Film stars, directors and movie lovers packed into Yangon’s oldest cinema last night for the launch of a 10-day heritage film celebration.
Memory! Festival has returned to Myanmar for the seventh time, with about 70 local and international films planned for Maha Bandula Park, a renovated alleyway, and Waziya cinema, where the opening ceremony was held.
“It’s a celebration, entertainment and a real joy in town,” festival co-founder Severine Wemaere told Myanmar Mix.
“What pleases me is the people who go into the cinema,” she said—not only promising filmmakers and actors but also curious passersby. “All audiences, it’s a country of cinema.”
Acting on the premise that travel and ideas nurture art, the festival has brought in international guests such as French movie star Isabelle Huppert along with local names such as Myanmar Academy Award-winning Swe Zin Htaik.
The festival has also invited journalism students to cover its events and interview people behind the films. It will launch a script writing programme and present the new restoration of a Myanmar classic, Mhone Shwe Yi (Golden Pollen).
Street murals created by art collective YGN WALLS on the golden age of Burmese cinema will be displayed in the alleyway between upper 33 and 34 streets.
Particularly exciting for Wemaere is the screening of classics (with Myanmar language subtitles) at Maha Bandula Park as well as a performance from composer Itö and video artist Alexandre Elkouby.
“Sharing films outdoors in such a place as Maha Bandula Park is really amazing,” says Wemaere, who has included the event in her five top MEMORY! picks for Myanmar Mix readers. Scroll all the way down for the full schedule.
Cinemix and City Lights
Head to Maha Bandula Park on Saturday (November 16) for a collaboration between French video jockey Alexandre Elkouby and Myanmar musician Itö with his supporting band. The two artists will deliver a bespoke creation, mixing footages from a selection of films presented at the 2019 Memory festival with local sounds recorded in markets, industrial sites or in the streets, and traditional music. The 40-minute performance will be followed by a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights.
Where: Maha Bandula Park
When: Saturday (November 16), 5.15pm-6pm and 6pm-7.30pm
Bluey (2016) and Charlie’s Country (2013)
Bluey director Darlene Johnson will introduce her film, a story of courage, heart and the fight for survival. Bluey, an angry young woman trapped in a life of violence, meets a mystery mentor who could change everything.
Charlie, an Aboriginal man who lives in Arnhem Land, paints tree barks and fishes barramundi fish, all the while feeling out of place in an Australia which is no longer his. After his spear is confiscated by the police, who think it is a weapon, he decides to leave his urban Aboriginal community and go back to the bush, his “Mother Country.”
Where: Waziya cinema
When: Sunday (November 17), 12pm-2pm
Do The Right Thing (1989)
Director Spike Lee’s drama follows a Brooklyn neighbourhood’s simmering racial tension, which culminates in tragedy on a hot summer’s day.
Where: Waziya cinema
When: Friday (November 22), 8.30pm-10.30pm
Delicatessen (1991)
In a dilapidated apartment building in a post-apocalyptic France, food is in short supply and grain is used as currency. On the ground floor is a butcher's shop, run by the landlord, Clapet, who posts job opportunities in the Hard Times paper as means to lure victims to the building, whom he murders and butchers as a cheap source of meat to sell to his tenants.
Where: Waziya cinema
When: Saturday (November 23), 4pm-5.40pm
Rear Window (1954)
The film is considered by many filmgoers, critics, and scholars to be one of Hitchcock's best and one of the greatest films ever made. ecuperating from a broken leg, adventuresome professional photographer L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies (Stewart) is confined to a wheelchair in his Greenwich Village apartment. His rear window looks out onto a courtyard and several other apartments. During a powerful heat wave, he watches his neighbours, who keep their windows open to stay cool. A lot happens as "Jeff" secretly watches!
Where: Waziya cinema
When: Sunday (November 24), 8.30pm-10.30pm
