Agenda

An unnamed man in his thirties travels down from Albania in the summer to the Lithuanian tranquility of his home village to spend time with his parents. His arrival is neither unwanted nor remarkable. Community Gardens reads like fertile ground for nihilism, but through small, often dry gestures of rapprochement and affection, Katkus shows that even in alienation and monotony, there is a fascinating world to discover.

The United States of America is a road movie in the purest sense. To the rhythm of Benning and Gordon’s silent journey through New York, Chicago, the Rocky Mountains, Las Vegas, and other locations, they show a North America that looks much more sober than the bombastic image we are used to seeing of the country. Their USA feels calmer, almost anti-American. 

Two decades after Vittorio De Sica’s Shoeshine and Bicycle Thieves, Cecilia Mangini continues to explore the theme of post-war Italy, which does not know what to do with its young generation. In her The Chant of Tiber’s Branches, Pier Paolo Pasolini—whose novel Ragazzi di Vita served as inspiration—gives voice to a grown man who looks back on his childhood in the suburbs of Rome. 

Eva Giolo silently and patiently portrays the same action over and over again. Her own body and those of her loved ones merge anonymously in a series of embraces, captured on blue-gray, faded 16mm film. Gazes are buried in necks and fingers intertwine or caress the contours of the other.

For his contribution to the omnibus film RO.GO.PA.G (1963), Pier Paolo Pasolini depicts Orson Welles making a film about the crucifixion of Jesus, while he, the cast, and the crew behave very unholy. La Ricotta is a short, apocalyptic tirade against the customs of professional filmmaking and the unchristian coldness of contemporary Christianity.

Stan Brakhage’s films seek to encourage viewers to ignore traditional narrative structure in favour of pure visual perception and a visceral experience. Strongly inspired by the paintings of Gunter Forg, the hand-painted work Dark Night of The Soul depicts a dark brown wall, littered with yellowed images of other interiors, next to multicoloured holes that offer a glimpse of the outside world behind the shifting facade.