The Strawberry Tree
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| The Strawberry Tree | |
|---|---|
| Spanish | El árbol de las fresas |
| Directed by | Simone Rapisarda Casanova |
Release date |
|
Running time | 71 minutes |
| Country | Cuba-Canada-Italy |
| Language | Spanish |
The Strawberry Tree (Spanish: El árbol de las fresas) is a 2011 experimental film directed by Simone Rapisarda Casanova. The film premiered at the 2011 Locarno Film Festival.[2]
Subject[edit]
A year after Hurricane Ike swept their village away, fishermen from Juan Antonio, Cuba, recall their vanished homes and daily lives. Their memories call forth images that had been shot just a few days before the devastation.[3] However, the ethnographic documentary film that ensues is neither predictable nor conventional. For the filmmaker-ethnographer has rejected the use of scripts of any kind and has become entangled in a paradoxical dialogue with his subjects.[4] The poor yet educated Cuban fishermen prove to be familiar with ethnography and documentary film techniques and continuously interact with the filmmaker. The traditional fly-on-the-wall paradigm is thus both defeated and rendered obsolete.[5]
Production[edit]
Rapisarda Casanova’s stylistic hallmarks include his elliptical, metacinematic approach to storytelling, his use of non-actors, diegetic off-screen sound, meticulously-composed static single-takes, low camera angles and careful elaboration of natural light and colour.[6] His approach to filmmaking is mostly process-driven, after careful research of the thematic base.[7] The intent behind such stylistic and methodological choices is to create cinematic occasions where people and places may reveal their deepest nature.[8]
Release and critical response[edit]
In 2011, The Strawberry Tree was screened at the Locarno Film Festival and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. In 2012 it screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Miami Film Festival, and it received the Most Promising Filmmaker Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. The film ranked 33rd in Film Comment's list of the "50 Best Undistributed Films of 2012".
Awards[edit]
- Most Promising Filmmaker award, Ann Arbor Film Festival, MI, USA
- NFB Award for Most Innovative Canadian Documentary, DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Vancouver, Canada
- Best Documentary award, Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, Austin, TX, USA
- Grand Jury Honorable Mention, Miami International Film Festival, FL, USA
Collections[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "El árbol de las fresas". www.locarnofestival.ch. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
- ^ "Locarno Sets Slate For 64th Edition". 13 July 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
- ^ "2012 Ann Arbor Film Festival". Academic Hack. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
- ^ "The Strawberry Tree: LAFF review". The Hollywood Reporter. 22 June 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
- ^ "Images Conscious". Art Forum. 12 May 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
- ^ "Discovering the Spiritus Loci: Simone Rapisarda Casanova on The Creation of Meaning". Filmmaker Magazine. 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
- ^ "Pacifico's Heights". Cinemascope. 16 September 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
- ^ "A tree that's no longer there: An interview with filmmaker Simone Rapisarda Casanova". Austin Vida. 2012. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
External links[edit]
- 2011 films
- Films about filmmaking
- Self-reflexive films
- 2010s avant-garde and experimental films
- 2011 documentary films
- Italian avant-garde and experimental films
- Canadian avant-garde and experimental films
- Italian documentary films
- Canadian documentary films
- Cuban documentary films
- Films set in Cuba
- Cuban avant-garde and experimental films
- Spanish-language Canadian films
- 2010s Canadian films
- 2010s Spanish-language films