Transit Levantkade

By: börek - January 27th, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 3rd february 2019, Film night: Transit Levantkade by Rosemarie Blank. 1991 | 82 minutes | In Dutch with English subtitles. Doors: 20:00, Film 20:30

This creative documentary captures, in a way, the end of Amsterdam’s wild three decade run of alternative culture. The Berlin wall has fallen, the east-block is no longer a viable possibility, and everything slides into the American de-regulated free-market ideology – and that means that everything that doesn’t make a profit has to be stamped out. Here in Amsterdam that change was more extreme and painful than most other places, simply because Amsterdam was so different than anywhere else.

The Levantekade in Amsterdam’s east harbor was one of the last large-scale alternative spaces to be destroyed. It was a place anyone who didn’t have money could go, a sort of no-man’s land where people could live and create freely. It was a place for those who didn’t fit in. It was a place for the homeless, emigrants and artists and they both created and lived their own alternative culture. Sure, it was rough to live there, but it could also be beautiful for those who valued freedom and had their own vision. This film documents these ‘urban Indians’ and charts the last days before the police came in to remove everyone for the bulldozers. In an act of ritualistic defiance some chose to set fire to their self-made homes, their own creations, rather than leave them to be destroyed by a wrecking-ball. Rosemarie Blank’s film is composed of flickering grainy black and white images which have a rough poetry about them. They depict a dark shadow that is overtaking this playground of the imagination. The mood is a haunting death fugue, and soon these people and the refuge they created, would soon be written off as road-kill for the gentrification and financialization of the city. This film, which digs deep into Amsterdam’s past, is more than anything else an ode to a special way of living… and is especially crucial to see today when even the ADM, leagues outside the city, isn’t allowed to exist as a free space.

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

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Palestinian Film: Chronicle of Disappearance (Elia Suleiman, 1996)

By: börek - December 3rd, 2018  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 23 December 2018, Palestinian Film: Chronicle of Disappearance (Elia Suleiman, 1996). 88 minutes. In Arabic with English subtitles. Doors open at 20:00, Film starts 20:30.

After spending more than a decade in New York, Palestinian director Elia Suleiman returned to his homeland in 1992 to make his first feature film. Chronicle of a Disappearance is an extended meditation of the contemporary life of Palestinians in “the Holy Land.” Elders recount absurdly funny tales and jokes; Russian emigres talk about tourism’s ravaging of the country; tourists pontificate about Israeli politics; and a young Palestinian actress struggles to find an apartment, while Suleiman, himself a character, tries to figure out what kind of film he should make. Suleiman weaves these narratives together with extraordinary irony and grace.

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

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Black Cat Cine presents: Moderne Tijden (Chaplin, 1936)

By: börek - December 1st, 2018  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 16 december 2018, Black Cat Cine presents: Moderne Tijden (Chaplin, 1936). Doors open at 20:00, Film starts 20:30.

This movie is all about fighting the system, falling down and getting up again. Called Chaplin’s last silent movie even though sound, vocal, and musical effects are used throughout. Brilliant slapstick with a strong message still valid in the present.

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

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Au Hasard, Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)

By: börek - December 1st, 2018  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 9 december 2018, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema. Doors open at 20:00, Film starts 20:30.
AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, directed by Robert Bresson, 1966. 99 minutes. In French with English subtitles.

“Everyone who sees this film will be absolutely astonished, because this film is really the world in an hour and a half.” – Jean-Luc Godard

And indeed Jean-Luc Godard was so in love with this film that he later married its main actress Anne Wiazemsky! A transcendental masterpiece from one of the most distinct filmmakers in the history of French cinema, Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar follows the long and winding tale of a much-abused donkey, Balthazar, whose life strangely parallels that of his owner, Marie (Anne Wiazemsky). A beast of burden suffering from the sins of man, we watch as the donkey is passed from the hands of one cruel owner to another. Because the movie is so stripped down, it becomes universal and almost archetypal with the donkey symbolizing so much of the suffering in this world.

