Thursday, February 28, 8pm | Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi in person!
- Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi, Prisoners of War (1995). Image courtesy of the artists.
Milan-based filmmakers Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi are renowned for their haunting archival films. Assembled from rare early 20th-century footage, the duo slow down and hand-tint the original film to emphasize the fleeting expressions and gestures from a time long since passed. In the mid-90s, the couple began an extraordinary trilogy on World War I, beginning with Prisoners of War. Comprised of military footage shot by cameramen in Czarist Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (much of it for propaganda purposes), the film centers on the ordeals of fallen soldiers, child POWs, and civilian refugees. “One of the last scenes depicting a mass grave,” writes curator Kathy Geritz, “is a troubling reminder that the beginning of the century does not look so different from its closing.” Presented with the assistance of Northwestern University’s Department of French and Italian in conjunction with the symposium, Archives of Cinema / Memories of War. 1995, Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi, Italy, 67 min, 16mm.