Screening
Program 1: Protest films by konstantinos-antonios goutos, Lili White, Emilia Izquierdo, Jason Moyes, Michael Mangieri, Alexander Dwinell, Abigail Child, Rrose Present, Richard Sylvarnes, Benna Maris, & Bradley Eros.
In Solidarity: Protest Films in a Time of Crisis
Inspired by the omnibus protest film For Life, Against the War, which was produced as part of the 1967 anti-war protest festival The Week of the Angry Arts, “In Solidarity” updates a concept first enacted by the Coop in 1967, when filmmakers joined together at the height of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Women’s Rights Movement to assert the political value of freedom of expression. As we look to these protests of the past, and consider their relationship to the ongoing militarization of the police and contemporary protests against racial injustice, this series of films reflect the global importance of change, whether it’s Black Lives Matter, Climate Change, or Human and Animal Rights.
Organized by M.M. Serra and Rachael Guma - Oct. 2020
Program 1:
...Crisis… (konstantinos-antonios goutos, 2014, Greece) A successively, funny and ironical [video] loop parade of 37 european languages or idioms on sketching (a very limited) Europe. - K.A.G.
A Wash 2020 (Lili White, 2020, USA) I made this after the murder of GEORGE FLOYD. PILATE could not stop washing his hands, and is now famous because of that. PILATE is long dead, but we could substitute another name in his place. - L.W.
Ghost Dance (Emilia Izquierdo, 2019, 5:00, UK) Using as base the 1894 filming of the Sioux American Indian ‘Ghost Dance’ the piece explores dance as protest, dance as a form of resistance against injustice and the imposition of foreign powers, such as the 1894 Sioux Indian Ghost dance used as resistance against the white settlers in North America and protest dances in other locations such as Gaza , South Africa, Peru, Jerusalem, Armenia among others. The piece explores power, resistance and the clash of cultures using hand drawn animation and archival footage combining this way the tactile and the digital touch exploring the cosmic, the magical, technology and politics. - E.I.
From Scotland with Love (Jason Moyes, 2019, 3:41, UK) A series of actions performed according to a prescribed order. A study of movement and purpose. A collective ritual of resilience that defies time and geography. - J.M.
Burning (Michael Mangieri, 2020, 4:50, USA) An unseen and silent narrator attempts through memories a movement from isolated, regulated immobility to a lucid dream state of liberation. - M.M.
What the Streets Want (in progress) (Alexander Dwinell, 2020, 5:00, USA) As the streets filled with cries of Black Lives Matter after the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor so too did the windows, fire escapes, and walls of Brooklyn. A.D.
LA LUCHA [The Struggle] (Abigail Child, 2020, 5:00, USA) 100 years of resistance, struggle. From 1917 through the 21st century, citizens have protested and met with the violent forces of the State and its police. Three slices of history. - A.C.
Pandemia: Flores al margen / malas hierbas (Rrose Present, 2020, 1:33, Spain) Toni Negri said that "Resistance to life" was the only possible Revolution in the face of murderous systemic capitalism.
During confinement, no one cut the "weeds". They grew free, outside the reticles, on the side of the roads. These "weeds" can mean both the protesters going out into the public space and to be metaphors for experimental cinema from the 1960s in the US. Filmmakers who paved the way outside the educating gazes of capital and its media.
As a revolution of gazes that save the sensitive from the capitalist depredation of our existence with another way of looking, another way of thinking.
They are tools of battle against colonizing gazes, colonized thoughts.
A tribute to Life, to those flowers outside that left their fruits in our eyes. - R.P.
One of The Lucky Ones (Richard Sylvarnes, 2020, 5:00, USA) This film refers to the UN speech of Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, edited with the ending sequence of the silent version of The Phantom of the Opera and protest films from around the world. It’s an angry film, but as horrible as things are, we are the lucky ones because climate change will affect future generations drastically.
a i m (Benna Maris, 2018, 4:30) An allegory bitterly representing the innate violence, the bloated egotism, the indifference and the utter confusion in the mind of certain humanity inclined to prevarication and abuse. Built as a music video, it is like a distorted echo of a disquieting, disenchanting and lucid nightmare. Fundamental allegorical elements are: idyll, rose petals, zero and one, noise, void. First episode of "aim | nothing happened | reaction" trilogy. - B.M.
27 Aphorisms for Jonas (is,was, & will be) (Bradley Eros, 2020, 5:00, USA) Tribute to Jonas Mekas. - B.E.
Total Run Time: 43:56