Shorts Program (2001-2007): 3:00pm
Foreign Language
Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader suggests,“Costa’s films are the cinema of the future, partly becauseof their intimate scale. As we get to know them better,they steadily grow in stature.” As we get to know Costa’s feature films, it is important to also see the shorts, in which the people and sites in Costa’s features become better acquainted. The series includes:
• 6 Bagatelas (2001)—Six unused scenes from Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? are put into a new context. (35mm. 18 min. Not rated. Portuguese language with English subtitles.)
• Ne change rien (2005)—Costa’s camera is captivated by the enigmatic French actress Jeanne Balibar, setting the stage for the feature of the same name. (35mm. 11 min. Not rated. Portuguese language with English subtitles.)
• Tarrafal (2007)—This short premiered at Cannes, as part of the collective film The State of the World, and returns to Cape Verde and a site where political dissidents were tortured and killed for 40 years. (35mm. 16 min. Not rated. Portuguese language with English subtitles.)
• The Rabbit Hunters (2007)—A semi-sequel to Colossal Youth, the film breaks down boundaries between the real and the surreal. (35mm. 23 min. Not rated. Portuguese language with English subtitles.)
Collosal Youth – 2006: 6:30pm
Drama, Foreign Language
Many of the lost souls of Ossos and In Vanda’s Room return in the spectral landscape of Colossal Youth, which brings to Pedro Costa’s Fontainhas films a new theatrical, tragic grandeur. This time, Costa focuses on Ventura, an elderly immigrant from Cape Verde living in Lisbon. (35 mm. Portuguese language with English subtitles.)
The Blood – 1989: 9:30pm
Drama, Foreign Language
In Pedro Costa’s first feature film, two teenagers and a young schoolteacher flee a malicious uncle and his gang of criminals. In an attempt to keep a secret, they decide to separate. Their separation introduces us to the soonto-be-familiar Costa trademarks: isolation, the trauma of displacement, absent parents, and surrogate families. Shot in haunting black and white, we are reminded of many early B pictures. If we look back to classical American cinema we find that same secret alliances that existed among Nicholas Ray’s young rebels, but these teenagers are not really rebels—they are merely thrust into bad situations. (35mm. 95 min. Not rated. Portuguese language with English subtitles.)
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