Calendar

Whores’ Glory (2011)
Directed by Michael Glawogger
Documentary - Austria/Germany 
114 min.
German with English Subtitles

One of the most versatile and original talents in contemporary world cinema, the Austrian filmmaker Michael Glawogger has made an art of crossing boundaries, both geographic and formal. He spans diverse, far-flung locations within a single film, often dealing with ambiguous notions of home and foreignness, and moves back and forth between fiction and documentary, sometimes combining and subverting both modes. Glawogger’s career resists classification at every turn, but whether set on the margins of the developing world or in precincts of privilege, his surprising, beautifully photographed films are testaments to his own boundless curiosity and to the endless complexity of the human condition. The Austrian Cultural Forum is pleased to support this retrospective, his first in the United States, which includes his widely acclaimed and much debated documentary trilogy on harsh working environments, as well as a selection of fiction features and experimental short films. Michael Glawogger will attend the screening in person.

The film series will open with Michael Glawogger’s latest offering, Whores’ Glory. The third installment of Glawogger’s documentary trilogy had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival 2011. It observes prostitution in three very different contemporary environments (and three very different cultures). At a brothel in Bangkok called the Fish Tank, sex work is treated like any other business transaction. In the ironically named “City of Joy,” the red-light district of Fardipur, Bangladesh, the job is a totalizing way of life. And in La Zona, a lawless section of the Mexican border town of Reynosa, prostitution intersects with drugs and violence to create a culture of fatalism. Presented without sensationalism or judgment, and benefiting from a remarkable degree of access, Whores’ Glory is an immersive, unblinking look at the world’s oldest profession, and how it continues to be shaped by the forces of money and religion. Winner of the Orizzonti Special Jury Prize, 2011 Venice Film Festival.

For further information please visit: www.movingimage.us/films/2012/04/19/detail/michael-glawogger/