Event

A Useful Life

Seattle Premiere!

(Federico Veiroj, 2010, Uruguay, 35mm, 67 min) This tale of the Montevideo cinematheque and its denizens is the latest reminder that venues like our own beloved Film Forum are an endangered species. Shot in beautiful black and white, Veiroj depicts the efforts a small group of cinephiles struggling to keep open this increasingly antiquated venue. Starring real-life Uruguayan critic Jorge Jellinek, the film is practically a documentary of the effort curators go through to bring works such as this to art houses near you. Much of the story focuses on Jellinek's Jorge, an employee of the Cinemateca Uruguaya for 25 years, trapped in occupational autopilot, changing reels, talking up films, trying to secure rights for the ones he would love to screen, testing the cushioning of the movie house's seats, and prepping for a celebration of Manoel de Oliveira's centennial. Instead of a slide show before each screening, patrons are treated to tape recordings of the venues programmer repeating, "You love good cinema. You need the cinematheque." How true!

A Useful Life is co-presented by the Global Film Initiative and is part of the Global Lens 2011 film series. For more information, visit www.globalfilm.org.

"An elegy to cinephilia and the lives less ordinary keeping it on life support in this 3D-obsessed age of ever-materializing megaplexes." Slant Magazine