Anarchist director screens new film
Andrea Savdie
Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: Arts & Culture
The father of new Latin American cinema, director Fernando Birri, screened his latest documentary, "Elegia Fruilana," and introduced his latest book, "To Dream With Open Eyes," at an event Monday night sponsored by Brown's Center for Latin American Studies. Birri is the honorary president of this year's Providence Latin American Film Festival, which runs through Sept. 29.
Birri was born in Santa Fe, Argentina in 1925. He studied film in Rome at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia before returning to Argentina to open the first documentary filmmaking school in Latin America. While in exile from Argentina during a military regime, he traveled to Cuba and founded the International School of Film and Television.
"There's a secret that isn't really a secret," Birri said. "I am part of a united group of artists that believe in an anarchist dream that there could be a better world."
Accompanied by a translator and dressed entirely in white to match his long white beard, Birri introduced the 22-minute film "Elegia Fruilana," which he explained was inspired by a grandfather whom he never met. Birri's grandfather was a farmer in the Fruili region of northern Italy and an activist in the anarchist movements of the late 19th century. He emigrated to Argentina in the 1880s and became a proletariat urban worker, until he fell to death from a tower on which he was working. "The image has always haunted me," Birri said. "That ghostly image is what I try to express in this film."
An elegy to work, bread, dreams, simplicity and hope, "Elegia Fruilana" is a haunting yet moving depiction of everyday life in Fruili and the experiences of those that emigrated from the region. The documentary combines various forms of artistic expression, including photography, watercolors, music and poetry.
To achieve what Birri calls a "third dimension of time," black and white portraits are super-imposed against colorful backgrounds including watermills and fields of flowers. "For every drop of sweat, every tear, for every globule of blood: a poppy…" commands a voice-over in the film.
Birri was born in Santa Fe, Argentina in 1925. He studied film in Rome at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia before returning to Argentina to open the first documentary filmmaking school in Latin America. While in exile from Argentina during a military regime, he traveled to Cuba and founded the International School of Film and Television.
"There's a secret that isn't really a secret," Birri said. "I am part of a united group of artists that believe in an anarchist dream that there could be a better world."
Accompanied by a translator and dressed entirely in white to match his long white beard, Birri introduced the 22-minute film "Elegia Fruilana," which he explained was inspired by a grandfather whom he never met. Birri's grandfather was a farmer in the Fruili region of northern Italy and an activist in the anarchist movements of the late 19th century. He emigrated to Argentina in the 1880s and became a proletariat urban worker, until he fell to death from a tower on which he was working. "The image has always haunted me," Birri said. "That ghostly image is what I try to express in this film."
An elegy to work, bread, dreams, simplicity and hope, "Elegia Fruilana" is a haunting yet moving depiction of everyday life in Fruili and the experiences of those that emigrated from the region. The documentary combines various forms of artistic expression, including photography, watercolors, music and poetry.
To achieve what Birri calls a "third dimension of time," black and white portraits are super-imposed against colorful backgrounds including watermills and fields of flowers. "For every drop of sweat, every tear, for every globule of blood: a poppy…" commands a voice-over in the film.