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SUMMER 2003
Chronicle of a Continent: African History
on Film
 Cinematheque's
annual African film series returns this summer with a focus
on the continent's turbulent 20th Century history. Shot
in locations ranging from Algeria to Senegal to Zimbabwe
and beyond, the four films of this series recount, through
African eyes, the nations' political struggles of the past
and their enduring hopes for the future. Discussions will
be led by Professor Aliko Songolo, Depts. of African Languages & Literature and French & Italian, and Director
of the African Studies Program. Funding for this series
has been provided by the UW-Madison African Studies Program.
For further information, contact 263-2380.
Rebel in Rhapsody:
Six Films by Vera Chytilová
 Born
in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, Vera Chytilová grew up
amid the feverish experimentation of the Prague arts world
of the 1930s, and had endured both the war and Stalinism
by the time she established herself as a seminal figure
of the 1960s' Czech New Wave film movement. Stylistically
and thematically audacious, Chytilová's films were
censored in her country even while they continued to achieve
international acclaim for their formally innovative techniques
and radical feminist expressions. Today, Chytilová
remains one of the few Czech directors who survived the
political changes in her country without compromising her
artistic integrity. Special thanks to curator Wendi Weger
of the Anthology Film Archives and Irena Kovarova of the
Czech Center New York. This series is cosponsored by the
Center for Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, and
the Dept. of Slavic Languages & Literature, with help
from the November
Fund. All films are in Czech with English subtitles. back
to top
- Friday, July 11, 7:30 p.m. Ceiling
/ Daisies
- Friday, July 18, 7:30
p.m. The
Fruit of Paradise
- Friday, July 18, 9:15
p.m. Wolf
Chalet
- Friday, July 25, 7:30
p.m. Prefab
Story
- Friday, August 1,
7:30 p.m. Tainted
Horseplay
Workshop
Series with Mary Sweeney
The Creative Process:
Writing, Producing, and Editing Feature Films
Cinematheque is pleased to welcome acclaimed editor, producer,
and screenwriter Mary Sweeney for a series of workshops
about the technical and creative aspects of feature filmmaking.
Born and raised in Madison, Sweeney graduated from the University
of Wisconsin in 1978 and, after studying in Paris and obtaining
an M.A. in Film Studies at NYU, she quickly advanced to
become a prominent editor in the film and television industries.
She has edited film on the TV series "Twin Peaks" and the feature films Fire
Walk with Me (1992), Lost
Highway (1997), The
Straight Story (1999),
and Mulholland Drive
(2001) for which she won the British Academy Award for editing
in 2001. In the mid-1990s, Sweeney began her career as a
producer (Nadja,
1995) and screenwriter (The
Straight Story). In this
three-evening series, Sweeney will discuss the processes
involved in writing, producing, and editing feature films. back
to top
- Monday, July 28, 7:30 p.m.:
The Creative Process: Writing
- Tuesday, July 29,
7:30 p.m.: The
Creative Process: Producing
- Wednesday, July 30,
7:30 p.m.: The Creative
Process: Editing
Chronicle of a Continent: African History
on Film
Cinematheque's annual African film series returns this summer
with a focus on the continent's turbulent 20th Century history.
Shot in locations ranging from Algeria to Senegal to Zimbabwe
and beyond, the four films of this series recount, through
African eyes, the nations' political struggles of the past
and their enduring hopes for the future. Discussions will
be led by Professor Aliko Songolo, Depts. of African Languages & Literature and French & Italian, and Director
of the African Studies Program. Funding for this series
has been provided by the UW-Madison African Studies Program.
For further information, contact 263-2380.
Thursday,
July 10, 7:30 p.m.
Lumumba
French/Belgium/Haiti/Germany, 2000, 35mm, 115 min.
Directed by Raoul Peck.
Written by Raoul Peck, Pascal Bonitzer.
Produced by Jacques Bidou.
Cast: Eriq Ebouaney, Alex Descas, Maka Kotto.
In French and Lingala with English subtitles.
Nearly
a decade after the release of his award-winning documentary
Lumumba: Death of a Prophet (1991), director Raoul Peck
returns to the subject of Patrice Emery Lumumba, the brilliant
and charismatic African leader whose vision of a unified
nation precipitated the Congo's independence from Belgian
rule. Incorporating recently discovered historical evidence,
Peck presents a gripping political thriller that charts
Lumumba's rapid rise to the office of Prime Minister and
the gradual emergence of the international community that
orchestrated the leader's brutal murder in 1961. back
to top
Thursday,
July 17, 7:30 p.m.
