05 April 2019
Open- Air Cinema Yateem Initiative Screens “Unfinished Spaces ” Movie
An event organized in a collaboration between the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities and Mawane initiative, coordinated with Yateem Family, on 6 April 2019, featured the screening of the film titled “ Unfinished Spaces” at Cinema Yateem (next to Yateem Centre – Manama. The event was attended by a number of cinema and culture lovers and intellectuals.
The movie, Directed by Benjamin Murray, Alysa Nahmias, produced in 2011, tells the story of three young, visionary architects, in 1961, who were commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to create Cuba's National Art Schools on the grounds of a former golf course in Havana, Cuba. Construction of their radical designs began immediately and the school's first classes soon followed. Dancers, musicians and artists from all over the country reveled in the beauty of the schools, but as the dream of the Revolution quickly became a reality, construction was abruptly halted and the architects and their designs were deemed irrelevant in the prevailing political climate. Forty years later the schools are in use, but remain unfinished and decaying. Castro has invited the exiled architects back to finish their unrealized dream. Unfinished Spaces features intimate footage of Fidel Castro, showing his devotion to creating a worldwide showcase for art, and it also documents the struggle and passion of three revolutionary artists
On 20 April 2019, “ Cinema Yateem” initiative will be screening “16 Acres”, documentary film directed by Richard Hankin. Free admission. This cooperation is part of “Manama Call”, launched by Bahrain Culture Authority in January last year, which aims to enhance the development of the City of Manama and nominate its urban history on UNESCO World Heritage List, as a creative city, shedding lights on Manama city’s universal exceptional heritage, as reflected by its historical buildings and their identity that should be preserved due to their irreplaceable architectural heritage value. This endeavor requires the support, participation and the cooperation of several families from Manama to guarantee the sustainability of this unique architectural heritage, bringing life again to the spirit and memory of the place.
