SUNDAY, 10 FEBRUARY, 10:30 AM FOR 11:00 AM

FIRE AT SEA

Gianfranco Rosi, Italy France, 2016, 12, English/Italian, [EST] 109 min.

Samuel is 12 years old and lives on an island in the middle of the sea. He goes to school, loves shooting his slingshot and hunting. He likes land games, even though everything around him speaks of the sea and the men, women, and children who try to cross to his island. But his is not an island like the others. It is Lampedusa and has been the most symbolic gateway to Europe for thousands of would-be immigrants in the last 20 years.

Screenings are at Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DL.
Nearest tube: Warren Street. Overground: Euston.
Buses: 10, 14, 18, 24, 27, 29, 30, 73, 88, 134, 205, 390.
Booking information: tickets are available from 10.20 am on the day and may not be booked in advance.
Admission £10, concessions £8. Annual members £6/£4. Sorry, no credit cards.
Membership details.

SUNDAY, 13 JANUARY, 2019, 10:20 for 11 am

The Well: Water Voices from Ethiopia

Paulo Barbieri & Ricardo Russo, Ethiopia/Italy, [EST] 56 min.

This is the Horn of Africa, a region of the world that is periodically shocked by terrible droughts. Each year to prepare for the coming dry season, Borana herders will gather their livestock and walk for days to the dry Oromia Lowlands (South of Ethiopia) to retrieve water from their secular astonishing “singing” wells. With its strong photography and its epic narration, the film follows their lives during a whole dry season, showing a unique traditional water management system that regulates what water is available as the property and right of everyone, without any money being exchanged

Living on One Dollar

Zach Ingrasci (co-director), Sean Leonard (co-director), 56 min. 2013, Documentary/Drama Guatemala/USA, English/Spanish [EST]

Four American friends set out to live on just one dollar a day for two months in rural Guatemala. They battle hunger, parasites, and extreme stress to survive.

This terrible experience is, however, the reality of life for over 1.1 billion people around the world. While the friends quickly learn there are no easy answers, the generosity and strength of Rosa, a 20-year-old woman, and Chino, a 12-year-old boy, give them resilient hope that there are effective ways to make a difference.

discussion, followed by Q&A's

Screenings are at Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DL.
Nearest tube: Warren Street. Overground: Euston.
Buses: 10, 14, 18, 24, 27, 29, 30, 73, 88, 134, 205, 390.
Booking information: tickets are available from 10.20 am on the day and may not be booked in advance.
Admission £10, concessions £8. Annual members £6/£4. Sorry, no credit cards.
Membership details.

Former: SUNDAY, 9 DECEMBER 2018, 10:20 for 11am

Lemon Tree

Eran Riklis, IS/GE/FR, 2008, Hebrew/Arabic/English [EST], 106 mins.

The lemon grove of the title is a peaceful place for Palestinian widow Salma (Hiam Abbass), who learned to cultivate it from her late father. But trouble comes when new Israeli Defense Minister Israel Navon (Doron Tavory) and wife Mira (Rona Lipaz-Michael) move nearby into a decidedly upscale house. Their security team believes that Salma’s mass of lemon trees will allow terrorists to hide, so the order comes to level the grove.

Riklis has fashioned a gem of a script with former Palestinian journalist Suha Arraf. And Rainer Klausmann’s super 16mm cinematography, perfectly suited to the warmth and modesty of the film, delicately captures all corners of the border settings.

SUNDAY, 11 NOVEMBER 2018, 10:20 for 11:00 AM SCREENING

The Murderers are Amongst Us

Wolfgang Staudte, Germany/USA, 1946, U, German [EST], 85 mins
Berlin in 1945 after Germany's defeat in the war. The former military surgeon Dr. Hans Mertens stumbles down the street, drunk. He suffers from flashbacks of the war and has an aversion to people in pain, which prevents him from practising medicine. Instead, he spends his days drinking. An artist and Nazi concentration camp survivor, Susanne Wallner finds him living in her apartment as she returns home. They reluctantly live together at first, then become friends.

The St Pancras Rent Strike

Camden New Town History Project, UK, 2017, English, 30 mins.
The 1959/60 St Pancras council tenants’ rent strike came about through tenants’ opposition to the St Pancras Conservative Council’s decision to implement a rent scheme that set maximum and minimum rents based on the rateable value of their properties. The impact of the scheme was massive rent increases and council rents being brought up to levels set for private tenants in the 1957 Rent Act.

Speakers: Member of the Camden Town History Project

Screenings are at Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DL.

Nearest tube: Warren Street. Overground: Euston.
Buses: 10, 14, 18, 24, 27, 29, 30, 73, 88, 134, 205, 390.
Booking information: tickets are available from 10.20 am on the day and may not be booked in advance.
Admission £10, concessions £8. Annual members £6/£4. Sorry no credit cards.
Membership details.

Sunday, 14 October 2018, 10:20 for 11 am screening of:

The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire

Michael Oswald, 2017, UK/USA, TV-PG, English, 80 mins.

The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire, is a documentary film that shows how Britain transformed from a colonial power into a global financial power. At the demise of empire, City of London financial interests created a web of offshore secrecy jurisdictions that captured wealth from across the globe and hid it behind obscure financial structures in a web of offshore islands. Today, up to half of the global offshore wealth may be hidden in British offshore jurisdictions and Britain and its offshore jurisdictions are the largest global players in the world of international finance. How did this come about, and what impact does it have on the world today? This is what the Spider’s Web sets out to investigate

Speakers: John Christensen, film co-producer, Speaker from Jubilee Debt Campaign

The Story Of Stuff

Ann Leonard, USA, 2009, English, 21 min.

