Movie night: La Estrategia del Caracol

La_Estrategia_del_CaracolSunday May 8th 2016, La Estrategia del Caracol  (The Strategy of the Snail) by Sergio Cabrera, 1993, 107 minutes, in Spanish with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

After years of living peacefully in an old house in the city, a group of squatters are given their eviction orders by a sleazy property developer, leaving them just 10 days to leave. Poor and unwilling to move, the group decides they should take matters into their own hands. Jacinto, an old Spanish exile, proposes they employ the ‘snail’s strategy’, in order to foil the property developer’s plans. […Lees verder]

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Ecuadorian movie night: Con mi corazón en Yambo (2011)

Con_mi_corazon_en_YamboSunday May 1st 2016, Ecuadorian movie night: With My Heart in Yambo (Original title: Con mi corazón en Yambo) from María Fernanda Restrep, 2011, 135 minutes, in Spanish with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Donations welcome to raise funds for the victims of the earthquake in Ecuador of April 16th.

This award winning documentary tells the story of the Restrepo brothers from the point of view of her sister, who directs the film. The Restrepo brothers were kidnaped and killed by the Ecuadorian police, and this was the beginning of a struggle for their family that became the most iconic case of human rights in Ecuador in recent times. This documentary is a story about pain, faith, family and about never surrendering to any injustice, because as the Restrepo’s family has prove, this persistence can change everything.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO6-vDdvp2w

On Thursday May 5th, benefit voku, Ecuadorian dinner in support of the victims of the earthquake in Ecuador with a concert with Charo Durán. Event starts at 7pm. No reservation.
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Black and White movie night: La Vie de Bohème (Aki Kaurismäki, 1992)

Sunday April 24th 2016, Black and White movie night: La Vie de Bohème (Aki Kaurismäki, 1992). In French with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

La Vie de Bohème manages to mine more impact from the simple fact of movement than most movies can get even with a flurry of mobile shots and onscreen action. The title of the original novel translates to “Scenes from the Bohemian Life”, a title which could just as easily apply to a painting or set of paintings as it does to a film or collection of writings. Kaurismäki’s deep-focus shots are filled with the attention to detail and design that defines many of the greatest directors of onscreen comedy: Jerry Lewis, Frank Tashlin, and Kaurismäki’s contemporary Roy Andersson among them.

Unlike their color scenery and elaborate contraptions, however, (Andersson in particular is capable of a how’d-he-do-that craft in the tradition of stage magic) Kaurismäki’s compositions create the impression of a series of still lives in which his characters move tentatively about. The first shot captures the poet Marcel Marx (Andre Wilms) rummaging about in a heap of trash before he commits a violent pratfall, picking himself up with a bemused demeanor as he mutters about the predicament. What did he think would happen? […Lees verder]

Iranian New Wave Cinema: Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (2007)

Buddha_Collapsed_Out_of_ShameSunday April 17th 2016, Iranian New Wave Cinema: Buddha collapsed out of shame (Hana Makhmalbaf, 2007). In Dari with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (Persian:بودا از شرم فرو ریخت : Buda az sharm foru rikht) is a 2007 Iranian film directed by Hana Makhmalbaf. The story takes place in modern Afghanistan following the removal of the Taliban and revolves around a 5-year-old Afghan girl who wants to attend a newly opened school. The girl Bakhtay (Nikbakht Noruz) lives in the caves under the remains of the Buddhas of Bamiyan which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Bakhtay becomes obsessed with the idea of going to school but must fight against a society influenced by conditions suffered during the strict Taliban rule including male domination, war, poverty and dire children’s games.

Synopsis:
Amidst the wreckage beneath the ruined statue of the Buddha, thousands of families struggle to survive. Baktay, a six-year-old Afghan girl is challenged to go to school by her neighbour’s son who reads in front of their cave. Having found the money to buy a precious notebook, and taking her mother’s lipstick for a pencil, Baktay sets out. On her way, she is harassed by boys playing games that mimic the terrible violence they have witnessed, that has always surrounded them. The boys want to stone the little girl, to blow her up as the Taliban blew up the Buddha, to shoot her like Americans. Will Baktay be able to escape these violent war games and reach the school?

Director’s View:
In a period of 25 years Afghanistan has experienced many rulers; the communist Russians, Al-Qaeda and the Islamic extremists Taliban and western or laic Christians. Each of these rulers in order to save Afghanistan from the hegemony of the other have initially attacked and destroyed this country. The present day destructions in Afghanistan are not limited to cities and homes. Now the children of this land in their games fire at each other with wooden arms and play the stoning game with little girls and place mines under each other’s feet in humor. How will these children who mock the game of war in childhood like adults play with each other and the future of humanity?

