November - December, 2024
Visual memory, news and experiences from Georgia in the 90s and 2000s. A portrait of ordinary existence, individual and collective traumas, cultural experience, socio-political situation, imprint of a specific time; emigration, war, women's voices and portraits of famous or unknown, common people, forgotten and vanished stories.
What forms authors choose to reflect on reality around them, what do they have to say and what can we discover through Georgian documentary cinema, which can represent a window into the past and present. The program is based on studies of Georgian documentary cinema of the 1990s and 2000s.
Curated by Lika Glurjidze and Luka Bedoshvili
The program is based on the research conducted by the authors. The short English language summary of the research will soon be available on this webite.
Note: DOCA Film Club will not be held on the December 2 Monday because of Tbilisi International Film Festival
Georgian Documentaries of 1990s and 2000s
movies
Nov 4 19:00 Amirani Cinema
Screen that disappeared and Visual Archive, A Window through the Past: A Portrait of life in the 90s
The desire to visually capture and record current processes. Various attempts to perceive reality in a fragmentary, critical way, in depth or with humor. Football and its traces in current processes, in the formation of identity or feeling of commonality, the first national championship of Georgia, rows and empty counters, an interview with Merab Mamardashvili recorded before his death. Questions asked and raised in those films became our guide to reality. Voices and stories from the past return on the screen.
Film magazine "ADAMIANI DA KANONI / THE HUMAN AND THE LAW" N81
dir: R. Khuntsoria, G. Rogava, V. Begoidze, Z. Purtseladze, G. Garsevanishvili, L. Bokeria
10 min / 1991
About shops, queues, empty counters, the possibilities and impossibilities of selling products.
THE WAY HOME - MERAB MAMARDASHVILI
dir. Nikoloz Drozdov
19 min / 1990
Mamardashvili's reflection on current processes, the film was shot directly before his death.
MEET OUR CHILDREN
dir. Omar Gvasalia
24 min / 1988
Interviews with young people about social issues, life, at the same time we observe how they have fun with skateboards.
DO WE NEED THE USSR CHAMPIONSHIP IN FOOTBALL
dir. Alexander Zhgenti
29 min / 1991
In this film, there is a discussion whether we need the Soviet Union's championship in football or not. The first national championship of Georgia began on March 30, 1990. The role and place of football in the search for a country's identity and the unifying power of people.
TUESDAY Nov 12 19:00 Amirani Cinema
ZAHESI 708
dir: Tamuna Karumidze
48 min / 2001
In the time of post-Soviet political and socio-economic stagnation, Zaheri 708 is a bridge between the 1990s and 2000s. Made at the turn of the millenium, the film reflects on the longing to escape from the experience of the traumatic, dark nineties, to lay the foundation for a recent social order, and the process of realizing this desire. Tamuna Karumidze captures Tbilisi in transition from the twentieth to the twenty-first century with a free, breathing camera and depicts the insatiable desire of young artists to express themselves in a stagnant city living with the experience of the devastating 90s.
Q&A with the filmmaker
TUESDAY Nov 19 19:00 Amirani Cinema
Portraits of Women from the 90s (Part I)
Various women, unique portraits, political, realistic, exciting, poetic - with the ghost of struggle for survival, place, education, creativity from the 90s Georgian archive. Fragments of their existence, work, solidarity, art, various stories - with social accents and reflection on reality. Voices and stories from the past return on the screen.
I AM AND MY NABADI
Dir. Mikho Borashvili, I. Vachnadze
10 min / 1990
In the village of Samegrelo, women gather in the yard of the house and process wool. At this place you can see visualization of women's work and ordinary life, choreography of movements, conversations, fragments from their lives.
NINIKO
dir. Mikho Borashvili
10 min / 1990
The story of a little girl from the village of Racha her portrait, routine, existence, coming to school, where she remains the only student in the class and all the teachers provide lessons for her.
PRIVILAGE WITHOUT PRIVILAGE
dir. Nikoloz Kuzanov
10 min / 1990
Large families in Georgia, survey on the street and fragments from everyday life.
THE WINDOW
dir. Boris Margvelashvili
20 min / 1990
Portrait of artist Ketevan Forakishvili, her art, working environment and her own reflection about life. Expressive portrait, with visual and acoustic experiments of the director.1
TUESDAY Nov 26 19:00 Amirani Cinema
THE BRIDGE
dir: Nino Orjonikidze, Vano Arsenishvili
2005
The Bridge studies the traumatic experiences of war victims, the affective layers of these experiences and their impact on the post-traumatic lives of the characters by observing the Enguri Bridge and using various expressive methods.
ALTZANEY
dir: Nino Orjonikidze, Vano Arsenishvili
2009
Altzaney is a portrait of an elderly woman in Pankisi Gorge who carries a role of a special mediator in patriarchal society and whose purpose in life is to solve the problems of others, to mediate.
Q&A with the filmmakers
TUESDAY Dec 10 19:00 Amirani Cinema
Portraits of Women from the 90s (Part II)
Various women, unique portraits, political, realistic, exciting, poetic - with the ghost of struggle for survival, place, education, creativity from the 90s Georgian archive. Fragments of their existence, work, solidarity, art, various stories - with social accents and reflection on reality. Voices and stories from the past return on the screen.
WOMEN
dir. Vazha Zubashvili
25 min / 1990
Portraits of various women, their conversations, monologues and fragments from life. Portraits shown with ordinary routines and dreams, challenges, expectations, feelings and desires related to their lives. What do they think? What do they feel? How do they cope with reality in 90's Georgia.
MANDILOSNEBI / LADIES
dir. Marina Gegenava
10 min / 1985
The issues of women's work, existence, portraits, difficulties and challenges of the life of mothers with many children.
PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN
Dir. Otar Gurgenidze
15 min / 1987
Portrait of dancer Iamze Dolaberidze and his world.
TUESDAY Dec 17 19:00 Amirani Cinema
America in One Room
dir: Davit Kandelaki
53 min / 2007
America in one room tell about an innocent Georgian convict in an American prison, in which the director captures the psycho-emotional portrait of a man who escaped the trauma and disorder of the 90s and the absurdity of his situation by synthesizing the voice of the character trapped in four walls with footage of New York.
TUESDAY Dec 24 19:00 Amirani Cinema
OF COURSE TO AMERICA!
dir. Nino Purtskhavenidze, Pieter Jan Smit
76 წთ / 2009
In the film "Of course, in America" (Nino Furtsvanidze, Peter Ian Smith, 2009), in which breaking the borders is synonymous with overcoming trauma and hopelessness, starting life anew, the process of entering the USA illegally, establishing oneself in the reality there, and the bureaucratic difficulties associated with emigration are described with special nuances, affective-emotional vicissitudes.
MONDAY Dec 30 19:00 Amirani Cinema
POWER TRIP
dir: Paul Devlin
85 min / 2003
Power Trip bridges 1990s and 2000s made at the turn of the millennium, reflecting the longing to escape from the experience of the traumatic, dark nineties, to lay the foundation for a recent social order, and the process of realizing this desire. Paul Devlin concentrates on the difficulty of lack of electricity and describes the process of overcoming this problem in a nuanced audiovisual style. The film follows AES-Telasi American employees who are trying to make a business amidst unpaid electricity bills, wide-spread corruption and a challenge of uninterrupted power supply.
Q&A with cinematographer, editor and Georgian producer of the film Valeri Odikadze
We would like to thank Amirani cinema for providing the cinema for the Film Club.
Supporters of the curated program