What happening in Greece? Screening-discussion with Yannis Youlountas and his new film ‘We are not afraid of ruins’

By: börek - January 16th, 2025  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday January 26, 2025, What happening in Greece? Screening-discussion with Yannis Youlountas and his new film ‘We are not afraid of ruins’ – ‘Nous n’avons pas peur des ruines’ * film from 2024 * 78 minutes * in french and greek, subtitles in english * doors open at 20:00 * intro & film start at 20:30 * donations more than welcome since Yannis and Maud Youlountas are touring presenting the film.

Greece, 2019 to 2023. Mitsotakis replaces Tsipras in power in Greece, promising to put an end to Exarcheia, a rebellious and supportive district of Athens. But resistance organizes and reinforcements arrive from other European cities. The rallying cry becomes “No Pasaran!” Over the years, other struggles spread from north to south of Greece to defend the land, the sea, and life: in Crete, in Thessaly, in Epirus… Even on the island of Paros in the Cyclades, the population protests on the beaches turned into paid ones and manages to make them a common good again, for everyone’s happiness. When everything seems to collapse, in Athens as elsewhere, the same response is heard: “we are not afraid of ruins, we carry a new world in our hearts.
A Franco-Greek philosopher and film-maker, Yannis Youlountas is also a leader of children’s tea parties, a researcher in cooperative pedagogy, and a critic of the media’s fabrication of opinion. Since 2008, he has been taking part in events in Greece, reporting them in articles, photos, books and films, and organizing solidarity actions and convoys. Yannis has been a member of several of the collectives featured on the screen, particularly in Exarcheia and Crete, for the past fifteen years.

We are not afraid of ruins / Nous n’avons pas peur des ruines / https://paspeurdesruines.net/
Director | Yannis Youlountas
Image | Maud Youlountas, Yannis Youlountas
Sound mixing | Berceau D’un Autre Monde
Editing | Maud Youlountas, Yannis Youlountas

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Cinerevolt: PFLP Declaration of World War (Kōji Wakamatsu and Masao Adachi, 1971)

By: börek - January 16th, 2025  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday January 19, 2025, Cinerevolt: PFLP Declaration of World War * directed by Kōji Wakamatsu and Masao Adachi * 1971 * Japan * 71 minutes * in Japanese, Arabic, English, French with English Subtitles * doors open at 20:00 * intro & film start at 20:30.

The atrocities that are happening in Palestine right now not only destroy the present and the future of Palestinians and the oppressed throughout the world, they also aim to eradicate their past. One of the magics of Cinema is precisely preservation of a reality which is constantly hidden from our eyes, and few movies give us such a view of the Palestinian experience as this one.

In 1971, after attending the Cannes Film Festival, filmmakers Kōji Wakamatsu and Masao Adachi traveled to Lebanon, where they met with Japan’s Red Army faction and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to create a propaganda newsreel supporting the Palestinian resistance. The PFLP was a major Marxist-Leninist Organization concerned with the Palestinian Cause and Resistance. In many ways, it serves as the antithesis of the Contemporary Western view of Palestinian Resistance and the Arab World; Secular, Progressive, Internationalist and Socialist. One of their most eminent figures and their spokesman -Ghassan Kanafani- provides exclusive interviews for this movie.

This film is Propaganda, and it is aware of this fact. It is aware of the fact because it openly claims it, and does not present dog whistles aimed at misleading the viewer. Does this make the film less objective though? Does this positionality mean that the movie cannot be neutral? I would claim that the only way to have access to the truth of the Palestinians.
From exclusive interviews with Kanafani, footage of training from PFLP and Japanese Red Army members, the movie draws a line in the sand, and it lets you know which one is the correct side.

“The Epic is for Israel and Documentary for Palestinians” – Jean-Luc Godard

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Turtles Can Fly (Bahman Ghobadi, 2004)

By: börek - January 7th, 2025  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday January 12, 2025, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: TURTLES CAN FLY * 2004 * (کیسەڵەکانیش دەفڕن, Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand) * Directed by Bahman Ghobadi * 96 minutes * In Kurdish with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00 * intro & film start at 20:30.

