“There Are Footprints That Do Not Destroy”
There are people who have given their lives defending life. It is not a metaphor. This year, “The Silence of the Earth” reminds us of those who stood up to interests far more powerful than themselves in order to protect their territories, their communities, their forests and their water. Stories like these confront us once again with an uncomfortable question: how can it still be necessary to die in order to defend a river, a rainforest, a mountain, or the right of a community to continue living on its own land? This is one of the great divides of our time. At one extreme are those who protect life. At the other, those who still believe that any territory, species or community can be sacrificed if there is enough money on the other side of the equation. And between those two extremes, there is all of us.
More than thirty years ago, we opened a window called SUNCINE. Since then, thousands of stories have passed across our screens: devastated forests, polluted oceans, threatened species, displaced communities, retreating glaciers and extreme events that have ceased to be exceptional and have become part of our everyday lives. Sometimes, I confess, I ask myself why we keep making this festival. After so many decades of warning, explaining, raising awareness and educating, there are moments when one feels trapped in a personal “Groundhog Day”: another complaint, another fire, another flood, another promise, and once again starting over. But then I remember something fundamental: most of the films I have seen over all these years did not stop at catastrophe. They looked for ways forward, showed solutions, told stories of communities restoring their forests, scientists protecting species, young people imagining other ways of producing, consuming and living together. And all of them, in one way or another, were sweating hope.
That is why we are still here. Because SUNCINE has never been just a film festival. It is a place where people who still believe that change is possible come together, a space where culture, education and cinema become tools for transformation. And that is also why, every year, when exhaustion sets in and one thinks about lowering one’s arms, someone appears and gives us back our energy: a teacher, a filmmaker, a producer, a student, a volunteer, a spectator who walks out of a screening deeply moved. And then I think the same thing again: “Yes, it was worth it. It is worth it.”
This year, moreover, we have a home that represents us especially well: Calafell. A small city with a big heart that has opened its doors to us and that, together with Barcelona and our online venue, CaixaForum+, which takes the festival to every corner of Spain, is once again helping us send this message out into the world. We have chosen one word to define this edition: FOOTPRINT. For a long time, that word was associated with something negative: ecological footprint, carbon footprint, the mark left by what we destroy. But there are other footprints too: that of someone who plants a tree, saves a species, teaches a child to love nature, or makes a film capable of changing the way thousands of people see the world. Destruction grows from some footprints. From others grow trees, knowledge, culture, solidarity, love and hope.
This is the footprint I want, and we want, to leave. The one that, over thirty-three editions, has been built by thousands of filmmakers, artists, workers, volunteers, institutions, schools and spectators who chose not to surrender. We have not won every battle. We have grown tired many times. But we are still here. And as long as there is a screen to light up, a story to tell, an injustice to denounce, a solution to share, and someone willing to watch, listen and act, we will be here. From Calafell, from Barcelona, from SUNCINE, we open the window once again. Come in, watch, allow yourselves to be moved, allow yourselves to be challenged, let yourselves be inspired, and then go out there and do something. Big or small, it does not matter. Now it is your turn to choose. Leave your footprint.
