Other Cinema: Paris is Burning (Jenni Livingston ,1991)

ParisIsBurningSunday 9th April 2017, Other Cinema: Paris is Burning (1991) by Jenni Livingston. Doors 20:30, Film 21:00, we make popcorn ♥

Documentary filmed in the late 1980s, which chronicles the ball and voguing culture in New York City, involving African-American, Lationo, gay and transgender communities. The documentary is considered an invaluable exploration of New Yorks “Golden Age” and race, gender, class and sexuality in America.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open after 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Movie Night: Xiao Wu (The Pickpocket, Jia Zhangke, 1997)

The_PickpocketSunday 2nd April 2017, Xiao Wu (The Pickpocket) from Jia Zhangke, 1997. 111 minutes. Language: Mandarin/Jin Chinese. Subtitles:English. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

Tonight we will screen the film Xiao Wu or Pickpocket, directed by Chinese director Jia Zhangke and starring only non-professional actors. The film plays in the 1990s, which is a transitional period in China away from communism and towards capitalism. The lead character, a pickpocket on the fringes of society, is struggling to cope with the rapid changes.

What’s so great about this film is that it perfectly and honestly captures the atmosphere of 1990s China, an era when many just overcame their hunger. This place was so poor and culturally remote that few took the effort to document anything. This time did however lay the basics for the current superpower of 1.3 billion. Even if only for that reason, this is a film worth to be seen!

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open after 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Woman from Rose Hill

170326_la_femme_de_rose_hill_smSunday March 26th 2017, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

THE WOMAN FROM ROSE HILL 1989
(La femme de Rose Hill)
Directed by Alain Tanner

95 minutes
In French with English subtitles

The films of Swiss director Alain Tanner (La salamandre, Jonas will be 25…) are some of the most poignant and sharpest of the last century. Sadly his movies have been marginalized and trashed by our commercial film distribution industry.

Julie is a young woman from Rose Hill (Republic of Mauritius, an Island off the off the southeast coast of Africa). She moves to a little village in Switzerland, responding to a proposal of marriage by her pen-pal Marcel. But when Julie arrives, everything is wrong right from the start. Director Alain Tanner is excellent in showing the culture shock of this young black woman, confronted by the horror of Switzerland… cold, clinical, ordered, regulated, Calvinist, snow-covered, brutally practical and ultimately abstract.
In his films director Alain Tanner always focuses on outsiders, and here we see Julie as utterly dispossessed. Finally she meets Jean, a neighbor, and they have an affair, which leads to damning judgments from the local community. This is a tender movie, totally unknown, by a master filmmaker, dealing with issues of immigration and the responsibilities of Europe’s colonialist past. This will be an outrageously rare screening of this brilliant and haunting gem, that was effectively banned by commercial distributors. […Lees verder]

No More President’s: Trump Arrestees Benefit

natalie_keyssar_washington_dc_trump_inauguration_limoThursday 16 March 2017, No More President’s: Trump Arrestees Benefit. Volkseten Vegazulu at 7pm. Screening from 8:00pm till 10pm.

On 16 March 2017, there will be a benefit for people in the United States facing serious charges from the 20 January Trump inauguration protests. Over 200 people where arrested and many are facing felonies that carry a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. Global Uprisings (www.globaluprisings.org) will screen their short film “No More Presidents: Protesting the Trump Inauguration” along with video clips of other actions including airport blockades against the Muslim ban, the Berkeley anti-fascist action against Milo Yiannopoulos, the Day Without Immigrants protests, people preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from detaining undocumented migrants, and clips from the March 8 Women’s Strike. Following the presentation, there will be a Q and A about the situation in the US and how it relates to fighting the growing influence of the far-right in Europe. […Lees verder]

Black Cat Cine presents “The Square” (Jehane Noujaim, 2013)

The_Square_Jehane_NoujaimSunday 12th March 2017, Black Cat Cine presents “The Square” by Jehane Noujaim, Egypt 2013, 95 min, English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

An intimate observational documentary that tells the story of the struggle of the Egyptian Revolution through the eyes of six different protesters. Starting in the tents of Tahrir in the days leading up to the fall of Mubarak, we follow our characters on a life-changing journey through the euphoria of victory into the uncertainties and dangers of the current ‘transitional period’ under military rule. “An inspiring testament to the power of protests and the voice of the people.”