From its extraction through sale, use, and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. It exposes the connections between many of environmental and social issues and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

SUNDAY, 9TH OF SEPTEMBER 2018, 10.20 FOR 11 AM FILM SCREENING

Belonging: The Truth Behind the Headlines

Morag Livingstone, UK, 2017, 12A, English, 89 min.

This passionate, pertinent and impressively thorough documentary from debut director Morag Livingstone takes a comprehensive look at the events that surrounded three industrial disputes. They involve three decades and three governments but share a common thread of collectivism, democracy, and sense of belonging, within trade unions in particular and the UK population as a whole.

Speaker: Morag Livingstone, film director, David Condliffe, London &East Community & Unite in Schools Co-ordinator, Ann Field, Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom

Screenings are at Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DL.
Nearest tube: Warren Street. Overground: Euston.
Buses: 10, 14, 18, 24, 27, 29, 30, 73, 88, 134, 205, 390.
Booking information: tickets are available from 10.20 am on the day and may not be booked in advance.
Admission £10, concessions £8. Annual members £6/£4. Sorry, no credit cards.
Membership details.

SUNDAY, 13 of MAY, 2018, 10:20 for 11 am

EMPTY DESERT

Silvia Boarini, Linda Paganelli, Israel, 2016, (PG), Arabic/English, [EST] 58 mins.

The Al Turi maintain that the lands they live on, in Al Araqib, in the Negev, have belonged to them since before the time of the Ottoman Empire. Yet, since the creation of Israel, their land ownership rights have been denied by the very state of which they are now full citizens. On 27th July 2010 state authorities razed their village to the ground; since then it had been demolished by the state and rebuilt by the people some 97 times.
The Al Turi share their stories and hopes for the future. They talk of the difficulties of being 'unrecognized', of the paradox of being considered 'invaders'.

REYKJAVIK RISING. Iceland’s untold story

Danny Mitchell, Rosa Weber UK/Iceland, 2014, English/Icelandic, [EST] 45 mins

This beautiful and moving documentary depicts and analyzes what happened the last time the Icelanders got fed up with their politicians, the political system, and the banking system. Filled with insightful and engaged people, this film is a MUST SEE! In response to widespread media silence and a growing global trend towards people-led movements, the documentary explores how and why the people of Iceland resisted the measures imposed by their government following the crisis of 2008 and how they forced their government to resign in an attempt to forge a new political path.

Speakers: Linda Ramsden, Founder ICAHDUK and

Ken Livingstone, former Leader of the GLC from 1981-1986 and Mayor of London from 2000 to 2008, writer.

SUNDAY, 8th of April, 10.20 for 11am

MONEY PUZZLES

Michael Chanan, UK, 2016, [U], English, 129 mins

Money Puzzles is a counter-narrative to mainstream economic orthodoxy. It also dispenses with the conventions of the mainstream documentary – the all-knowing narrator, the balanced opinions – and turns to different voices: economics students in England frustrated with the inadequacy of what they’re being taught, solidarity volunteers in Greece, anti-eviction activists in Spain, advocates of citizens debt audits across Europe, critical economists like Costas Lapavitsas, Molly Scott-Cato, Johnna Mongomerie and Axel Kicillof.
http://www.mchanan.com/money-puzzles/

Discussion led by: Michael Chanan, Documentarist, Writer, Speaker and Helen Mercer, former Lecturer in Economics,

SUNDAY, 11 MARCH, 2018, 10:20 FOR 11 AM

She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry

Mary Dore, USA, 2014, [PG] English, 92 mins.

This documentary resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement. It tells the story of the feminist movement of the 1960s. They said 'the personal is political' and made a revolution: in the bedroom, in the workplace, in all spheres of life. Called threatening by the FBI, yet ignored in many histories, these women changed the world. This amazing documentary is about the women's fight for independence and for reproductive rights. It is great learning about the history of second wave feminism and of its implications in the current society. Using statements, videos and photos, the film shows how the women's liberation movement emerged in the patriarchal society from 1960's.

Speakers invited: National Assembly of Women

SUNDAY, 11 FEBRUARY, 10:20 for 11 am

Mother Jones and Her Children

Emma Bowell and Eddie Noona, Framework Films & The Cork Mother Jones Commemorative Committee, with the support of the Sound and Vision scheme, an initiative of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Ireland/USA, 2014, English, 52 mins.

Mary Harris Jones was born in 1830 in County Cork, Ireland. Her family left the devastation brought by the Irish Potato Famine and emigrated westward, first to Canada and then to America. Tragedy befell Jones when she lost her family to a yellow fever outbreak and then her home in the great Chicago fire. She went on to become a labour activist and was given the nickname “Mother Jones.” A champion of the working class, Jones was a campaigner for the United Mine Workers Union, founded the Social Democratic Party and helped establish the Industrial Workers of the World. Jones died in 1930.

First Cry

T. G. Ajay, India, 2014, Hindi, [EST]

First Cry tells the remarkable story of Shahid Hospital in the mining township of Dalli Rajhara, in Chattisgarh. The hospital was paid for and built by the voluntary labour of daily-wage contract miners and successfully provides modern health-care to workers, and advises the poor. The Film reveals the history of its making, key turning points of the hospital and the experiences of the doctors and worker- paramedics who manage this oasis of hope.

Discussion to follow: Speakers: Kelly Rogers, a BECTU member, and former employee at the Ritzi Picturehouse and Jonatha Parry, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, LSE, recently did fieldwork in Chhattisgarh state of India