settima

politics

Calle Santa Fe (Carmen Castillo, 2007)

Oct

5

Calle Santa Fe (2007)

Miguel Enriquez holding Carmen Castillo in a family snapshot. DPs: Ned Burgess, Sebastián Moreno, Raphaël O'Byrne & Arnaldo Rodríguez.

The World's Greatest Sinner (Timothy Carey, 1962)

Mar

1

eggs

The World's Greatest Sinner (1962)

Clarence “God” Hilliard (Timothy Carey) sitting at a round dinner table talking to his wife who's leaning against a counter holding a carton of eggs and crockery. DPs: Frank Grande, Robert Shelfow, Ray Dennis Steckler & Edgar G. Ulmer.

“Let's be different. Let's not hate anyone.”

– Clarence “God” Hilliard

Ucho [The Ear] (Karel Kachyňa, 1970)

Jan

8

cake

Ucho (1970)

A gold-rimmed plate with a messy piece of cake on its side. Near it two glasses and a bottle of alcohol. DP: Josef Illík.

La battaglia di Algeri [The Battle of Algiers] (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)

Dec

18

Arabic Language Day

La battaglia di Algeri (1966)

Petit Omar (Mohamed Ben Kassen) reading out a letter to Ali La Pointe (Brahim Hadjadj) in the قصبة, (Cashbah). If it were not for the leads' jeans and sneakers, this scene could be in any century. DP: Marcello Gatti.

Speak an Arabic language on UN Arabic Language Day

“The first section's dead. There's no one left. We lost contact with the second. The third is reorganizing. All that's left is the fourth. It's enough to start over with.”

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963)

Dec

14

Alabama Day

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)

Bobby on the phone, seen from the back. DP: Gregory Shuker.

Alabama Day: filmed in Alabama.

 

In what he dubbed “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”, George Wallace, Alabama governor, blocked Black students from walking into the University so he could uphold his inaugural promise of “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”. This prompted a national crisis, resulting in the President issuing Executive Order 11111, making the #NationalGuard step in.

“Come Senators, Congressmen, Please heed the call, Don't stand in the doorway, Don't block up the hall”

– Bob Dylan, The Times They Are a-Changin (1964)

In a then-groundbreaking new documentary format, Robert Drew and associates followed President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy during the crisis. And they filmed everything; from tense phone calls, private discussions, private moments (one of RFK's daughters on the phone with a bemused “Kerry”, Dept. Nicholas Katzenbach), and many, many shots in which nothing – which is everything – is said.

Every Day's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937)

Nov

21

National Entrepreneurs Day

Every Day's a Holiday (1937)

Lobbycard. Peaches O'Day (Mae West, dressed by Schiaparelli) hands her business card to yet another sucker. They're on the Brooklyn Bridge, which can be seen in the background. DP: Karl Struss.

In my book, entrepreneur is just a fancy talk for conman. A famous one, the one who may've tried to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, was George C. Parker. He'd peddle the famous landmark to any hapless rube, immigrant, or sucker who then would promptly erect a little tollbooth to make a fast buck from any hapless rube, immigrant, or sucker.

“Selling the Brooklyn Bridge again, huh?”

– Police captain Jim McCarey

Like Parker, Mae West's Peaches O'Day bamboozles it her way. And boy, does she have a bridge to sell you!

Muhammad Ali, the Greatest [Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee] (William Klein, 1974)

Sep

4

Mouthguard Day

Muhammad Ali, the Greatest (1974)

A randomly picked screenshot showing Muhammad Ali fighting George Foreman. Each and every scene of a William Klein film is a photograph. DPs: Étienne Becker, William Klein, Richard Suzuki & Patrice Wyers.

“I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; Handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; Only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”

– Muhammad Ali

Festival panafricain d'Alger [The Panafrican Festival in Algiers] (William Klein, 1969)

Jul

26

One Voice Day

Festival panafricain d'Alger (1969)

Black hands holding each other. In translation the caption reads “Down with colonialism! Down with imperialism!”. DP: William Klein et al.

In typical Western fashion the credits for William Klein's Festival panafricain d'Alger focusses on the French and American participants. After Algeria regained its independence in 1962, it became Africa's – and the #AfricanDiaspora's – centre for postcolonial and liberation moments.

“À bas le colonialisme ! À bas l'imperialisme !”

The 12-day Festival panafricain attracted 5000 people from all over the African continent, as well as liberation fighters from the United States.

O Bandido da Luz Vermelha [The Red Light Bandit] (Rogério Sganzerla, 1968)

Jul

1

prairie oyster

O Bandido da Luz Vermelha (1968)

The bandit (Paulo Villaça) cracks a raw egg over his liquid breakfast while one of his female victims (Sonia Braga) is on the phone beside him. Her cigarette smokes itself and the kitchen table is packed with drugstore items. DPs: Peter Overbeck & Carlos Ebert.

Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait [General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait / No One Can Run Faster Than a Rifle Bullet] (Barbet Schroeder, 1974)

Jun

9

National Heroes Day Of Uganda

Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait (1974)

Schroeder in tuxedo interviewing General Idi Amin Dada Oumee. Even in the context of the scene, Schroeder just came from a gala event, the tuxedo is a statement of assumed superiority. DP: Néstor Almendros.

It's easy… no lazy to put this documentary away as a failed Idi Amin propaganda project. In 1974, German-Swiss Barbet Schroeder, privileged son of a diplomat, already knew more than enough about how to select framing and manipulate timing. The result, Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait, is a prime example of the neo-colonialist gaze.

“You film. Film helicopter.”

– The General explaining a director's one and only task

Amin, clearly not speaking his native language, tries to explain his plans for #Uganda. The camera (Spanish cinematographer) moves in on his gesturing hands, then a jump cut (French editor) to soldiers who – instructed in English – seem unsure of what is asked of them. When (in the copy I watched) people speak in Swahili, no translation is provided and the portrayed are little more than undeveloped, exotic backdrop. Everything seems to be a joke to Schroeder: the air force's MiGs, Amin and his higher-ups joining tribesmen in dance, even the President's children are used to exemplify the stereotype of the overly virile, primitive African male.

 

Amin was, as Schroeder is, a product of Europe's Scramble. With the difference that, although bloody and despicable, Amin's strategy was not to embolden the West's moribund empire.