VTIFF Program-Guide 2024 - Flipbook - Page 23
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SHAHID
Directed by Narges Shahid Kalhor
Iran, Germany | 2024 | Fiction | 84 min | German, Farsi, English w/subtitles
FILMS A TO Z
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT
Directed by Johan Grimonprez
Belgium | 2024 | Documentary | 150 min | French, English, Dutch, Russian w/subtitles
Sponsored by: Orly Yadin and Bob Summers
Sponsored by: Olivia Milens; Andrea Rogers
SHOWTIMES
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 | 4:30 PM | BB
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24 | 7 PM | FH
North American premiere
A wildly clever and frequently hilarious film in which an actress plays a film director
named Narges Shahid Kalhor (whom we often see in conversation with the director
Narges Kalhor), and directs her in a film…which we watch. It’s called Shahid. Basically,
Kalhor has decided that she no longer wants the “Shahid” part of her name. It is an
honorific that reflects religious martyrdom in the family history but Kalhor doesn’t really
buy into it. At all. However, changing her name isn’t as easy as it sounds. As if the
bureaucratic problems weren’t enough—born in Iran, she lives in Germany—it gets even
worse when her long-dead great grandfather, the heroic martyr who bestowed this name
on the family, shows up to talk her out of it. And while he’s at it, he and his friends bust
some serious dance movies.
Simultaneously silly and profound, heady and nutty, Shahid is a deft piece of metafilmmaking in which everything falls into place. The structure allows for a lot of
playfulness, but at its heart the film deals with the heavy issues of legacy and coming to
terms with the past. ~SM
SHOWTIMES
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23 | 7 PM | FH
Global politics, jazz, decolonization, and assassination all play key parts in Johan
Grimonprez’s absolutely thrilling Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, which takes a deep dive
into a mostly forgotten dark chapter of world history—the murder of the Congo’s elected
leader Patrice Lumumba in 1961. The film opens with a flurry, as socially minded jazz
musicians Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln crash the U.N. Security Council to protest
Lumumba’s murder, as Soviet premier Nikita Kruschev bangs his shoe on the table (an
act which Dizzy Gillespie interprets charitably). What’s going on? Grimonprez goes on to
explain, in glorious detail. In an attempt to win the hearts and minds of African citizens
during the Cold War, the State Department sent jazz musicians to perform in Africa,
starting with the most famous of all, Louis Armstrong. Jazz immortals like Duke Ellington,
Dizzy Gillespie and Nina Simone follow suit, all grappling with the obvious contrast: why
does the country these great artists represent still embrace segregation. And are they
just being used as a smokescreen for some disturbing CIA covert actions? Grimonprez
paints the scene vividly with eyewitness accounts, government memos, CIA-backed
mercenaries, Lumumba’s own speeches, and a near-endless run of jazz icons, including
John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Melba Liston and Eric Dolphy. Incredibly researched—
even longtime jazz aficionados will be stunned by the wealth of material that Gimonprez
has unearthed—this breathtaking film documents the moment when African history and
American jazz collided. ~SM
THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE
Directed by Tobe Hooper
USA | 1974 | Fiction | 83 min | English
Sponsored by: Main Street Landing
SHOWTIMES
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22 | 9:15 PM | FH
“Who will survive and what will be left of them.” Fifty years on, The Texas Chain Saw
Massacre is arguably the greatest horror movie of all time, a grisly piece of American
nastiness and a key film of ‘70s New Hollywood. Remembered for being bloodier than it
actually is, the grittiness of the movie is lodged in the popular imagination, influencing
multiple generations of horror auteurs trying to tap into its uniquely bad vibes. Tobe
Hooper’s intense filmmaking radiates the overwhelming heat of Texas in summer while
reflecting on the carnage of the Vietnam War, serial killer Ed Gein, and the unknowable
darkness lurking in remote corners of the U.S. The members of the cannibalistic Sawyer
clan—a warped-mirror family unit, with instant icon Leatherface as the brutish heavy—
are as entertaining as they are repulsive. Hastening the rise of slasher films, and birthing
the Final Girl trope, this is where the modern era of horror begins. ~OO
VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2024
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