EE01 — The Spectre of Eurocommunism
“Europe is a moving target,” wrote Ben Lerner for our films. It started out as a short film on the Irish border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, where two friends meet: Patrick McCabe an Irish writer and Colin MacCabe, a film producer (including this trilogy) and literary critic. At first Colin didn't really want to be in the film, then it became more and more a film about him. We found footage of a philosophical congress that he organized in 1984. Not only Colin's mentor Raymond Williams was there, but also Jacques Derrida. Shortly before, Colin had been sacked from teaching in Cambridge because he was a post-structuralist–although he had never heard the word before–but he was obviously an ex-Maoist. Just like Jean-Luc Godard. Not only has Colin written several books about him, but Godard was also his inspiration to go into filmmaking. Or as it was called: to do cinema. What particularly impressed us was that Colin was a Eurocommunist and has remained one to this day. This goes back to his hero Antonio Gramsci, who died in prison under Mussolini and who said that you don't have to convince 30% or 50% of the people, but 80%. In changing the culture of a country. Colin's son's family lives in Italy, and he himself spends at least half his time there. So the first film 'The Spectre of Eurocommunism' is very much about Italy, about the marble in Carrara, about olives, donkey races and the Left.
EE02 — Infinite Histories
The second film, Infinite Histories, begins with footage of Enrico Berlinguer's funeral in Rome in 1984. Over a million people attended. Berlinguer was the leader of Italy's (Euro)communist party and remains a hero to this day. Actors like Marcello Mastroianni and film directors including Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Francesco Rosi stood by his coffin. Mikhail Gorbachev was also there, who a few years later brought openness and transparency to the Soviet Union, thereby changing the world completely. And that is what the second film is about: 1989-91, the fall of the Communist Eastern bloc, especially Romania, Albania, Poland, the divided Germany and Berlin, and Yugoslavia. ‘The End of History,’ as Francis Fukuyama called it, and what followed. Shortly afterwards, Krzysztof Kieślowski shot his Three Colour trilogy about the ideals of the French Revolution: liberty, equality and fraternity. Kieślowski's Blue, centres on a ‘Song for the Unity of Europe’.
EE03 — Democratic Socialism
During the eight years in which the films were made, they developed into a project about the left, about cinema, about television, about books, about the concept of ‘culture’ as political mobilisation, about friendship and, last but not least, about utopias. Europia, Newtopia, Eutopa, Newropia… The third film, Democratic Socialism, is about a better world. Looking back from the future, more precisely from the year 2038, the time of the New Serenity. We show ideas and concepts from the present, for how we did get there. Dishwashers or washing machines? But also concrete programmes, such as the power stations in a street in London, a refugee project in a coal mining area, and how the construction industry did finally arrive in the circular economy. All started locally and just needed to be scaled up. Showing the good sides of Europe – that was one of the premises for these films. No time for complaints, celebrate Europe!!