Once someone said to me “Well, but women are underrepresented in all spheres, in politics, in academia, in sports” and he is right. But the problem in which there are few women in the cinema, is that the cinema and the audiovisual in general, confirm and support that image. This year a study by UN Women came out that said that internationally, in the movies, for every eight doctors, one is a woman, for every ten lawyers or judges, only one is a woman and this hurt us for every thirteen academics, only one is a woman. So one says, let’s see, what imaginary we are creating. The on demand reviews reveals all here.
Change Through Cinema
We can, through the cinema, challenge the imaginary or keep it as it is depending on where we guide the experience of watching cinema. That is why the work the Cineteca is doing with the Cineclubes Escolares is so exciting and beautiful. We have the ability to change the way of perceiving the world through cinema.
The Architect and His Story
An American architect arrives in Rome, accompanied by his wife, for an exhibition dedicated to the 18th-century French artist, Étienne-Louise Boullée. The architect, over time, becomes obsessed with tremendous stomach pains, convinced that it is related to the fact that his wife is having an affair with another Italian colleague. The city becomes a leading character, while drawing a relationship border between art, with an exceptional photography by Sacha Vierny and music by Wim Mertens & Glenn Branca. Just as Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead (1943) is the work of canonical literature for an architect, after Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) , The Belly of the Architect (The Belly of an Architect, 1987)It is a cinematographic reference of art, architecture and city. The director, Peter Greenaway , developed his interest in European cinema by focusing on the films by Antonioni, Bergman, Godard, Pasolini and Resnais. In 1962 he entered Walthamstow College of Art, and later was editor and director of the Central Office of Information. Greenaway understands rational cinema as an alternative to social criticism.
The architect must have knowledge and a strong awareness of everything around him. A character says in the movie ‘The belly of an architect’ that he needs to know about literature, art and the price of bread, but above all else, like Le Corbusier, he must be aware of the consequences of the sum of all the figures together.
Dominican cinema, is it good or bad?
The cinema that is made in the Dominican Republic has always had its diverse critics and the majority point out that our cinema lacks a lot to resemble the ones we consume from abroad. It is also expressed that only comedies are made here and, moreover, they resemble television skits.
Last Words
It seems that the general appreciation of cinema made in the Dominican Republic is that it does not have sufficient artistic and plot quality. If we try to analyze this Creole cinema we can realize that, despite the bad reviews, it is a true reflection of who we are and many times we do not want to see that factor. It is not in doubt that Dominican cinema, after being practically an insular anonymity, is today a filmography that has wanted to draw attention to other cinematographies on the continent.