You won’t find any cheap tricks that you normally come across in a Hollywood flick here. Bresson is able to design a sense of compassion that is free of sentimentality. He achieves this balance through, of all things, Russian cinema experiments of the 1920s by Lev Kuleshov. The end effect works differently on different people, but for many it is nothing short of cathartic. There is such a strange mixture of feelings and thoughts that one goes through while watching a film like this. I guess for me the film is about maintaining innocence in a ruthless and uncaring world. The entire film is set to a precisely edited soundtrack composed of nature sounds, narrative sound-cues, French rock and a Schubert piano sonata. Many female artists were somehow touched by this film, including Chantal Akerman and Patti Smith. It also features the writer/artist Pierre Klossowski in a rare acting role.

This will be a high-definition screening.
Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

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L’AMOUR ET LA RÉVOLUTION: No, nothing is over in Greece (Yannis Youlountas, 2018) — ΑΓΆΠΗ ΚΑΙ ΕΠΑΝΆΣΤΑΣΗ: Όχι, τίποτα δεν έχει τελειώσει στην Ελλάδα (ΓΙΆΝΝΗΣ ΓΙΟΥΛΟΥΝΤΑΣ)

By: börek - November 1st, 2018  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 18 November 2018, Movie night | ΑΓΆΠΗ ΚΑΙ ΕΠΑΝΆΣΤΑΣΗ: Όχι, τίποτα δεν έχει τελειώσει στην Ελλάδα (ΓΙΆΝΝΗΣ ΓΙΟΥΛΟΥΝΤΑΣ) | L’AMOUR ET LA RÉVOLUTION: No, nothing is over in Greece | directed by Yannis Youlountas | 2018 | 84 minutes | Mainly in Greek and French | English subtitles | Door opens at 8pm, film starts at 8:30.

‘To fight is like falling in love. You lose all control. You do not know what will happen the next day. You leave behind any fear you might have. Fear vanishes when fighting or loving. “LOVE AND REVOLUTION”

The media no longer talk about Greece, suggesting that the austerity cure has been successful and that peace has returned. This film proves the opposite.

People fighting, and loving: Cooking for thousands, teaching children, securing the anarchist neighbourhood, stopping the airport, fighting the cops, and bashing in fascists.

A musical journey, from the north to the south of Greece, among those who dream of love and revolution.

Yannis Youlountas, a Franco-Greek author and film-maker, is also the organizer of philosophical debates for children, criticising the formation of media influenced opinions. Since 2008, He has been participating in the events in Greece, reporting them in his articles, photos, books and films, while also organising actions and solidarity convoys. In 2013, his film Let’s not live like slaves carried the word of the Greek social movement to all the continents, followed, two years later, by his film I fight therefore I am.

ΑΓΆΠΗ ΚΑΙ ΕΠΑΝΆΣΤΑΣΗ: Όχι, τίποτα δεν έχει τελειώσει στην Ελλάδα (ΓΙΆΝΝΗΣ ΓΙΟΥΛΟΥΝΤΑΣ)

Το να αγωνίζεσαι είναι σαν να αγαπάς. Χάνεις όλο τον έλεγχο. Δεν ξέρεις τι θα συμβεί την επόμενη μέρα. Αφήνεις πίσω κάθε φόβο που μπορεί να έχεις. Ο φόβος εξαφανίζεται όταν αγωνίζεσαι ή αγαπάς. ΑΓΆΠΗ ΚΑΙ Η ΕΠΑΝΆΣΤΑΣΗ.
Τα μέσα ενημέρωσης δεν μιλάνε πια για την Ελλάδα, προτείνοντας οτι τα μέτρα λιτότητας είχαν επιτυχία και πως η ευημερία έχει επιστρέψει. Αυτή η ταινία αποδεικνύει το αντίθετο.

Οι άνθρωποι αγωνίζονται και αγαπούν: μαγειρεύοντας για χιλιάδες, διδάσκοντας παιδιά, προστατεύοντας τις αναρχικές γειτονιές, σταματώντας το αεροδρόμιο, παλεύοντας με μπάτσους και φασίστες.

Ένα μουσικό ταξίδι, από τον βορά ως τον νότο, για εκείνους που ονειρεύονται αγάπη και επανάσταση.

