The URJC Film Classroom is a set of monthly screenings with the presence of filmmakers for a subsequent colloquium, organized by the Vice-Rectorate of Campus Community, Culture and Sports together with the Union of Filmmakers.

The next screening will be New Island Hotel, from the filmmaker Irene Gutierrez. The event will take place next December 11th at 18:30 hours in the Degree Hall of Departmental I of the URJC Campus of Fuenlabrada. Free attendance until capacity is reached. 0,15 ECTS credits will be awarded, and to do so, the required data must be left in writing on the attendance sheet. The director will attend the discussion after the screening.

The synopsis of the film reads like this: "Despite the risk of collapse, the last inhabitant of a luxurious hotel in ruins refuses to leave the building: he remains convinced that its walls house treasures that its former inhabitants hid."

Creative Process of Hotel Nueva Isla

"It emerged in 2010 as a result of long night walks along the edges of the Havana neighborhood of Jesús María, with a camera and a head full of films. In one of them we discovered the hotel. When we began to investigate its long history, "We soon recognized in its current inhabitants the quiet expression of this country, which lives in a state of resistance under a system that finds no model."

"From that moment on we chose the Hotel Nueva Isla as the only location for our film, which is why we decided to settle a few blocks away. During the two years that the investigation lasted we gained complete access to the building and to the few remaining neighbors. The "The fact that we were a minimum team of two people was also decisive in being able to have a long filming time, in which we finally chose Jorge as the protagonist."

About Irene Gutiérrez

Irene Gutiérrez is a filmmaker and documentary researcher born in Ceuta. Her films have been awarded in several countries and have been shown at festivals such as the Berlinale, the Rotterdam International Festival and the MoMA Documentary Fortnight or art venues such as Lincoln Center. 

His films have been supported by TFI Tribeca, the Sundance Institute and the Consulate General of Spain in New York, among others. She has been co-director of the Master in Documentary Film at the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV, Cuba) and coordinator of the Master in Scriptwriting for Film and Television at the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M, Spain). She is currently part of the research project of the European Research Commission 'Reel Borders' (VUB, Vrije Universiteit Brussels) and the research project 'Cinema and Mobility' (Carlos III University of Madrid). Her films and research link intimate portraiture with the landscape as an expression of political tensions between individual and nation.