“High-pitched sounds killed everyone on earth known to be an enemy of human freedom.” –from the 1957 sci-fi film, THE 27TH DAY
The global outbreak of revolts in the past decade, from the suburbs of Paris to Tahrir Square and beyond, shows few signs of slackening. This six-part series on the cinema of resistance investigates the deep sources of this continual popular unrest, from an exceptionally wide range of cross-generational and geographical perspectives (18 different countries). Every one of these films has the capacity to re-set an attentive audience’s subjective GPS.
Three programs feature at least one brief, self-contained film from the French compilation project initiated and organized by Nicole Brenez, OUTRAGE AND REBELLION (2009), an impassioned response to police violence against dispossessed youth in the Parisian suburbs. Several programs feature equally brief films, made in the midst of current struggle, by the Syrian film collective Abounaddara, “which borrow heavily from the political films which came out of the ‘Etats-généraux du cinéma’ (the Estates General of French Cinema), after 1968 in France,” according to their spokesperson. At their best, both of these projects expose hitherto underexplored relationships between historical upheaval and cinematic immediacy.
By definition, a political cinema demands engagement, response, and discussion. As the longest continuously running film event on the continent, the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar is distinctively organized to facilitate fully participatory discussion. Thanks to the Flaherty each of the screenings will include at least 45 minutes for discussion, during which audiences are actively encouraged to engage and respond.
Co-curated by Ernest Larsen & Sherry Millner. The curators would like to dedicate this series to the memory of Allan Sekula.
Unless otherwise noted, all works are screening from digital video.
Sharon Hayes SLA SCREED #16 (USA, 2002, 10 min)
John Greyson 14.3 SECONDS (Canada, 2008, 9 min)
Kiri Dalena REQUIEM FOR M (Philippines, 2010, 7 min)
Abounaddara SYRIA TODAY (Syria, 2012, 1 min)
Abounaddara IMMOLATION (Syria, 2012, 1 min)
Abounaddara I WILL CROSS TOMORROW (Syria, 2012, 4 min)
Jacques Perconte SATYAGRAHA (France, 2009, 5 min)
Jesal Kapadia A NON-CAPITALIST CINEMA: SIKKIM (India/USA, 2013, 9-min excerpt)
Total running time: ca. 50 min.
Speakers: Sharon Hayes & Jesal Kapadia.
Anthology Film Archives 32 Second Avenue New York, NY 10003