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LARC MONTHLY FILM NIGHTS

... happen every 2nd Tuesday of the month, so let us know if you have film suggestions, whether they're serious or more frivolous...

Everyone welcome. DOORS OPEN AT 7.00pm (suggested donation £2). Liquid refreshment will be available...

COMING UP: AUGUST 2003

LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE Tuesday 12th August, 7.30pm On the menu is a film based on a novel by Laura Esquivel called "Like Water For Chocolate" (Produced and directed by Alfonso Arau. In Spanish with English subtitles. Running Time: 113 minutes) and for afters a documentary called "Harvesting Hunger" . In Mexico hot chocolate is made with water, not milk. The water is brought to a boil and then the chocolate is spooned into it. A person in a state of sexual excitement is said to be "like water for chocolate." And now here is a movie where everyone seems at the boil, their lives centering around a woman whose sensual life is carried out in the kitchen, and whose food is so magical it can inspire people to laugh, or cry, or run naked from the house to be scooped up and carried away by a passing revolutionary.
HARVESTING HUNGER (53 min - Subtitled in English): There are over 300 million people in India who do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional requirements. With more and more intrusion of the market economy and increasing corporatisation of Indian agriculture, it is apprenhended that millions more will go hungry in the first decade of the new millenium. Harvesting Hunger is a journey into this impending world of of hunger and famine, an exploration of deepening crises in food security in the country. The film revolves around four case studies - Punjab for a study of yellowing of the Green Revolution : Kalahandi for an investigation into the structural reasons of famine and impoverisment ; Warangal for an examination of the debilitating effects of money lending resulting in suicide deaths, prompted by multinational pesticides enterprises and Bellary for an understanding of the role of giant seed and food processing companies in destroying the very base of Indian agriculture. The case studies are presented in isolation but weaved in a complex blend. Together , they cover a vast canvas and provide a panoramic view of the grave crises looming over India's horizon in terms of food security. Local farmers, who tell the story of themselves and their village, narrate each case

July 2003

THE COCONUT REVOLUTION (plus 'European Newsreal) Tuesday 8th July 7.30pm (Director: Dom Rotheroe, Producer: Mike Chaimberlain. 50min). This is the modern-day story of a native peoples' remarkable victory over Western Colonial power. A Pacific island rose up in arms against giant mining corporation Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) - and won despite a military occupation and blockade. When RTZ decided to step up production at the Panguna Mine on the island of Bougainville, they got more than they bargained for. The island's people had enough of seeing their environment ruined and being treated as pawns by RTZ.
RTZ refused to compensate them, so the people decided it was time to put an end to outside interference in the island's affairs. To do this they forcibly closed down the mine. The Papua New Guinea Army (PNGDF) were mobilised in an attempt to put down the rebellion. The newly formed Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) began the fight with bows & arrows, and sticks & stones. Against a heavily armed adversary they still managed to retain control of most of their island. Realising they were beaten on the ground, the PNGDF imposed a gunboat blockade around Bougainville, in an attempt to strangle the BRA into submission. But the blockade seemed to of had little or no effect.
With no shipments getting in or out of the island, how did new electricity networks spring up in BRA held territory? How were BRA troops able to drive around the island without any source of petrol or diesel? What was happening within the blockade was an environmental and spiritual revolution. The ruins of the old Panguna mine where being recycled to supply the raw materials for the world's first eco-revolution. A David and Goliath story of the 21st century,
PLUS 'European Newsreal' News & footage from grass roots groups all over Europe, covering issues ignored or distorted by the corporate media. Newsreal No 4 (March 2003) footage on the Robodock Festival in Amsterdam, the eviction of Bambule Trailer Park which turns into actions that bring down the right wing populist government of Hamburg, 2 clips on Fairford + other news. Newsreal No 5 (April 2003) should include footage on Feb 15th anti-war demo in Zagreb, migration, Davos and a weapons inspection in the Nederlands. STARTS 8.30pm. We are also hoping to get further footage from Thessaloniki, Greece, on the recent demonstrations against the EU, and the subsequent violence and arrests by the cops. TBC.

June 2003

Tuesday 10 June, 7.30pm.

"HOUR OF THE FURNACES" Part 2 (3 parts) Fernando E Solanas (1968 90mins) Spanish with English subtitles 7.30pm. The film, the first Argentine film essay on liberation and the national question, took 2 years to make. The result is one of the most lucid examples of film being used as a political weapon. The furnaces referred to in the title are in fact large fires used for cooking by the native indians of Argentina. It was the light from these fires that guided the first European navigators towards the Argentine Coast. Plus whatever films about the recent events in Argentina we can lay our hands on...
This Film Night will be a benefit for - and an introduction to - the forthcoming Argentina Autonomista Project tour of the UK this June. The tour will be presented by an unemployed woman from the Anibal Verón piqueter@s and an Argentine human rights activist, community artist and puppeteer. For more info on the project please go to: www.autonomista.org.

May 2003

Tuesday 13 May, 7.30pm.

