The first film to be screened as part of the Catalan Institute of America (CIofA) film series will be LES DISTÀNCIES (2018), a drama directed by Elena Trapé and winner of the Gaudí Award for Best Film in Catalan. It was also awarded Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress at the Málaga Film Festival.
Olivia, Eloy, Guille and Anna travel to Berlin to pay a surprise visit to their friend Comas, who is turning 35. His welcome is not as they expected and during the weekend their friendship is put to the test as their contradictions emerge. Together they discover that time and distance can change everything.
Elena Trapé was born in 1976 in Barcelona, Spain. She is a director and writer, known for The Distances (2018), Blog (2010) and Pijamas (2008).
The first book to be discussed by the CIofA Book Club will be PRIMAVERA, ESTIU, ETCÈTERA by Marta Rojals.
Marta Rojals was born in La Palma d’Ebre (1975), in Catalonia, Spain, and currently lives in Barcelona. She holds a degree in architecture from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, where she majored in theory, history, and review. She works as a translator and editor of technical books and writes nonfiction for a variety of publications, including Catalan online news source, Vilaweb. She is the author of two novels, Primavera, estiu, etcètera (La Magrana, 2011) and L'altra (La Magrana, 2014), the latter translated into French, Italian, Dutch and Czech.
The Asymptote Journal published an excerpt from the book in English translation by Mary Ann Newman. Read it here.
Mary Ann Newman translates from Catalan and Spanish. She has published fiction by Quim Monzó, poetry by Josep Carner, and essays by Xavier Rubert de Ventós. Her latest publication is Private Life by Josep Maria de Sagarra (Archipelago, 2015), for which she won awards from Òmnium Cultural in 2016 and the North American Catalan Society in 2017. In 1998, she was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi, the highest civic distinction in Catalonia.