Liberating Cinema Film Series 2021

By Mina Radovic

Guest Curator Leandro Varela

Liberating Cinema is delighted to launch The Liberating Cinema Film Series Programme for 2021, bringing you a range of new discoveries, hidden gems, and sincere masterpieces from the history of world cinema. From the silent era to present day, join us as our invaluable companion on our voyage as we move from Yugoslav Silent Cinema to Post-War Scottish Documentary, Classical Bulgarian Cinema to New Korean Cinema. Find out with us what makes New Indian Cinema so new and original, unearth the Argentinian Short Film Movement with our Guest Curator Leandro Varela (Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken, Buenos Aires) as he takes through two decades of Argentinian innovation spanning the Second World War to the height of the 1960s, and discover the pioneering cinemas of Mihajlo Al. Popović, Shyam Benegal, Judit Ember, Metodi Andonov, and Yelena Popovic. One of our main focus points in this year’s Series is the subject of faith and film, which runs through our programme on With Faith in God (Yugoslavia, 1932) and Little Greatheart (UK, 1949) and will be discussed in depth with our MASTERCLASS: YELENA POPOVIC (Man of God, Greece, 2021).  

Liberating Cinema is honoured to host The KARAĐORĐE 110th Anniversary Symposium on The Life and Deeds of the Immortal Vožd Karađorđe (Čiča Ilija Stanojević, 1911], one of the world’s first feature films and the first Serbian full-length motion picture. The premiere will take place on 23rd October 110 years after its original premiere on 23rd October 1911 at the Hotel Paris in Belgrade. More information will follow.

The Film Series comprises week-long film screenings (Monday to Monday), a Panel Talk and Q&A (Mondays at 6PM GMT) and is accompanied by two principal masterclasses featuring master directors Shyam Benegeal and Yelena Popovic. We will publish original essays on the films from our programme with a range of world-leading academic, archival, and curatorial contributors. Our essays represent first-time studies of these important works in the English language.

Liberating Cinema would like to thank its institutional partners and their staff for their generous support of our Film Series: National Film Archive of India (Pune), Jugoslovenska Kinoteka/Yugoslav Cinematheque (Belgrade), Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken (Buenos Aires), National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive (Glasgow), Hungarian National Film Archive (Budapest), Bulgarian National Film Archive (Sofia), Korean Film Archive (Seoul), and Simeon Entertainment (Athens/Los Angeles).

Our Film Series is educational and free of charge, with the aim of facilitating dialogue between academia, archives, and the film industry and engaging them on a wide range of cinematic works and topics with our audiences across the UK and internationally.

*PLEASE NOTE DESCRIPTIONS, FILMS, ESSAYS, AND ZOOM LINKS WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE WEEKLY*

Week 1 (9th August) – The New Indian Cinema: Manthan (Shyam Benegal, 1976)

Accompanied by MASTERCLASS: SHYAM BENEGAL (10AM)

Representation

Week 2 (27th Sept) – An Introduction to Yugoslav Silent Cinema

With Faith in God (Mihajlo Al Popović, 1932)

With Faith in God follows the suffering of a rural family in World War I, showing the unique perspective of those mothers and children who stayed behind the frontline. Bringing out the endurance that only faith can provide – lyrical in composition and poetic in expression that compares with Dreyer – the film delicately expresses the trials brought upon the innocent.

Read our new essay on the film “Rediscovering the Pioneering Cinema of Mihajlo Al. Popović: With Faith in God (1932)” by Mina Radović, Founder, Director, and Head of Programming at Liberating Cinema.

Rediscovering the Pioneering Cinema of Mihajlo Al. Popović: With Faith in God (1932)

Topic: Liberating Cinema Film Series 2021 W2: An Introduction to Yugoslav Cinema
Time: Sep 27, 2021 06:00 PM London

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                                              The film is made available with courtesy of our partner Jugoslovenska Kinoteka/Yugoslav Cinematheque, Belgrade. 

Week 3 (4th Oct) – Argentinian Short Film Movement 1943-1963, Specially Curated Programe by Leandro Varela, Museo Del Cine 

ZOOM LINK TO SESSION AND SCREENING LINKS TO 12 SHORT FILMS BELOW.

