Cinema Italia: The Seduction of Mimi (Lina Wertmüller, 1972)

By: börek - March 3rd, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 5th March 2023, The Seduction of Mimi [Mimì metallurgico ferito nell’onore] * Directed by Lina Wertmüller * 125 min * In Italian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30. After the film, please engage and share comments, ideas, and inspiration with the host(s) of the evening!

Mimì (Giancarlo Giannini) is a man raised in Sicily, where you have to compromise with the mafia to have a job. Far from being a classic hero, he expresses almost hyper-realistically the prototype of toxic masculinity from the South. He moves to Turin so to stay loyal to his principles, vaguely revolutionary.
Fiore (Mariangela Melato) is a working class woman from Milan who is hoping to find her way in life. The meeting-contrast between the two comrades is iconically depicting the differences between North and South, the contradictions of the Left, the role of the Partito Comunista Italiano. In the background, an Italy under siege of violence by terrorism in the streets of industrial and university cities like Milan or Turin.
Lina Wertmüller was the first female director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director ever. Her gentle touch, expressed by the colours and music of the soundtrack, results in a unique dreamy palette that became her cinematic signature.
This film screens as the female protagonist a fascinating Mariangela Melato, who passed ten years ago. She incarnated a new model of Italian female beauty, in contrast with Sofia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. Fiore is one of her most famous interpretation.

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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Proxy Cafe, movie screening: The Internet’s Own Boy – The Story of Aaron Swartz (Brian Knappenberger, 2014)

By: börek - February 5th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Wednesday 22 February 2023, Proxy Cafe, movie screening: The Internet’s Own Boy – The Story of Aaron Swartz (Brian Knappenberger, 2014), 1h 45m. Door is opening at 19:00, film starts at 20:30.

Ten years ago, Aaron Swartz, a young internet activist was found dead in an apparent suicide. The Internet’s Own Boy depicts the life of American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist Aaron Swartz. It features interviews with his family and friends as well as the internet luminaries who worked with him. The film tells his story up to his eventual suicide after a legal battle, and explores the questions of access to information and civil liberties that drove his work.

Proxy Cafe: free software workshops. Discussing tech and politics, GNU/Linux, fixing computers and revive old laptops, free and opensource software workshops. Zapatista coffee. https://squ.at/r/8i60
https://proxycafe.puscii.nl/

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Lebanese movie night: The Ugly One (Eric Baudelaire, 2013)

By: börek - February 5th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 19 February 2023, Lebanese movie night: The Ugly One by Eric Baudelaire (and Adachi Masao) * 2013 * 100 minutes * In multiple languages * subtitles in English. Doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30
Set in the Beirut of the 2010s, this movie follows two fictional paths to arrive at an intimately personal documentary. Baudelaire’s characters, or rather his ensembles of characters, are people whose history is intimately entangled with revolutionary movements. In this film, with the help of Adachi Masao he sketches a kind of brotherhood between two countries with intense political histories: Japan and Lebanon. It’s an entanglement that might seem unlikely. But that only makes it more poetic, it doesn’t make it any less real.

The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi and 27 Years Without Images was in 2012 the first UK solo exhibition by French artist Eric Baudelaire whose work looks at the complexities of recounting the history of the Japanese Red Army (JRA), a radical group that emerged from the 1968 Tokyo student movement, settled in Beirut in the early 1970s, and engaged in sophisticated terrorist activities in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. As a filmmaker, Adachi devoted his life to images. During his years in Lebanon, he sought to advance his radical film practice by trading the camera for the rifle.

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: Zabriskie Point (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1970)

By: börek - February 5th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 12 February 2023, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Zabriskie Point * 1970 * Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni * 107 minutes * In English. Doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30.

An epic portrait of late-sixties America as seen through the lives of two of its children: anthropology student Daria (who’s helping a property developer build a village in the Los Angeles desert) and dropout Mark (who’s wanted by the authorities because he is suspected of killing a policeman during a student riot). They meet and end up on a journey to the end of the American dream.

This film got a lot of critical flack when it came out, but many now consider it a cult classic. But then again most of the negative reviews for this movie came from Americans, and not Europeans. Most people I talked to about it in America thought it was shit. I guess that’s natural, since the entire movie goes against the grain of the American way of life. But if you talk to a guy in a shop in Brussels about it, he says “wow, it’s such a beeeaauutiful movie!” And indeed the ending is nothing short of monumental, a poetic ballet of destruction unmatched anywhere else in cinema history. It’s a love it or hate it kind of film for sure, but those who have seen it have never forgotten it and it has stayed alive in the hearts of film lovers across the world…. it’s visually stunning. It’s a film that didn’t play according to the rules, and today it is an amazing postcard from a bygone era, ending with one of the most dazzling climaxes in cinema history.

WARNING: If you ever were going to watch this film on your goddamn laptop or flat screen the film wouldn’t make any sense. This film is a moving painting designed to be shown in a theatre where images can dominate the story! You have to soak in these images. With music by Pink Floyd and other 60s counter-culture icons that helps to psych-out the desert landscape.

P.S. We will be screening the ultra-rare version with the original soundmix, that includes in a Pink Floyd psychedelic burst at the very end (instead of a Roy Orbison love song).

