Fernando Birri

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Fernando Birri, 2008
Fernando Birri, 2008

Fernando Birri (born March 13, 1925 in Santa Fé , Argentina , † December 27, 2017 in Rome ) was an Argentine director , film theorist, poet and puppeteer . Not only according to Gabriel García Márquez was considered one, if not the “father of the new Latin American film”.

biography

Birri - descendant of Italian emigrants - studied film at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome. He completed his studies there in 1952. While still a student, he made the documentaries Seliunte and Alfabeto Notturno in 1951 . Together with Mario Verdone , professor at the Centro Sperimentale, he directed the period film Immagini popolari siciliane sacre e profane . He also wrote the script for the film One is One .

1953/1954 he was involved in the shooting of the film dramas Am Rande der Großstadt by Carlo Lizzani and Das Dach by Vittorio De Sica . The script for the latter was written - as is often the case with de Sica - by Cesare Zavattini , who had already deeply impressed and encouraged Birri as a lecturer at the university. As an actor, Birri starred in the drama Die Vererrten . In 1955 he put El indio Fernández's scenario on paper.

After returning to Argentina in 1959, he founded the Instituto de Cinematografía de la Universidad del Litoral in his hometown of Santa Fé . It is the first film school in this form in Latin America. Between 1956 and 1958, he made the documentary Tire dié (German title: Eine Groschen or Gib 'nen Groschen ) together with students . Birri expressed his ideas in an accompanying text to this film - he called it a manifesto -: "I am for national, realistic and popular films."

In 1960 he directed the short film Buenos días, Buenos Aires for the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía Argentino . His “Manifesto for a National Realistic, Critical and Popular Cinema”, written in the same year, made him one of the founding figures of the New Latin American Cinema. He cemented this reputation with his 1961 film comedy The Flooded , which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was presented and awarded at the Karlovy Vary Festival.

In 1962 he made the documentary La Pampa gringa and published the book La escuela Documentas de Santa Fé , which documented his work as a teacher and the projects that he developed in his school. Birri, now recognized worldwide as a filmmaker, took part in numerous international conferences as a representative of Argentina.

In 1965, political changes in his home country forced the filmmaker to leave Argentina. He had to watch from a distance how his films were banned and the school he ran was closed. After a joyless odyssey through Central and South America, Birri decided to go back to Italy. There he wrote the screenplay Mal D'America together with the writer Vasco Pratolini , a story that tells of migration and return. The film was never shot, the script was published in book form by a small Italian publisher in early 2011. Birri's work shaped the experiences of exile, the failure of his school and the increasing disillusionment with regard to his ideas expressed in connection with Latin America. In 1966 he made the short film Castagnino, diario romano and, together with Ansano Giannarelli, wrote the script for the film drama Sierra Maestra , which was released in 1967 in Italy. Birri also appeared as an actor in this film.

In the same year Birri began to work on what he himself says was “dark opus magnum” ORG . He worked on this film for over ten years, the adaptation of Thomas Mann's short novel “Die verauschte Köpfe”, which in turn is based on an Indian legend. ORG is considered to be one of the most consistent experimental films of all time, in one of the leading roles is Terence Hill , who also financed the completion of the film. ORG had its premiere in 1979 at the Venice Film Festival. The audience - especially those familiar with Birri's earlier work - reacted, as did the film critics, to the film, which Birri explicitly described as a cinema experience.

In 1983 Birri made the documentary Rafael Alberti, un retrato del poeta por Fernando Birri , a portrait of the Spanish artist Rafael Alberti in exile in Rome. In the mid-80s, Birri turned back to Latin American topics. Remitente: Nicaragua - Carta al Mundo , created in 1984, is an expression of solidarity with the Nicaraguan revolution. In the documentary Mi hijo el Ché - Un retrato de familia de don Ernesto Guevara , Ernesto Guevara Lynch tells about the life of his son Che Guevara using family documents .

An important impetus for Latin American filmmaking was the “1. International Festival of New Latin American Cinema ”, held in Havana in 1979. There Birri's early work and his commitment to developing a stand-alone Latin American film were recognized. With this at the latest, Birri was established as one of the great father figures of this cinema.

In 1982 he founded the “Laboratorio ambulante de Poéticas Cinematográficas - Cátedra Glauber Rocha” at the Universidad de Los Andes in Mérida (Venezuela), which then worked in Rome, Bilbao, Mexico City, Managua, Bogotá, Medellín, Maputo, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Buenos Aires organized various projects and courses.