Until the 1950s, with the exception of several important works, the output of creative short films in Argentina was rather modest. The 1950s was the decade in which a series of filmmakers began to employ this format as an expressive means as well as a tool to gain experience and knowledge before proceeding to broader projects such as feature length films. Between the late 1950s and mid 1960s many short films were produced. Furthermore, The Short Film Association was founded (in 1955), as well as the National Cinema Institute (in 1957) and various emerging directors began their careers venturing with this format in this period. This programme presents the highly productive and enthusiastic moment in short film production, presenting a range of documentary films, experimental and animated works, drawing upon visual art, painting, sculpture, and the visages of Buenos Aires, and moving from the formative work of Carlos Alberto Pessano to the documentaries of Fernando Birri and concluding with Eliseo Subiela’s expressionist portrait of the life of patients in a neuropsychiatric hospital.

You will find chronologically the list of 12 representative short films from the early period of creative short film production in the 1930s and 1940s up until the height of the short film movement of the late 1950s and mid 1960s.

  1. Tigres (Carlos Alberto Pessano, 1939) – Dedicated to the landscapes and activities in el Tigre, the film is a predecessor to the Short Film Movement and represents a particular political vision of what Argentinian cinema should be.
  2. Playa grande (Amanda Lucía, Héctor Bernabó, 1943) – A poetic portrait of beaches and dunes in Argentina.
  3. Los pueblos dormidos (Pedro Lopez, 1948) – A portrait of the lives of the Qulla Peoples living in the Quebrada de Humahuaca mountain valley in the north of Argentina.
  4. Dimension (Aldo L. Persano, José Arcuri, 1957) – Experimental documentary about the kinetic sculptures by Mauro Kunst.
  5. Buenos Aires (David José Kohón, 1958) – Documentary about social issues in the city of Buenos Aires.
  6. Contracampo (Rodolfo Kuhn, 1958) – Experimental film regarding the city and the countryside.
  7. Petrolita (Victor Aytor Iturralde Rúa, 1958) – A B&W cameraless experimental animation film with an ecological theme.
  8. La primera fundacion de Buenos Aires (Fernando Birri, 1959) – Experimental animated film about the history of the foundation of the city of Buenos Aires, based on the book ‘Voyage to the River Plate’ by Ulrich Schmidl and featuring drawings by the Argentine cartoonist Oski.
  9. Spilimbergo (Jorge Macario, 1959) – Art documentary about the paintings of Lino Enea Spilimbergo.
  10. Buenos días, Buenos Aires (Fernando Birri, 1960) – A poetic documentary about life in Buenos Aires during the morning.
  11. Tire dié (Fernando Birri, 1960) – A filmic survey about the lives and hardships of people living in poverty in the city of Santa Fe.
  12. Un largo silencio (Eliseo Subiela, 1963) – Documentary with expressionistic elements about the life of patients at the National Neuropsychiatric Hospital of Argentina.

Films made available courtesy of Leandro Varela, Museo del Cine Pablo Ducros Hicken, Archivo Histórico RTA, Archivo Patrimonial USACH, and Respected Colleagues.

Read our new essay and original feature article on the short film movement “Early Forays into the Argentine Modern Short Film” by Leandro Varela, Archivist, Museo del Cine Pablo Ducros Hicken, Buenos Aires. 

Early Forays into the Argentine Modern Short Film – Liberating Cinema

Topic: Liberating Cinema Film Series 2021 W3: Argentinian Short Film Movement 1943-1963 with Leandro Varela
Time: Oct 4, 2021 06:00 PM London

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Week 4 (11th Oct) – Memories of Scotland: Post-War Documentary

Little Greatheart (Frank M. Marshall, 1949)

A human drama about ten year old Morag, who comes to live in Glasgow with her uncle and aunt. Tormented by the juvenile delinquent sons of a taxi driver, she eventually saves their lives in a fire. Realising the error of their ways, the boys become Christian and the two families become friends.

Featuring a poetic use of colour, free-form camerawork, and creative montage, the film shows the dynamic beauty everyday life and, as it brings to life 1940s Scotland, with focus on human gestures, street scenes, and natural details, Little Greatheart opens our heart to discover the fruits of finding faith in childhood.

