Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
After Here and There, his wellreceived debut, Life and nothing more is the second feature film by, Antonio Méndez Esparza, the Spanish director living in the USA. Set in Florida, it follows the struggle of a working-class African-American family simply trying to stay together. Regina is a single mother who works all the shifts she can as a waitress to try and provide for her family, while her son Andrew has already had a brush with the law for breaking into cars, and if he continues down the same road could well end up in jail. This is where his father has been locked up for years, who he occasionally gets a letter from. There’s a lot of spontaneity and improvisation in Life and nothing more as the two main characters are played by people who had never acted before, “although as filming progressed they became actors,” the director explains. He wanted to leave them a lot freedom so that they themselves could contribute and build up the characters.