Ο Γιάννης Γιουλούντας, Γάλλο-Έλληνας συγγραφέας και σκηνοθέτης, οργανώνει και φιλοσοφικά debates για παιδιά κάνοντας κριτική στην επιρροή των μέσων ενημέρωσής στην κοινή γνώμη. Από το 2008, συμμετάσχει σε γεγονότα που συμβαίνουν στην Ελλάδα, σθμπεριλαμβάνοντάς τα στα άρθρα, στις φωτογραφίες και στα στα βιβλία του, ενώ οργανώνει παράλληλα δράσεις αλληλεγγύης. Το 2013, η ταινία του ‘Ας μην ζήσουμε σαν δούλοι’ μετέδωσε το μήνυμα του ελληνικού κινήματος σε όλες τις ηπείρους, ακολουθούμενο, δυο χρόνια μετά, από την ταινία του ‘αγωνίζομαι άρα υπάρχω’.

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

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Black Cat Cine presents High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)

By: börek - November 1st, 2018  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 11 november 2018, Black Cat Cine presents: High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963). Door opens at 8:00, film starts at 8:30

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

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Working Class Goes to Heaven (Elio Petri, 1971)

By: börek - November 1st, 2018  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 4 november 2018, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema. Doors open at 20:00, Film starts 20:30.

THE WORKING CLASS GOES TO HEAVEN 1971
(La classe operaia va in paradiso)
Directed by Elio Petri
111 minutes
In Italian with English subtitles

This long-forgotten flick by cult Italian director Elio Petri (Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion, The 10th Victim) received top honors at Cannes in 1972. It’s a gut-level, sex-and-politics view of industrial capitalism focusing on a factory worker (Gian Maria Volonté) caught up in the wheels of assembly-line production and mass consumption. It’s the sexual fantasies that he has which fuels Lulu’s productivity for the company, but his perspective on work and life undergo a radical transformation when he looses his finger in a factory accident and is temporarily laid off. Along with his finger he also loses himself – everything he had believed in and dedicated his life to. That’s the set-up of this film, and I won’t go into how everything unfolds afterwards. The alternative title is Lulu the Tool (there was a time when workers actually used tools; then there came a time when workers became tools).

Here we clearly see the impact of the May ’68 upheavals… and although all of this may sound dry and grim, in the hands of a superb director like Petri, an absurdist sense of black humour bursts to the surface from time to time. Petri chooses his aesthetics, both visually and musically, to reflect the working conditions found in factories, which ends up being both surreal and aggressive. The cinema vérité camerawork is by Luigi Kuvellier, production design is by the future Academy Awards winner Dante Ferretti, and it is graced with a darkly dissonant music score by the legendary Ennio Morricone. Besides starring Gian Maria Volonté, this hard-hitting gem also features Mariangela Melato.

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

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: L’été (Marcel Hanoun, 1968) + Radio Voorwaarts (Mateo Vega, 2018)

By: börek - October 1st, 2018  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 28 October 2018, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema. Doors open at 20:00, programme starts at 20:30. Radio Voorwaarts (local short) and L’été (Summer)

RADIO VOORWAARTS – 2018 (Radio Forwards) Directed by Mateo Vega. 20 minutes. In Dutch with English subtitles
Threatened with eviction, the inhabitants of an alternative community – artists, squatters, idealists and ravers – give one last party to simultaneously mourn and celebrate the end of their beloved space. Director Mateo Vega will be present at this screening to answer questions. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/274252520

MAI ’68 L’ETE – 1968. Directed by Marcel Hanoun, 63 minutes. In French with English subtitles
Directly after the spring of may ’68, when all the dreams of a new generation came to the surface but were beaten down, Tunisian-born director Marcel Hanoun and actress Graziella Buci left Paris and went to the countryside to lick their wounds and reflect on what had been lost. In a stone house in Normandy a woman lives in seclusion, looking at photographs of the Mai’68 uprising. She walks in the countryside, attempting to reconcile what has happened. She listens to the radio, and hears a broadcast about the invasion of Soviet tanks into Czechoslovakia. That feels like the final nail in the coffin. She quotes a poet “there is no longer any fire in the sky.”

This movie is certainly political, but in a way that you have probably never experienced before…. because here the discourse is poetic, rather than ranting. The film is a mood piece, and a time capsule, with a deep melancholic tone.

“Ceux qui font des révolutions à moitié n’ont fait que se creuser un tombeau.”

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

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