?

 

Xavier: CINETORO is a project of EXTRALIMINAL PRODUCCIONES, a film and audiovisual production company made up of Neil Alexander, a doctor in statistics for tropical medicine who has dedicated half of his life to writing scripts, Andrés Usuga, the festival manager, a graduate in acting from Fine Arts, Victoria Peña, a visual artist, and Javier Alvarez, a visual artist.

 

 

MEYprod: HOW IS THE FESTIVAL FINANCED?

Xavier: The festival receives funding from the Ministry of Culture through a program called "Colombia de película" (Colombia on Film), from the Film Directorate, which is a program focused on audience development nationwide. We have also received funding from the Ministry of Culture's National Concertation Program, the Valle del Cauca Mixed Fund for the Promotion of Culture and the Arts, and the Toro Mayor's Office. Other partners don't contribute financially but provide venues and spaces, such as the Santiago Plaza Shopping Center in Cartago, the Rayo Museum, the La Tertulia Museum, and Casa Proartes. We also have private sector sponsors like Tigo, Chevrolet, Blackberry, Apuestas Azar, Hotel Obelisco, and other entities that help reduce our costs. We have a base budget that comes from the national government and local entities through grants or direct funding, and the rest is managed by our organization.

 

MEYprod: WHICH FILM FESTIVAL WOULD YOU LIKE TO RESEMBLE?

Xavier: We don't want to be like anyone else; we are a unique festival that seeks to build an audience, to educate people in the north of the valley, to create life expectations, and to make them understand that there are new things that can be done in an alternative way.

MEYprod: WHERE WILL CINETORO BE IN A DECADE?

Xavier: When we started, we learned how to manage the festival's development. We entered a process of expansion and growth, but we realized that this process wasn't viable for us because it meant the festival would become the main driving force of our lives. For something so huge to be sustainable, there have to be people riding that ever-growing snowball, unable to get off it. In our case, we all have different aspirations related to the audiovisual world, and that means we have to take time, distance, and pauses from the festival. So, after past editions of the event, we realized we wanted to reach a point where we were as organized as possible and not grow any further, but rather increase the quality of the material being circulated, improve the quality of the workshops the festival offers, and commit to this process of training new filmmakers in an area where there are no professional training opportunities. This is wonderful because, thanks to the festival, we're seeing that people we know, whom we've helped to some extent to realize their ideas and immerse themselves in the audiovisual world, are starting to produce more and more in different places. So, I think that the expectation for the festival in ten years, more than for it to grow, is that it continues to serve as a platform for new people to enter the audiovisual world and that more and more stories are produced, told, and distributed that speak to their environments or their aesthetic experiences in a better way. We've already passed the point where we said, "We have to grow"—we've grown quite a bit. Now the goal is to improve what we have, and that's achieved every year. More people are met, more people get involved, and these people bring their knowledge and experience with them.