Camp
de Thiaroye
Algeria/Senegal/Tunisia,
1987, 35mm, 152 min.
Written and Directed by Ousmane Sembene and Thierno Faty
Sow.
Produced by Mustafa Ben Jemia, Ouzid Dahmane, Mamadou Mbengue.
With Ibrahim Sane, Sijiri Bakaba, and Mohamed Camara.
In Woolf and French with English subtitles.
One of
Africa's most celebrated filmmakers tells the story of African
soldiers who, after long years of military service for Europe
in World War II, were placed in internment camps. Flashbacks
and dream sequences gradually reveal the harrowing experiences
of individual Senegalese infantrymen who were sent to Dakar
in 1944, around the time when the colonial myth of white
superiority began to crumble under the emergence of a new
African consciousness. Winner of the Grand Special Jury
Prize at the Venice Film Festival. back
to top
Thursday,
July 24, 7:30 p.m.
Chronicle
of the Years of Embers (Chronique des années de braise)
Algeria, 1975, 35mm, 177 min.
Directed by Mohammed Lakhdar Hamina.
Written by Tewfik Fares, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina.
With Jorgo Voyagis, Larbi Zekkal, Cheikh Nourredine.
In Arabic with English subtitles.
Winner
of the prestigious Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1975, Chronicle
of the Years of Embers portrays Algeria's struggle for independence
from French colonial rule. The story follows a peasant's
migration from his drought-stricken village to his eventual
participation with the Algerian resistance movement, just
prior to the outbreak of the Algerian War of Independence.
Shot in rich CinemaScope, Chronicle remains a rarely seen
gem of world cinema. back
to top
Thursday,
July 31, 7:30 p.m.
Haramuya
Burkina Faso/France, 1995, 35mm, 86 min.
Written and Directed by Drissa Toure.
Produced by Jean Bréhat.
With Abdoulaye Kaba, Abdoulaye Komboudri.
In French with English subtitles.
Fousseini,
a Muslim father with two wives and two sons, tries to raise
his family according to the ancient codes of his religion.
Set amidst the capital of Burkina Faso, where impoverished
shantytowns surround a prosperous city center, Haramuya
sketches a contemporary portrait of the tension between
traditionalism and modernism. back
to top
Rebel in Rhapsody:
Six Films by Vera Chytilová
Born in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia,
Vera Chytilová grew up amid the feverish experimentation
of the Prague arts world of the 1930s, and had endured both
the war and Stalinism by the time she established herself
as a seminal figure of the 1960s' Czech New Wave film movement.
Stylistically and thematically audacious, Chytilová's
films were censored in her country even while they continued
to achieve international acclaim for their formally innovative
techniques and radical feminist expressions. Today, Chytilová
remains one of the few Czech directors who survived the
political changes in her country without compromising her
artistic integrity. Special thanks to curator Wendi Weger
of the Anthology Film Archives and Irena Kovarova of the
Czech Center New York. This series is cosponsored by the
Center for Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, and
the Dept. of Slavic Languages & Literature, with help
from the November
Fund. All films are in Czech with English subtitles. back
to top
Friday,
July 11, 7:30 p.m.
Ceiling
(Strop)
Czechoslovakia, 1961, 35mm, 42 min.
Written and Directed by Vera Chytilová.
With Marta Kanovská, Juliá Chytil, Josef Abrhám.
Drawing
on the director's personal experiences in the world of fashion
modeling, Chytilová's first film tells the story
of Marta, a young medical student who quits school to become
a model, only to discover and confront the industry's exploitation
and empty materialism. Winner of a prize at the 1962 film
festival in Oberhausen, became an early expression of Chytilová's
feminist voice and critical attitude toward consumer excess. back
to top
Daisies (Sedmikrásky)
Czechoslovakia, 1966, 35mm, 74 min.
Directed by Vera Chytilová.
Written by Vera Chytilová, Ester Krumbachová.
With Ivana Karbanova, Jitka Cerhova.
Chytilová's
visionary masterpiece features two sassy teenagers, Marie
I and Marie II, who embark on a series of absurd and destructive
adventures. Through the use of tinting, color processing,
and dynamic montage editing, Daisies portrays the nihilistic
pranks of two female pals on the move. The film was banned
until 1967 but went on to win the Grand Prix at the Bergamo
Festival in Italy. "Visually and structurally perhaps
the most sensational film of the Czech film renaissance."
(Wendi Weger, Anthology Film Archives) back
to top
Friday,
July 18, 7:30 p.m.
