Who are you, a boy or a girl" That’s the question facing the main characters in the latest MEDIAPRO co-production which is set to premiere at the Malaga Film Festival in the Official Pass Section (out of competition). David Fernández de Castro and Marc Parramon are the directors behind “Me llamo Violeta”, the first MEDIAPRO Group Polar Star Films co-production, which tells the story of an 11-year-old girl who was born a boy. It’s the story of family support for a process started by their daughter Violeta, as well as a story of the rejection and hostility faced by transgender kids in their attempts to normalise their situations.
“When they treated me like a boy, they said I was a girl; when I started to wear girl’s clothes, they laughed”. Now a 6-year-old Violeta is clear in her mind what she wants to wear and tells her parents (the adult film actors Nacho Vidal and Franceska Jaimes) who from now on want people to call her Violeta. She’ll never again be Nacho. Over the course of the 72-minute long film, the creators set out to highlight the reality of transgender children, following Violeta for a year as well as interweaving other stories from Ivan and Alan and Leyre, Carla and Silvia who went through the process in less enlightened times.
David Fernández de Castro and Marc Parramon faced up to the challenge of telling Violeta’s story, as they admitted at the start, with very Little knowledge of the situation and wanting to highlight how transgender people feel in a society poorly accustomed to distinguishing between sexual identity and gender. The film questions the notion that the body determines the gender but highlights the daily challenges that transgender people have to put up with, from not being able to use the toilet they’d like to to bullying and discrimination at work.
Movistar+ and production company Globomedia (MEDIAPRO Group) have begun production on the series “Paraíso”. An ambitious fiction that combines youth drama, science fiction and mystery.
“Paraíso” will consist of 8 fifty-minute episodes scheduled to premiere on Movistar+ in 2020. It is currently in the pre-production phase, and the casting call and location sourcing processes are both already underway.
Created by Fernando González Molina (“Three Steps Above Heaven”, “I Want You”, “Palm Trees in the Snow”), Ruth García (“El Incidente”, “The Protected”, “The Boarding School”, “Paco’s Men”) and David Oliva (“El Incidente”, “The Protected”, “Paco’s Men”, “Los Serrano”), the series will be directed by Fernando González Molina, director of some of the highest grossing box-office films in Spanish cinema history as well as timeless TV fiction classics such as “The Boat”, “Paco’s Men” and “Luna”.
"Paraíso comes from our dream to tell a fantasy tale associated with our teenage idols; Spielberg’s cinema, the “V” series, but also “Verano Azul” and “Compañeros”, and to connect them with the stories I’ve loved portraying in cinema: epic, emotional stories that, above all, are designed to be enjoyed by cinemagoers. PARAISO is a journey to the entertaining cinema we were passionate about and which inspired us to devote our lives to this, but also a story about loss and the difficulty of being a teenager when you are different", said Fernando González Molina.
Plot
Levante, 1992, the summer is coming to an end in a coastal town when three 15-year-old girls, Sandra, Eva and Malena, disappear without a trace from a nightclub. When the police investigation appears to be taking the wrong direction, Javi, Sandra's younger brother, takes things into his own hands, along with Quino and Álvaro, his best friends, and Zeta, the class bully. Together they discover the girls are being held by something not of this world.
“Prueba de amor” (Test of Love) premieres its first of 107 shows this Tuesday on Ecuavisa, presented by Alejandra Jaramillo and Jonathan Estrada. The new daily programme, an original format created and developed jointly between Mediapro US and Ecuavisa, introduces TV audiences to couples willing to demonstrate their love publicly. The couples will show that they are ready for marriage and deserving of winning great prizes. After a process of elimination, the four best couples will marry on camera and the number one couple will walk away with the grand prize of their own new house.
"Prueba de amor" is much more than an entertainment programme, it is also a transformative experience for participants and the public alike. The principal objective of this new format is to show that a relationship between two people can be so special, so original and so extraordinary, that it deserves to be the winner of "Prueba de amor".
“Orbita Laika” returns to La 2 in the prime-time slot with a revamped format and new host, mathematician Eduardo Sáenz de Cabezón. Season five of the science programme premieres this month, produced by RTVE in association with K 2000, and with a brand-new look similar to that of the pure science show, including explanations and experiments tailored for all members of the public. This new season of the programme is committed to presenting science to the public in a rigorous manner without relinquishing on the entertainment factor. Throughout the 13 programmes, viewers will discover what happens to our bodies when we fall in love, how our neurons work or what form extra-terrestrials might adopt depending on the planet they live on.
"We’re going to see all kinds of experiments, from demonstrations to others where we’ll be interacting with scientific elements", explains Sáenz de Cabezón. "The programmes are going to be themed and the demonstrations will fall into line with the theme of each program”, he adds.
The mathematician wants "Órbita Laika" to bring science closer to all types of public and for the viewer to take away something they’ve learned from each program. "We’ll learn a huge variety of different things, everything from mathematical tricks designed to unmask chance to seeing how everything is not really as random as may seem", he says.
"We’re also going to learn about sexual diversity and even how we would relate to extra-terrestrials in the event that we ever meet them; we are, in some way, going to learn about who we are. The approach we’re taking with the program is to experience science as a part of our condition of human beings in general", he adds.
PhD in mathematics and professor of Computer Languages and ​​Systems, Eduardo Sáenz de Cabezón has contributed in his field with publications in prestigious scientific journals. In 2013, he won the first edition of FameLab monologues, is a founding member of the group of the Big Van Ciencia scientific monologues, a TED speaker and regular contributor to RNE's "Gente despierta".
New pundits
In addition to Sáenz de Cabezón, "Órbita Laika" incorporates new expert collaborators in different areas: Ricardo Moure, PhD in biology specialized in biotechnology; Marian García, PhD in pharmacy from the Universidad Complutense and graduate in Human Nutrition and Dietetics; Deborah García Bello, graduate in chemistry and PhD student in scientific dissemination; Javier Santaolalla, engineer and PhD in particle physics; Carmen Agustín, biologist and PhD in neurosciences; Laura Morán, graduate in psychology and Master’s in sexology; and José Miguel Viñas, atmospheric physicist specializing in meteorology. Comedian Raquel Sastre will explore the limits of science in on-the-street reports.
“Órbita Laika”: Mondays at 22:00 on La2.
Overon provided broadcast coverage of the demonstration which took place in Madrid on the 8th March with three cameras covering the route: one which was at the front of the match from the start and two at the end of the demonstration for the broadcast of the speeches. The signal, which was streamed live by event organisers, was also requested by Atresmedia for Antena 3 and laSexta as well as the Mediaset Group.
Overon also provided coverage for FORTA with 2 4G back-pack broadcast systems and two-way satellite transmission for Mediaset, one in Neptune Square and another at the end of the march in Gran Vía Spain Square.
wTVision operated the virtual graphics of the jumping events, during the European Athletics Indoor Championships, and used AR³ Athletics – Jump Board, a software designed to generate augmented reality and developed specifically to highlight the distance to the board at the moment of take-off.
From the 1st to the 3rd March, wTVision partnered with Atos, the global company specialing in digital transformation and responsible for the overall project, creating an appealing virtual solution for four major competitions at the event. During the triple jump, long jump, heptathlon and pentathlon events augmented reality was used in the broadcasts.
A team of wTVision’s specialists provided on site services, integrating the virtual graphics system with the competition’s official statistics, showing results, distances, previous jumps and personal records.
This was the 35th European Athletics Indoor Championships and over 600 athletes from 50 nations competed in Glasgow in one of world athletics most important events.
