Last modified: Thursday, September 29, 2011
Acclaimed filmmaker Pedro Costa to deliver Jorgensen Lecture at IU Cinema Oct. 6
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 29, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Internationally acclaimed Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa will visit Bloomington Oct. 6-8, presenting the Jorgensen Lecture at IU Cinema Oct. 6 at 3 p.m.
Guests of the Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture Series' opening season have included Peter Bogdanovich, Kenneth Anger, John Sayles, Stanley Nelson, Jill Godmilow, Paul Schrader and Albert Maysles.
Born in Lisbon in December 1959, Costa began studying film with António Reis at the Lisbon Film School. He later worked as an assistant-director for Joăo Botelho and Joăo César Monteiro, making his first film The Blood (O Sangue), which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 1989.
Costa's films have influenced a generation of world filmmakers whose work blurs the border between documentary and narrative film. With his slum trilogy, Letters from Fontainhas, Costa revolutionized independent cinema, proving that visually appealing, epic films could be made with a minimal crew and budget. Retrospectives of his work have been screened at the Tate Modern in London and the Harvard Film Archive, and the Criterion Collection has named him "one of the most important artists on the international film scene today."
In addition to the lecture at IU, Costa will visit film production classes on campus, participate in Q-and-A sessions after screenings of his films and introduce a complete retrospective of his work.
The retrospective includes the films Down to Earth (1984); Ossos (1997); his complete shorts from 2001-2007; Colossal Youth (2007); The Blood (1989); In Vanda's Room (2000); Ne Change Rien (2009); and Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? (2001).
"Pedro Costa is one of the rare filmmakers who re-invents how we think about cinema -- not just his own cinema, but everyone else's," said Chicago film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, who will introduce Costa and one of his films at IU Cinema.
The series is made possible through the support of the Ove W. Jorgensen Foundation. It is also supported by the College Arts and Humanities Institute, the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs, IU Cinema, the Black Film Center/Archive, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the African Studies Program, West European Studies, the Department of Communication and Culture and the International Studies Program.
The IU Cinema is a world-class facility and program dedicated to the scholarly study and the highest standards of exhibition of film in both its traditional and modern forms. The IU Cinema reinforces IU's longstanding commitment to excellence in the arts, research and teaching. Since opening in January 2010, it has issued more than 36,000 tickets -- most of them free -- and has been hailed as one of the best venues in the country by industry leaders and filmmakers.
Nearly all screenings are free, but ticketed. For more information, visit https://www.cinema.indiana.edu/ or call 812-856-2503.
