Monday March 31, 2025, Benefit for No Border Kitchen Lesvos. Food served from 7pm, no reservation. […Lees verder]
Movie Night: Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)
Sunday March 30, 2025, Movie Night: Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972) * 94 minutes * In German with English Subtitles * doors open at 20:00 * intro & first film starts at 20:30.
In search of El Dorado, in the mid-16th century, a gold-crazed contingent of Spanish conquistadors goes deep into the Peruvian rain forest, lead by Pedro de Ursúa (famed Portuguese filmmaker Guerra), second-in-command Lope de Aguirre (Kinski), Brother Gaspar (Negro), a rotund nobleman Fernando de Guzmán (Berling), among others, two females, Inés (Rojo), Ursúa’s wife and Florés (Rivera), Aguirre’s teenage daughter, and many Indian slaves. Most of the time, the team steers their route on rafts, but comes in for successive adversities in the hands of the unfathomable nature mother, one raft trapped by an eddy among the rapids causes a horrific aftermath, just when Ursúa commands to abort the scouting mission and backtrack, Aguirre precipitates a mutiny, keeps a wounded Ursúa as prisoner and puts Guzmán on the throne as the emperor of the new kingdom, because he firmly believes, they will find the gold, then their mission continues.
Story-wise, the film is pretty garden-variety, and decidedly trimmed down to the nexus, Aguirre and co. are real historical personages, the expedition and mutiny are true happenings, but Herzog fictionalizes their journey en route and the grim wind-up. Barely landing their feet on solid soil, the conquistadors are singled out one by one by unseen enemies hidden in the forests through poisoned arrows, often proceeded by dead silence.
However, in Herzog’s method, the suspense and dreadfulness is toned down by his dispassionate temperament, which would be made into great play in his equally robust documentary track record. Merely watchful and often centering on Kinski’s distinctively fierce and emotive visage, the camera expends more time perusing the biome’s vista (the ship snagged on top of a tree is a coup de maître of the then young filmmaker, flagging up its powerful metaphoric impact and ludic whimsy) than engaging in the narrative proceedings as their ill-fated destiny lurking ahead, until the final majestic 360-degree twirling shot sending the megalomaniac stranded with numerous skittish monkeys on the raft, paranoid, bereft and dream-dashed.
In any fair sense, the film is less potent as a character analysis of an outrageous madman than a gorgeous landscape porn, utterly otherworldly for those outsiders, but Kinski still hounds you with his muted aggro, lunacy and repugnance (by dint of Herzog’s tactful maneuver, who deliberately lets Kinski rip in his more frenetic performance, but saves the actual shots for the moments when he is abated or simply worn out), which would go beyond the pale in Fitzcarraldo, but here, the final impression is much more balanced and nuanced.
One cannot finish the review without mentioning the acclaimed score composed by the West German avant-garde band Popol Vuh, it is unearthly but not intrusive, a bespoke incident music which leaves its repercussions long after the film reaches its finish-line.
Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net
Voku benefit for Huis Vrederiks
Thursday March 27, 2025, Voku benefit for Huis Vrederiks. Food served from 7pm, no reservation!
Huis Vrederiks was squatted on December 30, 2024. Since then, people have been living there and a social centre, Begane Grond, has been established. Come and eat with us to help raise funds for Huis Vrederiks. Your donations go to electricity and plumbing costs!
Huis Vrederiks, Frederiksplein 52, Amsterdam
https://en.squat.net/tag/huis-vrederiks/
https://radar.squat.net/en/amsterdam/begane-grond […Lees verder]
Lonely Collective Day Cafe
Wednesday March 26, 2025, Lonely Wednesdays revamped, 15:00-20:00
After a hiatus of the great past edition, Lonely Wednesdays return to Joe’s on a (semi-)regular basis to serve as a Third Space for all who miss somewhere else to hang out that isn’t work, home, or the bar. Come with a book, or your favorite game, snacks, or nothing at all; tell your friends, see who shows up, chat with strangers; chill in the garden, snoop around the freeshop, or just zone out. This time we open 15:00-20:00 or so, next installments TBD (suggestions and volunteers welcome!)
As with the last edition, the aim is to keep it non-alcoholic so that everyone can level. (Herbal) teas and coffee and snacks will be served. Event is free, donations appreciated!
Lonely Collective Day Cafe https://lonely.squat.net/
Exile on Pretoriusstraat
Monday March 24, 2025, Exile on Pretoriusstraat: The ZZW Collective cooks again. Food served from 7pm, no reservation!
Zuiderzeeweg Rafelrand https://radar.squat.net/en/amsterdam/zzw-rafelrand
[…Lees verder]
Cinerevolt: Here and Elsewhere (Anne-Marie Miéville, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Jean-Luc Godard, 1976)
Sunday March 23, 2025, Cinerevolt: Here and Elsewhere (Anne-Marie Miéville, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Jean-Luc Godard, 1976) * 53 minutes * In German with English Subtitles * doors open at 20:00 * intro & first film starts at 20:30.
Commissioned by the Arab League to produce a film on the Palestinian Revolution, Godard and Gorin’s plans were upended by the Black September. Godard, now working with Miéville, transformed the original footage into a scathing self-critique—paralleling the lives of a French and a Palestinian family.
Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net
Radical Sunday School – Necropolitics: Who lives and dies in a state of exception?
Sunday March 23, 2025, Radical Sunday School – Necropolitics: Who lives and dies in a state of exception? From 18:00 till 20:00.
The norm is televised genocide, illegal mining and occupation. This system of marking specific bodies as kill-able and national sovereignty as “the right to kill” is as old as capitalism and colonialism itself.
Defining a state’s freedoms in such terms normalizes mass slaughter in distant lands, but it also props up justifications for places like Guantanamo Bay and organizations like Frontex here in the belly of the beast.
Who among us have limited rights, and what laws justify the hierarchies between different kinds of political identities?
In a Europe where the “working classes” and “stateless” people are quickly sliding into the category historically reserved for “savages” in the Dutch “Golden Age”, such questions help us anticipate who among us will be dragged off without a warrant to preserve “democracy”.
This session will break down musty academic concepts like necropolitics and the state of exception to explain how war in the 21st century has changed to keep pace with capital’s ever-growing need for blood and materials.
No prior knowledge needed.
Radical Sunday School
radicalsundayschool [at] riseup [dot] net
https://radar.squat.net/en/amsterdam/radical-sunday-school
https://radicalsundayschool.noblogs.org/
Aman molli: Practice of east Mediterranean Music
Friday March 21, 2025, Aman molli: Practice of east Mediterranean Music. From 20:00 to 23:30.
This is a weekly open practice session of east Mediterranean music, in which we play genres such as rebetiko and Greek/Balkan/Turkish/Middle Eastern folk music. Together we explore the melodic pathways, rhythms (e.g. 9/8, 7/8. 5/4) and harmonies of, as well as connections between these musical traditions. We gather to have fun playing music together, to share musical knowledge and experience, and improve our skills on our instruments. We welcome interested newcomers to join in, regardless of musical experience, and using any kind of instrument (strings, percussion, wind, voice).
Aman Molli https://radar.squat.net/en/aman-molli
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