The short film program composition demonstrates both the variety of selection done by MECAL and also a perfect adaptation to the needs and requirements of each entity (through a questionnaire before and joint work). Thus, generic or more specific performances can be made up in the thematic level and the film genres.

A wide range of film genres can be performed in the short film format in the same programme:

Social issues:
Female
Immigration / Interculturality
Gay-themed
Ecology
Prostitution

Short children:
3-6 years
6-10 years
10-16 years
Teenagers

Specific festivities:
Halloween
Christmas
Short films portraying the post 11-S New York

Advertising:
Retrospective vision of modernity in Catalonia in the 70’s
News
Comedy
Years 60 / 70 / 80

Video clips:
Especial Beck
Retrospectiva 80’s
Michel Gondry
Mark Romanek
Anton Corbijn
Chris Cunningam
Jonhatan Glazer
Stéphane Sednaoui
Spike Jonze
Actualidad (Massive attack, Artic Monkeys...)
Colonel Blimp Production company (GB)

Short film genre:
Comedy
Horror
Science Fiction (Adaptation Edgar Alan Poe)
Musical
Documentary
Robberies
Gangsters
Drama
Experimental
Animation
Skate Board
Black Cinema
Motion Graphics

Retrospectives of countries:
Asiatic short films
French Animated short films
English animated short films
Animated short films from the Eastern countries
Norwegian Short films
Canadian and Quebec short films
Brazilian Portuguese  short films
African short films
Argentinian short films.

Others:
Rock’n’Roll
Drugs
Suicide
Dogs
The Beatles
El doble
Sex
The best Spanish short films

Any choice can be made as we have over 1500 short films in our database.

CHILDREN PROGRAMMES

We offer especially designed sessions for children. Taking into account the age of children in attendance, we have designed different age bands: 3 to 6 years, 6 to 12, or juveniles.

In the children's short film world, some international production companies fill almost the complete availability of short films. Instead, the film industry is still composed of small producers who struggle to make a place in the film world by dint of innovation and good ideas. This allows richness in both thematic level and the type of animation that is being used.

Moreover, producers of children's animated shorts films have even more problems than their peers in the industry from the feature-film when it comes to bring their work to the smallest. So the short children's programming is always a novelty for the audience and its final assessment is more than positive.

QUITXALLA (specific file available)

Quitxalla is an innovator and pioneer project in our country, to bring boys and girls between 6 and 12 years to one of the most fascinating formats: the animation. The project Quitxalla is designed to make an approach through two activities, which can be conducted both individually and collectively.

The first event is an introductory meeting about animation, in which a teacher will explain in the most fun and entertaining way, which techniques have been used over the history of animation. The class ends with a screening of animated shorts.

The other consists of a short film workshop for children from 6 to 12 years. Here the children will have the opportunity to create their own short animated films, drawing, animating and bending the story and characters that they have chosen.

HYBRID SESIONS

We call them hybrid sessions the ones focusing on a specific topic, which are composed by a showing and conference activity or by a recognized professional.

For instance, we have conducted one about The Future of the Book, with a showing of a short film in the style of Fahrenheit 451 and a talk with two experts on the edition, with different points of view.  We also conducted the showing of a short film screening of a film adaptation of the Metamorphosis by Kafka or Allan Poe stories followed by a reading of the adapted work by well-known Catalan actor.

MECAL FESTIVAL

The concept is the following: we offer all or part of the programming for the latest edition of the festival.  It is a competition that received 3000 short films from over 35 different countries last year, giving the possibility to bring the festival to other cities with all the facilities.

There is the option to do so without a name, that is to say, with your own programming without the need to use the name MECAL or otherwise, with the mention of the festival as a claim.

Programming MECAL 2007 includes the following sections:

- International (fiction and animation, the Grand Prize MECAL Pro) 12 hours
- Oblique (experimental works) 8 hours
- Documentary. 6 hours
- Interculturality. 1 hours
- OK Computer (computer animation) 2 hours
- Womart (portraits of female universe) 3 hours
- Retro Poe (adaptations of stories by Edgar Allan Poe) 1 hour
- Retro Antisocial. 2 hours
- Guest Country: Argentina (1 hour), Brazil (1 hour), Norway (5 hours)
- Video clips (retrospective of the 80's, the best of current international events, especially Beck) 4 hours
- Advertising. 1 hour
- Skateboard. 1 hour
- Small Cartoons (animated short films made by children aged 6-12 years) 1 hour

GUSTORAMA (more information)

Since its origins, cinema has always sought closer and closer to reality. The introduction of sound, colour, 3-D... Its history is full of initiatives aimed at expanding the full cinematic experience.

In the eighties, John Waters made a series of screenings of his film Polyester, which were called Olorama, where the audience received a card with numbers that should be scratched and smelled as they appear on screen.

We present this project, a brainchild of Roberto Barrueco (festival director), which is an unprecedented pilot project, based on Waters tests.

Our proposal is the tasting of food, liquids and solids, while enjoying a screening. The numbers on the screen indicating what the item is consumed, without losing sight of the screen with the aid of earphones.

The purpose of this experiment is to discover the associations that the brain provides in what you see and what you eat.  Get carried away by the imagination and expand your cinematic experience further.  Bon appétit!

AUDIOVISUAL CONCERTS

Since its inception, cinema has always had sound.  This was achieved by the live musicians and orchestras installed in the same movie theatres. Since then, both the music and movies have changed a lot, but we wanted to recover this idea and go a little further.

In a new version of this symbiosis between music and cinema, MECAL organises audiovisuals concerts, where films are showed while a prestigious music group is in charge of the live music. The pieces, both in short and long format are very diverse themes and genres, and always maintain its visual integrity.

Another way to watch movies and hear the music of the hands of the following artists:

• Arbol over Son de Mar (2001) by Bigas Luna
• Dj2D2 & The Brothers of Wind over Space is the place (1974) by John Coney
• Drama Society over Teorema (1968) by Pier Paolo Pasolini • An Der Beat over Requiem for a Dream (2000) by Darren Aronofsky
• Punto G over pornographic short in the 20’s
• Dorian over Fahrenheit 451 (1966) by François Truffaut
• Colorblind over Foxy Brown (1974) by Jack Hill
• Ferenc over Dolls (2002) by Takeshi Kitano