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bales2023filmchallenge

Moi, un noir [I, a Negro] (Jean Rouch, 1958)

Oct

16

National Eddie Day

Moi, un noir (1958)

A young woman looks over her shoulder, smiling. DP: Jean Rouch.

Some of the leads play out their hopes and dreams and are named after famous actors from Western films. Petit Touré is #EddieConstantine.

心中天網島 [Shinjū: Ten no Amijima / Double Suicide] (Masahiro Shinoda, 1969)

Oct

10

International Stage Management Day

心中天網島 (1969)

Jihei (Kichiemon Nakamura ) and his children with a stagehand visible between them. DP: Tōichirō Narushima.

心中天網島 is based on a 1721 文楽 [#bunraku] puppet theatre play]. As traditional in this style of theatre, the puppeteers are in full view of the audience wearing all-black cloaks. 心中天網島 does the same, but substitutes the puppets with flesh and blood actors.

 

The puppeteers are 黒衣 [kuroko, litt. “black clad”, though there are colour variations depending on the scene's requirements], guiding the performers towards their destiny.

Yawar Mallku [Blood of the Condor] (Jorge Sanjinés, 1969)

Oct

9

Indigenous Peoples Day

Yawar Mallku (1969)

Three Quechua men in ponchos and chullas seen from the back look out over the Anti (Andes). One of them stands on top of a large boulder. DP: Antonio Eguino.

Almacita di desolato [Almacita, Soul of Desolato] (Felix de Rooy, 1986)

Oct

5

National Caribbean Civility Day

Almacita di desolato (1986)

Desolato's village priestess Solem (Marian Rolle). DP: Ernest R. Dickerson.

Dutchman (Anthony Harvey, 1966)

Oct

3

Mean Girls Day

Dutchman (1966)

Clay (Al Freeman Jr.) reading a newspaper and minding his business on a subway train home. Just arrived on his car is Lula (Shirley Knight) and her endless supply of apples. DP: Gerry Turpin.

The haunting retelling (beware of spoilers) of #Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.

“Bet you can't eat just one.”

Morire gratis (Sandro Franchina, 1968)

Oct

2

National Michelle Day

Morire gratis (1968)

Michelle (Karen Blanguernon) and the artist (Franco Angeli). DP: Guido Cosulich.

Привързаният балон [Privarzaniyat balon / The Tied-Up Balloon] (Binka Zhelyazkova, 1967)

Oct

1

Balloons Around The World Day

Привързаният балон (1967)

The balloon sails along as a young woman in white (Janet Miteva) walks with it. DP: Emil Vagenshtain.

One day, a large blimp shows up over a small Bulgarian village. The townspeople, seeing the prosperity in all that beautiful silk and then some, go after it.

“It was fear that created the first gods.”

– Stratius

The Animal (Walter Ungerer, 1976)

Sep

30

National Ghost Hunting Day

The Animal (1976)

Jo (Jo Moore) in the couple's cabin. She's seen reflected in a mirror, together with what appears to be an older woman in an old photograph. DP: Walter Ungerer.

Decoder (Muscha, 1984)

Sep

28

International Right To Know Day

Decoder (1984)

In a crumbling bunker, the High Priest (Genesis P-Orridge) lectures about information. DP: Johanna Heer.

“Information is like a bank. Some of us are rich. Some of us are poor, with information. All of us can be rich. Our job, your job, is to rob the bank. To kill the guard. To go out there to destroy everybody who keeps, and hides, the whole information. Simple. Special. Information. Power.”

– The High Priest

Werckmeister harmóniák (Béla Tarr, 2000)

Sep

26

Shamu The Whale Day

Werckmeister harmóniák (2000)

A man in a dark hat and coat approaches the whale. The huge creature lays in an enormous open wooden crate in the middle of a town square. DPs: Patrick de Ranter, Miklós Gurbán, Erwin Lanzensberger, Gábor Medvigy, Emil Novák & Rob Tregenza.

“All I ask is that you step with me into the boundlessness, where constancy, quietude and peace, infinite emptiness reign.”

– János Valuska