The Fruit of Paradise (Ovoce Stromu Rajsky'ch
Jíme)
Czechoslovakia/Belgium, 1969, 35mm, 99 min.
Directed by Vera Chytilová.
Written by Vera Chytilová and Ester Krumbachová.
Produced by Pavel Jurácek, Bronka Ricquier.
With Karel Novak, Jitka Novákova.
A loose
adaptation of the story of Adam and Eve, The Fruit of Paradise
uses the structure of a crime novel to investigate the triangular
relationship between a couple and a serpentine man. The
allegorical narrative is beautifully portrayed through a
striking combination of visual form and music. Chytilová
described the film as one that "addresses the complexities
of relationships between men and women, the problem of discovering
the truth behind these relationships and the strength to
live with this truth." Poetic and surreal, The Fruit
of Paradise was nominated for a Palme d'Or at Cannes. back
to top
Friday,
July 18, 9:15 p.m.
Wolf Chalet (Vlcí Bouda)
Czechoslovakia, 1987,
35mm, 92 min.
Directed by Vera Chytilová.
Written by Vera Chytilová, Daniela Fischerová.
Produced by Jan Suster.
With Miroslav Machácek, Stepánkova Cervenková,
Tomás Palaty.
This
bizarre psychological horror concerns the plight of a group
of teenaged students who, while trapped in a mountain chalet,
find that their ski instructors are not what they seem to
be. Nominated for a Golden Bear award at the Berlin International
Film Festival, Wolf Chalet is both an exploration of unhindered
authority and a sharp allegory for the contemporaneous Czech
political condition. back
to top
Friday,
July 25, 7:30 p.m.
Prefab Story (Panelstory)
Czechoslovakia, 1979, 35mm, 96 min.
Directed by Vera Chytilová.
Written by Vera Chytilová, Eva Kacírková.
With Lukas Bech, Antonin Vanha.
"Materialism,
sex, the treatment of the old, violence, and corruption
are just some of the themes in Chytilová's uncompromising
portrait of contemporary morality, set in a modern housing
development and offering a cross-section of society from
youth to old age, from TV star to house-painter." (Wendi
Weger, Anthology Film Archives). Both a hilarious critique
of the Soviet bloc's endeavors to construct high-rise apartment
buildings and an indelible portrait of the resultant urban
dystopia, Prefab Story is characteristically Chytilová:
witty, farcical, and formally brilliant. back
to top
Friday,
August 1, 7:30 p.m.
Tainted Horseplay (Kopytem
Sem, Kopytem Tam)
Czechoslovakia, 1988, 35mm, 133 min.
Directed by Vera Chytilová.
Written by Vera Chytilová and Pavel Skapík.
With Tomás Hanák, Tereza Kucerová.
One of
the first Czech films to deal with the subject of AIDS,
Tainted Horseplay follows the lives of three energetic but
professionally unfulfilled young adults who curb their boredom
by engaging in promiscuous sex. When on a whim they each
take a blood test and one registers HIV positive, the friends'
carefree lifestyle suddenly grinds to a halt. Featuring
performances from members of the theater group Sklep, Tainted
Horseplay was the Czech submission for Best Foreign Film
Oscar and was nominated for an award at the Moscow International
Film Festival. back
to top
Workshop
Series with Mary Sweeney
The Creative Process:
Writing, Producing, and Editing Feature Films
Cinematheque is pleased to welcome acclaimed editor, producer,
and screenwriter Mary Sweeney for a series of workshops
about the technical and creative aspects of feature filmmaking.
Born and raised in Madison, Sweeney graduated from the University
of Wisconsin in 1978 and, after studying in Paris and obtaining
an M.A. in Film Studies at NYU, she quickly advanced to
become a prominent editor in the film and television industries.
She has edited film on the TV series "Twin Peaks" and the feature films Fire
Walk with Me (1992), Lost
Highway (1997), The
Straight Story (1999),
and Mulholland Drive
(2001) for which she won the British Academy Award for editing
in 2001. In the mid-1990s, Sweeney began her career as a
producer (Nadja,
1995) and screenwriter (The
Straight Story). In this
three-evening series, Sweeney will discuss the processes
involved in writing, producing, and editing feature films. back
to top
- Monday, July 28, 7:30 p.m.:
The Creative Process: Writing
- Tuesday, July 29,
7:30 p.m.: The
Creative Process: Producing
- Wednesday, July 30,
7:30 p.m.: The Creative
Process: Editing
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