Portsmouth Hispanic Society

Unfortunately Paul is unable to deliver his presentation this evening. Instead the 2016 film Julieta will be shown.

Julieta, released in 2016, has achieved 63 nominations, including a BAFTA Best Film not in the English Language, and won 15 awards, including Best Actress (Emma Suárez), from the Spanish Cinema Writers Circle Award.

Julieta (Emma Suarez) is a middle-aged woman living in Madrid with her boyfriend Lorenzo. Both are going to move to Portugal when she casually runs into Bea, former best friend of her daughter Antia, who reveals that this one is living in Switzerland married and with three children. With the heart broken after 12 years of total absence of her daughter, Julieta cancels the journey to Portugal and she moves to her former building, in the hope that Antia someday communicates with her sending a letter. Alone with her thoughts, Julieta starts to write her memories to confront the pain of the events happened when she was a teenager (Adriana Ugarte) and met Xoan, a Galician fisherman. Falling in love with him, Julieta divides her time between the family, the job and the education of Antia until a fatal accident changes their lives. Slowly decaying in a depression, Julieta is helped by Antia and Bea, but one day Antia goes missing suddenly after a vacation with no clues about where to find her, leaving Julieta desperate to understand the reasons of her missing.

The cast includes

• Emma Suárez Emma as Julieta
• Adriana Ugarte as Julieta Joven
• Daniel Grao as Xoan
• Inma Cuesta as Ava
• Darío Grandinetti as Lorenzo
• Michelle Jenner as Beatriz
• Pilar Castro as Claudia (Madre de Beatriz)
• Nathalie Poza as Juana

Written by Pedro Almodóvar and Alice Munro

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar

The UK trailer (posted on YouTube) can be seen here.

This month the society will be exploring Dia de los Reyes, a feast to celebrate Epiphany, the last day of Christmas. In Spain, and some Latin American countries, Epiphany day is called El Día de Reyes i.e., the day when a group of Kings, or Magi, arrived to worship and bring three gifts to the baby Jesus.

Epiphany has been represented in many works of art over the centuries. Attendees to this evening's meeting will enjoy:

• A short presentation on the The Adoration of the Magi in Spanish Art, literature and music.
• Tasting Rosca de Reyes (see description below).

In Spain there are processions of the Magi on the night before Epiphany, and children get their presents delivered by the Magi on the 6th. In a similar manner to Christmas a cake is used in celebration. The Epiphany bread/cake is known as Roscón, Tortell de Reis in Catalan, and in Mexico as Rosca de reyes.

Presented by Xan Bieito Cao Feijóo

Xan is passionate about "a gaita", the Celtic legacy in Galicia. Galician folk music represents a rich and popular culture influenced by two continents with the connection of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean through the Iberian Peninsula.

Xan's presentation will dive into Galician folk music exploring the different rhythms of folk music and dances from this nation and delve deeper into "a gaita". A very personal journey of discovery via the haunting melodies of traditional Galician music.

Come along to be enthralled by Xan's presentation.

A presentation by Ken Scott

La Alpujarra is an eclectic and inspiring region of Andalucía in Spain, on the Southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, Spain’s highest mountains, south of Granada. White villages cling to the hillsides under cobalt skies and dazzling light. This is “Driving over Lemons” country made famous by Chris Stewart’s ex-pat book of the same name.

I first discovered the area on a personal development holiday in 2001. Since then I have met wonderful friends there and been through some life-defining experiences.

Come and experience it for yourself with me on this moving presentation – a portrait of a wonderful land, much more than a travelogue.

Bush Vines is an independent wine merchant based near Emsworth, which specialises in sustainably produced wines from smaller producers in Spain, England, Portugal, South Africa and New Zealand; their main focus is Spanish wines. They decided to concentrate on Spanish wines in particular as Spain offers a terrific variety of grapes and styles and also hits the spot for quality and value.

Bush Vines source all their wines from smaller wineries, usually family-owned, that pay attention to detail in the vineyards as well as in the making of the wine. Many are organic, some are biodynamic and they all apply the principles of minimum intervention ie limiting spray and no added chemicals.

Chrissy and Bob will take you on a vinous Tour of Spain getting “off the beaten track”. We will taste 8 wines and it should be an informative and fun evening.

The event starts promptly at 7pm with a light tapas buffet.

On this occasion all attendees will be charged £5.

For more information click here to open the Bush Vine website in a new tab. Please note that the society is not responsible for the content of external websites.

The Society is extremely lucky to be able to present a talk by Professor Deborah Shaw to its members. Deborah has spoken at many international conferences, and delivered keynote lectures in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Colombia. She has been an invited speaker at Universities in the UK, Spain, Brazil and the United States.

Dr Deborah Shaw is Professor of Film and Screen Studies at the University of Portsmouth, and Research Lead for the School of Film, Media and Communication. Her research interests include transnational film theory, Latin American cinema, and film and migration. She has published widely in these areas.

She is the founding co-editor of the Routledge journal Transnational Cinemas, and her books include:

• Contemporary Latin American Cinema: Ten Key Films, (Continuum Publishers, 2003)
• The Three Amigos: The Transnational Filmmaking of Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Alfonso Cuarón, Manchester University Press (2013)
• The Transnational Fantasies of Guillermo del Toro. Palgrave Macmillan, co-edited with Ann Davies and Dolores Tierney (2014)
• Latin American Women Filmmakers: Production, Politics, Poetics, co-edited with Deborah Martin for the World Cinema Series with I.B.Tauris (2017).

In this presentation Deborah will deliver an overview of the work of the transnational Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón before focusing on his Mexican film Roma (2018).

Roma was released on Netflix to huge audiences for a Spanish language art film, winning multiple awards including academy awards for Best International Features, Directing, and Cinematographer, an Ariel award for Best Picture, and a Goya award for Best Ibero-American film, among many other awards.

Deborah will consider what is new about this film in the film industry in terms of a Mexican film in Spanish and Mixtec featured on such a high-profile global platform as Netflix whilst placing particular emphasis on how this Euro-Mexican middle-class director represents an Indigenous domestic servant based on his own nana (maid) and consider the many paradoxes that are presented through this power dynamic.