Set in a Kurdish refugee camp near the Iraqi-Turkish border, the movie focuses on its orphans. For them life is temporary, fleeting, and always shifting. The fact that any human being is forced to live in such a volatile situation is crazy. These homeless kids makeshift everything, and life can be finished at any moment if you step on an American landmine. Many of the children who act as extras are actually real Kurdish refugees, and many of them are missing arms and legs. In other words, the issue of landmines isn’t just a narrative device for this film – it’s a reality that these people live with every day. But at the same time, bringing up facts like this doesn’t prevent the film from also achieving a kind of poetry.

This movie is so far removed from our daily lives here in the western world, that it takes on an almost surreal edge even though it’s based in a reality far away. For us a scenario like this is otherworldly, and it opens up so many questions. For example, for me, one of its interesting reflections is about the nature of communication. One of the boys in the camp seems to be a clairvoyant and can foretell mysterious prophecies that seem to come true. But then, on the other hand, we have other Kurds who are desperate to watch television thinking it will tell them what is going to happen next. Our main character, whose name is Satellite, realises that the blitzkrieg of sensationalistic information, music videos, and Fox news reports on the television are mostly a distraction and provide little to help understand the situation. Even though the lives these people live are desperate, they are at least rooted in a reality that is stripped down and understandable. Once the characters in this movie get a hold of a working television set and start flipping around all the channels, we feel like we have entered a world of total chaos.

This is a movie that brings up urgent issues, both political and on a human level. It has a strong emotional impact, but one that helps us contextualise a part of the world that we otherwise can’t comprehend. It doesn’t try to get us to take sides and any issue, but instead it is simply conjuring up a tragic situation with all its complexities.

As you have probably noticed, one of the reasons why I’m showing movies is to explore the world around us. Through movies we can see how people feel, think, and approach life in countries we will never reach. Cinema can help break down prejudices, and I always encourage people to use movies to listen to the other side of the story. Right now the entire Middle East, which was carved and divided up largely by Europeans after World War I, is now rapidly changing. To understand these changes a movie like this can shed some light. It is about a displaced Kurdish community at the Iraqi-Turkish border, and was the first movie to be made in Iraq after the American invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein. It’s insightful and poignant, and what might shock you is that it’s an Iranian movie, and one that I feel will surprise many.

Other movies from Bahman Ghobadi screened at Joe’s Garage: https://joesgarage.nl/archives/tag/bahman-ghobadi

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Screening “De Zinkende Rafelrand”

By: börek - December 22nd, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday December 29, 2024, Screening “De Zinkende Rafelrand”, a film by Mirte Jepma (2024), 56 minutes, in Dutch with English subtitles. Screening and discussion with Mirte Jepma and Marijn van der Eyden. Doors open at 20.00, film starts at 20.30.

Screening “De Zinkende Rafelrand” De Zinkende Rafelrand is een documentaire over de eigenzinnige Baaibuurt in Amsterdam Oost die op 31 december 2024 zal verdwijnen. Het is een buurt met meerdere hechte gemeenschappen, creatieve werkplekken en vrijheid die vanaf 2025 ‘ontwikkeld’ zal moeten worden. Deze stadsvernieuwing betekent dat de Baaibuurt-West met 7 meter zand opgehoogd zal worden om de zinkende grond bouwklaar te maken voor traditionele woningbouw. Men noemt haar dan ook wel de Zinkende Rafelrand. Deze film vangt de verhalen, de gezichten en de plekken van een buurt die onder het zand dreigt te verdwijnen. De film combineert interviews met archiefmateriaal en documentaire beelden om een intiem portret te creëren van een verborgen buurt vol energie, angst maar ook hoop op een toekomst voor de stad Amsterdam waarin ook zij een plek hebben.

