Documentaries At War

A great many documentaries are being made at the moment, and the theme of war is one of the most recurrent in recent years. This cycle comprises a small sample, and we have chosen to screen little-known works. The cycle opens with the first showing of Meanwhile Somewhere, by Péter Forgács, and also includes first showings of two recent documentaries: L'heroïque cinématographe, which reconstructs the war diaries of two operators at the front, and Not in our name, a manifesto about the current war in Iraq. We present five of the most interesting documentaries, uncut, referred to in the exhibition ‘At war'.

 

PROGRAMME

[FIRST SHOWING]
Meanwhile somewhere...1940-43 (Mikozben Valahol), Péter Forgács, 1994, 52', Catalan subtitles
Tuesday 18 May, at 8 p.m.
Saturday 31 July, at 7 p.m.

Péter Forgács, as well as being a good producer, is an outstanding documentary maker. This film is an example of a brilliant research project in the form of unused archive images (particularly amateur material) filmed during World War II. With an almost minimalist audiovisual language, the editing produces a clear image of the humiliation and suffering that the war represented. Also outstanding is the aesthetic detail in combining sequences about different places, moments and persons.

Japanese Devils, Minoru Matsui, 2001, 58', Catalan subtitles
Thursday 10 June, at 8 p.m.
Friday 30 July, at 8 p.m.

‘Much has been said about how this war mistreated the Japanese, but the way we mistreated others has been silenced and denied. When we remember the war, it is easy to speak of our condition as victims, but more difficult to face up to our own aggression. In spite of everything, aggression reveals the true face of the war, because it uncovers the terrible, weak nature of human beings. Before going to war, the witnesses who relate their brutal acts in this film were quite normal people. They were like you and me. Japanese Devils (Riben guizi) presents the truth about war for the future, so that we are not condemned to repeat their mistakes.' Minoru Matsui

The Atomic Cafe, Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty, 1982, 88', Spanish subtitles
Wednesday 23 June, at 8 p.m.
Thursday 15 July, at 8 p.m.

The Atomic Cafe is a pacific, anti-war statement that was probably made as a response to the aggressive attitude adopted by President Reagan against the Empire of Evil in 1980. Although this documentary awakens all kinds of emotions, the general tone running through it is one of mockery aimed at the United States Government, centring on the nuclear problem it created for the country with the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, the fanatical propaganda it put out to unite citizens against the communist hordes and how the civil defence authorities were determined to believe that it was possible to survive a nuclear holocaust.

The Battle of San Pietro, John Huston, 1944, 38', Catalan subtitles
Friday 25 June, at 8 p.m.
Wednesday 21 July, at 8 p.m.

The Battle of San Pietro is one of the great war documentaries, unequalled for its evocation of the physicality and the human price of war. It combines stark real images with a voice-over that is one of cinema's most memorable, for both the script and its delivery. The vast close-ups of infantry soldiers in battle or at rest while the voice-over tells how many of them are about to die have the simple immediacy of good family photographs and the timeless majestic nature of a heroic frieze. Let There Be Light and The Battle of San Pietro, both by John Huston, were the only films banned by the American army during the war.

[FIRST SHOWING]
L'héroïque cinématographe, Laurent Véray, Agnès De Sacy, 2002, 48', Catalan subtitles
Wednesday 30 June, at 8 p.m.
Wednesday 28 July, at 8 p.m.

The first newsreels, made between 1914 and 1918, are also formidable testimonies of the cinema. On the basis of a rigorous analysis of European archive holdings, the film reconstructs the war diaries of two fighters at the front, one on the German side, one on the French. As the war advances, both discover the power of the cinema and the issues it raises. This is an opportunity to rediscover archive images that bear witness to reality.

Pictures from a Revolution, Susan Meiselas, Alfred Guzzetti and Richard P. Rogers, 1991, 88', Spanish subtitles
Friday 2 July, at 8 p.m.

Susan Meiselas is best known as an excellent photographer for the Magnum agency who was working throughout the war in Nicaragua. Ten years later she returned with film-maker Alfred Guzzetti to the places where she had been. This documentary is a journey with Susan Meiselas to interview the people who appeared in her photographs. These interviews offer moving moments of reflection about war and its consequences, and whether it is worth risking life for a cause.

Jang Aur Aman / War and Peace, Anand Patwardhan, 2001, 90', Spanish subtitles
Saturday 10 July, at 7 p.m.

This documentary was filmed in the course of three tumultuous years in India, Pakistan, Japan and the United States, at the time of the nuclear tests that were carried out in the Indian subcontinent. The film-maker, whose family took part in Gandhi's non-violent movement, explores with great sadness the subcontinent's trajectory towards patent, bloody militarism, despite cheering stories of bravery and resistance that appear throughout the film. This film was persecuted and censored by the current Indian government.

[FIRST SHOWING]
Not in our name, Brigitte Cornand, 2003, 62', Catalan subtitles
Wednesday 4 August, at 8 p.m.

Brigitte Cornand presents her latest documentary, a kind of manifesto in interview form, with the title Not in our name , the name of the international organisation made up of artists and intellectuals that tried to mobilised the population against the Iraq war by organising demonstrations in major cities all over the world. The artists interviewed are Édouard Glissant, Leon Golub, Jonas Mekas, Martha Rosler, Richard Serra, Robert Storr and Lawrence Weiner.

‘(...) Between October 2002 and March 2003, I asked New York-based artists and intellectuals who were against military intervention in Iraq to explain their viewpoint on the politics of Bush and his government. This led to the remembering of the 11 September terrorist attack, the spectre of the Vietnam war, the state of the world today...' Brigitte Conrad

 

DAY-BY-DAY PROGRAMME

Tuesday 18 May, at 8 p.m.
Meanwhile somewhere...1940-43 (Mikozben Valahol), Péter Forgács, 1994, 52', Catalan subtitles

Thursday 10 June, at 8 p.m.
Japanese Devils, Minoru Matsui, 2001, 58', Catalan subtitles

Wednesday 23 June, at 8 p.m.
The Atomic Cafe, Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty, 1982, 88', Spanish subtitles

Friday 25 June, at 8 p.m.
The Battle of San Pietro, John Huston, 1944, 38', Catalan subtitles

Friday 2 July, at 8 p.m.
Pictures from a Revolution, Susan Meiselas, Alfred Guzzetti and Richard P. Rogers, 1991, 88', Spanish subtitles

Saturday 10 July, at 7 p.m.
Jang Aur Aman / War and Peace, Anand Patwardhan, 2001, 90', Spanish subtitles

Thursday 15 July, at 8 p.m.
The Atomic Cafe, Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty, 1982, 88', Spanish subtitles

Wednesday 21 July, at 8 p.m.
The Battle of San Pietro, John Huston, 1944, 38', Catalan subtitles

Friday 30 July, at 8 p.m.
Japanese Devils, Minoru Matsui, 2001, 58', Catalan subtitles

Saturday 31 July, at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile somewhere...1940-43 (Mikozben Valahol), Péter Forgács, 1994, 52', Catalan subtitles

Wednesday 4 August, at 8 p.m.
Not in our name, Brigitte Cornand, 2003, 62', Catalan subtitles