São Paulo – CineSesc and Galeria Olido will start presenting, starting on Thursday (29) cinema exhibit "Middle East: tradition and revolution". Among the 19 films and 18 documentaries to be shown up to October 9th there are productions from Turkey, Iran, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco and Israel, as well as documentaries produced by television network Al-Jazeera, from Qatar, and BBC, from Great Britain.
Among the main productions of the exhibit are the Egyptian "18 days", a set of ten short movies by ten directors during the revolution that ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak early this year. "The Gift Maker", from Yemen, narrates the history of a bomb producer who questions his illegal activity. "A Flood in Baath Country", by director Omar Amiralay, who passed away in February, presents the 35 years in which Syria has been run by the Baath Party, currently led by dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Some productions are from recent months and discuss the political revolutions the region has been living. Others date back to 2010 and the most ancient, to 1997. Apart from the proposal of showing how these revolutions may be reflected in art and cinema production, the organizers of the event aim to show that each country in the region has its culture, its values and its challenges.
One of the curators of the exhibit, Marcia Camargos, said that the intention behind the event is also to inform the public and, this way, to demystify the concepts that many people have of the countries of the region. Apart from her, Arlene Clemesha, Gilson Packer and Simone Yunes also undersign curatorial activities.
"We want to show the riches of these countries, of Iran, Turkey, and of the other countries in the exhibit. They have their culture. We also aim to demystify some of the opinions, to reduce the bias through art. The productions are realistic and independent. There are no movies by great studios. They are root productions, pulsating,” said Marcia.
As they are independent productions and have been produced in countries where revolutions are taking place, it was not easy to bring together the movies included in the exhibit. "The moviemaker in Yemen could not send his movie because the post is not working. So he sent it through the Internet, but not even that was easy,” said Marcia. Paying the exhibition rights is also turning out to be a challenge. "There are countries in which we cannot make bank deposits, like Iran. So we send the money through a friend of the moviemaker who lives in Paris, we improvise,” he said.
Márcia believes that not only movie lovers or the habitual users of these movies should see the films. "As the topic is current, we hope for a much greater audience than usual,” she said. Furthermore, she recalls that, as they were recorded during the revolutions, the films may not be examples of technical and artistic finishing. "The expression of art is inserted in its contemporaneity. Even the difficulties are visible in the movie and it is a result of the moment,” she said.
Apart from the movies, there will also be three talks and a debate roundtable, "Citizen Journalist", scheduled for 8:00 pm of the 4th, in the Folha de S.Paulo auditorium, at Alameda Barão de Limeira, 425, Campos Elíseos, 9th floor. On Friday (30), movie "The Juggler" will be presented by director Ibrahim El-Batout, who will participate in a debate on Monday (3), at the CineSesc auditorium with directors Reza Haeri and Shahriar Siami Shal. On Tuesday, director Reza Haeri will participate in a chat with spectators after the session of "Final Fitting".
*Translated by Mark Ament
