Main Programming B, Saturday 4:00 PM
Theater 222, 2nd Floor — Innis Town Hall, Innis College,
2 Sussex Street, U of T Campus (1 block South of St. George Subway)
Lêda de Arte Leda (Leda And Her Art)
Director Daniela Gontijo Alexander, Brazil
Based on Ziraldo´s testimony, the documentary shows the art and the joyful personality of the Brazilian sculptor Lêda Selmi Dei Gontijo, the first woman awarded the Machado de Assis Medal from the Brazilian Academy of Literature (ABL). Lêda is now 92 years old and she is still working at her atelie in Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais, Brasil. In 1964 she made in soap-stone, two Saints (Saint Augustine and SAint Thomas Aquinas) for the Immortals Mausoleum of the ABL, as per Austregésilo de Athaíde´s request. The sculptures of the Saints were painted in black, but the actual pesident of the Brazilian Academy of Literature saw the photographs of the sculptures painted and ordered the restoration.
Website www.ledadearteleda.com
Paola or The Art of Survival
Director, Barbara Sostaric, Switzerland
Paola is a single mother of four scratching out a living in a favela near Recife, Brazil. After some prior misadventures she is left with nothing - no home, no food, no money. With ingenuity and perseverance she improves her family’s situation and even starts her own business.
Paola is an engagingly philosophical and vibrant soul. Despite being very poor, she shows none of the defeat that generally clouds people living in harsh deficiency.
Website web.mac.com/bmcsostaric/rollingturtles/Welcome.html
Trailer web.mac.com/bmcsostaric/rollingturtles/Paola.html
Rwanda. Through Us, Humanity…
(Rwanda. A travers nous, l’humanité…)
Director, Marie-France Collard, Belgium
Filmed in Rwanda in April 2004, during performances of the show Rwanda 94, in the context of the 10th commemoration of the genocide of the Tutsis and the massacre of Hutu moderates. How can theatre question reality when faced with the primary actors of the story told on stage? The intense, cathartic, active answer of the Rwandan audience brings to the fore the current concerns of the survivors. What is life like for them 10 years after the genocide? Echoing the issues in the play, “Rwanda. Through us humanity…” allows the survivors of the genocide to speak out, in their current reality, during this special period of mourning. The memory of the genocide is sought out, is established through the traumatic awakenings, the evocations, the disinterment and dignified burial of victims, the fears and worries with regard to the threats that still weigh upon them today. They express their profound resentment of us for having abandoned them, and of the international community for their silent complicity during the genocide, but also of the exclusion, discriminations and violence to which they are still submitted.
