Primera Persona 2018

The Primera Persona ('First Person') festival is directed by writers Kiko Amat and Miqui Otero, and invites authors from all generations, musicians and interesting folks from a variety of professions and backgrounds to share stories from their lives with the festival audiences in a close-up and intimate setting. This seventh edition of Primera Persona is more female and more feminist than ever, and you'll find two sessions a day in the CCCB theatre, with lectures, talks and concerts prepared exclusively for the event.

The first session on Friday kicks off with Catalan journalist and writer Carles Porta, author of the true-crime tome 'Tor, tretze cases i tres morts', who chats with journalist Joan M. Oleaque, who covered the case of the Alcàsser Girls for the magazine 'El Temps' and wrote one of the best Spanish investigative books about the crime, 'Desde la oscuridad. Un descenso en el caso Alcàsser'. You'll also get to see widely respected American writer and feminist Vivian Gornick, who has published, among other words, the two memoirs 'Fierce Attachments' and 'The Odd Woman and the City'.

The second session of the first day is shared by Scottish comics illustrator Tom Gauldin, and Sheela, who you may have seen in the Netflix documentary series 'Wild Wild Country', and who was the secretary and spokeswoman for spiritual master Osho. The documentary addresses Sheela's key role in the development of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh cult, and raises issues that have to do with conspiracies, alternative religious cults, and the clash of cultures, among many others.

Saturday's sessions start with two representatives of a new generation of Catalan filmmakers making very personal movies: writer and director Carla Simón, author of the acclaimed 'Estiu 1993' (2017), and Elena Martín, who first became known as the star of the movie 'Las amigas de Ágata' (2015), and who directed her first film in 2017, 'Julia Ist'. American poet, essayist, playwright and novelist Ishmael Reed, a key figure in the history of African American culture, speaks with philosopher, professor and activist Marina Garcés, who recently won the Premio Ciudad de Barcelona. English culture critic and music journalist Simon Reynolds takes the stage to talk about his book 'Shock and Awe. Glam Rock and its Legacy'.

The second session of the day and final of the festival gets underway with English painter, filmmaker and visual artist Gee Vaucher, member of the influential anarcho-punk band Crass (from 1977 to 1984), talks with Brigitte Vasallo, a Barcelona writer, professor and anti-racism activist, known especially for her critique of gender Islamophobia. And French writer Virginie Despentes, one of the most powerful voices of modern feminism, author of the novel 'Rape Me', the essay 'King Kong Theory' and the trilogy 'Vernon Subutex', sits down with Catalan writer and journalist Jordi Nopca. Singer-songwriter from Madrid Christina Rosenvinge joins them.