Global Lens
November 13–30, 2003
The Museum
of Modern Art is delighted to be the premier showcase for the touring
film series Global Lens, an exhibition project conceived
by the Global
Film Initiative to encourage filmmaking in developing
countries. The films presented in this new annual collaboration
between GFI and the Department of Film and Media represent a selective
survey of contemporary filmmaking from areas where local economic
realities make such expensive and technology-driven endeavors a
challenge. The ten films in the program are accomplished, entertaining,
and thought-provoking; they are also deeply rooted in the social
and political realities of the countries where these talented and
resourceful filmmakers live and set their stories.
This
first installment of Global Lens gives audiences an opportunity
to become acquainted with the varied styles and issues of filmmaking
from parts of the world too rarely represented on American screens.
Each year, two films from the series will play for one full week,
allowing them to build an audience and attract critical attention.
Several filmmakers will introduce their works.
Organized
for the Museum by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film and
Media. Global Lens is a collaboration between the Global
Film Initiative and the Department of Film and Media, The Museum
of Modern Art.
. 2002. Brazil. Directed
by Claudio Assis. This carnivalesque farce set among low-rent losers
in the
coastal town of Recife is an in-your-face debut feature guaranteed
to shock and delight viewers with its perfect marriage of style and
subject matter, set to a throbbing beat. In Portuguese, English subtitles.
103 min.
. 2002. India. Directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
In pre-independence India, a state-appointed executioner can no longer
bear the solitary guilt of carrying out death sentences that are
more often than not the result of politics rather than justice. In
Malayam, English subtitles. 91 min.
. 2002. Tajikistan. Directed
by Djamshed Usmonov. A tough Tajik gangster returns home from Moscow
to visit his dying mother, but realizes only too late that the town
has conspired to lure him back for complicated reasons involving
money and obligation. In Tajik, English subtitles. 88 min.
.
2002. Tunisia. Directed by Jilani Saadi. In a Tunisian village,
the seemingly idiotic Khorma is appointed the town’s official
announcer of births, deaths, and marriages—but power corrupts.
In Arabic, English subtitles. 100 min.
. 2001. The Philippines. Directed by Joel
Lamangan. Set in the early 1990s, during the short-lived reign of
the Philippine leader Joseph Estrada, this film focuses on Vanessa,
a cosmetics consultant who is forced to care for her troubled and
mentally challenged sister after the sudden death of their mother.
In Tagalog, English subtitles. 102 min.
. 2002. Palestine. Directed
by Rashid Masharawi. A Palestinian film projectionist’s perseverance is put to the
test when he tries to organize a film screening in Jerusalem’s
old city. In Arabic and Hebrew, English subtitles. 85 min.
. 2002. Iran. Directed by Manijeh
Hekmat. A diverse group of women, including officially nonexistent
prostitutes and drug addicts, struggle to survive in a claustrophobic
Iranian prison. The film’s three segments are set in 1984,
1992, and 2001. In Farsi, English subtitles. 106 min.
. 2001. Cuba. Directed
by Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti. Clara, who works in a Cuban post
office, assumes other
people’s identities by secretly writing letters on their behalf
to pass the time, giving life to inhibited emotions. In Spanish,
English subtitles. 88 min.
. 2002. Brazil. Directed
by Renato Falcão. In an ode to classic silent films, a working-class
everyman escapes his desperate life through the power of imagination.
In Portuguese, English subtitles. 80 min.
. 2002. Algeria. Directed by Yamina Bachir-Chouikh. Rachida
is a young Algerian schoolteacher who flees from the city to a remote
village after having been a victim of terrorism, only to find that
terrorism is inescapable. In Arabic, English subtitles. 100 min.
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