Christie Books

Through history. The artistic world of Flavio Costantini by Matteo Fochessati
(courtesy of the Museo Luzzati)

Oct 182011

The Titanic 2 - Navigazione 1989 by Flavio Costantini

During his long artistic career, Costantini has often dealt with the contradictions, the ambiguities and the tricks of history, especially the dramatic events of the so-called “short twentieth century”. He has evoked some of those significant episodes in his pictorial cycles, such as the sinking of the Titanic, which symbolically defined the end of an age and opened the period of the First World War, the massacre of the Tsar’s family and the revolution that was to change the world political balance.

This personal historical analysis began in 1963, the year he began evoking, in one of his most important cycles, the revolutionary dynamics of the anarchist movement between the 19^th and the 20^th centuries.

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Flavio Costantini. An experienced anarchist
by Roberto Farina (courtesy of the Museo Luzzati)

Art, Biography, Book, Italy, Russia No Responses »

Oct 182011

COSTANTINI - A Catalogue courtesy of the Museo Luzzati

Flavio Costantini was born in Rome on 21st September, exactly sixty years after Herbert George Wells. When, during the war, he became a young utopian influenced by the books of the English writer he was pleased by the coincidence, finding it “particularly meaningful”.

His mother, a Roman housewife, kept a record of all her dead relatives. Every evening she opened the book she prayed for each of them, naming them one by one. From time to time the book was updated. “I was afraid of becoming one of them!”

His father, from Osimo, worked for the INA insurance company; his hobby was painting. “He was an amateur painter, he painted on everything using oils.”

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Bound for Glory (1976 – Hal Ashby)

anti-fascism, Author readings, Biography, Films, Music, Protest songs, Protest songs No Responses »

Oct 082011

Adapted by Robert Getchell from Woody Guthrie’s 1943 autobiography ‘Bound for Glory’, the film stars David Carradine as folk singer Woody Guthrie and Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland, John Lehne, Ji-Tu Cumbuka and Randy Quaid. Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967), a lifelong radical singer-songwriter, performed with the slogan ‘This Machine Kills Fascists’ on his guitar, and travelled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California where he learned and wrote many folk and blues songs. Many of these are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression, earning him the nickname the “Dust Bowl Troubadour”.

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Lady Snowblood — Love Song of Vengeance (1974 – Toshiya Fujita)

Anarchism in Japan, Anarchist cinema, Anarchist ideas, anarcho-feminism, anarcho-syndicalism, Drama, Feature, Films, Justice No Responses »

Oct 082011

Lady Snowblood (Shurayuki-hime) is arrested by the police and sentenced to death for her crimes (in Lady Snowblood I). As she is sent to the gallows she is rescued by the mysterious Kikui Seishiro, head of the Secret Police who offers her a deal to assassinate Tokunaga Ransuit, an anarchist “enemy of the State”. The anarchist is in possession of a critical document which which Kikui is obsessed, deeming it highly dangerous to the stability of the government. If Kashima can obtain and deliver the document to Kikui, he will grant her immunity from her crimes.

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There is a Place. Mexico City Anarchists (2010 – Abril Schmucler)

Anarchist ideas, Anarchists in Mexico, class war, Documentaries, Films, Ideas, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Reportage, repression, Society, South and Central America No Responses »

Oct 082011

A documentary about what it means to be an anarchist today in Mexico City, a city of 25 million inhabitants. It reminds us of the possibilities of other ways of living. Toby, now 50 years old, was a punk, and together with Marta, they run the Bilbioteca Social Reconstruir, a project launched by the Spanish anarchist Ricardo Mestre. The library contains files of considerable historical importance, as well as more than five thousand titles on the subject of anarchism. Here, Jacinto and Claudio, historians, studied anarchism, from the time of the Flores Magón brothers to today’s decrepit labor system; Ignacio started the Cultural Multiforum ‘Alicia’ 15 years ago The film has much to teach us about contemporary Mexico and a generation which is searching for another, more just world.

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Parts 11 and 12 of Spain at War, a 30-part documentary series produced by Spanish TV in 1986. The films contain many rare and difficult to find images and footage: 11) They shall not pass! 12) Madrid resists

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España en Guerra – 9-10 (1986 – Pascual Cervera)

Anarchism in Barcelona, Anarchist ideas, Anarchist resistance, Barcelona, CNT, Documentaries, Fascism, Films, Geopolitics, Spain, Spanish anarchism, Spanish Revolution/Civil War No Responses »

Oct 082011

Parts 9 and 10 of Spain at War, a 30-part documentary series produced by Spanish TV in 1986. The films contain many rare and difficult to find images and footage: 9) The Republic pulls back 10) Franco – Caudillo!

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España en Guerra – 7-8 (1986 – Pascual Cervera)

Anarchism in Barcelona, Anarchist resistance, anarcho-syndicalism, CNT, Documentaries, Fascism, Films, Historical Memory, Spain, Spanish anarchism, Spanish Revolution/Civil War No Responses »

Oct 082011

Parts 7 and 8 of Spain at War, a 30-part documentary series produced by Spanish TV in 1986. The films contain many rare and difficult to find images and footage: 7) A Country in Flames 8). Bloody August

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España en Guerra – 5-6 (1986 – Pascual Cervera)

Anarchist resistance, anarcho-syndicalism, Barcelona, CNT, Documentaries, Fascism, Films, Historical Memory, Second Spanish Republic, Spain, Spanish anarchism, Spanish Revolution/Civil War No Responses »

Oct 082011

Parts 5 and 6 of Spain at War, a 30-part documentary series produced by Spanish TV in 1986. The films contain many rare and difficult to find images: 5) The Storm of July 6) Spain Divided

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España en Guerra 3-4 (1986 – Pascual Cervera)

Documentaries, Films, Historical Memory, Spain, Spanish anarchism, Spanish Revolution/Civil War No Responses »

Oct 082011

Parts 3 and 4 of ‘Spain at War’, a 30-part documentary series produced by Spanish TV in 1986. The films contain many rare and difficult to find images: 3) The Popular Front 4) The Military Rebellion