Organised by: Mari Paz Balibrea, Luis Trindade, Patricia Sequeira Bras

This film series continues the work initiated by the symposium Culture and Crisis in Portugal: Cultural Responses to Austerity in Southern Europe  held at CILAVS in June of 2017. The economic crisis of 2007 brought with it  austerity, a generalized attack on public services and the intervention of foreign financial institutions in Southern European countries. Below the international context of economic disruption and neo-liberal orthodoxy, life itself was suddenly deteriorated with the collapse of familiar forms of sociability and political imaginary. Alternating films from Portugal and Spain, this series will look at how cinema in the last ten years responded with accounts and evaluations of society’s ability to confront austerity and to reinvent life and polítics in challenging times.

In Spanish or Portuguese with English subtitles.

All films will be followed by a debate with the audience.

Entrance free but booking essential.

 

Friday, October 27, 2017

Cerca de tu casa [At Your Doorstep] (Eduard Cortés, 2016)

Synopsis: Musical about evictions occurred in Spain in connection with the economic crisis. After losing their home because they cannot afford it, Sonia and her husband, a young married couple with a 10-year-old daughter are forced to move to her parents’ house, but their house will also be threatened by the bank, having served as collateral for the daughter’s mortgage.

Watch the trailer here.

 

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Sao Jorge [Saint George] (Marco Martins, 2016)

MAL B18

Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street, Bloomsbury
London WC1E 7HX

Synopsis: Jorge is an unemployed boxer on the verge of losing his son and his wife, who has decided to return to Brazil. As a means of paying off his debt and persuading his wife to remain in Portugal, Jorge accepts a job with a debt-collection agency. This will drag him into a world of violence and crime.

Watch the trailer here.

Free and open to all but booking here necessary.

 

Friday, February 9, 2018

Mercado de futuros [Futures market] (Mercedes Álvarez, 2011)

Synopsis: “The abandonment and demolition of an old house, with all its furniture, its plentiful library and its full load of personal memories, becomes the starting point for this film. The camera peeps into the real estate furore, turned into a showroom and promise of financial gain or of the paradise; into financial investment brokers, gurus and preachers of success and mythology. Personal and collective memory, dreams and desires will be ultimately transformed into pure merchandising.” Mercedes Álvarez.

Watch the trailer here.

Free and open to all but booking here necessary.

Birkbeck, University of London

MAL B04

Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street, Bloomsbury
London WC1E 7HX

 

Friday, June 29, 2018

La mano invisible [The Invisible Hand] (David Macián, 2016)

Synopsis: In a warehouse, a group of workers go about carrying their normal tasks, with a difference. The purpose of their work is to perform it in front of an audience.

Watch the trailer here.

Free and open to all but booking here necessary.

Room GOR G02

School of Arts

Birkbeck, University of London

43 Gordon Square

London WC1H 0PD

United Kingdom