Aki Kaurismäki night: Shadows in Paradise (1986) & Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1994)

Saturday February 22, 2025, Aki Kaurismäki night: Shadows in Paradise (1986) & Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1994) * doors open at 19:00 * first film starts at 19:30 * second film starts at 21:00 * free entrance.

Shadows in Paradise (Varjoja paratiisissa, by Aki Kaurismäki, 1986, 1h 14m, in Finnish with English subtitles) – movie effectively set the template for the maestro’s singular style. Punctuated with bursts of primary colors, this beautiful wisp of a film finds a delicately negotiated optimism amid the ruins of its dashed dreams… An episode in the life of Nikander, a garbage man, involving the death of a coworker, a love affair and much more.

Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana, by Aki Kaurismäki, 1994, 1h 5m, in Finnish with English subtitles) – Lugubrious Finns Valto and Reino take to the road in search of coffee and vodka, without which their lives are not worth living. But their reveries are interrupted by the arrival of garrulous Russian Klaudia and Estonian Tatiana – who are clearly interested in the two men, despite the language barrier. But what are the chances of getting a response from men who prefer staring at vodka bottles to talking?

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

Movie Night: Za dvoma zaytsiamy – Chasing Two Hares (Viktor Ivanov, 1961)

Sunday February 16, 2025, За двома зайцями * Za dvoma zaytsiamy * Chasing Two Hares * directed by Viktor Ivanov * 1961 * 77 minutes * in Ukrainian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00 * film starts at 20:30

This comedy is an adaption of play by Mykhailo Starytsky that tells the story of Svyryd Holokhvistyi, a barber who tries to get rich by marrying a wealthy bourgeois woman, Pronia Sirko, while at the same time courting a poor, beautiful girl, Halia. The story raises the problem of social inequality and ridicules the life of Ukrainian Russified bourgeoisie in Kyiv.
The title of the movie is “Za dvoma zaytsiamy” which means the “to chase two rabbits”. In English, they use the phraseology – “to chase two birds” a person’s desire to do two things at once and result is rhetorical.
The film was shot in Ukrainian at the Dovzhenko Film Studios, as it was originally rated second category and was planned to be shown only in the Ukrainian SSR. Later, when the movie gained huge popularity, it was partially re-dubbed into russian by the same actors, and was launched in all-Union distribution. The original soundtrack in Ukrainian was long thought to be lost, but was found in the Mariupol film fund in 2013. On October 27, 2013, the film with the original Ukrainian-language was presented to the public in Kyiv.

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

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Careful (Guy Maddin, 1992)

Sunday February 9, 2025, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Careful (1992) * Directed by Guy Maddin * 100 minutes * In English * doors open at 20:00 * intro & film start at 20:30.

An Icelandic folk tale tells of a 19th-century village buried deep in the mountains whose inhabitants have to literally hold their breath and keep from making any lively movements out of fear of triggering an avalanche. This visionary Canadian director’s films have a look all of their own; blending surrealism with German style expressionism. Careful is filmed in a bright Technicolor style that’s visually dazzling. Like his other films (My Winnipeg, The Saddest Music in the World) this film is a bizarre adventure that is just as imaginative with its aesthetics as it is with its storyline and philosophical musings. The grainy slightly faded style of his films, complete with scratches, make them appear from another era.
Bathed in lurid tints that are stunning, this film comes off as a kind of old movie from another planet. The twisted picturesque landscapes look like they jumped out of a Salvador Dali painting. If you are looking for a disturbing candy-colored dark comedy, then this is the film for you. Because even though the villagers live their lives trying to keep quiet and not make much noise out of deadly fear, sexual frenzies teem in this world of repression, setting off incestuous love triangles with deadly consequences.

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

Cinema Italia: Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)

Sunday February 2, 2025, Cinema Italia: Cinema Paradiso * 1988 * Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore * 173 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!

The public image of this film is that of a portrait of a neorealist Sicily in the past, with a vein of nostalgia. And a homage to cinema, for the many citations of classics, especially American films. But it is much more than that. Cinema Paradiso tells the story of cinema as a unique experience: in each projection, the projected film is only part of the story; the audience plays an essential role in the experience, transforming the film, and even a role plays the projectionist, often forgotten. In the latter, this film tells us about a form of art and poetry that disappeared with digitalization. In the background, many political messages, such as those of the Communists in Sicily, were at the margins of a society where poverty was an everyday reality. This makes us question what we are ready to sacrifice to escape misery.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Screening “De Zinkende Rafelrand”

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.