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open after 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Other Cinema: El Cadáver Exquisito (Victor Ruano, 2011)

Exquisite_CorpseSunday 5th March 2017, OTHER CINEMA: El cadáver exquisito / Exquisite Corpse (2011, 90min, USA/El Salvador, dir. Victor Ruano). Presented in Spanish with English subtitles. Doors 20:40, Film 21:00

El cadáver exquisito combines documentary, fiction and experimental film-making as it traverses the social and dream landscape of a region struggling between modernity and tradition. A peasant named Juventino, is killed during a fiery nighttime battle, dedicated to purify the city. As he leaves his world in the midst of this ritual he is infused with visions as his own mind attempts to filter and purify his fears and his desires. Juventino’s myths, as torrid and exuberant as the geography, are often more concrete than his reality. The inhabitants aid his journey by performing rituals with the hope of understanding, pleasing and obtaining favors from the beyond. During the day these rituals unleash repressed emotions, which at sundown are liberated into lascivious celebration. His corpse, during the autopsy, unveils something more repugnant than his death, the submission of the living to it. This fantastical collective biography immerses into a dense mythological universe by narrating the life of this being in the process of unbeing, this character becoming this corpse. […Lees verder]

Black Cat Cine presents “We Come As Friends”

20170226_wecomeasfriendsSunday February 26th 2017, Black Cat Cine presents “We Come As Friends” by Hubert Sauper, France/Austria, 2014, 110 minutes. English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

In his tiny homemade aircraft flown all the way from France, documentarian Hubert Sauper touches down on grassy strips and military airports in Sudan. He visits people and places in one of the world’s most politically confusing regions. “A modern odyssey, a dizzying, science fiction-like journey into the heart of Africa.” By the maker of Darwin’s Nightmare in 2005.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Movie night: Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst, aka “Neverland: The Rise and Fall of the Symbionese Liberation Army” (Robert Stone, 2004)

guerrillaSunday February 12th 2017, Movie night: Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst, aka “Neverland: The Rise and Fall of the Symbionese Liberation Army” (Robert Stone, 2004). Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

In 1974, a militant, fringe political group kidnapped teenage newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst from her Berkeley apartment. In the months that followed, Hearst, the Symbionese Liberation Army (S.L.A.), and their constant, paramilitary audio messages dominated headlines globally.
Using a treasure trove of archival footage and audio material, this film follows the bizarre saga from the establishment of the S.L.A., through the kidnapping, Hearst’s conversion to her captors’ cause, and the bank robberies and shootouts that followed.
First-ever interviews with two surviving members of the S.L.A. provide insight into the politically charged times and the reasons why the group embraced revolutionary rhetoric and a terrorist agenda. As the spectacle unfolds, and journalists camped outside the Hearst home become consumed by the story, the film begins to explore questions about the role of the media and the ethics of broadcast journalism.
Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst is an unprecedented account of the Symbionese Liberation Army, arguably the most notorious and flamboyant domestic terrorist group in American history.
Dedicated to the rights of black prisoners and the working class, the S.L.A. set forth in 1973 to incite the violent overthrow of the U.S. government, brilliantly manipulating the mass media to advance their message. Their audacious kidnapping of teenage newspaper heiress Patty Hearst inspired what might be described as the first true media “frenzy,” one that only exploded further when Patty transformed into “Tania” and joined the ranks of the S.L.A. Every detail of their descent into the surreal outer limits of political extremism was played out in public, a spectacle foreshadowing some of the worst excesses of modern TV journalism. Thirty years later, the S.L.A.’s extraordinary two-year crime spree resonates as a parable of political ideology run amok, the role of the media in America, and the romantic fantasies of modern political terrorism.
For Guerrilla, filmmaker Robert Stone went underground, where he spent four years creating a film that delivers both eye-popping archival footage and an exclusive interview with S.L.A. founder Russ Little, whose incarceration inspired the Hearst kidnapping. […Lees verder]