In the Intense Now(2018)

2h 7m
- Documentary
- History

Release Date: Jan 31, 2018 | Limited

A personal essay which analyses and compares images of the political upheavals of the 1960s. From the military coup in Brazil to China's Cultural Revolution, from the student uprisings in Paris to the end of the Prague Spring.

Releases

Original Release | Jan 31, 2018

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Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$5,565
Total US & Canada:
$24,955
Total International
$13,268
Total Worldwide:
$38,223

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Director & Top Cast

João Moreira Salles
Director

Technical Specifications

Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: Brazil

Language: Portuguese

Summaries

Plot Summary

In the Intense Now is a feature documentary that focuses on certain events of the 1960s. Narrated in first person, the film reflects on that which is revealed by four sets of images: footage of the French students' uprising in May of 1968; the images captured by amateurs during the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August of the same year, when forces led by the Soviet Union put an end to the Prague Spring; shots of the funerals of students, workers, and police officers killed during the events of 1968 in the cities of Paris, Lyon, Prague, and Rio de Janeiro; and the scenes that a tourist ¬- the director's mother - filmed in China in 1966, the year of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. This means that In the Intense Now may be seen as a film about the nature of images of history. Who films them, why, and how? Is there a difference between records created under different political systems? What can the archive reveal of itself without the viewer having to consult its historical context? What sorts of images are born of fear, of rapture, of urgency, of joy? These are questions that the documentary poses to itself, in the belief that images contain truths inherent to themselves. This line of reflection extends to the documentary cinema produced in that period, as students and professors spurned sterile theorizing in the classroom for militant action in the streets. In France, they left the libraries and went to the factories in an encounter between classes that would give rise to a cinema in which, for the first time, filmmakers and laborers would collaborate on films about the state of the working class. What came of these initiatives? Apart from the generous impulse that drove them, to what extent did they actually manage to lessen the gap between intellectuals and proletarians? There are two politics at play here ¬- the politics of intention and the politics of the result - and In the Intense Now looks to distinguish one from the other. This analytic layer is overlaid by an emotional one. In the Intense Now is structured around a trip to China taken by the director's mother. With no plans other than to visit the beauties of the country - this was a cultural tourism expedition - she became a witness to history in action and was moved by the enthusiasm of a people. She filmed as best she could in Super-8 and left a diary in which she recorded more praise than criticism of the country that was then most dedicated to denying her very class and privilege. Beyond ideological extremes, life made its presence felt, and that was what she set down. Everything struck her as intense, as the opposite of apathy and indifference. Taken over by what she saw, she found joy and happiness during the nearly thirty days that she spent there. Two years later, joy would also spread amongst those who took part in May '68 in Paris and the Prague Spring. This is what may be gleaned from the archival footage and the countless memoirs published by those who lived through the events of the day. One gets the impression that these young people were never more happy. They were agents of history; their fate was in their hands. But while the moment was sublime, it was also brief. May crumbled as quickly as it had emerged: four weeks after the first incidents in the streets, Charles de Gaulle's government had regained control. The Prague Spring lasted longer - seven months - but came to a more dramatic end. With Moscow at the helm, Czechoslovakia was occupied, its leaders cast out and a new executive thrust upon the country. With the political backlash and the vanishing of their great joy, the generation of 68 was confronted with a question: how to survive the end of our best days? This is another way of posing the dilemma of how to move on after a passion has waned. The nature of the passion is irrelevant: be it political (as for the youths of 68), aesthetic (as for the director's mother), amorous, or religious, when intensity fades away, what is left is disenchanted everyday life. And, nonetheless, nearly all of life takes place in a day-to-day existence devoid of the epic. No-one lives eternally in an intense now. This documentary seeks to find out what comes afterwards. In the Intense Now is directed by João Moreira Salles and edited by Eduardo Escorel and Laís Lifschitz, with image research by Antonio Venâncio, executive production by Maria Carlota Bruno, and a soundtrack by Rodrigo Leão. The film is 127 minutes long.https://www.nointensoagora.com.br/

Storyline

Between 1966 and 1968, the world was faced with revolutionary movements in France, Czechoslovakia, Brazil and China. While their success was limited, the people who took part and devoted themselves to the cause came away with life-defining experiences, the kind they would find hard to reproduce throughout the rest of their lives. — Tributary Stu