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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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Die Beunruhigung / Apprehension (Lothar Warneke, 1982)

By: börek - May 2nd, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday May 19th 2019, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Die Beunruhigung / Apprehension (Lothar Warneke, 1982). 100 minutes. In German with English subtitles. Doors open at 20.00, Jeffrey’s intro and film start at 20.30

These days we have such a prejudiced view of the former East Bloc, as if it was totally a one-sided thing that never changed, and in our arrogance, we demonize it without the slightest idea what we are talking about. Believe it or not, in the former East Germany there was an effort to make a cinema that was free of propaganda – both the so-called ‘Soviet realism’ of Russia, but also the fake romantic propaganda of Hollywood. And in two areas the East German cinema thematically excelled – they were ‘anti-war’ and ‘pro-women.’ So in the GDR there was an entire genre exploring the real-life situation of women. By contrast, in the so-called “democratic” west women were mostly relegated to side roles in movies – often as secretaries or housewives or love interests. Today we have female super-hero films, but they are as ridiculous as the former roles, and are about as empowering as a shot of arsenic. Because of the recent ‘me too’ movement, there have been a few more films highlighting the female situation… but they don’t hold a candle to what was happening in East Germany 40 years ago.

What is this film about? It doesn’t have a huge overarching story, but rather focuses more on a specific situation. Our main character Inge is a mid-thirties social worker and a single mother, magnificently portrayed by actress Christine Schorn. She is told she has breast cancer, possibly malignant. The entire film is about her thoughts and emotions, her conversations and behavior. It is based on an autobiographical novel by the popular GDR writer Helga Schubert. The style is stripped-down, allowing real discussions to occur about real things. In a way, this film is like a cinematic detox session that cuts the audience off from all spectacle, cheap tricks and quick thrills. Personally, I found it exhilarating. It’s a biting flick, made even more heart-wrenching by its unsentimentality, and Its documentary-like edge also makes it valuable as a poignant document of East Berlin in 1981.

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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Sugar Cane Alley / La Rue Cases-Nègres (Euzhan Palcy, 1983)

By: börek - May 2nd, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday May 12th 2019, Sugar Cane Alley / La Rue Cases-Nègres (Euzhan Palcy, 1983). 103 minutes | French | English subtitles | Doors: 20:00, Film 20:30

Sugar Cane Alley is set in Martinique and directed by Euzhan Palcy who was born there. Casting back to the 1930s, based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Joseph Zobel.
Jose attends school at the insistence of his grandmother, who does not want him to end up working in the fields, the probable fate of most of his class. Jose is successful academically, but for a poor black boy the course of his life is never going to be straight-forword in a country where blacks working sugarcane fields were still treated harshly by their white employers.
It is the first film by Euzhan Palcy, made in 1983, on a limited budget, it went on to win 17 awards, including getting Sundance support. This launched her carrier so that her next film Dry White Season (1989) she was the first black woman to direct a film for a major studio. We will be showing Dry White Season in ‘The Budapest’ at the end of the month. It’s a more graphic, and gritty, film. Where Sugar Cane Alley maintains the perspective of a young black boy, Dry White Season opts for the white slave owner who comes to the realization of the situation.

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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