A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #18-26 - Cinema as a Space of Freedom. Moments of Collective Sharing (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Questioning cinema today-questioning a supposed or otherwise specific 
cinematic dimension, language, content, enjoyment, etc., in the age of 
artificial intelligence-also means rethinking filmmaking, and 
experiencing cinema as a space of freedom. Cinema, since its origins, 
has been inconceivable outside of the technology that makes it possible 
and the economic industry that makes it accessible and visible. Cinema, 
like photography from which it derives, is the first art form that 
cannot exist without the machine that creates it. It is essentially 
ahistorical to label "real cinema" that which is tied to a specific
technical medium, and "non-cinema" audiovisual content tied to another 
medium. Rossellini understood this when he deemed the debate over 
whether his television films could be considered "real" cinema 
pointless. The technical quality of the medium itself has no bearing on 
the quality of the film product: cinematic masterpieces have been shot 
with hand-cranked cameras and lenses that would be utterly ridiculous by 
today's standards, or in Super 8, or with MiniDV camcorders. The choice 
of format can essentially be traced back to economic reasons, creative 
and production freedom, or even aesthetic ones, as those who still shoot 
on film do today. We are no longer limited to the 35mm format alone.
Today, in the eternal digital age, where any smartphone can make films 
at no cost, you can simultaneously dust off your old VHS camcorder or 
Super 8 or use your twenty-year-old cell phone. You can even create 
entirely synthetic cinema using artificial intelligence, completely 
bypassing the camera, be it a camera obscura, still camera, video 
camera, or any other type of video camera. The extent to which the 
technical medium influences the content is an ongoing debate that dates 
back to the time of the Lumière brothers. Certainly, the more a film 
requires a massive economic and production apparatus, the more the scope 
for freedom regarding content is reduced. The dependence on funding is 
much more influential than the technical means. Thinking of cinema as an 
instrument of freedom, and therefore of a struggle for freedom, is still 
possible today only by thinking critically of the production apparatus 
that conditions it. Grifi, when he used the first rudimentary magnetic 
tape cameras to shoot Anna, and forgoing film, declared that his was a 
fundamentally political choice. Continuing to focus on the medium causes 
us to lose sight of the fundamental issue of content, meaning, and 
purpose in making cinema, or in general, art that isn't merely 
narcissistic or blatantly focused on making money; therefore, 
essentially reactionary, with the end result of restricting spaces of 
freedom rather than expanding them. Any technical means can be used to 
make cinema, but whatever medium is used, it is necessary not to submit 
to it uncritically but to reappropriate it actively and consciously, 
also for the purpose of overturning the ideological perspective of the 
system that produced a particular medium. This was true for film and is 
even more true today for artificial intelligence.
Conceiving cinema as an act of freedom also means experiencing cinema as 
a collective sharing. Enjoyment in a space that becomes one of freedom, 
where one cannot ignore personal exchange, physically being there, with 
bodies and minds; this requires active involvement, not being passively 
consuming spectators. The very act of leaving home to meet (and engage 
with) other people is a healthy exercise for body and spirit, freeing us 
from the comforting/disheartening logic of solipsistic, constipated 
screens that numb any critical sense. At the Bakunin anarchist club in 
Garbatella, for over two years, the Wednesday Cineforum has been a space 
for sharing and discussion. Here, in addition to the collective viewing 
of unconventional films that seek to spark a discussion about cinema and 
society, we can simply spend time with others, participate, and above 
all, have fun.
Here we eat and drink, before, during, and after each screening; but, 
above all, we nourish and nourish our imagination.
Here, the door is always open to those who are curious, visionary, and 
non-authoritarian and want to engage with our thinking, the active 
thinking of another possible world.

We take back the little that is taken from us every day by the logic of 
the market, by the repression of those who break the imposed rules, and 
by the forced attempt at social exclusion, which seeks to make us 
conform to the disturbing logic of power and those mechanisms that want 
us to be automatons, inert, subscribers to platforms, compliant with the 
system, with the aim of isolating our minds, our bodies, our ideas, our 
dreams and above all with the desire to keep us divided and distant.
Distant from each other.
But we meet and we are ready for conflict.
And time here is not and must not be money. Never.

Marco & Lorenzo

https://umanitanova.org/cinema-spazio-di-liberta-momenti-di-condivisione-collettiva/
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