International House Philadelphia: Program Guide Fall 2013 | Page 24

N O VEMBER

Caesar Must Die Tuesday, November 5 at 6pm Diwali Celebration Be a part of our Indian Cultural Festival when International House Philadelphia brings together various colors, candles, and lights, with traditional food, music, and dance, in observance of Diwali! Featuring live dance and musical performances, embrace the spirit of India in the heart of Philadelphia.
Free IHP residents; $8 IHP members; $10 general admission.

The Lion Hunters Thursday, November 7 at 7pm DIRECTORS IN FOCUS: JEAN ROUCH The Lion Hunters
dir. Jean Rouch, France, 1967, digital, color, French w/ English subtitles, 77 min.

Shot on the border between Niger and Mali over a period of seven years, The Lion Hunters (La Chasse au lion à l’arc) is Jean Rouch’s documentation of the lion hunt performed by the gow hunters of the Songhay people. Opening on the Niger River, the film travels north to “the bush that is farther than far:” the desert region populated by the Fulani cattle herders, who have requested the help of the gow in eliminating a lion, nicknamed “The American” for his cruel cunning, who has been killing their cows. As the Songhay society’s designated hunters, the gow have developed a series of elaborate rituals to precede the hunt. We see them fashioning their bow and arrows from tree branches, and preparing the Boto poison with which they will coat the arrows, a process accompanied by an astonishing series of dances and incantations. The gow lay traps, and test the poison on a hyena and a civet cat, but even these measures are not enough to prepare us for their confrontation with the ferocious “American.”

Wednesday, November 6 at 7pm FULL EXPOSURE Caesar Must Die
dir. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Italy, 2012, 35mm, Italian with English subtitles, 76 min.

The theater in Rome’s Rebibbia Prison: a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar has just ended amidst much applause. The lights dim on the actors and they become prisoners once again as they are accompanied back to their cells. Six months earlier: the warden and a theater director speak to the inmates about a new project, the staging of Julius Caesar in the prison. The first step is casting, a process both vivid and energetic. The second step is exploration of the text. Shakespeare’s universal language helps the inmate-actors to identify with their characters. Caesar Must Die was the winner of the Golden Bear at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival and was also selected as the Italian entry for Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards.
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