THE TREŠNJEVKA MARKET CINEMA 2023
For the eighth year in a row, we are turning the Trešnjevka market into a free of charge open cinema. At its core, the city is a process – it constantly changes, while our “lived experience” turns its abstract structures into day-to-day practices and a symbolic space, a stage on which we live our lives. However, a lot of our experiences and symbolic ideas of cities are created via movies. Since its beginning, the movie has been a powerful medium, which has shaped our perception of the city and our relationship to different problems of the urban everyday life. The chosen films blur the boundary between art and life, visualizing ways in which we can safeguard the urban day-to-day life from omnipresent banalisation and commodification.
THE PROGRAM
FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2023, AT 9 P.M.
BLIGHT (1996), directed by John Smith
14', documentary, Great Britain
HIGH HOPES (1989), directed by Mike Leigh
110', feature, Great Britain
On the first evening, we will watch two films on communities that are faced with rapid transformation of contemporary cities where there is no longer any room for many people. Playful experimental film Blight by the British avant-garde filmmaker John Smith was made in collaboration with the composer Jocelyn Pook. It revolves around the building of the M11 road in East London, and a campaign organized by local residents to protect their homes from demolition. Seemingly trivial memories of former residents, shown through a combination of natural sounds, background music, and recorded speech fragments, become remarkably melodious, suggestive metaphors of the threatening devastation.
A bittersweet social satire High Hopes is a portrait of an extended working class family and Mike Leigh’s commentary on class and social changes in the late 1980s London. Marxist courier Cyril and his girlfriend Shirley care for Cyril's senile mother, and are faced with an invasion of upper class newcomers in their old neighborhood. They are joined by Cyril’s neurotic sister Valerie, a cactus plant named after Margaret Thatcher, and a naive traveler from the countryside, E.T., who has a hard time going home. The film abounds in peculiar, uncommon characters, masterful acting and improvising, and is characterized by realism and the recognizable British humor.
FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2023, AT 9 P.M.
BEING WOMEN / ESSERE DONNE (1965), directed by Cecilia Mangini
28', documentary, Italy
THE MOUTH OF THE WOLF / LA BOCCA DEL LUPO (2009), directed by Pietro Marcello
67', documentary, Italy
On the second evening, we will watch two films on life on the margins of society, and the two sides of the so-called Italian economic miracle. In her film Being women, Cecilia Mangini, the documentary pioneer of the post-war Italy, portrays the struggle of young female workers from the South migrating to the North, in search of better life conditions, only to be faced with juggling motherhood, factory work, and a fierce fight for their rights.
A hybrid of documentary and fiction, the Mouth of the Wolf, directed by Pietro Marcello, is a dedication to a special city and a great love. Ex-convict Enzo returns to Genoa after being absent for a long time, and is walking around the city, looking for places he remembers from before, but which have been inevitably changed with time. Enzo spent 27 years in prison, serving a few sentences, but his love, trans person Mary, waited for him faithfully all this time. The story is set in the broader context of the 20th century history of Genoa, told using archival footage that recorded transformations of this ancient Mediterranean port. Once magnificent ship, therefore, becomes a symbol for decay of the rich port city and its industry, silent despair of the protagonists, as well as all stranded former seamen.
SELECTOR AND AUTHOR OF TEXTS: Dina Pokrajac
VISUALS: Zoran Đukić, Neva Zidić, Hrvoje Živčić
THE CINEMA IS PART OF THE ANNUAL PROGRAM ''THE TREŠNJEVKA NEIGHBORHOOD MUSEUM – LIVING HERITAGE’’, RUN BY BLOK IN BAZA ART GALLERY AND OTHER NEIGHBORHOOD SPACES. ''THE TREŠNJEVKA MARKET CINEMA – THE TIME OF CHERRIES'' IS SUPPORTED BY THE CORATIAN AUDIVISUAL CENTER, THE CITY OFFICE FOR CULTURE, INTERCITY, AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND CIVIL SOCIETY, AND THE ZAGREB HOLDING. BAZA'S ANNUAL PROGRAM IS SUPPORTED BY THE ''KULTURA NOVA'' FOUNDATION.
THIS YEAR'S EDITION PARTNERS ARE: RESTART AND BIJELI VAL.
