Cuchillo de Palo,’ a political journey in Paraguay
Monday November 15th, day three of the 51st Festival dei Popoli. The day begins at 11:30 in the Aula Magna at the Department of Science Education (via Laura 48) with the “2010 Against Poverty” meeting. The meeting will be used to analyze the impact film has made on our perception of social and economic hardships.
Screenings start at 3 pm at Cinema Odeon (piazza Strozzi 2). The Italian premiere of Fernanad Melgar’s ‘Premier Jour – L’arrivee’ will be followed by Ursula Meier’s ‘Pas les flics, pas les noirs, pas les blancs’, a “positive” documentary that translates desire into will and conflict into dialogue.
At 5 pm the Italian premiere of Johan Feindt and Tamara Trampe’s ‘Wiegenlieder,’ a fascinating journey through the streets of Berlin.
At 7 pm David Maye’s ‘Maye et fils,’ a family film that appears culled from a biblical passage. Maye et fils is a happy digression about communication and the meaning of life. Following that is
the Italian premier of Véréna Paravel and J.P.Sniadecki ‘Foreign parts,’ set in a neighborhood in Queens, New York full of garages, mechanics, and car-wreckers, where it’s possible to find spare parts from every car on earth. Left to its own devices for many years, the neighborhood is now threatened by an urban re-zoning plan.
At 9:30 pm the Italian premiere of ‘Irma’ by Charles Fairbanks. Irma is an aging “luchadora” who bears the marks of a life spent battling in the ring, performing daredevil moves. Every day she goes to the gym to brush up on the moves that made her a star. Children watch her curiously. Somewhere, a song plays: Irma was also once a singer. In her memory, grainy images of old television clips flicker.
Afterward, ‘Cuchillo de palo’ by Renate Costa (Italian premiere), a portrait of Paraguay, a country which has still not reckoned with its past, in the guise of a personal and political trip. Renate Costa is the film’s protagonist, as he affectionately recalls his uncle, a man who was arrested, tortured, and released only to die of “sadness” – as his family said.
At Cinema Spazio Uno (via del Sole 10), after re-screenings of ‘Sur les paves, l’altai’, ‘Ju tarramutu’ and ‘Genpin,’ three documentaries by Canadian director, photographer and artist Peter Mettler, whose photos are currently on display at the Museo Marino Marini (piazza San Pancrazio), will be shown.
At 5:30, ‘Lancelot freely’ (Italian premiere), a short film the director made in film school. The film is a powerful, impassioned portrait of his friend, Kevin Jamieson, who had vanished from Mettler’s sight during adolescence.
Then ‘Gregory’, the story of a couple obsessed with their own ghosts, and ‘Eastern avenue’, an emotional journey through Switzerland, Berlin and Portugal.
un viaggio di emozioni tra Svizzera, Berlino e Portogallo.
At 7:30 ‘C’etait hier’ by Jacqueline Veuve (Italian premiere): set during hard times in Switzerland in the 1930s, when the country was divided by the rich and working class.
At 9:30 Fernand Melgar’s ‘Premier jour – La visite’ di Fernand Melgar (Italian premiere), followed by 'Genet à Chatila' a fiercely political film set in Chatila, a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut