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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Movie night: Sanfermines 78 (Juan Gautier, José Ángel Jiménez, 2005)

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

Sunday 21 October 2018, Movie night: Sanfermines 78 by Juan Gautier, José Ángel Jiménez (2005), 68 minutes, in Spanish, no subtitles. Doors open at 8pm, film starts at 8:30pm.

On 8 July 1978, the Sanfermines fiestas were interrupted by events that shook Pamplona. That same year the text of the Spanish Constitution was being negotiated and Navarre was experiencing days of political tension. In addition, the actions of the extreme right, the advance of the workers’ movement, the actions of ETA, the incipient political parties, etc, formed part of a puzzle that was difficult to solve in those years of transition to democracy. 25 years after these events, its protagonists tell us how they lived those days forming a collective portrait of that time and bringing us a little closer to the reality of those events.

On 8 July 1978 in Pamplona, after the deployment of a banner in favor of total amnesty, the Armed Police intervened leaving more than 150 wounded and a student, Germán Rodríguez, killed by a shot in the forehead. This intervention led to a general strike in Navarre and protests that spread to Álava, Guipúzcoa, Vizcaya and the rest of Navarre. These events were never judged.

In Donostia, on 11 July 1978, the Armed Police charged the demonstrators and Joseba Barandiaran Urkola, an 18-year-old resident of Astigarraga, was shot in the chest. The policemen of the operation covered themselves and the case was dismissed 7 years later for not being able to identify the author.

At the spot where Germán Rodríguez was shot, a commemorative stele was placed, by popular initiative, around which rallies have been held on the date of the anniversary in memory of Germán and of the aggression suffered by the city. This one that initially was of stone, was smashed away, being replaced by another one that was blown up with explosives. Another stele was placed again, this one made of bronze that was present for twenty years until, on the occasion of some works to make an underground car park in the area, it was removed in 2005.

On 14 December 2007, a stele was inaugurated in a popular way, without the presence of official representatives. In the commemoration of 2015 the mayor of Pamplona, the recently elected Joseba Asiron attended for the first time, and in 2016, in addition to the institutional participation, the plaque was changed and the following text was put on: “In memory of Germán Rodríguez Saiz, who was shot dead by the police on July 8, 1978.”

40 years later, on 18 January 2018, the Parliament of Navarre approved a resolution urging the Spanish government to declassify all documentation and information existing in the State Administration, related to the events of the Sanfermines of 1978. On 8 May 2018, the proposal was rejected in Congress with the votes of PP, PSOE and Ciudadanos

On 29 June 2018 the sculpture “Gogoan” (in memory) was inaugurated. It is located in the same avenue of Roncesvalles, dominant place of the police repression and in which Germán Rodríguez died.

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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Documentary screening: Arna’s Children (Juliano Mer-Khamis, 2004)

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

Sunday 7 October 2018, SRP (Studenten voor Rechtvaardigheid in Palestina) presents Arna’s Children (Juliano Mer-Khamis, 2004), 84 minutes. Language: Arabic & Hebrew (English subtitles). Doors open at 8pm, film starts at 8:30pm.

Arna’s Children tells the story of a theatre group that was established by Arna Mer-Khamis. Arna comes from a Zionist family and in the 1950’s married a Palestinian Arab, Saliba Khamis. On the West Bank, she opened an alternative education system for children whose regular life was disrupted by the Israeli occupation. The theatre group that she started engaged children from Jenin, helping them to express their everyday frustrations, anger, bitterness and fear. Arna’s son Juliano, director of this film, was also one of the directors of Jenin’s theatre. With his camera, he filmed the children during rehearsal periods from 1989 to 1996. Now, he goes back to see what happened to them. Yussef committed a suicide attack in Hadera in 2001, Ashraf was killed in the battle of Jenin, Alla leads a resistance group. Juliano, who today is one of the leading actors in the region, looks back in time in Jenin, trying to understand the choices made by the children he loved and worked with. Eight years ago, the theatre was closed and life became static and paralysed. Shifting back and forth in time, the film reveals the tragedy and horror of lives trapped by the circumstances of the Israeli occupation.
The film screening will be followed by a discussion on the role of art and culture in liberation struggles. Aditionally we will present information on the cultural boycott as part of the wider BDS campaign and how solidarity activists can support the Palestinian struggle using this tactic.

SRP (Studenten voor Rechtvaardigheid in Palestina) : http://srpnederland.nl

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: Joe (John G. Avildsen, 1970)

By: börek - September 10th, 2018  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 30 September 2018, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Joe (1970). Directed by John G. Avildsen. 102 minutes. In English with English subtitles. Doors open at 8pm, film starts at 8:30pm.

