Saturday, April 7 at 8 PM

Doors 7:30 pm; $5 admission.

TIME IN THE SUN (Mexico / U.S.S.R. / U.S.A. 1939. Dir. Marie Seton, Sergei Eisenstein, Grigory Aleksandrov. 55 min. 16MM print!) — Eisenstein’s ill-fated Que Viva Mexico!, one of cinema’s most celebrated lost masterpieces, exists in several unofficial abridgments and reconstructions. This 1939 version was assembled by Eisenstein biographer Mary Seton, who said it was based on a rough outline provided by Eisenstein himself. The director had come to America in 1930 hoping to make a film in Hollywood. When those plans fell through, he undertook, with financing from novelist Upton Sinclair, a mammoth, extravagant cinematic portrait of Mexico’s rich history, peoples, and traditions. Based on the eternal cycles of birth and death, and inspired by the epic murals of Diego Riviera and other Mexican artists, Que Viva Mexico! was to be structured in six parts, moving in history from pre-Columbian times to contemporary Day of the Dead celebrations. Eisenstein reportedly shot some 50 hours of footage; with expenses and misunderstandings mounting, Sinclair shut down the production. Eisenstein returned to the USSR and never again had access to the footage; Sinclair, the legal owner, parcelled it out to various film projects, including Seton’s, over the years. Many believe Que Viva Mexico! might have been Eisenstein’s surpassing achievement, if only it had been finished.

CERRO PELADO (Cuba. 1966. Dir. Santiago Alvarez. 36 min.) —  “Cerro Pelado” is the name of the ship we see carrying a Cuban sports delegation to the Tenth Central American and Caribbean Games in 1966. They are on their way to San Juan, Puerto Rico—a “‘freely associated’ Yanqui Colony” as a title card says—when the North Americans attempt to prevent their entry and participation. The ship becomes a symbol of Revolutionary Cuban resistance, tenacity, and liberty. Their eventual landing at the games is generally victorious. “My style is the style of hatred for imperialism,” director Santiago Alvarez has said.

“Kino Slang” is a regular series of cinema screenings programmed by Andy Rector at EPFC. It continues the cinematographic and historical excavations, proceedings by montage and association, silent alarms and naked dawns of the eleven-year-old blog, Kino Slang.

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