“BICENTENARIO and the Traces of History”

September 2 – September 11

Pablo Alvarez-Mesa’s Bicentenario is a highly thought-provoking and elegant meditation on the legacy left by Simón Bolívar (1783-1830) on the physical, psychic, and political landscapes of Colombia. Seen from a broader perspective, it is also an exceptional filmic exploration of the ways in which history imprints itself on landscapes or cultures, as well as the process by which national identities are constructed, perpetuated, or imposed.

Anthology Film Archives will be showcasing Bicentenario in September, both with a week-long run of the work itself, and a sidebar series inspired by it: a selection of films that share its preoccupation with the concept of national identity, and that document the visible traces of history – or in some cases their conspicuous absence. In one way or another, most of the films included here touch on the project of transforming a geographical territory into the idea of a nation, a culture, a “people,” a project that’s both potentially meaningful and fraught with danger. Many of the films also confront the subject of historical markers or monuments, a charged topic in recent years as we increasingly interrogate how societies decide which historical figures or events to commemorate, and which to ignore or suppress.

“Bicentenario and the Traces of History features films by Thomas Comerford, John Gianvito, Sabine Gruffat, Sergei Loznitsa, Laura Mulvey & Mark Lewis, and Diego Rísquez.

Co-presented by Cinema Tropical.

Special thanks to Pablo Alvarez-Mesa; Thomas Comerford; Carlos Gutiérrez & Pilar Garrett (Cinema Tropical); Bob Hunter & Livia Bloom Ingram (Icarus Films); Sergei Loznitsa & Tatjana Loznitsa (Imperativ Film); Luciano Piazza; Amapola Rísquez Vera; Tom Sveen (Cinema Guild); Zach Vanes (Video Data Bank); and the Canada Council for the Arts and Conseil des artes et des lettres du Québec.

BICENTENARIO
A film by Pablo Alvarez-Mesa
(Canada/Colombia, 2020, 42 min. In Spanish with English subtitles, 2020)

On the 200th anniversary of Simón Bolívar’s liberation journey across Colombia, Bicentenario reflects on the far-reaching consequences of the Liberator’s legacy, a legacy kept alive through a wide range of intentional and unintentional rituals of remembrance. Summoning Bolivar’s spirit in the exact landscapes that witnessed the battles, Bicentenario reveals the contemporary social rituals that perpetuate the ongoing violence residing deep within the social and political unconscious. Two hundred years after his campaign, Simon Bolivar’s spirit has become a mix of political mysticism, unquestioned doctrine and enigma – or perhaps a curse that has fixed itself in the collective imaginary of an entire continent. It is this curse that Bicentenario seeks to invoke, and perhaps exorcise.

Preceded by PRESIDIO MODELO (Pablo Alvarez-Mesa, 2009, 16 min.)
“In this meditative essay on the infamous Cuban prison of Panopticon design, the walls in the prison crumble revealing a past that has been covered by layers of thick yellow paint. Exquisite photography and lyric narration reveal a world where pain left unvisited turns into amnesia; history cannot absolve everything.” –Big Sky Film Festival

September 2 at 7pm; September 3 at 7pm; September 4 at 7pm; September 5 at 7pm; September 6 at 9pm; September 7 at 9pm; September 8 at 9pm

BOLÍVAR, TROPICAL SYMPHONY / BOLÍVAR, SINFONÍA TROPIKAL
A film by Diego Rísquez
In Spanish with English subtitles, 1979, 75 min, Super-8mm-to-digital

In the 1980s, the multifaceted Venezuelan artist, painter, and filmmaker Diego Rísquez (who passed away in January 2018) undertook the daunting project of creating a trilogy of films about the real and mythical histories of the Latin American continent. The first part of the trilogy, and Rísquez’s feature debut, was Bolívar, Tropical Symphony, which became the first Super 8 film to be selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. Rísquez here foregoes dialogue to create an unconventional and highly allusive cinematic exploration of the life and death of South America’s famed libertador, Simón Bolívar, in which two separate actors embody dueling conceptions of this historical figure.

September 2 at 9pm; September 7 at 7pm

PROFIT MOTIVE AND THE WHISPERING WIND
A film by John Gianvito
(USA, 2007, 58 min.)

An epic, visual meditation on the progressive history of the United States, from colonial times to the present, as seen through its cemeteries, historical plaques and markers. Making its way through 400 years of American history, Profit Motive visits the resting places of such famed figures as Malcolm X, Mother Jones, Frederick Douglass, Cesar Chavez, Susan B. Anthony, and Crazy Horse, alongside lesser known but equally important heroes and radicals, including Frank Little, Uriah Smith Stephens, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The film documents sites of pivotal struggles as well, such as King Philip’s War, the 1770 Boston Massacre, the Stono Rebellion, and the Homestead Strike. Loosely inspired by Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind is a calm, beautiful, and wordless testament to the men and women who shaped the world we live in today.

September 3 at 9pm; September 5 at 5pm