Former ADFF chief curates free screening season in capital

Film historian and former Abu Dhabi Film Festival chief Peter Scarlet is to curate a new season of screenings and lectures titled The 7th Art at Manarat Al Saadiyat. Delores Johnson / The National

Film historian and former Abu Dhabi Film Festival chief Peter Scarlet is to curate a new season of screenings and lectures titled The 7th Art at Manarat Al Saadiyat, in association with Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and Image Nation Abu Dhabi. Beginning October 11 the series will take place at 7:30pm every other Sunday and 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 screenings are part of TCA Abu Dhabi’s continuing cultural programme dedicated to developing awareness and understanding of the interdisciplinary role of culture, and the programme’s title is drawn from a manifesto written in 1911, less than 20 years after movies were invented, by Ricciotto Canudo, an Italian theoretician. Canudo surmised that since film is a synthesis of dance, music and poetry (the three temporal arts) and architecture, painting and sculpture (the three spatial arts) it should rightly be classed as the “7th Art.”

Image Nation board member Noura Al Kaabi commented: “Film making and film appreciation is at the heart of Abu Dhabi’s 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.”

Image Nation CEO Michael Garin added: “Audience awareness about the film world is a key part of Image Nation’s mission. Improving the public’s understanding of the history of film will enhance their viewing and help to build a film culture here in the UAE.”

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.

Other highlights include a digitally remastered version of the classic 1920 silent German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, accompanied by its original orchestral score; The surrealist classic, Luis Bunuel/Salvador Dali collaboration Un Chien Andalou (An Andalucian Dog), and Cubism documentary Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies.

All screenings are free to attend on a first-come-first-served basis. The line up in full is as follows:

10/11 — STORY OF FILM, episodes 1 & 2

10/25 — THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (Expressionism)

11/8 — STORY OF FILM, episodes 3 & 4

11/24 — FACES OF CHILDREN (Impressionism) (Please note this film will be screened on a Tuesday)

12/6 — STORY OF FILM, episodes 5 & 6

12/20 — BLOOD OF A POET and AN ANDALUSIAN DOG (Surrealism)

01/10 — STORY OF FILM, episodes 7 & 8

01/24 — PICASSO AND BRAQUE GO TO THE MOVIES and BALLET MÉCANIQUE (Cubism)