The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
Films - If Only I Were That Warrior + Negotiating Amnesia
Directors Valerio Ciriaci and Alessandra Ferrini
Sunday 15th May 2016
Genesis Cinema, 93-95 Mile End Road, London E1 4UJ.
6:00pm, Tickets £10.00 + booking fee, Concessions available. Tickets can be purchased from the Genesis Cinema website.
Cinema Italia UK presents If Only I Were That Warrior (72 minutes) and Negotiating Amnesia (29 minutes), followed by Q&A with directors Valerio Ciriaci and Alessandra Ferrini.
If Only I Were That Warrior is a feature documentary film focusing on the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1935. Following the recent construction of a monument dedicated to Fascist general Rodolfo Graziani, the film addresses the unpunished war crimes he and others committed in the name of Mussolini's imperial ambitions.
The stories of three characters, filmed in present day Ethiopia, Italy and the United States, take the audience on a journey through the living memories and the tangible remains of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia - a journey that crosses generations and continents to today, where this often overlooked legacy still ties the fates of two nations and their people.
Directors: Valerio Ciriaci, Isaak Liptzin.
Country: USA/Italy/Ethiopia.
Year: 2015.
Running time: 72 mins.
Language: English.
Negotiating Amnesia is an essay film based on research conducted at the Alinari Archive and the National Library in Florence. It focuses on the Ethiopian War of 1935-36 and the legacy of the fascist, imperial drive in Italy. Through interviews, archival images and the analysis of high-school textbooks employed in Italy since 1946, the film shifts through different historical and personal anecdotes, modes and technologies of representation.
Directors: Alessandra Ferrini.
Country: Italy.
Year: 2015.
Running time: 29 mins.
Language: English.