Sunday 11 June 2017, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: From the Journals of Jean Seberg. Doors open at 8.30pm, Programme starts at 9. FROM THE JOURNALS OF JEAN SEBERG, 1995 Directed by Mark Rappaport, 100 minutes, In English.
On Friday September 14, 1979 a group of mourners assembled in Paris’s Montparnasse Cemetery, including Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, decorating a casket with lilies, daises and yellow roses. This was the burial site of an extraordinary woman who was attractive, intelligent, famous and independent. A person who thought she was free, until she crossed the line and was put on the FBI hit-list. She was singled out, isolated, the victim of a smear campaign that destroyed her. The term for this is “character assassination” but it often leads to literal assassination.
Actress Jean Seberg, the American star of Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave hit Breathless, was a woman who was trying to do the right thing. She was married to the famous French author and diplomat Romain Gary, and both of them supported liberation causes in the 60s. In particular, Jean Seberg sided with the Black Panthers. This lead to a full attack against her by the FBI, who were out to destroy her at any cost. In the book Seances, I included a released FBI memo detailing their targeting of Jean Seberg as a subversive, and their intentions to ruin and “neutralize” her… including publishing fake news stories about her in the international press, such as Newsweek. This is no conspiracy theory, it is out in the open and a matter of fact.
‘Journals’ is a creative documentary that charts the life of Jean Seberg – from bright eyed actress who fought to be independent, to a woman doomed by a world of men. When Seberg was put on the government’s hit-list, she entered a dark world of undercover harassment, including burglaries, smear campaigns, wiretapping and stalking. Nico, the singer of the Velvet Underground, who was a friend of Seberg said “Jean was very beautiful and very intelligent, but she had a sad life … She pointed out the FBI men who were constantly following her around. Have you ever seen FBI men? They were exactly what you expect. Vulgar. Can you imagine such a thing? What tragedy…”
Narrated by Mary Beth Hurt (the star of Woody Allen’s Interiors), this is a piercing journey into the dreams of Jean Seberg, but also into the world of ruthless politics. A world where people who follow their heart are destroyed by men with dark agendas that wield their power. It’s that simple, and that tragic.
This will be a rare screening of this explosive documentary.
the trailer: https://www.fandor.com/films/from_the_journals_of_jean_seberg
Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net
