Memories of the Present Past Film Series – A USEFUL LIFE

Bates College Olin Arts Center, 104
75 Russell Street
Lewiston, ME 04240
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A Useful Life

After twenty-five years, Cinemateca Uruguaya’s most devoted employee, Jorge (real-life Uruguayan critic Jorge Jellinek), still finds his inspiration in caring for the films and audiences that grace the seats and screen of his beloved arthouse cinema. But when dwindling attendance and diminishing support force the theater to close its doors, Jorge is sent into a world he knows only through the lens of art—and suddenly forced to discover a new passion that transcends his once-celluloid reality. Stylishly framed in black-and-white with brilliantly understated performances, Federico Veiroj’s sly and loving homage to the soul of cinema is a universally appealing gem and knowing charmer about life after the movies.

Director: Federico Veiroj
Uruguay
Spanish, with subtitles in English
Memories of the Present Past/Memorias del Pasado Presente co-presented with Latin American Studies and Bates Ladd Library.