Being

Running time: N/A

North American Premiere Being, a film of uncompromising attitude and quality, relentlessly grim, insistently artistic, is a true "lost Maverick." Because Being, originally filmed in 1991, in Russia, is inherently and intensely critical of the social conditions in Soviet Russia, the Soviet censors seized it. Being sat shelved in the archives for nearly ten years, until 2000, when the Polish director, Andrzej Czarnecki, personally bought the uncompleted film outright, took it to Poland and completed it. Being focuses on alcoholics; beggars; outcasts; society's shunned dregs, conscripted into forced labor; living under all but inhumane conditions who construct a road that threatens to destroy a church standing in its way. Some films create power through content; some, through form. Being does both. It's a tough film - grim, dark, grainy, uncompromising, poetic, indistinct, disturbing, fascinating. Like a hybrid of Sakurov, Gyorgy Feher and others of their ilk, it's a textured meditation on misery. It ranks alongside Sakurov's Whispering Pages for its astonishing, inventive blending of sound and image. This is a rare opportunity to discover a film of intense and stunning personal vision finally receiving its American premiere. - Charlie Cockey. Preceded by: Abandoned Eden (Eno Milkani, 20min, 35mm, Albania) Ð In a beautiful coastal village of South Albania, a handful of old people take care of a baby - all of the young people having emigrated. Their happiness won't last forever; however, the baby will follow its destiny.