09 March 2019
Bahrain Culture Authority, in Cooperation with Mawane and Yateem Family, Launched “Cinema Yateem” in Manama city
Bahrain Culture Authority kicked off the movie screenings titled “120 kg” open-air on Saturday, 9 March, at 7pm at Cinema Yateem (next to Yateem Centre - Manama), starting with the movie “The Pruitt-lgoe Myth: An Urban History” This event is a collaboration between the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities and Mawane, coordinated with Yateem Family, which aims to revive the concept of open air cinemas in the spaces of Manama, screening a series of films related to architecture, humanity and identity. The event will be repeated every Saturday at 7:00 pm and will run until May 4th 2019.
In his speech before the start of the movie screening, H.E Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, welcomed the audience and stressed the importance of BACA’s work to revive and rehabilitate Manama’s city historical houses and urban fabric. H.E highlighted the cooperation and coordination efforts between all parties to achieve a comprehensive successful cultural outcomes, lauding the efforts of non-profit organization “ Mawane” for providing movies and extending thanks to the Yateem family for their cooperation. .
Cinema Yateem first movie screening was “The Pruitt-lgoe Myth: An Urban History” a film, directed by independent filmmaker Chad Freidrichs, revolves around the Pruitt-Igoe social housing development in St. Louis, Missouri after the WWII. Most urban planners and St. Louis residents think of Pruitt-Igoe as, well, a failure. Freidrichs challenges this categorization and delves deeper into the histories of St. Louis and Pruitt-Igoe to explain the layered reasons for why it ended the way it did. Pruitt-Igoe is not only understood as a failure by some, but images of its demolition often serve as an icon for failed modernism of the 1950s. In The Pruitt-Igoe Myth Freidrichs disproves this as a shallow theory and uses compelling personal narratives and historical accounts to show the good, the bad, and the ugly of the short lived social housing complex. The film shows that blame on a singular fault, whether it be blame on the residents or the modern design, is both unfair and far too narrow-minded to be the true cause of its short life span.
Indeed, with the oil industry booming in Bahrain in the early 1930s, increased job opportunities in the oil industry meant workers at such companies as the Bahrain Petroleum Limited Company (BAPCO) had new expectations for their leisure time. By 1945, that the British Overseas Airways Corporation granted BAPCO a priority certificate to import, by air freight, 120 kilograms of film a week from Karachi, thereby removing the inconvenience of shipping delays. In a relatively short space of time, a modest proposal for a couple of cinemas in Bahrain had developed into a profitable business. Air Freight to Serve Bahrain’s First Cinemas started to flourish amid 1930s at Manama open-air in order to spread awareness about the cinema’s role in bridging the gap between Bahrain and other cultures and civilizations.
Worth to mention that these cinema movies shed lights on special issues and topics dealing with architecture, humans, identity, and the relations between place and memory. The list of movies was selected in cooperation with Mawane, which is an independent, non-profit initiative, which mounts thought-provoking exhibitions, talks and workshops in various locations on the Bahraini coastline, in a critical attempt to engage with a wider audience through art. Mawane had previously presented a series of movies its two cultural events dealing with different subjects.
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.
