ICC Presents Free International Films With An Eye On Conflict
With the advent of the internet and video enabled cell phones, dangerous moving images of revolution can be circulated around the globe in an instant. Crisis Zones: World Cinema Now, the newest provocative film series from the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), will explore how digital video has become a modern tool of war within present day cultural conflicts. For five weeks starting Thursday, March 22nd at 7:00pm, the free films of Crisis Zones: World Cinema Now will transport viewers to war-ravaged Iraq, Haiti, Angola and the underbelly of China’s urban world, presenting filmmakers who use moving images to reflect, amplify and even resolve local conflict.
"We're flooded with "news," but how often do we get to see the world's political hot spots through the eyes of local witnesses? That's what Crisis Zones is all about,” said host and guest curator Cameron Bailey, one of Canada’s most recognized film critics.
Renowned French cultural expert Catherine David will open the series on March 22nd with the Canadian premiere of her video exhibit, Video In Iraq: Document, Resistance, Insurgency, Terror. The illustrated lecture includes rare footage tracking Iraqi political insurgents and their use of videos, cell phones and the internet to publicly document their conflicts. Operation Atropos, a film by Cuban-American artist Coco Fusco, also makes its Canadian premiere on April 19th. In the film, Fusco and five other women investigate government interrogation methods at Guantanamo Bay by enduring a grueling role-playing exercise in torture.
The free screenings, being held at the ROM’s Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre, will be followed with in-depth discussions led by Bailey and visiting filmmakers to further explore related issues. Other films in the series include Ghosts of Cité Soleil (2006) by Asgar Leth of Haiti; Angola: Saudades From The One Who Loves You (2006) by Richard Pakleppa of South Africa; and City Scene (2006) by Shao Liang of China. For more detailed information and dates please see listing below.
About the Institute for Contemporary Culture
The ROM’s Institute for Contemporary Culture plays a vital role in a museum whose collections embrace many civilizations, as well as the record of nature through countless ages. In the context of the ROM’s lively documentation of history, the ICC explores current cultural issues through the exhibitions of art and architecture, lectures, film series, and informal gatherings.
The ICC provides a unique forum where the new encounters the historical and anthropological. It explores both the continuity and discontinuity of cultures—their relationships across space and time, to each other and to the natural world. The ROM’s collections provide context and depth to contemporary issues addressed by artists, architects, and participants in ICC events from around the world. For further information, please visit the ICC website at https://www.rom.on.ca/about/icc/index.php.
|
Media Partner: |
 |