Cinema and Decolonization Exhibition Opens at Rio’s MAM

By Jack Arnhold, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – From Friday, May 10th, until Sunday, May 12th, the Museu de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Museum) of Rio de Janeiro will be hosting an exhibition titled “Filme revisitado, sempre um novo filme – Cinema e descolonização” (Film revisited, always a new film – Cinema and decolonization). This exhibition will be showing newly restored and newly rediscovered films dealing with decolonization, colonialism, and a reflection on cinema’s role in this process.

On Friday, May 10th, at 4 PM, the exhibition will open with a newly-restored version of “Nuestra Voz de Tierra, Memoria y Futuro” (Our Voice of the Earth, Memory and Future) a 1982 film directed by Marta Rodriguez and Jorge Silva and considered one of the most important documentaries in the history of Latin American cinema.

This newly restored version was first shown at the Forum session of the Berlin Film Festival in February 2019, returning to the city where the film was awarded the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique (FIPRESCI) in 1982. It will be shown with English subtitles.

At 5:40 PM the screening will be followed by a talk with Sergio Muniz, Camila Freitas, and co-director Marta Rodríguez centered around the theme “O novo cinema latino-americano — a voz de lutas, de deuses e de diabos” (The new Latin-American cinema – a Voice of Fights, of Gods and of Devils).

On Saturday, May 11th, the exhibition will show two films from revolutionary Mozambique. “Estas são as armas” (These are the Weapons) is a 1978 film directed by Murilo Salles and will be shown at 2:30 PM.

“Mueda, massacre e memória” (Mueda, Massacre, and Memory) is a 1979 film directed by Ruy Guerra, which will be shown at 3:45 PM. This second film of the day is the first ever fictional film shot in Mozambique, and it will also be shown with English subtitles.

These films will then be followed by a talk a 5:15 PM between respective directors Murilo Salles and Ruy Guerra (moderated by Hernani Hefner) about the narrative forces and geopolitical influences that marked this time in the history of Mozambique and its cinema.

On Sunday, May 12th, there will be a double-bill of contemporary post-colonial cinema, with a 3 PM screening of 2017 film Spell Reel by Filipa César, which is an attempt to capture, preserve, and divulge the fight for independence in Guinea-Bissau between 1963-74.

Finally, at 4:45 PM, the 2003 documentary “Kuxa Kanema: O Nascimento do Cinema” (Kuxa Kanema: The Birth of Cinema) by Margarida Cardoso will be shown. This film captures the creation of the National Institute of Cinema, instated by President Samora Machel following Mozambique’s independence in 1975.

“Together, they are films that, being the focus of researchers and restorers, gain a kind of new life and renew themselves in the eyes of today. And here we perceive the past still present, like an open wound, in the daily life of Africa and Latin America. Images that travel in time and dialogue with contemporary Brazil, its fractures, struggles, inheritance, and dreams.” comments the exhibition’s curator.

What: Filme revisitado, sempre um novo filme – Cinema e descolonização
When: Friday, May 10th until Sunday, May 12th
Where: Museum of Modern Art’s Cinemateca – Avenida Infante Dom Henrique, 85 – Aterro do Flamengo – Tel: (21) 2240-5743
Entrance: Free

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