Some Foreign Power
Friday, June 27th, 2003
8pm: Live music by Shiffai [details below]
9pm: Rooftop extends its global reach of short films.
Some Foreign Power
"It was as if I was plunging into a world yet untouched by enlightenment: a brutal government had lost any sensibility in dealing with humans and animals..."ÑDirector Andreas Horvath
An evening of playful, poetic, incendiary and entrancing films from abroad, all of which deal on one level or another with the destruction of a way of life and the trampling of a traditional culture.
The Silence of Green Andreas Horvath (2002, Austria, 55:00) sixpackfilm.com
Austrian director Andreas Horvath surreptitiously travels the hills of North Yorkshire, England, during the 2001 foot and mouth disease crisis. Evading British authorities, Horvath captures the sad, windswept beauty of the countryside with a super 8 camera and interviews the farmers whose livelihood has been destroyed by the crisis and whose freedom of speech their government has denied them. Like all great political films, The Silence of Green communicates first on a personal and emotional level.
Amsterdam Dairy, May 1, 2001 Brian Konefsky (2001, Holland, 9:00)
A rainy workday for construction workers in Amsterdam turns surreal as we realize that they are disassembling a ghoulish wax museum, lowering giant demons and tortured souls down from the heavens by crane. Set to a gypsy score by a passing father-son street-musician duo.
The Cowboy Loses his Boots Christian Svanes Kolding (2003, Denmark, 23:00)
In a fictional (?) Copenhagen more High Noon than Knut Hamsun, a cowboy DJ loses his boots and wanders his no-horse town in search of his identity.
Live Containers Orzu Sharipov (2002, Tajikistan, 26:00)
A report from a women's prison which tells about a recently widespread calamity: economic hardship and political chaos have led many Tajik women to become "live containers," smuggling heroin inside their bodies. The story of the women in this film is tragic, and the footage from inside this prison, where the women are put to work on giant vats recycling paper, is stunning.
La Bisagra de Historia (The Hinge of History) Vente Veo Video (2002, Argentina, 4:00 excerpt)
Some of the facts about the Argentina's recent revolutionary struggles have been documented in the North American Press, but this simple excerpt from an Argentinean political documentary expresses the complicated emotions of the people more economically and honestly than any news analysis ever could. (Courtesy of Raphael Lyon and Eye of the Storm.)
Plus, before the films, live music by Senegalese rap-star Shiffai.
