Claves, 4: Memories of Cuban cinema

The neighborhood La Estrella, in Bogotá, is inhabited by families displaced by the violence. Before the event which is the arrival of the electric light, that night there is a celebration. Cristancho and Brochero families, neighbors, friends and leaders of La Estrella, will be involved in a series of incidents and jokes.

A huge wave is about to destroy the city. Many people leave in panic, only a few remain in the lonely streets. Among them are SEBASTIAN, a skeptical and irresolute young loner; ANA, a woman who seeks in others the passion she can’t live; and an apocalyptic GIRL. They turn the city into a games board where the stakes are love and the end of the world.

The struggle of two men, Osuna and Funes, hungry for power and wealth in a small town in Venezuela, during the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez.

Sent to Mexico to help take care of aging Father Benito, young Father Amaro faces a moral challenge when he meets a 16-year-old girl who he starts an affair with. Likewise, the girl's mother had been having an affair with Father Benito. Father Amaro must choose between a holy or sinful life.

A soap opera actor wants to finish Bolivar's dream of a "Great Colombia": a super-state of 5 Latin-American countries to stop institutional chaos, lack of opportunity and ignite the rebuilding of the region after 160 years of internal war.

Documentary in four parts on Latin American cinema. Third episode: from the 1960s, France and Europe showed a real enthusiasm for Latin American cinema, but the latter remained hampered by numerous economic and political obstacles.

Documentary in four parts on Latin American cinema. First episode: the influences of Cahiers du cinéma, the New Wave, Italian neorealism. In Brazil, Cinema Novo draws inspiration from these models while drawing on the historical and cultural singularity of the country. The documentary was awarded the Prix Makhila d’or at the Festival de Biarritz, France.

Biography of Martin Luther on title benches and some reconstructions with François Maistre in the role of Luther (source: Média-Scérén)

Documentary in four parts on Latin American cinema. Second episode, evoking the border between fiction and documentary. With his film Tire dié (1960), the Argentinian Fernando Birri proposed this manifesto: to create a realistic and critical national cinema, closer to society without falling into populism.

A journey to the origins through the encounter with the muleteers, farmers, artisans and artists of the Venezuelan Andes.

We follow the rehearsals and the staging work of Bertold Brecht's play 'Dans la jungle des villes' in 1972 by the company Théâtre de l'Espérance. The three directors: Jean-Pierre Vincent, Jean Jourdheuil and André Engel discuss their joint work of staging and their vision of the play. Interviews with the actors (Gérard Desarthe, Maurice Bénichou, Hélène Vincent), whom we follow at different stages of the work (source: Média Scérén). The film was screened for the 1973 Directors' Fortnight, at the Cannes Festival.

At the highest point of Venezuela, where the fog envelops the memory of time and the wind whispers ancestral tales, Páramos de Leyendas reveals, through portraits of muleteers and peasants, the courage of those who braved the heights and the relentless cold, often barefoot and wearing only a poncho. In this hostile environment, tough personalities were forged, but with an unparalleled spark of humor and wisdom.

This film shows the instruments of the Vichy government's propaganda among young people and, more specifically, the images distributed in the form of ABC books, posters, newsreels or propaganda. It shows the speech of Pétain, Georges Lamirand, general secretary for youth, Marcel Déat, founder of the National Popular Rally and Jacques Doriot, founder of the French Popular Party.

Maurice Béjart answers an interview about choreographic creation; it shows ballets and improvisations. The film was screened for the 1970 Directors' Fortnight, at the Cannes Festival.

Long panoramic shots and tracking shots in the Louvre Museum, the Hôtel de Lauzun or the Petit Palais allow us to discover the works of Delacroix, Horace Vernet, David, Ingres, Courbet, Manet, etc. An actor reads excerpts from Baudelaire's Salons where he expresses admiration or detestation. (source: Canopé)

This program is presented as a report on the way the weekly Paris Match deals with information through images. Two of the newspaper's main managers explain what their job is. As a counterpoint to these interviews with image professionals, the philosopher and essayist Jean-François Revel recalls his attachment to marking the limits of information through images (source: Média Scérén)