More about the film: http://www.makhmalbaf.com/?q=film/buddha-collapsed-out-shame
More about the director: http://www.makhmalbaf.com/?q=hana

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

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Norma Rae

Norma_RaeSunday April 10th 2016, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Norma Rae, 1970. Directed by Martin Ritt, 114 minutes. In English with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

Man, few films will show how the world has changed since the 70s than this gutsy drama. Once upon a time there were things called unions. They were formed by collectives of workers who risked their jobs for the benefit of all. Today the word ‘union’ is a pretty negative one, and they have all but vanished from the social map… but at the same time salaries in the western world are at their lowest since the ’80s, worker’s rights have been all but totally eliminated, while corporations are reporting record profits.

In a bold career-changing move, actress Sally Fields stars as a textile worker in North Carolina, who bucks the damn system and throws her life on the line. Why? Because she believes in something, and refuses to be a slave. But that’s a pretty big decision. Despite what the mainstream media tells us, most of the people who have exposed the American dream as a fraud have been attacked, blacklisted, denounced, blackballed, imprisoned, assassinated, victims of smear campaigns, and erased from social history (just as thoroughly as in any so-called communist regime). Our 20th century history is a shambles, a mess. Why? Because the real motivators of change, whether they were fighting for black power, gay rights or even unions, have been banished from the history books.

So this is a film about a normal person who decides to fight back. And its not Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson… it’s a woman. And once again we have a big film with a powerful message, that sneaked in through the Hollywood door at the end of the 70s – the kind of film that would be impossible today. Sally Fields gives a walloping performance, and it won her an academy award for best actress. The bittersweet theme music is by Jennifer Warnes, which picked up the Oscar for best song. […Lees verder]

The Black Panthers: Vaguard of the Revolution (2015)

black_panthersSunday April 3rd 2016, Movie night: The Black Panthers: Vaguard of the Revolution (Stanley Nelson, 2015, USA), 120 minutes. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

“What is clear from this sober yet electrifying film is that the power of the Panthers was rooted in their insistence — radical then, radical still — that black lives matter.” A.O.Scott, NY Times

Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the voices of people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, whit supporter and detractors and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.

imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4316236/
Also:

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Down By Law (1986)

Down_by_LaySunday March 27th, Movie night: Down By Law by Jim Jarmusch, USA, 1986, 107 minutes. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

Tom Waits ends up in jail for a crime he didn’t commit in this re-released comedy of 1986. Cue hypnotic score, superb cinematography and stupendous performances. With its hypnotic score, stupendous performances and its superb monochrome cinematography by Robby Müller, it is something to set aside early work by David Lynch and Spike Lee. But it also gains from comparison with Jarmusch’s own later work, particularly his vampire fantasy Only Lovers Left Alive.

The eerie, ghost-town New Orleans that he conjured in Down By Law is like the post-economic-apocalypse of Detroit. Jarmusch has in each a miraculous gift for finding a dreamlike emptiness in cities, in which his characters and we, the audience, wander, as if in a lucid dream.

Down By Law is effortlessly laidback, superbly elegant. Jarmusch made it look easy. It stars Tom Waits as Zack, the unemployed DJ fitted up for a crime he didn’t commit and finding himself in a grim Louisiana prison with a sleazy pimp called Jack (excellently played by musician and actor John Lurie). They have to share their cell with an eccentric Italian, Roberto, and this was the film that launched Roberto Benigni on an unsuspecting world. It made a star of him – about which I still have mixed feelings. He is tremendous here; his simple presence lends surreality to the situation, but he is under close directorial control, which Benigni’s own later, sugary and over-indulged movies lacked.

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

Kurdish movie night: Half Moon (Bahman Ghobadi, 2006)

Sunday March 20th 2016, Kurdish new wave cinema: Half Moon (2006). In Sorani Kurdish and Farsi with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

Half Moon (Kurdish: Nîwe Mang/Nîvê Heyvê) is a 2006 film written and directed by Iranian Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi. Half Moon is a joint production of Iran, Austria, France and Iraq. This movie was commissioned by the New Crowned Hope festival, a celebration of the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the story plot has been inspired in part by Mozart’s Requiem.

Synopsis: Mamo, an old renowned Kurdish musician, has begun a journey to Iraq with his sons to perform a concert after the fall of Saddam Hossein. Kako, a middle-aged man and a huge fan of Mamo’s, enthusiastically escorts them in an orange mini bus which he has borrowed from a friend. Mamo gathers his sons one by one from different areas. The last son who joins the team insists on speaking to Mamo in private. He explains to Mamo that the Wise man of the village has predicted that Mamo should not go on the trip because, as the full moon nears, something awful will happen to him. Mamo persists on continuing his journey. He claims that he must continue his trip despite all the obstacles because he was not allowed to perform in Iraq for many years. Mamo intends to take Hesho, a female singer who lives with 1334 other women in exile, as part of his team. But the strength of Hesho’s voice has dwindled along with her self confidence. While crossing the borders, Mamo’s team faces many difficulties as their journey is wrought with adventure and disaster each step of the way. […Lees verder]