“The Sinking Fringe” is a documentary about the untamed Baaibuurt neighborhood in Amsterdam East that is bound to disappear on 31 December 2024. This neighborhood, a rich tapestry of free-spirited, tight-knit communities, will be ‘developed’ to remedy the housing crisis. This urban renewal plan requires raising the soil in the Baaibuurt-West by 7 meters of sand in order to prepare the sinking land for conventional urban housing. Hence, it is referred to as the Sinking Fringe. This film captures the stories, faces, and places of a neighborhood in danger of disappearing under the sand. The film combines interviews with archive footage to create an intimate portrait of a hidden neighborhood full of energy and fear but also hope for the future of the city of Amsterdam in which they, too, have a place. The Sinking Fringe is a call for action; what do we want our future cities to look like? For whom are we building? We hope this film can spark a debate on the values we aim to nurture in our cities.
Team: Mirte Jepma, Alberto Morbelli, Benjamin Vanderveen, Marijn van der Eyden.

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Ecstasy of Angels (Kōji Wakamatsu, 1972)

By: börek - December 2nd, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday December 8, 2024, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Ecstasy of Angels * 1972 * (天使の恍惚, Tenshi no kōkotsu) * Directed by Kōji Wakamatsu * 89 minutes * In Japanese with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00 * intro & film start at 20:30.

Japanese director Kōji Wakamatsu was a wild cat, and was the primary director that fused together radical politics along with transgressive sexuality. He had made a link between these two things that was, in a way, revolutionary. He didn’t believe in breaking down barriers only on a single issue or theme, but through an explosion of freedom he sought to destabilize Japan’s colonized, regulated, conservative society that was imposed by America after World War II.

These were wild days in Japan, with student protests, occupations, psychedelic music and a lot of experimentation. This movie is a byproduct of that time, a snapshot of his zeitgeist, a call for freedom. It is a pink political flick, meaning it’s politically charged. The story is about a group of left-wing revolutionaries who break into a US military Depot to steal weapons and ammunition. As they make their getaway they come into a conflict with soldiers, leaving some Americans dead. The movie takes off from there.

Right around the time when Kōji Wakamatsu made this movie, he went to the Palestinian territories and filmed a radical left-wing group training there, he was instantly put on a blacklist by three major organizations – the Japanese government, Interpol, and the American government. In fact, he was banned from entering the United States for the rest of his life.

Wakamatsu is a great example of guerilla filmmaking, knocking out radical, imaginative films, and all budgets. In fact, Wakamatsu said the reason he became a film director in the first place was because “in movies, you can kill as many police officers as you want and not get caught.”

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Movie night: Famine 33 (Oles Yanchuk, 1991)

By: börek - November 27th, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Saturday November 30, 2024, Movie night: Голод-33 * Famine-33 * 1991 * Directed by Oles Yanchuk * 115 minutes * In Ukrainian with English subtitles * doors opens at 18:30 film starts at 19:00.

This film looks at the artificial famine of 1932-33 in Ukraine through the eyes of a single family. The famine, which killed millions of people, was the result of a Soviet policy intended to punish Ukrainians for opposing the collectivization of their farms.

Pick up the Small Soviet Encyclopedia, 1940 edition, open it and under the letter “U” read what is written in the article “Ukrainian SSR”.
It is a document and there you will see in black and white, although in fine print, that Soviet Ukraine according to the census of 1927 had a population of 32 million and in 1939 (twelve years later) — 28 million.
Only 28 million? What happened to 4 million people after 1927? Where is the natural increase which in 12 years should have been at least 6-7 million? That means more than 10 million! What happened to those 10 million of the Ukrainian population? What happened to them in the “land of flourishing socialism?”

