Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: El Pico (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1983)

By: börek - May 1st, 2017  Filed under: Filmavond

170514_el_pico_smSunday May 14th 2017, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema. El Pico (1983) by Eloy de la Iglesia. 105 minutes. In Spanish and Basque, with custom-made English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

This is the key movie of a much discussed genre called /cine quinqui/, which dealt mostly with heroin-use and small-time criminality.  While Europe seemingly only produced a handful of heroin dramas like Christiane F., in Spain the genre caught on like wildfire. Most of the films were low budget, rough and gritty in a wonderful Blaxploitation kind of way.

El pico is the culmination of the quinqui movement, but it is also much more than that. No longer a low-budget affair, this movie is a full-fledged political thriller set in the Basque country. At the time, Eloy de la Iglesia’s denunciation of the Guardia Civil’s involvement in the heroin trade sounded like a crazy conspiracy theory. It would take another fifteen years for the Supreme Court to endorse the accusations made in this movie (Caso UCIFA, 1997). Much like the CIA’s involvement in the Cointelpro heroin deals to hush down, frame or kill the ‘black power’ communities, the Guardia Civil worked hand in hand with drugdealers to stifle a rebellious unemployed Basque youth, who were still joining the ranks of ETA and nationalist parties.

If this wasn’t enough, El pico is also a film about homosexual emancipation. Quique San Francisco plays a brave, politically engaged, deeply humane gay character, and in the role of the beautiful young junkie we find Eloy de la Iglesia’s long-time lover Jose Luis Manzano, one of the many heroin celebrities of the time. As a teenager, Manzano had tried to mug the film director, but ended up starring in several of his films. Like many cine quinqui stars, the talented non-actor spent his life going from rehab to filmshoot to court-hearing, and he died of a bad heroin dose just a decade after this movie was shot.

The movie was a massive box-office success, despite the horrendous reviews by film critics in Spain. it was soon followed up with El pico 2, which presented drug use in a slightly more realistic way.

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

[…Lees verder]

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Other Cinema: Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs, 1989)

By: börek - May 1st, 2017  Filed under: Filmavond

Tongues_Untied_Marlon_RiggsSunday May 7th 2017, Other Cinema: Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs, 1989). length: 54 mins. Doors 20:45, Film 21:00. Discussion afterwards

“Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary act”
Marlon Riggs’ essay film Tongues Untied gives voice to communities of black gay men, presenting their cultures and perspectives on the world as they confront racism, homophobia and marginalization. It broke new artistic ground by mixing poetry (by Essex Hemphill and other artists), music, performance and Riggs’ autobiographical revelations. The film was embraced by black gay audiences for its authentic representation of style, and culture, as well its fierce response to oppression. It opened up opportunities for dialogue among and across communities. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Poison

By: börek - April 1st, 2017  Filed under: Filmavond

170423_poison_smSunday 23rd April 2017, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Poison (1991), directed by Todd Haynes. 86 minutes. In English. Doors open at 20.30. At 21.00, screening.

The feature debut movie of the now famous Todd Haynes (Safe, Carol, Velvet Goldmine). When Haynes made this project he was still an obscure filmmaker mostly known only in the gay community. But when an American Senator named Jessie Helms publicly attacked the film it made the headlines and the flick was suddenly catapulted into art house cinemas and even won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Poison was inspired by the transgressive writings of the French author Jean Genet, who was both a criminal and a poet. The narrative structure is quite experimental, reflecting the wildness in Haynes’ later biopic about Bob Dylan I’m not There. So instead of having a single storyline, it has three narrative paths… ‘Hero,’ ‘Horror’ and ‘Homo’, and each is depicted in a different style – color, black & white, and documentary. For example, ‘Horror’ is modelled after an old-fashioned sci-fi melodrama from the 50s, and is about a scientist who is able to distill the human sex-drive into a single fluid. When things go out of control it unleashes a sexual plague across mankind, a clear reference to the aids epidemic.

The imagery is dynamic and bold, the music score is great, and the end result is absolutely unique. But this is a film for people who want to explore, rather than have a comfortable viewing. For example, it doesn’t make it easy for the audience to know how to react to many scenes. It can shift from moments of intense beauty to visceral queasiness… almost to a dizzying degree. It can be both enchanting and provocative. This is a small indie gem that is almost forgotten today, but which still packs a punch after all these years. […Lees verder]

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“Killing the Black Snake: Behind the Scenes of the #NODAPL Struggle”. Documentary and Discussion Night

By: börek - April 1st, 2017  Filed under: Filmavond, Infoavond

NODAPLSunday 16th April 2017, “Killing the Black Snake: Behind the Scenes of the #NODAPL Struggle”. Documentary and Discussion Night, 9pm.

Screening sub.Media’s first episode of Trouble, a brand-new monthly show offering an in-depth anarchist analysis of current struggles, tactics and movement dynamics. Trouble will broadcast first-hand accounts and perspectives from organizers on the ground, with the aim of cutting through the fog of misinformation that often clouds our understanding of the world, and provoking people into taking bold, collective action.

In “Killing the Black Snake: Behind the Scenes of the #NODAPL Struggle.” sub.Media looks beyond the mainstream narratives surrounding the Standing Rock encampment to get a better understanding of some of the camp’s overlooked dynamics, including serious disagreements over which tactics to use to best stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

sub.Media is an independent grassroots media collective and a video production ensemble aiming to promote anarchist and anti-capitalist ideas, and aid social struggles through the dissemination of radical films and videos. sub.Media: http://www.submedia.tv/

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

By: börek - April 1st, 2017  Filed under: Filmavond

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

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

By: börek - April 1st, 2017  Filed under: Filmavond

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

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Woman from Rose Hill

By: börek - March 1st, 2017  Filed under: Filmavond

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]

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No More President’s: Trump Arrestees Benefit

By: börek - March 1st, 2017  Filed under: Benefiet, Filmavond, Infoavond, Volkseten/Voku

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]

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