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“Be realistic, demand the impossible!” Cinema, Surrealism, Marxism

Nov 10—Nov 16, 2023
    Part of
  • BAM Film 2023

Throwing food, throwing bombs, throwing tantrums, throwing parties, throwing Molotov cocktails. Although neither Marxism nor Surrealism are taken as dogma, they inform the collisions of experimental aesthetics and radical politics in this series of anarchic pastiche, newsreel documentation, and militant poetics. Gathered under a title drawn from one of the many surrealist slogans that accompanied the worker strikes and student uprisings of May ‘68 are hybrid documentaries, essay films, and unorthodox fictions. Featuring cinematic responses to the upheavals of the 60s and 70s, these works from both the anti-colonial Third World and European left reanimate an urgent political imagination.

Programmed by Yasmina Price

Leadership support for
BAM Access Programs provided by
the Jerome L. Greene Foundation

JL Greene

Leadership support for
BAM Film provided by
the Ford Foundation and
The Thompson Family Foundation

  • Film

    Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask + Nucleus of the Great Union

    Nov 10—Nov 16, 2023

    Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask + Nucleus of the Great Union

    Nov 10—Nov 16, 2023

    Rare images, intimate footage, and experimental filmmaking explore the legacies of Frantz Fanon and Richard Wright, two crucially influential anti-colonialist thinkers of the 20th century.

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    Film

    Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask + Nucleus of the Great Union

    Nov 10—Nov 16, 2023

    Frantz Fanon and Richard Wright’s legacies are captured in rare images and intimate footage.

  • Film

    Daisies + Ilha das Flores

    Nov 11—Nov 13, 2023

    Daisies + Ilha das Flores

    Nov 11—Nov 13, 2023

    From the life cycle of a single tomato to a spoiled pair of sisters’ smash-it-all rebellion, what role does food play in revolt, dissent, and societal inequality?

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    Film

    Daisies + Ilha das Flores

    Nov 11—Nov 13, 2023

    What role does food play in revolt, dissent, and societal inequality?

  • Film

    Man with a Movie Camera + Statues Also Die

    Nov 11—Nov 15, 2023

    Man with a Movie Camera + Statues Also Die

    Nov 11—Nov 15, 2023

    Political documentary luminaries Chris Marker and Dziga Vertov interrogate urban life, colonialism, art, and the camera itself through cinematic subversion.

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    Film

    Man with a Movie Camera + Statues Also Die

    Nov 11—Nov 15, 2023

    Pioneers of documentary filmmaking interrogate city life, colonialism, art, and the camera itself.

  • Film

    The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

    Nov 11—Nov 15, 2023

    The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

    Nov 11—Nov 15, 2023

    This Oscar-winning film from absurdist auteur Luis Buñuel takes aim at French high society as an elegant dinner party slips down a series of surreal rabbit holes.

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    Film

    The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

    Nov 11—Nov 15, 2023

    Buñuel makes mincemeat of upper-crust social rituals in this absurdist masterpiece.

  • Film

    A Grin Without a Cat

    Sun, Nov 12, 2023

    A Grin Without a Cat

    Sun, Nov 12, 2023

    Chris Marker’s epic film essay traces the rise and fall of leftist revolutions across the globe in a politically dynamic and visually intoxicating cinematic collage.

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    Film

    A Grin Without a Cat

    Sun, Nov 12, 2023

    Chris Marker considers the rise and fall of leftist revolutions across the globe.

  • Film

    The Phantom of Liberty

    Nov 12—Nov 14, 2023

    The Phantom of Liberty

    Nov 12—Nov 14, 2023

    Luis Buñuel mercilessly mocks the idea of normalcy in this audacious surrealist fantasia.

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    Film

    The Phantom of Liberty

    Nov 12—Nov 14, 2023

    Luis Buñuel mercilessly mocks the idea of normalcy in this audacious surrealist fantasia.

  • Film

    Calcutta 71

    Nov 12—Nov 16, 2023

    Calcutta 71

    Nov 12—Nov 16, 2023

    An ageless young man walks through history, poverty, squalor, and death in this Bengali art film by renowned Indian director Mrinal Sen.

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    Film

    Calcutta 71

    Nov 12—Nov 16, 2023

    An ageless young man walks through history, squalor, and death in this Bengali art film.

  • Film

    Calcutta 71

    Nov 12—Nov 16, 2023

    Calcutta 71

    Nov 12—Nov 16, 2023

    An ageless young man walks through history, poverty, squalor, and death in this Bengali art film by renowned Indian director Mrinal Sen.

    More
    Film

    Calcutta 71

    Nov 12—Nov 16, 2023

    An ageless young man walks through history, squalor, and death in this Bengali art film.

  • Film

    La Chinoise + Communists Like Us

    Mon, Nov 13, 2023

    La Chinoise + Communists Like Us

    Mon, Nov 13, 2023

    Jean-Luc Godard’s radical 1967 satire La Chinoise screens alongside a video art piece that uses it as a jumping off point.

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    Film

    La Chinoise + Communists Like Us

    Mon, Nov 13, 2023

    Jean-Luc Godard’s radical 1967 satire screens alongside a video art piece it inspired.

  • Film

    The Sun Quartet + Be Silent, For The Ears Of God Are Everywhere

    Tue, Nov 14, 2023

    The Sun Quartet + Be Silent, For The Ears Of God Are Everywhere

    Tue, Nov 14, 2023

    Two radical film collectives—the Otolith Group and Colectivo Los Ingrávidos—offer video meditations on nature, violence, and revolution through visually textured, multimedia footage.

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    Film

    The Sun Quartet + Be Silent, For The Ears Of God Are Everywhere

    Tue, Nov 14, 2023

    These visually textured video projects meditate on nature, violence, and revolution.

  • Film

    The Society of the Spectacle + Now!

    Wed, Nov 15, 2023

    The Society of the Spectacle + Now!

    Wed, Nov 15, 2023

    Based on a text by Guy Debord and a song by Lena Horne, these films repurpose existing footage to provide sharp commentaries on the relationship between images and power.

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    Film

    The Society of the Spectacle + Now!

    Wed, Nov 15, 2023

    Remix filmmaking provides sharp commentary on the relationship between image and power.

  • Film

    Entranced Earth

    Nov 11—Nov 16, 2023

    Canceled

    Entranced Earth

    Nov 11—Nov 16, 2023

    This poetic account of social upheaval and political corruption is a pillar of the Brazilian Cinema Novo movement.

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    Film

    Entranced Earth

    Nov 11—Nov 16, 2023

    Glauber Rocha directs this satirical portrait of political strife in a fictitious country.

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