Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and Image Nation Abu Dhabi have teamed up to launch The 7th Art, a new screening series which will explore the history of film and its relationship with other art forms. Beginning October 11 the series will take place at 7:30 pm every other Sunday at […]
Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and Image Nation Abu Dhabi have teamed up to launch The 7th Art, a new screening series which will explore the history of film and its relationship with other art forms.
Beginning October 11 the series will take place at 7:30 pm every other Sunday at Manarat Al Saadiyat. All films will be subtitled in Arabic and English. Special additional 7th Art Discovery screenings will occasionally be presented in different venues, to show how film screenings can transform new places.
The 7th Art screening series is part of TCA Abu Dhabis ongoing cultural programme dedicated to developing awareness and understanding of the interdisciplinary role of culture.
The programmes title is drawn from a manifesto written in 1911, less than 20 years after movies were invented. Ricciotto Canudo, an Italian theoretician, explained that film is a synthesis of dance, music and poetry (the three temporal arts) and architecture, painting and sculpture (the three spatial arts).
Noura Al Kaabi, a board member of Image Nation, commended TCA and Image Nation on this new initiative: Filmmaking and film appreciation is at the heart of Abu Dhabis culture and personality. This new platform will teach Abu Dhabi residents about film, using the medium of film and will significantly add to the culture of film we have cultivated in the capital over many years. I hope it will also encourage more young people to explore the power of film as a vehicle for their creativity and their career.
The 7th Art screening series is designed to complement the current cultural offerings and to provide a helpful introduction to film for those eager to know more about how filmmaking fits into the art world, said Rita Aoun-Abdo, Executive Director of the Culture Sector, TCA Abu Dhabi.
The idea behind the screenings is to discover the cinema world beyond the classical context and to better understand the link between the different forms of art.
Michael Garin, CEO of Image Nation Abu Dhabi, said of the partnership: Audience awareness about the film world is a key part of Image Nations mission. Improving the publics understanding of the history of film will enhance their viewing and help to build a film culture here in the UAE. We are delighted to partner with TCA in presenting this unique series that will give audiences a chance to enjoy seminal films they would otherwise not be able to see on the big screen.
The programme is being curated by veteran film historian and curator Peter Scarlet, who will also host the film presentations and lead audience Q&As and discussions following the screenings.
The series will kick off on Sunday, October 11 with the first two episodes of The Story of Film: An Odyssey, the acclaimed 15-chapter documentary by the UK’s Mark Cousins, exploring the history of filmmaking around the world and how it has evolved.
From there, the twice monthly screenings will alternate between showings of The Story of Film and masterpieces of world cinema presented in the context of the art movements from which they emerged. Several of these screenings will also be accompanied by a brief lecture by a specially invited speaker who will help set the films in their art-historical context.
A digitally remastered version of the classic 1920 silent German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, accompanied by its original orchestral score, will be shown Sunday, October 25. It will be followed in succeeding weeks by Faces of Children (Impressionism), An Andalusian Dog and The Blood of a Poet (Surrealism) and Ballet Mécanique and Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies (Cubism).
