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Imanol Arias

«I am coming too late to this city. I should have come here a long time ago. Time is relative: it passes so slow for those who owe something, and very fast for those who are fearful. It is too long for those who feel shame, and too short for the happy. So: this long time I have not come has been too short for me because today I´m very happy».
“Today´s TV is no longer a soap opera from the very moment that what happens is seen and not told. In a soap opera, things are told, you don´t see them. In a good soap opera, if you close your eyes and listen to it, you understand perfectly because it is made to be listened to. Actors speak continuously and get to say things such as “¡I remind you that you are my father!”
“(…) I lived the times when cinema was subsidized. At some point, I was part of a group of actors who started to leave Latin America. I represented a cinema system and had to do three movies a year, because you could not waste subsidies. I admit: I got to do movies that were not made for me, either they were not good or I didn´t know how to do them, characters that probably did not even match my age because the money that had been withdrawn to make the movies had to be used. It was a time rich in movies and very poor as regards cinematographic debate. But Spanish cinema conquered a status at the European level.
“(…) the most seen cinema series in Spain are still their own, way above any other American series. Cinema directors go through stages of their life doing TV. Now we have a generation that has outdone us. They have an outstanding quality. But we are not doing well with financing because we punish the politicians and they have ended up punishing us.
“(…) Movies keep demanding spectators. I would like to tell the people in Gibara that they have to start going to the cinema again. We have seen a cinema carnival rather than a cinema festival. People should go to the cinema throughout the whole week, or at least one or two days. They should try to, otherwise the festival would not make any sense”.