Domingo, by Karim Aïnouz, to be screened in Teresina
In November and December, Galpão do Dirceu is featuring a packed schedule to cap off a year of culture and art activities at the venue. Known for being one of a few places in the city that are open to the creation of dance and visual art shows, maintained with no government funding, Galpão do Dirceu, alongside Parada de Cinema, is hosting the Cine Papoco festival on November 21, beginning at 9pm, featuring films produced by the partnership between Sesc São Paulo and Associação Cultural Videobrasil,.
The festival will feature three films: Boi de Salto (2014), by the journalist and audiovisual producer Tássia Araújo; Akram Zaatari: A Glimpse of One Man’s Vision (2004), by Alex Gabassi; and Domingo (2014), the latest film by Karim Aïnouz. The latter two are part of the Videobrasil Authors Collection series, a co-production of Associação Cultural Videobrasil and Sesc São Paulo. In each edition, a different filmmaker is invited by the director and general curator of Videobrasil, Solange Farkas, to create an authorial film on the work of seminal Brazilian and foreign contemporary artists. The Collection has featured South Africa’s William Kentridge, Lebanon’s Akram Zaatari, Cuba’s Coco Fusco and Brazil’s Rafael França, Chelpa Ferro and the MAU WAL duo (comprising Brazil’s Maurício Dias and Switzerland’s Walter Riedweg).
The director of films such as Praia do Futuro, Love for Sale and Madame Satã, Karim Aïnouz was invited to make Domingo, an artistic, poetic short film which explores potential connections between the works of Danish visual artist Olafur Eliasson and public spaces in the city of São Paulo, focusing on the sensory experiences this encounter can elicit. The 26-minute short film was produced by the Coração da Selva film studio.
Denmark’s Olafur Eliasson, a prominent international contemporary artist, creates artwork and conducts research on interventions in urban spaces, architectural projects, and processes of reality perception and construction. In Domingo, a sense of emptiness, or better yet of a lack of areas for human coexistence in the city, is conveyed by a choice to focus on abandoned public spaces. Pledges to build squares, parks, sports courts and playgrounds are underscored by the black-and-white footage and audio suggesting the ideal occupation of these places, as if expressing a wish for the future, with children’s voices, birds chirping and the sounds of people playing football and basketball.
The second Videobrasil Authors Collection film to be featured at Cine Papoco is Akram Zaatari: A Glimpse of One Man’s Vision, directed by Alex Gabassi. Akram Zaatari is an active articulator of the new Lebanese scene, characterized by partnerships and multidisciplinarity. During the civil war years in Lebanon, Akram Zaatari recorded a video diary of a daily life of explosions and shelters, as well as driving lessons and his buying a car: “the contradictions of life that goes on in conflicted areas,” he says. The diary was his first experience in producing images, which would be central to his later videos and installations. His oeuvre is marked by the changes his country has undergone, and its key subjects are sexuality, politics and history.
In addition to the film screenings, this edition of Cine Papoco will feature the artist and percussionist Fagão Silva, introducing his Patota Suingue de Umbigada project, and DJ Sérgio Donato, known for creating “visual” soundtracks.
Always looking to provide a visual and sensory immersion experience to audiences, the event attempts to create an environment to match the films being shown, building a playful, free space. The full price is R$10.00 and the half price is R$5.00. All proceedings will go to the maintenance of Galpão do Dirceu.
Parada de Cinema is a free audiovisual festival designed to spread and democratize access to Brazilian contemporary cinema. Over the course of four days in Teresina in April this year, the event featured over nine Brazilian productions, among them Cidade Cinza (São Paulo-2012), by Marcelo Mesquita, Guilherme Valiengo; Pinta (Bahia-2013) by Jorge Alencar; Em trânsito (Pernambuco-2012), by Marcelo Pedroso. The event also featured four films from Cuban Film School and 20 films from Brazil’s Piauí state. In July, Parada de Cinema sponsored the I Mostra Transviada de Cinema film festival, featuring Tatuagem (2013-PE), by Hilton Lacerda.