 |
| Trailer & Producer's Introduction |
FRANÇAIS app de traduction à gauche
For decades now Montrealers have awaited spring to participate in the annual International Festival of Films on Art lovingly known as le FIFA. But this year spring would be different from every spring we have known so far as the world is under the threat of a pandemic, COVID - 19. After preparing an exquisite program for the 2020 season the organizers of the festival had to shut it down. In a massive team effort, the festival organizers have managed to save some of the best films that you can enjoy online for one flat rate for the duration of the festival. On the plus side, even though some fabulous films will not be seen this year, the entire world can join us as we celebrate the arts, the artists and the filmmakers that bring extraordinary stories of creation to us.
Unfortunately the opening movie, WE ARE NOT PRINCESSES, was screened only on March 17 2020. The movie, produced by Hal Scardino and directed by Bridgette Auger and Itab Azzam, tells the story of four women living in a Beirut refugee camp who rebuild their spirit by collaborating on the production of the play Antigone by Sophocles. It is a striking metaphor of what humanity is experiencing globally in the sense that we have no better choice than to reconnect with the inner resources that will allow us to go on.
Very quickly the cultural differences of life for American women and women living in Arabic countries upset me. Mona is the only actress that is married. Her husband is constantly telling her what to do and how to be. I can tell she is unhappy about this.
What delighted me about this project is the way the women are enjoying the intellectual opening that learning about the play brings to them. They engage with each other, offer opinions and ideas, express how they feel about the constant dominion of men over their lives.
The structure of the film brings us inside the daily lives of the Syrian refugees in a totally disaffected neighborhood, into their souls as they write, draw, act the play Antigone. Some women were forbidden by their family to be seen on film so the filmmakers used delicate animations to recount their stories.
A triumph of the spirit, the reason we love le FIFA so much!
Here are some titles I will be exploring this week-end:
https://www.artfifa.com/en/movies/architecture-of-infinity
https://www.artfifa.com/en/movies/edo-avant-garde
https://www.artfifa.com/en/movies/echoes-of-the-invisible
Let me know which movies you loved best!
https://twitter.com/GhioLena
https://www.facebook.com/lena.ghio.9https://www.facebook.com/The-Lena-Ghio-Paradox-Le-Paradox-Lena-Ghio-135622606480346/
https://www.pinterest.ca/lenaghio/
No comments:
Post a Comment