WU Wenguang, one of the founding figures in Chinese independent documentary, brings three young filmmakers from China to present their collective work, “the Memory Project.” The project is based at Coachangdi Workstation in Beijing. From there, young filmmakers fanned out to return to family villages and their own pasts, real and imagined, to inquire about The Great Famine of 1959-61 — a disaster of whose memories have been actively abandoned by the state.

This is the first film in the series, "The Play's the Thing: Vaclav Havel, Art and Politics," presented at Pitt by the Czechoslovak Nationality Room courtesy of the Czech Embassy. "Magicky hlas rebelky" is a 2014 documentary about the Czech singer Marta Kubisova, who has become a symbol in the Czech Republic of the period in history known as the Velvet Revolution (1989), when a mass protest movement led to the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. The film includes segments of members of the dissident organization Charter 77, including former Czech President Vaclav Havel.

Orientalism and Hollywood: A Match Made in Heaven

Join Dr. Luke Peterson, UCIS Visiting Professor in Contemporary International Issues at The University of Pittsburgh for a film screening event and discussion connecting the contemporary practice of Orientalism with modern American culture, Hollywood films, and twenty-first century American policy in the Middle East and beyond. The film screening and discussion will take place on Friday, September 19, 3:00-5:00pm in 4130 Posvar Hall.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the German Department and the EUCE have organized a film and lecture series.

The first film, Der Geteilte Himmel/Divided Heaven (1963), will be held on September 11th at 5:30pm in room 324 of the Cathedral of Learning. The film will be introduced by Prof. Halle

Pizza will be provided at the film events.

The Divided Heaven
(Der geteilte Himmel)
Director: Konrad Wolf, b/w, 113 min., 1963/64

The 2011 documentary film visits more than a dozen countries across five continents to discover what makes people happy. Among those who share their thoughts with Academy Award-nominated director Roko Belic and his crew are a crab fisherman in Louisiana, a Kolkata rickshaw driver, an Okinawa centenarian, a lifelong surfer dude, and scientists who probe the neuropsychological roots of our emotional lives. The film addresses many of the fundamental conflicts inherent in modern society and provides insights into ways to not only cope but thrive.

Carnival is a no-budget, independent and a personal film, which experiments with contrasting themes (love and death), cinematic forms (fiction and documentary), actors (popular and unpopular), and real (unknown) people; along with formal excesses and stasis, by using loud sounds, noises and stretches of silence, as well as by juxtaposing moving images with stills, shot in color and black-white. The thin plot line of the film involves Babu who has returned to Kolkata from ‘somewhere’ during the Durga Puja holidays, after the sudden, or somewhat expected, demise of his ailing mother.

Join the Department of French and Italian and Italian Film Festival USA for the closing night of the Italian Film Festival. Then join us for a complimentary Closing Night reception afterwards in the FFA cloisters! Free and open to the public!

Long Live Freedom (Viva la Libertà), 7 p.m. April 12, Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, 650 Schenley Drive. The leader of the most notorious political opposition party mysteriously disappears. His wife and assistant turn to his identical twin brother, who has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital. Will anyone notice the switch?

Join the Department of French and Italian and Italian Film Festival USA for a Pittsburgh film premiere!

The Venice Syndrome (Teorema Venezia), 9 p.m. April 11, 1700 Wesley W. Posvar Hall, 230 S. Bouquet St. Venice, the world’s most beautiful city, is invaded every day by 50,000 tourists. There are only 48,000 residents, and there are fewer every year as the city becomes nearly uninhabitable. The film shows what remains of Venetian life in a requiem for a grand city.

Join the Department of French and Italian and Italian Film Festival USA for our exciting next installment of our annual film festival!

The Women Workers’ War, 7 p.m. April 10, Room 24, Ground Floor, Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Ave. A documentary recounting the story of two women: one who leads the longest factory sit-in by women in Italy and another who operates a factory that encourages cultural growth among the workers. This screening will feature a special appearance by director Massimo Ferrari.

Join the Department of French and Italian and Italian Film Festival USA as we show our fourth Pittsburgh premiere film! La migliore offerta tells the story of a genius art expert - come enjoy it at the Carnegie Museum of Art's theater!

The Best Offer (La Migliore Offerta), 7 p.m. April 5, Carnegie Museum of Art Theatre, 4400 Forbes Ave. A world-renowned antiques auctioneer, who leads a solitary life, is appointed to oversee the sale of a beautiful heiress’ art collection and is soon engulfed by a passion that rocks his bland existence.