Santiago, Febrary 3rd 2025.- From March 12nd to 16th, the International Ethnographic Film Festival by Museum of Galician People (Museo do Pobo Galego) will hold its 20th edition in Santiago de Compostela. It will be the celebration of two decades of commitment to ethnographic cinema and audiovisual anthropology. The festival was innovative when it was created, and it is still one of a kind in Galicia, and one of the few in Spain.
The long trajectory is endorsed by almost 800 filmmakers and cinema professionals, and by the 20,000 people who have participated in the Festival over the last twenty years. During this time, MICE was a platform for emerging artists, accompanying them in the consolidation of their professional careers throughout the following editions: well-known filmmakers such as Eloy Domínguez Serén, Diana Toucedo, Ana Domínguez, Eloy Enciso, Vicente Vázquez, Xurxo Chirro, Adriana P. Villanueva, Sabela Iglesias, Diana Gonçalves, Bruno Arias, Santiago Teijelo or Coral and Laura Piñeiro, among others, screened their first projects at the festival. MICE’s commitment to emerging talents is also reflected in the authorship of the promotional pieces of each edition. Xisela Franco, Iria Silvosa, Sara Iglesias, Sabela Pernas, Sol Mussa, or Sabela Souto are some of the names that make up the MICE archive of new filmmakers.
Ethnography and cinema with gender perspective
In a scenario such as the social sciences, the predominant narrative is still androcentric. In the cinematography world, the presence of women is still unequal. Since the opening edition in 2006, MICE’s direction is managed by a woman, Ana Estévez Lavandeira, who is also in charge of the Education and Cultural Action Department (DEAC) of the Museum of Galician People.
This commitment to gender equality is also present in an official competition programming, where half of the films are created by women. Most of them are Galician and Spanish. Furthermore, films made or produced by female filmmakers have a specific space in the International Ethnographic Film Festival, in the Impropias section. The Bulgarian film critic, cultural journalist and programmer Mariana Hristova, the Chilean filmmaker Carolina Astudillo, the anthropologist and producer Catarina Alves, the Spanish producer Mercedes Álvarez or Ainhoa Rodríguez, the film director of the awarded Destello Bravío, are some of the guests invited by MICE to coordinate this section.
MICE started with retrospectives of Jean Rouch, Val del Omar or Llorenç Soler, and with cinema classics such as Cecilia Mangini, the focus of the last edition. MICE is also a festival that stands out for the discovery of less known filmographies, frequently not screened in Galician cinemas. Trazas section has brought to the public ethnographic cinema models, such as Lionel Rogosin, Raoul Ruiz, Marilu Maillet, Vera Chytilová, Chris Marker, Eduardo Coutinho, Margarida Cordeiro or António Reis.
MICE’s commitment is expanding and drawing attention to a cinema that explores human stories, that connects people with their cultural roots and other people’s. At the same time, it serves as a tool to help preserving traditions. Its focus is strengthened every year by the presence of filmmakers and researchers such as Ferrán Llagostera, Alejandro Alvarado, Adriana Vila Guevara, Jorge Moreno Andrés, Tania Dinís, or LAAV (Experimental Audiovisual Anthropology Laboratory) members. They have attended the festival in Santiago de Compostela to screen their films or discuss the importance of ethnographic cinema with the MICE audience.
MICE is particularly interested in amateur and Galician cinema. In these two decades, the Festival has exhibited some audiovisual materials from different private archives. For example, the work of Manoel Da Costa, an engineer born in Vigo. The work of groups from the 60s and 70s, such as Lupa, have also been screened.
An space for education and reflection through cinema
Furthermore, the International Ethnographic Film Festival did not change its commitment to education and cultural action. These are the two cornerstones of MICE, and also of the institution that supports it, the Museum of Galician People (Museo do Pobo Galego). Through initiatives such as MICE Petís, the festival became the first opportunity for a lot of kids, young boys and girls to discover anthropology using the language of cinema, with short-films screenings in the Museum and online.
This year, in the MICE Escola third edition, school students from 14 to 18 years old from the Secondary School from Oroso (Oroso, Galicia), the Secondary School from Cacheiras (Teo, Galicia) and the Multilingual All-through School Cernadas de Castro (Lousame, Galicia) will produce their own ethnographic content short audiovisual pieces, with advice from the MICE educational area. Throughout these twenty editions, the teaching dimension of the International Ethnographic Film Festival has also ecompassed training sessions for professionals, art and photographic exhibitions, debate and discussion sessions, and activities in collaboration with educational and socio-cultural spheres. Moreover, it has included other parallel programming that sometimes do not take place on the specific dates of the festival.
The screening venues are the Museo do Pobo Galego, the Teatro Principal and NUMAX. All sessions will be free of charge. In 2025, MICE will once again be an unavoidable event for professionals and cinema and ethnography amateurs, as well as for people who seek a better understanding and discovery of new perspectives on the social and cultural reality we share.
The International Ethnographic Film Festival by Museum of Galician People (Museo do Pobo Galego) has the support of AGADIC—the Galician Agency for the Cultural Industries—, A Coruña’s Provincial Council Department for Culture, and Santiago’s City Council.
