Faro Document (Bergman, 1969 & 1979):
The Lexi Cinema, 194 Chamberlayne Rd, Kensal Rise, NW10 3JU.
A Nos Amours is a new collective founded by film-makers Joanna Hogg and Adam Roberts dedicated to programming overlooked, underexposed or especially potent cinema. This is the introduction on their website: A Nos Amours is a moveable feast that goes wherever and whenever opportunities arise. A Nos Amours invites film-makers to advocate and present films that they admire or would like to see on a big screen.
‘I love Ingmar Bergman and it’s great to get a chance to see these hard-to-find documentaries on a big screen,’ says actor/writer/director Richard Ayoade (IT Crowd, and Submarine). Today, Ayoade will introduce a pair of rare documentaries by Bergman, Faro Dokuments 1969 and 1979, in which he lovingly recorded threats to the way of life on the tiny northern island on which made his home.
This is a chance to catch a very rare screening of two Bergman documentaries. It's hard to find much information on the films but a search online did uncover this review:
'In 1969, Ingmar Bergman crafted a little-seen documentary entitled Fårodökument - a sociological portrait of a Scandinavian island called Faro, off the coast of Gotland in southeastern Sweden. Bergman was fascinated by the extremes in climate, which make the island unbearably cold and practically unlivable during the winter but quite mild and pleasant in the summer. The territory thus fell into a critical position, where its summer tourists and a handful of residents enabled the economy to exist on the very edge of sustenance - that is, until many of the younger residents decided to take off for Stockholm and other big cities, and threatened to drive the island completely under. Fårodökument 1979 constitutes a follow-up to that original film, where Bergman (in-between Autumn Sonata and From the Life of the Marionettes at the time) re-visits Faro with his cameras and observes the sociological changes that have occurred in the intervening decade. This yields a series of encouraging onscreen discoveries: the original population size of 673 has remained fairly stable, and many of the teenagers and young adults who yearned for a big city life in the late sixties then changed their minds, deciding to harken back to Faro and do agrarian work with their families - while recognizing augmentative work in other areas as a prerequisite of continued economic stability. In lieu of unearthing the history of the land and the backstories of its residents, Bergman uses his screen time to investigate the interrelationships between Faro's indigenes, their ties to the land, and the components of their lifestyles, from work-related activities (fishing, hunting, construction, agriculture) to leisure. Bergman also touches on the widespread fear of rapidly escalating tourism, and the residents' concomitant need to preserve local culture.' Nathan Southern, Rovi
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