If in the beginning movies were rather an extension of performing arts, over time they developed all sorts of stylistic mechanisms to move away from their origins. And yet, there continue to be filmmakers and filmmakers who search in directions at the intersections of mediums, aiming to transpose forms and formulas associated with theater or performativity into their films. If theater plays and performances have consistently been an important inspiration for films, often seeing it as a virtue to mask the “theatrical” aspects of their sources, cinematic modernism has been more concerned with transferring and thus preserving certain specific qualities of the original media.

The first CineMasca program features 14 films made over the past 80 years in different parts of the world that showcase theatrical and performative features on several levels. Sometimes they are adaptations of plays or include details of the daily lives of theater troupes. Other times they are political films influenced by Brechtian theories and aspire to move the public’s conscience and mobilize it civically. Or they use devices borrowed from the theater: choruses similar to those in ancient theater, set designs that place the narrative in allegorical rather than realistic contexts, and meticulous choreography of the actors’ bodies in space.

What they all have in common is the creative exploration – often spectacular in its novel approach – of the meeting points between performing arts and cinema. And the main proposal of this curatorial project is to build the framework for such intersections on a local level, because beyond the cinematographic value of each film included in the program, we hope that they will arouse curiosity and debate among cinephiles and theater enthusiasts and will begin to shake up the platitude so often circulated that a “theatrical film” is a “bad film”. (Andrei Rus)