PULP NOIR.
The B series in the American film noir.

Dates: 8, 9, 10 and 11 March.

The idea of this course arises after the collaboration of the Las Palmas International Film Festival and the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno.

Through the Gun Crazy season, part of one of the Festival’s sections, the CAAM presents a season of conferences aimed at broadening the theoretical visual scope of a series of films rooted in North American B series film noir productions from the 30’s up to the late 60’s.

The starting point is Gun Crazy, a film directed by Joseph H. Lewis in 1949, based on a short story by Mckinlay Kantor.

The course is based on a series of conferences inspired by North American film noir productions which are not very familiar to the publics, generating a thread which directly links and enriches the B series spirit of the films to be screened during the Festival.

This season of conferences focuses its attention on the low-budget artisans who base their work on ingeniousness and style, resulting in what are clearly distinguished as pulp productions. Names such as Joseph Lewis, Phil Karlson, John Farrow, Gordon Duglas, Edgar G. Ulmer… are highlighted in this season, without forgetting the literature on which such films are based, with authors like Hammett and Chandler, or less known novelists who are nonetheless essential for these films: Mickey Spillane, William Irish, Horace McCoy, David Goodis, etc.

The fundamental aim is to provide a different and original perspective of the noir genre, more associated to an aesthetic, to psychological archetypes, to music, to comics and to genre crossovers, than to the social, realistic or committed content generated by the Hollywood mainstream and its “great directors".

The spirit of the season is primarily pop, entertaining and select, seeking balance between the traditional film noir perspective and a pulp perspective of the genre.

Alexis Lorenzo
Course Director

PROGRAMME

8^th
6pm - The relations between literature and film noir.
Jesús Palacios [Writer and film critic]

7.30pm - Comic noir. Interaction between comics and film noir.
Eduardo Guillot [Writer and film critic]

9^th
6pm - The femme fatale and fatalism in classic film noir.
Antonio Weinritcher [Historian and film critic]
7.30pm - Turbid Music for the Night. The soundtracks of North American film noir.
Roberto Cueto [Writer and film critic

10^th
6pm - Both sides of the law. Criminals and law enforcers.
José Antonio Hurtado [Programming Manager of Ivac-La Filmoteca]
7.30pm - Artisans or authors. B series directors.
Eulalia Iglesias [Journalist]

11^th
7pm - ROUND TABLE. Moderated by Alexis Lorenzo with the speakers in attendance.
9.30pm - Blues Concert. Alain Giroux & Jean-Louis Mahjun.

Enrolment: Friends of the CAAM who have been registered for more than one month, friends of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Film Festival, students and members of the Architects’ Association of the Canary Islands (COAC, Spanish acronym): 30€ (Please enclose a photocopy of the membership ID card).
General Public: 40 €
Enrolment dates: Del 22 al 25 de febrero y del 1 al 4 de marzo.
Method of payment:

1. At the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno reception desk, from 10am to 8pm. C/ Los Balcones nº 11, 35001 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. 902 311824.
2. By bank transfer to the Caja de Canarias, account number 2052 8000 76 33- 045010-03 (please fax payment receipt to 928 32 16 29, or hand it in at the CAAM reception desk).