Beyond Babel Film Festival 2024

In its eighth edition, Beyond Babel returns to annually celebrate multilingual cultures and cinema.

Alluding to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel from which it takes its name, and the curse of language diversity, Beyond Babel is a film festival aimed at celebrating multilingual life, showcasing a wide range of films, engaging in discussions on cinematic aesthetics, and enhancing the visibility of multilingual communities on screen. Organized by the FLAME research group at Manchester Metropolitan University, this edition of Beyond Babel remains true to its core values: embracing the beauty and complexity of multilingualism; featuring transnational film productions from various regions of the world; screening multilingual films that connect us with different cultures. The festival's goal is to engage, inspire, connect, and celebrate the cultural diversity of communities in Manchester and beyond.

This year's program will bring together several afternoons of screenings, with film presentations and Q&A sessions. It explores a wide range of themes: cultural differences, multilingualism, homeland, education, gender and sexuality, global citizenship, mobility, immigration, integration, and identity. The festival aims to engage, inspire, connect, and celebrate the culturally diverse communities of Manchester.

The Cervantes Institute of Manchester will screen Chico y Rita, a Spanish animated film directed by Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal, and Tono Errando, which tells the story of two lovers, pianist Chico Valdés and singer Rita La Belle. It is set in the cities of Havana, Paris, and New York, paying homage to Latin jazz and Hollywood cinema of the 1940s and 1950s. After the film, Carmen Herrero , teacher of teach Spanish and Latin American cultures at Manchester Meropolitan University, will be running a Q&A session about the film.

The Beyond Babel Festival is part of the Film Languages and Media Research group's contribution to public engagement with lifelong learning in Manchester and the northwest of England.