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).
The director Antonio Méndez Esparza presented his latest film in the Official Selection yesterday. It’s a documentary about the Tallahassee Unified Family Court that the filmmaker considers to be a continuation of La vida y nada más that he competed with in the Official Selection in 2017. On this occasion he felt he had found a court that believes in rehabilitation and where people’s opinions really matter. One of the key figures in the film is the judge, whose sound judgement and empathy prove to be unwavering throughout the entire documentary. “I think that he is someone who is aware of how difficult his job is and who knows that his decisions can sometimes be wrong but that he has to take them,” he explains.
According to Méndez, one of the basic aims of Courtroom 3H is to make the audience face the same dilemmas that the judge has to weigh up on an everyday basis. It has made the director realise that justice is subjective on occasions. “When two parties go to court, they both think that they can win but the final ruling is rarely clear; it’s actually rather grey.”