In 1985 Birri was invited by the "Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía Argentino" to participate officially in the cultural life of his home country again after 22 years; he returned to his roots as a filmmaker who trains filmmakers and initiated the seminar “Memory and Future: The Documentary School of Santa Fé and the New Latin American Cinema”, the practical result of which is a new film school.

One of the high points in Birri's life was the founding of the " International College for Film and Television " in San Antonio de los Baños , Cuba. It officially began its work in December 1986 and, according to Birri, is intended to be a training center for filmmakers from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. The nickname “the school of the three worlds” quickly became established for this school. Numerous meanwhile recognized filmmakers from all over the world received their training there.

In 1988 Birri shot his last major feature film Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormouses , a fantasy film based on a story by his long-time friend Gabriel García Márquez . The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and was awarded the prize for best film music. In 1994 the documentary film essay Sur, sur, sur was created . Birri wrote the screenplay and directed the 1999 animated documentary The Century of the Storm with Eduardo Galeano .

Birri's film Elegia friuliana ( Friulian elegy ), an essayistic examination of Birri's ancestors who came from Friuli, came out in 2007. In 2011 he directed the fantasy film El Fausto Criollo, which ran at the Mar del Plata Film Festival in 2012 . Birri did his last work in 2017 for an episode of the comedic talk show Decile a mamá que estamos todos bien .

Filmography

  • 1951: Alfabeto nocturno
  • 1951: Selinunte
  • 1951: Immagine populari siciliane sacre e profane, together with Mario Verdone
  • 1951: Ubuuu, together with Folco Quilici, Bruno Bottai
  • 1959: The True Story of the First Foundation of Buenos Aires (La Primera fundación de Buenos Aires)
  • 1959: Hello, Buenos Aires (Buenos días, Buenos Aires)
  • 1960: A Groschen or Give 'nen Groschen (Tire dié) , documentary film
  • 1961: The Flooded (Los Inundados) , feature film
  • 1962: Che, Buenos Aires
  • 1963: The Earth of Foreigners (La Pampa gringa)
  • 1964: Gaitán a casa
  • 1967: Castagnino, a Roman diary (Castagnino, diario romano)
  • 1977: Org - Scene 24: 'The camera obscura' (Org - Escena 24: 'La camera oscura')
  • 1978: Org
  • 1984: Sender Nicaragua - Letter to the World (Remitente Nicaragua - Carta al mundo)
  • 1983: Rafael Alberti, a portrait of the poet by Fernando Birri (Rafael Alberti, un retrato del poeta)
  • 1985: My son Che (Mi hijo el Che)
  • 1988: A very old man with enormous wings (Un Señor muy viejo con unas alas enormouses) , feature film
  • 1989: Vu cumpra - has no sense (Vu cumpra - No tiene sentido)
  • 1995: South South South (Sur Sur Sur)
  • 1997: Che: Death of Utopia (Che, ¿muerte de una utopía?)
  • 1998: Enredando sombras. - Cien años de cine en América Latina y el Caribe, together with Federico García Hurtado, Andrés Marroquín, Jacobo Morales, Pablo Rodríguez Jáuregui, Juan Carlos Tabío, Edmundo Aray, Marcela Fernández Violante, Julio García Espinosa, María Novaro, Orlando Rodríguez Senna, Iván Trujillo
  • 1999: The Century of the Storm (El Siglo del viento)
  • 2006: ZA 05. Lo viejo y lo nuevo
  • 2007: Elegy of Friau (Elegia Fruiliana)
  • 2011: El Fausto Criollo

literature

  • International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (Ed.): Fernando Birri -… a traveling cineast. Conversations with Goffredo de Pascale , Berlin 1995 (Henschel Verlag).
  • Kürner, Peter: Fernando Birri (materials and documents) , Westdeutsche Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (ed.), Oberhausen 1987
  • Groschup, Helmut / Wurm, Renate (ed.): Fernando Birri. Cinema of Liberation , Innsbruck 1991 (Südwind Verlag).
  • Groschup, Helmut (Ed.): Die Cuban Filmkomödie , Innsbruck 2001 (StudienVerlag).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fernando Birri is dead , deutschlandfunkkultur.de, published and accessed on December 28, 2017.
  2. ↑ Morre o cineasta argentino Fernando Birri, em Roma , adS oglobo.globo.com (Italian), accessed on December 28, 2017.
  3. ↑ film data sheet Fernando Birris "Org" adS berlinale.de. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  4. ↑ Fernando Birri - The poet of Latin American cinema is dead. AdS trigon-filmorg / de. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Birri, Fernando
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Argentine director, film theorist, poet and puppeteer
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Santa Fe , Argentina
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 2017
Place of death Rome