Films & Schedules - I

I Am Love moves through the cultivated world of a wealthy and distinguished industrial family.

OPENING NIGHT - The polished rooms of a Milanese villa ignite with anxious activity as a wealthy industrial family, the Recchis, prepare to celebrate the birthday of their patriarch. It is an occasion designed to ensconce family traditions—the handsome grandson, Edoardo, introduces his new girlfriend; his sister presents another piece of her artwork to her grandfather; and the grandfather, knowing this is his last birthday, names the successor to his empire. But in the glow of all that is and has come before, change approaches the family dynasty with devastating certainty for all. As the refined familial machinations unfold, the woman of the house, Emma Recchi (Tilda Swinton), skates along the tight seams of the family, exuding elegance and uncertain turbulence. A story of passion breaking free of the constraints of class and privilege, Guadagnino’s sensual film recalls the grand sweep of Luchino Visconti’s classic family sagas.

Filmography: The Protagonists (99), Tilda Swinton: The Love Factory (02), Mundo Civilizado (02), Cuoco Contadino (04), Melissa P. (05).

Cultural Partner: Italian Cultural Institute, San Francisco.

Sponsored by The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

120 Minutes    

Eugenio Polgovsky’s remarkable documentary is a day-by-day study of the lives of several groups of child laborers in rural Mexico.

Polgovsky’s poetic The Inheritors, which he wrote, directed, and edited, immerses us in the daily lives of children who, along with their families, survive only by their unrelenting labor. Polgovsky (Tropic of Cancer, PIFF 29) documents reality in rural Northern Mexico in a way that captures the people’s dignity and humanity as they work long hours, in often hazardous conditions, picking tomatoes, peppers, corn, and beans. The film observes them in other labor routines, such as producing earthen bricks, cutting cane, gathering firewood, ox-plowing fields, and planting by hand, as well as in their artistic endeavors, such as carving wooden figures and weaving baskets to sell. The indelible impression: from the frailest elders to the smallest of toddlers, the cycle of poverty continues.

Filmography: Tropic of Cancer (04).

Best Documentary, Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences.

Sponsored by the Consulate of Mexico.

90 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Documentary Views, Global Classroom, Spanish Language, Latino.