Topic: Liberating Cinema Film Series 2021 W4: Memories of Scotland: Post-War Documentary
Time: Oct 11, 2021 06:00 PM London
 
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                                              The film is made available with courtesy of our partner National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive, Glasgow.                                                                                                                                          ‘LITTLE GREATHEART’ (1663) – Moving Image Archive catalogue (nls.uk) 

                         Week 5 (23rd Oct) – KARAĐORĐE: The 110th Anniversary Symposium of The First Serbian Feature Film                                                                             Guest of Honour His Royal Highness Crown Prince Aleksandar of Serbia
                                                                                 Visit our Symposium page for more details.
Click here for the KARAĐORĐE Symposium

Topic: KARAĐORĐE: The 110th Anniversary Symposium of The First Serbian Feature Film with HRH Crown Prince Aleksandar of Serbia

Time: Oct 23, 2021 10:00 AM London

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Week 6 (25th Oct) – Faith and Film: Man of God (Yelena Popovic, 2021)

Accompanied by MASTERCLASS: YELENA POPOVIC

Representation – Liberating Cinema

Man of God focuses on the trials and tribulations of St Nektarios of Aegina, as he bears the unjust hatred of his enemies preaching the word of God. The film stars Aris Servetalis, Alexander Petrov, and Mickey Rourke and Liberating Cinema selected it on its programme as the most important film about faith since the work of Andrei Tarkovsky.

 

Week 7 (1st Nov) – Working Together: The Cinema of Judit Ember

The Resolution (Judit Ember, Gyula Gazdag, 1972)

In Conversation with film historian Pál Czirják (NFI, Budapest)

The Resolution documents the removal of the head of a rural cooperative headed by local party functionaries in 1970s Hungary. As the conversation of cooperative members turns to the legal and moral reasons of the removal, the film unfolds the systematic contradictions of political power.

A remarkable combination of documentary and fiction, controlled composition and spirited experimentation, The Resolution‘s dramaturgy, as Pal Czirják reminds us, evokes the arc of classical dramas, in which the calvary of the president whose attempted removal turns into an archetypal story of the fall of the good.

Topic: Liberating Cinema Film Series 2021 W7: Working Together: The Cinema of Judit Ember
Time: Nov 1, 2021 06:00 PM London

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                                                      The film is made available with courtesy of our partner NFI, The Hungarian National Film Archive, Budapest.

Week 8 (8th Nov) – Classical Bulgarian Cinema *RESCHEDULED TO MONDAY 15TH AT 4PM*

The Goat Horn (Metodi Andonov, 1972)

In Conversation with Prof. Alexander Donev (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences & National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, Sofia)

The Goat Horn follows the life of goat herder Kara Ivan and his family in 17th century Bulgaria during the Ottoman occupation. When his wife is raped and killed by four local marauders, he brings up his daughter, who silently witnessed the savage assault on her mother, as a boy, training her as a warrior.

With beautiful monochrome photography, a soundscape of nature and gesture, and only a few words of dialogue, The Goat Horn gradually reveals the unbreakable bond between father and daughter and, as much as it narrates the pain and desire for vengeance in particular historical circumstances, it also shows the love which transcends time and space, thus making the film one of the most poetic works in all cinema.

Topic: Classical Bulgarian Cinema
Time: Nov 15, 2021 06:00 PM London
 
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                                                             The film is made available with courtesy of our partner The Bulgarian National Film Archive, Sofia.

Week 9 (15th Nov) – New Korean Cinema

A Single Spark (Park Kwang-su, 1995)

In Conversation with Dr Connor McMorran (Independent Scholar, Scotland) and film curator Eric Choi (Korean Film Archive, Seoul)

A Single Spark is based on the real life of Jeon Taeil, a manual worker who protests the labour laws by declaring his humanity through burning himself to death at the young age of 22. Kim Youngsoo, a law-school graduate is obsessed with the death of Jeon. As Kim investigates and discovers more about Jeon the lives of the two protagonists grow inextricably entwined.

With a lyrical use of colour, non-linear narrative and a plush aesthetic which invokes the documentary and newsreel, A Single Spark is a critical and moving portrait of the lives of two souls in an oppressive political system, ultimately pushing us to consider the value of labour in the much greater light of the value of human life.

Topic: New Korean Cinema
Time: Nov 15, 2021 08:00 PM London

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Meeting ID: 810 5530 3675
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                                                                     The film is made available with courtesy of our partner The Korean Film Archive, Seoul.