Everyday Struggle,...

10 November, 2015 - 10:30
CINEMA ZUID, Antwerp
talk+screening

Everyday Struggle, Struggle Every Day: The Cinema of Lav Diaz
www.photogenie.be/photogenie_blog/symposium

A symposium on the aesthetics of Lav DIaz, one of the standard-bearers of slow cinema, curated by photogénie and organized by VDFC in cooperation with the University of Antwerp and Cinema Zuid. During this day-long conference, Lav Diaz' oeuvre is examined through lectures by film scholars Michael Guarneri (IT) and Nadin Mai (GB / theartsofslowcinema.com), and a round-table conversation with the filmmaker himself follwing a screening of his most recent film Storm Children, Book One.

Schedule
10.30 - welcome and intro
10.40 - This Machine Kills Fascists: Lav Diaz's Digital Cinema - Michael Guarneri
11.30 - break
11.45 - The Concentrationary Universe in the Films of Lav Diaz - Nadin Mai
12.35 - Q&A
12.50 - lunch break
14.00 - screening STORM CHILDREN - BOOK ONE
16.30 - break
16.45 - roundtable with Lav Diaz and Hazel Orencio
ca. 18.00 - end

 

Lav Diaz’ visit to Belgium is a collaboration between CINEMATEK, Courtisane, BOZAR, VDFC, University of Antwerp, Cinema Zuid, Jeu de Paume, Paris, Le Festival d’Automne à Paris, Austrian Film Museum, Cineteca Bologna and with the support of the Philippine Embassy in Belgium.

Special thanks to Lav Diaz, Hazel Orencio, NCCA, Milay Calonge, Faith Planas-Bautista, Nadin Mai.

Storm Children – Book One

Lav Diaz
,
PH
,
2014
,
DCP
,
b&w
,
143'

A terrible typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) has left a city on the coast in a state of post-apocalyptic chaos. Freight ships were thrown from the sea and lie around between what remains of houses and shacks, and countless people tragically lost to the waves. In the middle of it all a group of children are creating a new world for themselves. Diaz’ characteristic, cinematic signature – the long and hypnotic scenes held in patiently observing black and white images – is present in every composition and every instant. A sublime, cinematic report from a devastating corner of reality.

The children, as they cope with the disaster, are scavenging for food and materials, telling stories, playing amid the looming ships run aground on the town’s main street, and diving from others that still sit in the sea. Storm Children – Book One is a moving reflection on human resilience, and shows the filmmaker’s deeply rooted sense of community and his connection with the past and the future generations of his country.