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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Esperanto Film Night: 1910 de Exploring Esperanto (2022)

By: börek - February 5th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond, Workshop

Merkredo 8 Februaro 2023, Filmovespero: 1910 de Exploring Esperanto (2022)
Speciala evento de la serio Esperanto-Atelieroj en Ĝogaraĝo! Ni kunspektos “1910,” filmon el la teatraĵo kiu premieris dum la 107-a Universala Kongreso de Esperanto en Montrealo, 2022.
Pordoj malfermiĝas je horo 18:00 por kuna vespermanĝeto (bv kunporti ion!), kurso por komencantoj komenciĝas strikte je horo 18:30, progresantoj je horo 19:30. Poste ni kunspektos la filmon 1910. Scivolemuloj ĉiam bonvenas.
Dufoje monate merkrede: 18-21:30, Esperanto-kurso

Wednesday 8 February 2023: Esperanto Film Night: 1910 de Exploring Esperanto (2022).
Doors open at 18:00, beginner’s course starts at 18:30 (strict), film starts at 20:30 (strict).
Special night at Joe’s Esperanto Workshops! This evening, we will watch together “1910,” presented by Exploring Esperanto, a film of the play which premiered during the 107th World Esperanto Congress in Montreal in 2022.

As usual, we have courses at two levels: absolute beginners and intermediate. We learn the Esperanto language along with its culture. Sometimes fluent speakers join in, do not miss the occasion; you will listen to advanced speakers with their wonderful Esperanto life stories. Official synopsis:
British Esperantist William Mann travels through time to the year 2022 to tell the congress members in Montreal about his own experience traveling to America with Dr. Zamenhof on the huge ocean liner George Washington for the 6th International Congress of Esperanto more than a century ago. Written and Produced by Yevgeniya (Ĵenja) Amis Directed by Alena Adler Filmed and Edited by Alexander Vaughn (Alekso) Miller Actors : Mr. Mann: Garry Evans Mary: Alena Adler Introduction: Nicolas Viau Musicians : Piano: Étienne (Stefano) Laflamme Soprano: Kristina Miroshkina
Absolute beginners and curious persons are always welcome!
Every two wednesdays at Joe’s Garage: 18-22:00, Esperanto workshop

Cinema Italia: Not Of This World (Giuseppe Piccioni, 1999)

By: börek - February 5th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 5th February 2023, Cinema Italia: Fuori dal mondo [Not Of This World] (1999) * Directed by Giuseppe Piccioni * 100 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.

What does it mean to become a nun in Italy by the end of the 20th century? Caterina has taken temporary vows and is walking in a park. One day she meets a man who gives her an abandoned baby. This encounter will change her life forever. Giuseppe Piccioni introduces us to a secret world of the Roman Catholic Church with a gentle touch and a sharp eye. We are invited to think about the relationship between individual choices and the society we decide to live in.
Far from being only an unusual portrait of Italy — with a soundtrack by Ludovico Einaudi –, this feature film has a universal message about the reasons why we are in this world and what our purpose is in life. Not Of This World is a forgotten jewel of Italian cinema, almost neglected in Italy because of the topic, which is, in many ways, still taboo in the country.
Winner of 5 David di Donatello, including best actress to Margherita Buy, in one of her more complex roles ever.

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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Lebanese movie night: Capernaum (Nadine Labaki, 2018)

By: börek - January 9th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 29 January 2023, Lebanese movie night: Capernaum (Nadine Labaki, 2018), 126 minutes, in Arabic with English subtitles. Doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30.

Zain, a 12-year-old, living in the slums of Beirut ends up in the Roumieh Prison after a stabbing. Capernaum is told in flashback format, focusing on Zain’s life, including his encounter with an Ethiopian immigrant Rahil and her infant son Yonas, and leading up to his attempt to sue his parents for child neglect, “for giving him life in such a chaotic world. He’s actually not only suing his parents, he’s suing the whole system because his parents are also victims of that system — one that is failing on so many levels and that completely ends up excluding people” according Labaki.
Like her past movies, Capernaum features a cast of mostly nonprofessional actors, and tackles societal ills. Capernaum is fiction, but its portrayal of Lebanon’s rampant poverty and treatment of undocumented populations is very realistic. “Capernaum is a biblical village that was doomed by Jesus. Later on, the word started being used to signify chaos.”
“Some critics are very cynical of the film and say this is not really happening because they don’t see it around them… All I can tell them is: “Get real. Get out of your cafe where you’re writing your critique and go out into the world and see what’s happening around you.” What you see in the film is nothing compared to reality. We should wake up to how many children are suffering in the world. It’s unbearable suffering; I didn’t put rape scenes in the film, I didn’t put real abuse in the film — because I couldn’t.”

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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Iranian movie night: Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi, 2003)

By: börek - January 8th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 22 January 2023, Iranian movie night: Crimson Gold, directed by Jafar Panahi, written by Abbas Kiarostami, 2003, 95 minutes. In Farsi with English subtitles. Doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30.

The film depicts an impoverished pizza delivery man’s failed attempt to rob a jewelry store and the events that drove him to his crime. The story is based on real events that Panahi first heard about when Kiarostami told him the story while they were stuck in a traffic jam on their way to one of Kiarostami’s photographic exhibits. Panahi was extremely moved by the story and Kiarostami agreed to write the script for him to direct. Panahi submitted the film to the Cannes Film Festival without being granted a permit from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Panahi had applied for the permit but the Ministry demanded several cuts be made to the film. Panahi refused and submitted the film anyway. Like The Circle, Crimson Gold was banned in Iran.
In December 2010, Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on directing any films, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media and from leaving the country. He was prosecuted for attempting “to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic”. In October 2011, a court in Tehran upheld Panahi’s sentence and ban. Following the decision, Panahi was placed under house arrest. He had since been allowed to move more freely but he couldn’t travel outside Iran.
End 2022, as the revolt is spreading all around Iran following Mahsa Amini’s death, a new Panahi film is released, No Bears, secretly shot in a mountain village near by the Turkish border. Panahi finished his film shortly before getting arrested in July 2022 when he went to the prosecutor’s office to follow up on the situation of other film-makers, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad. He was the third director detained in less than a week.

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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