ARTicles vol. 1 i.2: The Children of Herakles Film Series

The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun
(La petite vendeuse de Soleil)
Directed by Djibril Diop Mambety
Senegal/Switzerland 1999, 35mm, color, 45 min.
Wolof with English subtitles.
In The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun, Dakar’s bustling central market becomes a metaphor for the unchallenged free market orthodoxy embraced by most governments and international financial institutions today. Mambety doesn’t romanticize the dog-eat-dog competitiveness of the teenage bullies who terrorize his protagonist, a 12-year-old paraplegic who begs for alms with her blind grandmother in the market. Rather than be intimidated by the teenage boys, she decides to become the first female newspaper vendor herself since, “Girls can do anything boys can do.”
following the January 4 performance

The Valley
Directed by Dan Reed.
U.K. 1999, video, color, 70 min.
The Valley is a journey deep into the killing fields of Kosovo, at the height of the carnage in September 1998. It tells the stories of ordinary villagers and fighting men, trapped in the blazing cauldron of the Drenica valley, during a Serb military onslaught. It shows how the spiral of fear, hatred and killing, fuelled by ancient myths, takes on a terrible logic of its own. It is as much about the delusions of the combatants as the fear and horror of ethnic war.
following the January 7, 8 and 9 performances

Lessons Of Darkness
Directed by Werner Herzog
Germany 1992, S-16 mm, color, 52 min.
An apocalyptic vision featuring the oilwell fires in Kuwait after the Gulf-War, as a whole world burst into flames. This film is stylized as science fiction, as there is not a single shot in which you can recognize our planet.
following the January 10, 11 and 12 evening performances

Mondo
Directed by: Tony Gatlif.
France 1996, 35mm, 80 min.
French with English subtitles
The director of the widely acclaimed Latcho Drom and Gadjo Dilo again turns to gypsy life for this beautiful, poetic film about a ten-year-old boy who appears, seemingly out of nowhere, on the streets on Nice. He meets a wise fisherman, a magician who takes him on as an assistant, a Vietnamese woman who offers him shelter, and others who show him the joy of life in spite of the hardships he endures.
following the January 14, 15 and 16 performances

The City (La Ciudad)
Director: David Riker. US 1998, 35mm, b/w, 88 min.
Spanish with English subtitles
With stunning black and white cinematography and an intensive collaboration with the New York immigrant community over a five-year period, La Ciudad weaves a rich four-part narrative tapestry of present day immigrant life. A young laborer, scavenging for bricks, is killed when a wall collapses; two teenagers from the same hometown fall in love, then lose each other in a housing project; a homeless father tries to enroll his daughter in school; a young garment worker seeks justice in the sweatshops. Uprooted, disenfranchised, exploited, and heroic, these characters uncover the tragedies and redemptions of everyday life.
following the January 17, 18 and 19 evening performances

Chronicle of a Disappearance
Director: Elia Suleiman
Palestine, 1996, 35mm, color, 85 min.
Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles.
This film is a courageous work of autobiographical fiction, a false chronology in two parts that begins in Nazareth, the Palestinian filmmaker’s birthplace and the largest Arab city within Israel. Suleiman presents us with funny, incisive vignettes that emphasize the dislocation felt by the Arab population.
following the January 21, 22 and 23 evening performances

aka Don Bonus
Directed by Sokly “Don Bonus” Ny and Spencer Nakasako.
US 1995, video, color, 55 min.
This award-winning work focuses on Sokly “Don Bonus” Ny, a Cambodian-born teen who had been a participant in Nakasako’s media workshop. Using a Hi-8 camcorder to compile a video diary of his senior year in high school, Ny creates a powerful self-portrait of growing up amidst the challenges of poverty, racism, violence, and loneliness. Ultimately a.k.a. Don Bonus is an empowering tale of struggle and personal triumph among the uncertainties and hardships of America in the mid-1990s. Additional films will be screened at the Harvard Film Archive. See page 8 for more information.
following the January 24 and 25 evening performances