PALESTINIAN EVENING ICI ET AILLEURS (Here & Elsewhere) (1973) by Jean Luc Godard (60 mins). French with English subtitles @ 7.30pm. Made for the PLO and originally titled Victory, the film's original purpose was to examine life in the Palestinian camps, intending to create a sympathetic portrait of the revolutionaries as a true people's movement. But following the deaths of several of the main subjects after the 6 day war, it became a meditation of how cinema records history and makes political statements. Editing together documentary & fictional footage, the film contrasts a French family (here) with an impressionistic portrait of Palestine (elsewhere) not only capturing the difference between 2 cultures but the different ways the media portrays them and always considering how the production of images influences how the world is seen.
JEREMY HARDY VS THE ISRAELI ARMY (2003) by Leila Sansour @ 8.45pm. Easter, 2002. Overcome by curiosity and a love of justice, British comedian Jeremy Hardy travels to Palestine to try his hand at ending the occupation. What he doesn't know is that he will bear testimony to a horrific yet seminal moment in the struggle of the Palestinian people. This film is the unlikely journey of an unlikely witness from onlooker to human shield. From the stand-off at Yasser Arafat's compound to the siege of the Church of the Nativity, 'Jeremy Hardy v The Israeli Army' captures the birth of a new kind of political engagement. Jeremy is struck by the commitment of people who pack their bags for Palestine to stand in the way of guns and tanks. He never expected the scale of the phenomenon that came to be known as the International Solidarity Movement.
Discussions with members of the ISM.

April 2003

WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971, Dusan Makavejev) Tuesday 8 April 7.30pm.
An exploration of power structures in hippie America and Tito's Yugoslavia focussing on persecuted maverick psychologist Wilhelm Reich - followed by persecutions of a more contemporary nature with a recently made film called 'On The Buses' following the adventures of the 150 activists 'escorted' by cops from Gloucestershire to London when they tried to attend last month's demonstration at the Fairford US military base.

WR: Mysteries of the Organism. Directed by Dusan Makavejev, Yugoslavia/West Germany 1971, 35mm, color, 86min. With Milena Dravic, Jagoda Kaloper, Zoran Radmilovic Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. One of the most controversial films of its era, Makavejev's provocative meditation on the relationship between sexual energy and political force revolves around a portrait of the iconoclastic psychologist Wilhelm Reich and his disciples, potently intercut with imagery of Soviet leader Josef Stalin (mostly culled from social realist fiction films) and juxtaposed with the purely fictional tale of a young Yugoslavian woman?s fatal passion for a frigid Soviet skating star. Attacked by feminists, banned by bureaucrats, and beloved by art film audiences, W.R. remains a valuable summation of the formal inventiveness and anarchic social vision that emerged from the new waves of the 1960s.

March 2003

Argentina Film Night: Tuesday 11 March 7.30pm.

"HOUR OF THE FURNACES" (3 parts) Fernando E Solanas (1968 90mins) Spanish with English subtitles 7.30pm. The film, the first Argentine film essay on liberation and the national question, took 2 years to make. The result is one of the most lucid examples of film being used as a political weapon. The furnaces referred to in the title are in fact large fires used for cooking by the native indians of Argentina. It was the light from these fires that guided the first European navigators towards the Argentine Coast. Part 1 - Violence and Neocolonialism in Argentina.
"ARGENTINA IN REVOLT" (2002 30mins) Spanish with English subtitles 9.00pm Dec 2001: the Argentine economy collapses under the weight of $150 billion debt to the IMF. Over a million people rise up in fury & overthrow the government. As the crisis deepens popular assemblies form in every neighbourhood, demonstrations & direct actions are a daily event, unemployed workers block the roads, as the cry goes up "GET RID OF THEM ALL!"
"VOCES ARGENTINAS" (Nov 2002 16mins) 9.45pm Interwoven voices from the streets of Buenos Aires tell how it feels to be Argentine as the country plunges from 1st world to 3rd. Resisting the dire personal, economic & social consequences of institutionalised corruption with poetry, music, laughter & practical solidarity, Voces Argentinas records a people and a city staying alive through the very worst of times.
Followed by discussions about the proposed Argentina Autonomista Project tour of Europe this June. The tour will include two unemployed women and an anthropologist as speakers, a musician and Graciela, a puppeteer & human rights activist, presenting a full length puppet show about the crisis in Argentina. The program includes a concert by David Rovics. If you can't wait for more info on the project please go to: www.davidrovics.com and follow the piqueter@ link.

February 2003

Film Night: Tuesday 11 February 7.30pm.

"The Luckiest Nut in the World" Emily James (2002 25min) Political animation. Starts 7.30pm. " A whistle-stop tour through everything-you-need-to-know about free trade, a no-nonsense guide to trade in the real world. The film combines a number of styles: flash animated cartoons, both existing and specially filmed archive, puppets and an animated peanut compere to build the story which shows how trade has shaped our nutty global hierarchy. "Mark Thomas meets Sesame Street..."

"BATTLE FOR ALGIERS" Pontecorvo (1965 120mins) Music by Ennio Marricone. Starts 8.15pm. (Uncut version) Shows the National Liberation Front (FLN) organising in the Kasbah Arab district and the French military's attempts to crush the liberation struggles and break the general strike. Highly recommended.

January 2003

Tuesday January 14th, 7pm - LE HAINE
(c 1995) directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. An account of a crucial day in the lives of three ethnically diverse teenagers on a low income housing estate in Paris, after a friend is shot and killed by the cops. DOORS OPEN AT 6.30pm (Donations) FILM STARTING 7.00pm Liquid refreshment from 6.30pm onward