Center for European Studies In Cooperation with The Wisconsin Film
Festival is pleased to present a series of films
entitled, "Belonging and Marginality
in the New Europe" Perhaps at no time has Europe been more democratic and "united", and thus so fraught with contradictions, tensions, ambiguities
and widespread yearning for belonging and meaning. As borders become more porous
in the south, expand to the east, and seemingly crumble socially, culturally
and politically within the countries of Europe, citizens across the continent
are confronted with their prejudices, stereotypes, and incomplete if not unworkable
definitions of what constitutes "fitting in". In encounters with the
marginalized -- immigrants, people of color, the poor, gays and lesbians --
Europe’s citizens are increasingly seeing preconceived ideas of what it
means to be European pushed to the limits. The forced re-examination of the
relationship between culture, citizenship and country of origin is leading to
a burgeoning dialogue on "Belonging and Marginality in the New Europe". The five films comprising this series have received international
acclaim for their exploration of our theme. Combining cinematic creativity and
a social critic’s lens focused on issues of ethnicity, gender, generational
differences, regional characteristics, and even the role of technology for social
integration, the directors present us with works of art that compel us to consider
what we mean by citizenship and democracy in our fluid and mobile societies. *All Films not in English are Subtitled. LES GLANEURS ET LA GLANEUSE
[THE GLEANERS AND THE GLEANER] (France, 2000. Director: Agnès Varda).Winner of the Golden Hugo for Best Documentary at the Chicago International
Film Festival, 2000. Winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Montreal
International Film Festival of New Cinema, 2000. Friday, March 30, 6:30 PM, Orpheum Main Theatre. Sunday, April 1, 6:30 PM, Orpheum Main Theatre (repeat) Based on the centuries-old tradition of gleaning left-over
produce after the harvest, this film shows how ‘gleaning’ has become
a way of life for many cultural sectors, including the homeless, youth, and
artists. The film ‘gleans’ images, including a farm woman, a wine-grower,
a barkeep, and a man who has lived on garbage for ten years. Styled as a documentary,
the film explores the margins of the jobless economy and what it means for contemporary life in Europe. The New York Times described the film as "Finding
beauty in lives and things that the world does not notice." FAMILY SECRET (Transatlantic,
2000. Director: Pola Rapaport). Friday, March 30, 8:30 PM, Orpheum Stage Door Filmmaker Pola Rapaport was born in Madison, Wisconsin.
Her father, Dr. Ionel Rapaport, was a physician who worked at the University
of Wisconsin after emigrating from France in 1953. Her mother, the painter Marjorie
O’Brien-Rapaport, was raised in rural Wisconsin and studied at the University. Rapaport made FAMILY SECRET for the European arts channel
ARTE. It tells the tale of a surprising discovery of an unknown brother whose
existence was kept secret from his American sisters by their father. The new-found
brother was born in war-time Paris and raised in Communist Romania by his mother,
a Romanian physician. The brother’s father was forbidden to marry the mother
at that time because he was Jewish and she was not. Variety called the film, "Engrossing…offers a unique and intimate view of war, displacement and immigration as the 20th Century’s great dividers." THOMAS EST AMOUREUX [THOMAS
IN LOVE] (Belgium, 2000. Director: Pierre-Paul Renders). Friday, March 30, 11:30 PM, Majestic Saturday, March 31, 6:00 PM, Majestic (repeat) Thomas is a 32-year old man suffering from acute agoraphobia.
For eight years he has neither left his home or let anyone in. All his contact
with the outside world comes via and through a computer and the Internet. In
this deliberate self-imprisonment, Thomas is almost happy. But his psychologist
turns his world inside out by signing him up for an Internet dating club just
at the time his insurance agent informs him that he is eligible to receive the
services of prostitutes especially trained to handle psychologically impaired
people. And so the invasion begins. A film that explores the borders and margins of social
integration as shaped by new forms of technology in today’s Europe. Sud Side Stori [SOUTH SIDE STORY}
(Italy, 1997. Director: Roberta Torre). Winner of the Premio de Laurentis Prize
for Best Film at Venice Film Festival, 1997. Thursday, March 29, 6:45 PM, Majestic Roberta Torre has lived in Palermo, Italy since the early
1990s, and won the Premio de Laurentis Prize for Best Film at Venice Film Festival,
1997 for her first feature, Tano da morire. All of her films use a unique mixture
of anthropology and fiction to explore the dynamics of daily life in this southern
city of Italy, especially its poorest quarters. The story is about Toni Jiulietto, a down-and-out street
singer, and Romea Wacoubo, a ‘splendid creature’ from distant Nigeria,
who also spends her time covering the city’s waterfront. Fate has Romea
and Jiulietto moving into the same apartment building, and yes, it’s love
at first sight. But almost just as instantaneously, it’s also war between
Toni’s fearsome aunts, horrified at the thought of their nephew in the
clutches of this "Turkish Delight". And Romea’s faithful girlfriends,
two "spicy black stunners" incredulous that one of their own ‘sisters’
could fall for this good-for-nothing white man who "spends the day stuffing
his face with stuffed pasta!". The clashing of two Souths. An inevitable clash between
cultures, languages, kinds of music, in an uproarious tug-o-war which, in fits
and starts, reflects the real difficulties of all processes of integration. SAMIA (France, 2000. Director:
Philippe Faucon). An Official Selection of the Venice Film Festival, 2000. Saturday, March 31, 8:00 PM, Majestic The director was born in Ouijida, Morocco and studied modern literature in Aix-en-Provence. The story of Samia is about a teenage girl of
Algerian descent living in Marseille with her family. The film is ostensibly
about quotidian aspects of life for an immigrant family in a large, urban setting.
But the film digs deeper to explore the inherent tensions between tradition
and modernity, between generations, in an immigrant family living in contemporary
Europe. 