To learn a little about the history of the festival Paperboard of independent animation films, we interviewed Martín Aranda.
Martin: My name is Martín Aranda, they know me as Marto, I am part of the production group of the Cardboard Festival. As we work as a group, we divide up the tasks from one year to the next, sometimes changing roles. I generally dedicate myself to the design of the festival technique and the technical setting, design of the web page as well as the general coordination of all the juries together with other colleagues. Also this time I had to be the spokesperson for the notes that they make us about the festival.
Rodrigo Wilson: How did the “Cartón” festival come about and why that name? The Cartón festival arises from a group of friends, who did a radio program on FM La Tribu, “Va de retro”. The program still exists, many of us end up doing other things, it is still hosted by Diego. Once we held an event for comic strip day in the La Tribu auditorium, we invited people from the stick and organized a good event. In parallel, we had already started to do some projections of specific things and the idea came to us; in the dynamics we had and the integration with the space.
First we think of it as a film festival, or film series and like who doesn’t want the thing, we went from a film series to a festival of animated shorts.
Support made by @rama.animadasthe Argentine Network Women and Diversities of Animation.
Looking at other festivals in the world, clearly; our festival was a wet ear, we had the reference of everything else, which had institutional support and we did not come from the audiovisual. The name arose from this cartoonIt’s more than anything, it’s a joke. Pass it on, bestialize it, into Spanish. It had nothing to do with the cardboard cartoon; but it had an intention given our origin, half hippie and half improvised. In addition, it allowed us to refer to craftsmanship, there are no large producers in national productions, so the work is handmade. The craft of organizing the festival, and also the precariousness of the cardboard, that its main use is a secondary tool for other things, a box that is going to be thrown away, etc. We identify ourselves in that play on words, it reflected in an ideal way what we felt when we started to do the festival.
How do you see the other animation festivals here? and the foreigners All the festivals that arose from animation at the local level, are later and are born from another place, for example from cultural management or educational spaces. Space defines us, and it is a more friend, a more intimate space. Our idea is to have a relationship of constant dialogue or mediation between the public and the organizers. That warmth is what defines our festival.
The city of Buenos Aires allows us, because of how culture is consumed here, access, the gratuity that there is in general in culture gives us the possibility of doing something more intimate. Maybe in other countries, not just outside the continent; access to culture (such as education and health) is a little more onerous, more distant from the general public. Other festivals, if they are more formal from the place of putting culture on a pedestal, and cultural events are more “label”. Obviously there must be some weirdos like us doing independent stuff.
Our identity has to do a bit with the impudence, of having made an animation festival without animators, and without having much idea; Also, this daring that we take as cultural managers leads to a lot of taboos or places of importance, on how to treat people or organize ourselves, which we do not have because we do not go through it. That imprint of breaking by accident, the protocols of culture and each cultural space, benefited us, to achieve that spontaneous connection that we were looking for with the public.
How are the festivals financed? Are there state contributions through INCAA for example? In general, INCAA finances certain categories that correspond to a festival, and up to twenty percent of your budget, the rest is all on your own, if you can get a sponsor. Another way of financing is the patronage of the City of Buenos Aires.
How is the percentage of local and foreign projections? We try that at least fifty percent of the shorts that correspond to the official competition are national productions. The idea is that both the public and local filmmakers have the opportunity to see national productions, as well as international short films. The problem is not quality, but being able to also show what is produced here. The idea is to be able to intervene in a positive way in the culture with the diffusion, in this case of animations.
Is there a section on gender and diversities for example? We have been trying to incorporate gender and diversity issues for a long time. This year to address this theme, we are going to have a section where there will be a talk about animation and diversity for free childhoods, where we are also going to project short films about diversity. Above all, the gender issue today encompasses the debate on what is the access to information in society so that children develop freely and in a healthy way, that they are not made invisible or discriminated against, violated.
We have incorporated it because it is an issue that cuts across everything, such as environmental problems. We also understand that it is becoming exponential, and I say this because we see that violence, war, the environmental/climate problem, the problem of representation in politics and engulfed by capitalism, by capital in general, the gender problem and of the diversities, they are things with which we are quite in dialogue. All this is something that happens outside doors, therefore art and culture are also traversed by all this, and it is then that they express themselves and the festival can be a channel of diffusion, it can have a place.
