[in the frame of the public programming of the "The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5,000 - 3,500 BC." exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World]
12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST (A fost sau n-a fost, dir. Corneliu Porumboiu) will be screened in the frame of the Romanian Film Series presented by RCINY in association with the Cucuteni culture exhibition at ISAW.
The series is curated by film critic and Transylvania International Film Festival director, Mihai Chirilov, and will focus on the development of Romanian society through distinct historical periods. The series is made possible through the support of the Romanian National Center for Cinema, and courtesy of Palisades Tartan.
12:08 East of Bucharest (A fost sau n-a fost?)
Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, 2006, 89 min
A provincial television station decides that it’s going to produce a show on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the fall of the communist government, focusing on what transpired in that town at the exact time that Ceauşescu fell. Unhappily, the only two eyewitnesses the station can find are a hard-drinking history teacher and an elderly retiree who works as part-time Santa Claus. The show begins, and the two panel guests pour out their versions of what happened on Dec. 22, 1989. It doesn’t take long for viewers to start phoning in their own versions of that day, often taking the eye witnesses to task for what they think are outright distortions. History —who remembers, and how—is at the heart of Corneliu Porumboiu’s “12:08 East of Bucharest,” co-winner of the Camera D’Or (Best First Film) at 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Porumboiu cleverly captures how even recent historical events take on shape and meaning according to how they explain or justify the present. — Richard Pena, Program Director, Film Society of Lincoln Center
| THU, April 1, 2010, 7 pm
INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD AT NYU
New York University
15 E 84th Street, New York, NY 10028
More about the exhibition |
