7 Cajas (Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schémbori, 2012)

By: börek - September 1st, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday September 22nd 2019, 7 Cajas (Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schémbori, 2012) 110 minutes, in Spanish with English subtitles. Doors open at 20:00, Film starts at 20:30

It’s Friday night in Asunción, Paraguay. Víctor, a 17-year-old wheelbarrow delivery boy, dreams of becoming famous and covets a fancy cellular phone in the infamous Mercado 4. He’s offered a chance to deliver seven boxes with unknown contents in exchange for a $100 bill. But what sounds like an easy job soon gets complicated. Something in the boxes is highly coveted and Víctor and his pursuers quickly find themselves caught up in a crime they know nothing about.

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

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Stardust (Michael Apted, 1974)

By: börek - September 1st, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday September 8th 2019, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Stardust (Michael Apted, 1974), 111 minutes. In English (no subtitles). Doors open at 20:00, Film starts at 20:30

British heartthrob David Essex (Rock On) stars in this epic tale about Jim Maclaine, a working-class lad who starts a band called The Stray Cats. This flick covers his rise to stardom and his hard fall into disillusionment… he is a sort of Ziggy Stardust character who climbs to the top and tumbles over the other side. The director Michael Apted would later knock out a Bond film (The World is not Enough), but back in the 70s scepticism of such spectacular movies was still extremely strong, so this is a radically different kind of flick. The cast alone merits it as being a crucial movie about the rock industry – we have Adam Faith (a huge rock star in England during the 60s) Welsh pub rocker Dave Edmunds and the eccentric drummer of The Who – Keith Moon. What this film does best is show how cold-blooded the music industry really is… how it’s just a machine to generate cash. It sells cheap sentiments and infectious rhythms… but it is all a design, a scheme, a facade. Lurking in the narrative are influences of other rock stars who went to ruin… like Marc Bolan, the Beatles, Syd Barrett, Scott Walker. Years afterwards this scenario would be reflected in the lives of Ian Curtis, Nick Drake, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, etc.

Stardust was pretty huge when it came out, but since the 1970s it has bitten the dust and been forgotten. There is a reason for that dissapearance – in between the growing consciousness of the 1960s and 70s, and the present cynicism of today there were several decades that dismissed the critical argument of this film, flung aside everything that had been gained in the 60s, and went full-throttle into the American moneymaking dream. In my view, the entire western world lost three decades going down that wrong path. And of course, part of the American dream is the rock’n’roll dream, which is fortunately finally wearing pretty thin these days. The depiction of the music business as an industry run by heartless technicians, greedy managers and nasty record companies rings pretty true these days as revelations about Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein (and ‘Top of the Pops’ Jimmy Savile in the UK) come to the surface. These sleazy types are not the exceptions, they are the rule in high finance and entertainment. This flick stands alongside a few other movies made around the same time – Peter Watkin’s Privilege (1967) and Richard Loncraine’s Slade in Flame (1975) also show the dark side of the pleasure dome. The message of this movie isn’t cynically saying life is worthless, but rather it is a warning: we should choose for life over money. Also starring Larry Hagman.

Thematically at least, this is the most important screening anywhere in Holland this month…
“How much does God mean to you?”
“Somewhere between two and three million dollars, after tax.”
Another forgotten classic…

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

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Venezuelan movie screening: La Soledad (Jorge Thielen Armand, 2016)

By: börek - August 1st, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday August 18th 2019, Movie night: La Soledad (Jorge Thielen Armand, 2016). In Spanish with English subtitles. Doors: 20:00, Film 20:30

A vivid and intimate account of the Venezuelan crisis told through the real-life struggle of a young father trying to save his family from the demolition of their home.
Already struggling to survive in the urban jungle of Caracas, José discovers that the decrepit mansion he occupies with his family will soon be demolished. Driven by a desire for a better life and guided by the ancestral spirits of the house, José embarks on a mystical search for a cache of gold that is rumored to be buried in the walls of the mansion. This film is a real story and played by the actual characters.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

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

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave (Alexander Kluge, 1973)

By: börek - August 1st, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday August 4th 2019, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave (Gelegenheitsarbeit einer Sklavin). Directed by Alexander Kluge, 87 minutes, in German with English subtitles. Doors open at 20.30, Film starts at 21:00.

In a way this film has a story, but like all great movies it also has a wider meaning, it helps us reflect on the world around us. The story focuses on a woman called Roswitha who has a hell of a life. She has a jerk for a husband, a family and also on the side she runs an illegal abortion clinic. When the clinic is raided, her husband is arrested and she is left to fend for herself. But this process also gives her something… an understanding of how our society operates and how women are targeted. But also something else… she realizes that if she really wants to make a better life for her children, she can’t just focus on her family, but has to act outside it. Therefore it is a movie about the necessity of getting involved in the world around us, about breaking one’s numb passivity.

This glimpse into 1970s Germany shows us how little progress we have made since then, but also gives a bridge to possible alternatives.

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

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Bone (Larry Cohen, 1972)

By: börek - July 1st, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday July 21st 2019, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Bone (Larry Cohen, 1972). 95 minutes. In English. Doors open at 20.30, Film starts at 21:00.

