Woody Allen to attend Balearic culture week in New York

Director and actor Woody Allen will be one of the influential and famous guests attending the launch of a joint Balearic-Cataluña cultural week which kicks off today in New York. The week of Balearic art will feature art, books, music and films with a total of 400 titles and works of art on show in the Big Apple. The Balearic and Catalan Ministers for Culture, Damia Pons and Jordi Vilajoana respectively, will be launching the week at Cataluña House (Casal Catalá) in New York. Headlining today's opening activities will be a performance of Nabucco by the Minorcan baritone Joan Pons. The internationally acclaimed Pons will also be presenting his latest album of popular and traditional Balearic songs, recorded with the Balearic and Cataluña symphony orchestras, in New York. An exhibition of Balearic art will be opened at the Roger Smith Hotel which will also be the setting for a lecture on literature and cinema by Catalan director Ventura Pons -who will also unveil his latest film Food for Love adapted from the novel by American author David Leavitt. Pons has recently been in Los Angeles presenting a retrospective of his work as part of a recent Spanish Cinema cycle. Other films which will be screened over the next week include El Mar by the Majorcan director Agustí Villalonga - who will also be attending the cultural week and fellow Majorcan director, Antoni Aloy, will also be presenting his latest feature Presence of Mind. The film was shot on location in Majorca two years ago and stars Lauren Bacall, Harvey Keitel and the British actress Sadie Frost. Bacall is expected to attend the screening and Hollywood's biggest fans of Majorca, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones are also expected to make an appearance to help boost Balearic art and culture in the United States. This is the fourth joint overseas cultural promotional campaign the two regions have held. Previously the Balearics and Cataluña have teamed up in Mexico, at Cannes and the Frankfurt Book Fair, but with a budget of ten million pesetas and the support of Puig, Freinexet and Lauren Films, the New York week is the biggest bite the region's have taken out of the international cultural stage yet.