SUNDAY, 12 MAY, 2019, 10:20 for 11:00 AM

Calais’ Children: A Case To Answer

Dir. Sue Clayton, 2017, UK, English/French/German, 62 mins,

Calais Children follows the young people over the months since they left the Jungle. The film speak to Lord Dubs, the volunteer groups, and the lawyers with whom she is challenging the Home Office’s actions in the High Court.A compelling film that follows the scandal of what happened to the almost 2,000 lone children who were in the Calais jungle as it burned down last year. Most had a legal case to be in the UK. What went wrong? Where are they now? And, what can we do about it?

The Patriot Games by George Galloway,

Dirs. McDonald Brown/Ron McKay, UK, 2018, documentary, UK, English, 27 min.

The Far Right in Britain isn’t just on the march, it is taking violent, murderous action. A neo-Nazi group called National Action applauded the murder and the murderer of a young woman member of the British Parliament, Jo Cox. Other alleged members are charged with plotting the murder of another MP and two British soldiers, said to be from the same group, face serious terrorism charges. Fascism and far-right extremism, street violence and confrontation isn’t new in Britain. It dates back to at least the 1930s, and Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts. Today’s incarnations are no less deadly. George Galloway investigates how it began, how it developed and reveals the major players in the latest mass street movement.

Speaker invited: George Galloway

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, 12 APRIL, 2019, 10:20 for 11:00 AM

Dennis Skinner: The Nature of the Beast

Daniel Draper, UK, 2017, Documentary, PG, English, 106 min.

Raised alongside nine siblings within a mining village, Dennis has fought for the rights of the working class for over 50-years. Uncompromising in his views and with a set of incorruptible principles, Dennis is respected and feared on both sides of the House of Commons. Nature of the Beast looks at what lies behind his passion and drive, and tracks his rise from a local councillor to today, where he is one of Britain's most recognisable politicians - known as ‘The Beast of Bolsover’.

Speaker: Invited: Dennis Skinner, MP

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, 10 MARCH, 2019, 10:20 for 11:00

These Dangerous Women

Clapham Film Unit, UK, 2017 documentary, 24 min.

This documentary celebrates and commemorates the 100th anniversary of the International Congress of Women that took place on the 28th April 1915, when 1300 women from 12 countries – warring, neutral and allied – met at The Hague.

They advocated mediation between the politicians to end the First World War and proposed methods of settling future differences between nations by peaceful means

Women’s Peace Crusade

Dir. Charlotte Bill, UK, 2016/17, English, 22 min.

Script by Alison Ronan and Hazel Roy, featuring Florence King as Mabel Pythian and Emma Thomas as Lydia Leech.

Funded by AHRC via Voices for War and Peace

The Women's Peace Crusade swept like wildfire across Britain from 1916 -1918. This film tells the story of the North West women who took part in Manchester, Blackburn, Oldham, and Nelson. Speaker: Sheila Triggs

War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

Dir. Loretta Alper, Jeremy Earp, USA, 2007, English, 73 min.

Based on Norman Solomon's book, War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.

Speakers: Kate Hudson, CND, Chris Nineham, Stop The War Coalition

SUNDAY, 10 FEBRUARY, 2019, 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.

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.