I screened this wild flick three years ago, as I saw a certain tendency building in the United States. Since then things have exploded… so let’s just take another look at this motherfucker in relation to current events.

This is vintage 1970’s filmmaking – swerving into unexpected areas and taking on topics that today’s formula-ridden cinema wouldn’t even imagine. Set in the swinging 60s and filled to the hilt with exploitation-like situations, this unusual film centers on corporate executive Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick) whose young daughter Melissa has overdosed on drugs. One night in a bar Bill meets a guy named Joe, an all American, anti-hippie, anti-commie, gun lovin, working class hard-head. The bizarre friendship that develops plummets the movie into the depths of the American nightmare… in a way that is totally fitting today’s political climate.

Directed by John G. Avildsen (Rocky) and starring Peter Boyle and Susan Sarandon in her film debut. Interestingly, this was the first film that Lloyd Kaufman (Troma films) ever worked on… he was the assistant director. The music is soulful and performed by Bobby Scott (who wrote He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother). Without going into the subject of the movie too much, I should say that it is something even more relevant today than when it was made… one could even say it was prophetic. A great counter-balance to the commercial nonsense that we are offered in the cinemas today, much of which – directly or indirectly – sensationalize and glamorize violence.

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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Pervomaisk, 1st of May – documentary film by Flora Reznik – screening and conversation

By: börek - September 10th, 2018  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 23 September 2018

Pervomaisk, 1st of May
Documentary film by Flora Reznik
65 minutes

Screening and conversation with the director.
Doors open at 20, screening is at 20:30.
There will be drinks!
Organized by Jewdas.

To understand why Flora Reznik’s first film is called like a remote Ukrainian city and not Kibbutz Metzer -the Israeli commune located 2500 kilometers from Pervomaisk, where the film takes place almost in its entirety- one needs to arrive to the final ten minutes. To “arrive” and not to “await”, because what makes Pervomaisk a precise and potent symbol of so many things is being deciphered on the way towards there (and, in a sense, it is the way). There are lives, as much as there are places, in which History seems to inscribe with traces stronger than usual: many of the dilemmas, tensions and contradictions of the 20th Century are clearly readable in the parable of the kibbutz founded by Pesaj Zaskin, a wrecked utopia that Reznik does not send off with laments, but with the glorious rebellion of a techno song.
-Agustín Masaedo -Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival.

Jewdas: https://www.jewdas.org/

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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Documentary Film from Syria: Everyday Life in a Syrian Village

By: börek - July 31st, 2018  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 19 august 2018, Documentary Film from Syria: Everyday Life in a Syrian Village. Directed by Omar Amiralay, Syria, 1974, 85 minutes, Black & white, Arabic with English subtitles. Door opens at 20:00, film and presentation from 20:30.

The first documentary to present an unabashed critique of the impact of the Syrian government’s agricultural and land reforms, this film delivers a powerful jab at the state’s conceit of redressing social and economic inequities. Interviews reveal the contrast between the peasants’ regard for the state and the attitude of state representatives towards those peasants.

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: Latest from the DaDa-ER

By: börek - July 30th, 2018  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday August 5th 2018, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Latest from the DaDa-ER (Letztes aus der DaDaeR). Directed by Jörg Foth, 1990, 86 minutes. In German with English subtitles. Door opens at 20:30, film and presentation from 21:00.

After the Berlin wall fell the East-German film scene went haywire, since there was suddenly a small window of time that meant it was no longer under the authority of the previous GDR government, and as of yet were not forced to become commercial by the capitalist system. In this small period they knocked out some truly wild and exceptional off-beat cries of rebellion. This film is a marvelous example. It couldn’t have been made a year earlier when the GDR was still strong, and it wouldn’t have been made a year later when the DEFA studio was bought by a French conglomerate.

What we have here is a avant-garde picaresque story of two East-German clowns rummaging through the ruins of the GDR, and although the clowns seem relieved that everything is loosening up, at the same time everything is falling apart and they also show no interest in the glamor and spectacle of the ‘other’ half of Germany. This film was made at a very acute point in time. The main forces behind this freewheeling creation were two visionary performance artists – Steffen Mensching and Hans-Eckardt Wenzel. The are both the writers and the main actors in this surreal flick about two clowns trying to survive the last days of East Germany. Their journey is almost like Dante’s inferno, as they are let out of prison, and they venture through garbage dumps and down rivers into unbelievable situations. Each stage of their quest is set up like a cabaret piece, complete with songs they sing that describe their plight. They find themselves in an almost no-man’s land, and their observations are critical of both East and West Germany.

The title of the movie is a play of words merging of the word ‘Dada’ and the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik). This highly unique flick also surprisingly features Rainer Werner Fassbinder regular Irm Hermann in a cameo role. Another outrageously rare screening of totally forgotten cinema.

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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