Made in 1991, deals with one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century, namely the forcible collectivization in the Soviet Union in the early 30s and the following hunger that affected above all Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. It should be remembered that this topic was (and in some way still is) the greatest Communist taboo. The mere mentioning of this topic guaranteed brutal repressions for the one who dared raise it. The official propaganda made some works about it (the most important one was Virgin Soul Upturned (Podnyataya Zelina in Russian) by Mikhail Sholokhov and any other views of the subject were forbidden. It should also be mentioned that some Western leftists supported it and helped spreading Stalin’s lies about it all over the world.
I know that it is almost impossible to explain to a Westerner what life under Communism is, but this fact makes context all the more necessary.
The most important thing is that all these horrors and sadistic acts were man-made and not natural. They are the inevitable results of the non-human Communist ideology.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Cinema Italia: Many Years Ago (Francesco Rosi, 1970)

By: börek - November 17th, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday November 17, 2024, Many Years Ago (1970) * Directed by Francesco Rosi * 101 min * In Italian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30. After the film, please engage in sharing comments, ideas, and inspiration with the host(s) of the evening!

Set in the First World War for its pacifist and anti-militarist message, it was boycotted from cinemas on its release. The general’s orders ridicule the high command and show the inhumanity of the conflict, while soldiers represent the ideal types of conflicting political and social ideas such as monarchy and socialism, which have to coexist at the front. The film’s dramatic tone, which distances it from the book on which it was inspired, was harshly criticised at the time of its release. Looking at it through today’s lenses — more than 50 years later — it is more relevant than ever. In fact, over a century has passed since the events recounted, in the year 1916 on the Asiago Plateau; however, the contrast between the war of generals and the war of simple soldiers sweeps away the false myth of the war hero because the enemy is not the enemy soldiers but their own commanders.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Net – Unabomber, LSD & Internet. The hidden side of the Internet (Lutz Dammbeck, 2003)

By: börek - November 8th, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday November 10, 2024, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Net – Unabomber, LSD & Internet. The hidden side of the Internet * 2003 * Directed by Lutz Dammbeck * 121 minutes * In English and German, with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00 * intro & film start at 20:30.

This is a wild documentary made by a German filmmaker who goes down a strange rabbit hole starting with American avant-garde artists of the 1960s like musician John Cage and experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas. The structure of the whole movie reflects our modern internet world, because while he is looking around collecting information about those artists, he comes across links that lead him in another unexpected direction. As things unfold, the movie shifts into several directions that seem to be linked. One thread involves cybernetics and the development of computer technology, another is the covert operations of the CIA and their use of LSD. All these things are tied together with the story of a man named Ted Kaczynski, otherwise known as the Una Bomber.

Ted Kaczynski had been a professor of mathematics who abandoned the university system and began living in a self-built cabin in the remote countryside. He felt the world was going in a totally dystopian direction, an increasingly technological world of mass surveillance, endless wars and the destruction of nature. He resorted to targeted violence in order to get his message across, and managed to have his manifesto printed on the front page of the New York Times before he was arrested in 1996.

Of course the documentary raises questions about the uncontrovertibly negative side of Ted’s actions, but it also shows something else that isn’t talked about often enough – the almost religious zeal of Silicon Valley and big tech executives, and how they turn a blind eye to the destructive sides of what they are doing and refuse to take any responsibility whatsoever. These megalomaniacs are uprooting society across-the-board, creating polarizing divisions, the scattering of people’s attention, rampant addiction and surveillance.

The Net has become a cult classic in the last several decades, revealing an untold history. Today we live in a world where memory is largely obliterated, and we tend to think of the internet as something that just happened ‘organically’ without a plan or history. This movie argues differently, and digs up the history of how Internet was sculpted punch by corporate punch. What it uncovers is pretty shocking in its relevance to the world we live in today. Along the way on this cinematic journey we also come across many 60s icons, such as Ken Kesey and Timothy Leary. This documentary opens up a world you might not have known even existed. Hell, it even features narration by legendary German actress Eva Mattes. An underground classic, marginalized for good reasons.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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