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RAI FILM Festival takes place on 27-30 March 2025. Learn more.

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The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song

Directed by Christy Garland

2012 – 71'

Synopsis

The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song’, using direct cinema style, introduces us to the Smith family in Georgetown, Guyana, where both Muscle, and his mother Mary, each struggle to fight the family demons of violence and alcoholism, bringing them into conflict with each other.

Anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson (daughter of Margaret Mead) recently chose ‘The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song’ as the film she would introduce with a talk about aging and poverty, two of the films’ themes, at the Anthropological Film Festival at the Jerusalem Cinematheque.

RAI FILM Festival 2025

The next RAI FILM Festival will take place in person from 27-30 March 2025 at the Watershed Cinema and the Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol (UK) and online throughout the month of April 2025.