In the 90s, Digital television (DTV) was launched. At the time of its development, it was considered an innovative advancement and represented the first significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s. By delving the potential of television media over his filming career, the English director Watkins began working as an assistant producer of short TV films and commercials; in the early 1960s was an assistant editor and director of documentaries at the BBC. All of his films have either been documentary or drama presented with documentary techniques, sometimes portraying historical occurrences or near future events as if contemporary reporters and filmmakers were there to interview the participants. La Commune was shot in just 13 days in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Paris. Watkins uses the media as a frame, and even so, manages to imbue his narrative. No less than the event it chronicles, La Commune is defined as “a triumph of spontaneous action”.
MOVIES IN PROGRAM
1990S NEWS REPORT
2021, 1’
Original English version
Country: U.S.A.
Distribution: Kinolibrary
A brief excerpt of news about launching of transmission of television audiovisual signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. This innovation marked a revolution in entertainment and information territory.
LA COMMUNE
210’, 2000
Original French version with English subtitles
Director: Peter Watkins
Country: France
Distribution: 13 Distribution
PG18
La Commune is a documentary that evokes the Parisian insurrection of 1871, where for just over two months, led to the establishment of a city government of socialist inspiration drive by popular, democratic, secular and libertarian self-management ideal without sparing the ambiguities and contradictions of the unprecedented historical event.