This film is one of my biggest recent cinematic surprises…..it really knocked me off my chair with amazement! Maverick director Larry Cohen (It’s Alive) would later make surreal horror films, but his debut was something totally different….and probably the finest film in his career. Bone is a film like no other, a quirky black comedy which takes on the subject of racism in a bizarre and unexpected way.

The plot focuses on a Beverley Hills couple- a used car salesman, and his wife Bernadette. The couple seem to have it all – but one small unpredictable incident happens which throws their lives into chaos, and exposes the poverty behind the facade of their lifestyle. What is that incident? One day a black man named Bone appears in their back yard. This starts a chain reaction of events which is nothing short of amazing. This razor-sharp film stands out from a lot of other 1970s stuff simply because its such a bizarre mix, and also because of the unpredictable way in which the plot plays out. Also, its cutting-edge sense of humor comes close to Tarantino, except this film also has deeper insights and something more relevant to say.

Bone is clearly an attack on racism, but above everything else its a film about how people lie to themselves in order to keep up a certain lifestyle. The film is radically un-PC, but at the same time it’s one of the most politically correct films I have ever seen. Of course the major studios wouldn’t even touch such a wild-card film, so it was thrown into the drive-in circuit and quickly deleted from film history. BONE is an obscure underground masterpiece, starring a brilliant Yaphet Kotto (Alien, Blue Collar)… and although Koto is usually great in everything he does, in this small independent film he gives the best performance of his life. Seen now, 40 years after it was made, this movie is not only relevant – its a startling revelation.

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

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The Time That Remains (Elia Suleiman, 2009)

By: börek - July 1st, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond


Sunday July 14th 2019, Movie night: The Time That Remains (Elia Suleiman, 2009). 109 minutes. In Hebrew, Arabic and English with English subtitles. Doors open at 20:00, Film starts 20:30.

Elia Suleiman about his film: The Time That Remains is a semi-autobiographical film, in four episodes, about a family, my family, from 1948 until recent times. The film is inspired by my father’s private diaries, starting from when he was a resistance fighter in 1948, and by my mother’s letters to family members who were forced to leave the country. Combined with my intimate memories of them and with them, the film attempts to portray the daily life of those Palestinians who remained and were labeled “Israeli-Arabs”, living as a minority in their own homeland. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/32169756

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

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Border Radio (Allison Anders, Dean Lent and Kurt Voss)

By: börek - June 1st, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday June 30th 2019, Movie night: Border Radio by Allison Anders, Dean Lent and Kurt Voss, 1987. In English, 87 Minutes, Doors: 20:00, Film 20:30

“‘You can’t expect other people to create drama for your life—they’re too busy creating it for themselves,’ a punk groupie says at the conclusion of Border Radio. And the four reckless characters at the center of the film certainly manage to create plenty of drama for themselves.” Chris Morris, Where Punk lived

No-budget, no-permits and DIY: Border Radio – the first film of UCLA students Allison Ander (Things behind the Sun) Kurt Voss and Dean Lent – is set in the burgeoning LA punk scene of the 80’s and went on to be an underground hit, playing in US cinemas for months. Its heist-based plot and the multiple betrayals the central foursome inflict upon each other are the stuff of purest noir. But the film diverges from its source in its largely sunlit cinematography and its explosions of punk humor.

The film music, but also a number of characters are played by local punk rockers such as the Flesh Eaters, and

“one can see what punk rock looked like, all the way to the margins of the frame: in the flyers for L.A. bands like the Alley Cats, the Gears, and the Weirdos taped in a club hallway, in the poster for Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein and the calendars of L.A. repertory movie houses tacked on apartment walls, in the thrift-store togs and rock-band T-shirts (street clothes, really) worn by the players. But, more importantly, the shifting tragicomic tone of the film, the energy and attitude of its musician performers, and the uneasy rhythms of its characters’ lives present a real sense of the reality of L.A. punkdom in the day.”

It was filmed from 1983 to 1987 – basically at the same time as Susan Seidelman’s Smithereens (1985) set in the alternative and punk seen in New York.

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

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The films of Pierre Merejkowsky

By: börek - June 1st, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday June 23rd 2019, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: An evening with Pierre Merejkowsky and Nina Zivancevic. Doors open at 20.00, Film starts 20.30.

Pierre Merejkowsky is a fimmaker with an anarchistic bent who resides in Paris. He cares nothing for finesse or the elegance of style. Once, in one of his reviews, the French film critic Serge Daney famously blasted a movie about a German concentration camp, because at one point there was an artful camera movement. How can one consider artfulness in dealing with the holocaust? Merejkowsky is a bit the same: what is the point of endlessly harping on aesthetics and style, when we are facing an era when the entire world is falling apart at the seams?

Merejkowsky investigates images with his cinema, yes, but much more than that. He interrogates our passivity. He throws himself, camera in hand, into volatile situations. He pleads, he battles with ghosts, he confronts everyone in the immediate environment. He insists; where does this sluggish lethargy that is so prevalent today come from? He is only interested in cinema as a catalyst for transformation. His films are provocative, and are meant to archaeologically dig beneath the surface of culture and everyday life.

Together with poet Nina Zivancevic, we will introduce and explore Pierre’s chaotic, vibrant, passionate cinema. In between films, discussion with the public will also be encouraged.

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

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