Memories Of UnderdevelopmentMemories Of Underdevelopment

With the screening of Memories Of Underdevelopment, producer, designer and Workspacer Manuel Toledo curates a film night especially for Thursday Night Live! From his fascination with architecture, culture and the creative industries, Toledo has established two international architecture film festivals in Santiago, Chile and London, UK.

Following the departure of his wife, parents, and friends in the wake of the Bay of Pigs incident, the bourgeois intellectual Sergio spends his days wandering Havana in idle reflection, his amorous entanglements and political ambivalence gradually giving way to a mounting sense of alienation. Alone in a brave new world, Sergio observes the constant threat of foreign invasion while chasing young women around the city before finally meeting young Elena, whom he seeks to mould into the image of his ex-wife.

With this adaptation of Edmundo Desnoes's innovative novel, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea developed a cinematic style as radical as the times he was chronicling, creating a collage of vivid impressions through the use of editing techniques, archival material, and spontaneously shot street scenes. Intimate and densely layered, Memories Of Underdevelopment is both an indictment of its protagonist's disengagement and an extraordinary glimpse of life in postrevolutionary Cuba.

Memories Of Underdevelopment was restored by the Cineteca di Bologna at L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC). Restoration funded by the George Lucas Family Foundation and The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project.

Manuel Toledo is a producer and independent designer who graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He has worked as a designer for institutions such as TU Delft, developing sustainable houses in The Netherlands, and for Urban-Think Tank (U-TT) in Zurich and Caracas on architectural projects in India and the Netherlands. Since 2012 he has co-organised the ArqFilmFest in Santiago, Chile - the first architecture film festival in Latin America, now in its fourth successful edition having grown with each iteration. Following his experiences in Santiago, Toledo founded ArchFilmFest London, launching its first edition in June 2017. In Rotterdam, as President of the Encuentros 2015 Conference, he enabled the gathering of the largest international network of Chilean researchers, entrepreneurs and professionals working abroad to discuss the sustainable future of Chile.

Before the Thursday Night you can grab a bite to eat with the speakers and staff of Het Nieuwe Instituut. At 18:00 Het Nieuwe Café will serve a light vegetarian meal. Dinner vouchers are available for ¬ 7.70 up to a day before the particular Thursday Night event via the Tickets link.

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