London Socialist Film Co-op: 2016

Former Sunday, 11 DECEMBER 2016, 10:20 for 11:00

The Liberator (El Liberator)

Alberto Arvelo, Venezuela/Spain, 2013, Spanish/EST, 119 mins.

Simon Bolivar fought over 100 battles against the Spanish Empire in South America. He rode over 70,000 miles on horseback. His military campaigns covered twice the territory of Alexander the Great. His army never conquered -- it liberated

THE LIBERATOR journeys through the impassioned struggle of revolutionary leader Simón Bolívars (Édgar Ramírez), to fight for independence in Latin America from Spain and his vision is of a united South American nation. In this groundbreaking endeavour, Bolívar unites different races, social classes, and nations to defeat the Spanish Empire and create a free and equal Latin America.

Selected as the Venezuelan entry for best foreign language film

Speaker from the Embassy of Venezuela

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.

SUNDAY, 13 NOVEMBER 2016, 10:20 for 11:00 at the Bolivar Hall

The Ballad of a Soldier

Grigory Chuckray ,USSR, 1959, Russian, [PG] (black and white). dubbed in English, 89 mins.

This is the story of that journey across the Soviet Union and the encounters with the Soviet people as they all shoulder the bitter burden of this Great War. He meets a beautiful young teenager; they fall in love and both journey together. The interactions and characters are all masterfully written and acted. The photography, the direction is the best of the best. The Black and White film format adds to the realism and the WWII feel. The sound track is perfect to complete this excellent film. This is a must see movie for any serious student of film making or WWII history. It is a tribute to the greatness of the Soviet people and their greatest generation that paid in a river of blood, sweat and tears to defeat the Nazis during WWII.

This film won many awards.

Interview with outstanding film maker Grigory Chuckray about the making of the film, the reception the film received nationally and internationally. This film will be 30 minutes.

SUNDAY, 9 OCTOBER, 2016, 10:20 for 11:00 at the Bolivar Hall

Five Broken Cameras,

Burnaqt/Davidi, Palestine, 2011, [E]Arab/Hebrew EST, 94 min.

When his fourth son, Gibreel, is born, Emad, a Palestinian villager, gets his first camera. In his village, Bil'in, a separation barrier is being built and the villagers start to resist this decision. For more than five years, Emad films the struggle, which is led by two of his best friends, alongside filming how Gibreel grows. Very soon it affects his family and his own life. Daily arrests and night raids scare his family; his friends, brothers and himself are either shot or arrested. One camera after another is shot at or smashed. Each of the 5 cameras tells part of his story.

Coming Home

Al Kahouri, Palestine, 2012, Arab/English EST, 10 mins.

Rehabilitation of the Rights of the Child, sponsored by Save the Children, YMCA, EU

Children returning home from detention experienced many traumas and face new challenges that at times look insurmountable. The support and counselling they may receive can improve their hope for a future.

Discussion led by: Dr Bernard Regan, and Martin Kemp, UK-Palestine Mental Health Network.

Previous Sunday, 11 September 2016, 10;20 for 11:00 film show at the Bolivar Hall

Class Struggle, film from the Clyde

Cinema Action*, Scotland, 16mm film/DVD 1977, English, 74 mins.

The jobs of one in every two workers in the British shipyards are now in danger. One million men, women and children living in the most depressed areas of Britain depend for their food they eat and the clothes they wear on the work provided by the ship building industry.

Class Struggle made with shipyard workers during occupation and work-in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders from July 1971 to October 1972. The Yards were occupied and managed by a joint shop stewards’ committee after the government announced the decision to liquidate the company. The film includes footage from the ‘inside’ of organising, work, discussions, high-level negotiations, relations between the shop stewards and union officials and dealings with the press. Music by 7:84 and The Laggan

*Cinema action was a London-based collective which produced ‘socialist campaign films’ between 1968-1981.

Aah!

Ajay T.H .India, Hindu/English EST, 15 mins.

Campaign documentary. About the struggle by casual employees of ACC Cement Plant in Jamul, Central India to obtain conditions similar to those of permanent employees. An important story as there is a huge difference in pay and conditions between regular and irregular workers in India and almost no trades unions. It will represent irregular workers. The Chhattisgarh Mukti

The 1997 UPS Strike

Labour Film 9 mins

In 1997, UPS Teamsters won a stunning victory at Big Brown--the biggest victory for labour in the last twenty years. Find out how UPS Teamsters made UPS deliver 10,000 full-time jobs and record pension increases.

Discussion to follow film show

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.

(Previous) SUNDAY, 12 JUNE 2016, 10:20 FOR 11:00 AM film show at the BOLIVAR HALL

WADJDA,

Haifa A-Mansour, Germany/Saudi Arabia/US/UAE, 2012 [PG], Arabic EST, 98 mins
A film made by a female Saudi filmmaker is the story of a spirited young girl living in a suburb of Riyadh. Wadjda is determined to buy a bike so she can race against her friend Abdullah. But in conservative Riyadh we are told, girls do not ride bikes, as they are dangerous to a girl's virtue. But she does, with cursory regard for mum's fretting or the disapproval of her staunchly traditionalist teacher. Wadjda is funny and romantic but includes a political edge that never soft-pedals its push for reform.
It earned a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the 2014 BAFTA awards.

Discussion followed by Q&A led by Derek Wall, with Mina Boromand, photographer and Aylaa Ebbibary, PhD Candidate, SOAS on the panel.

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.

(Previous) SUNDAY, 8TH OF MAY, 10:30 FOR 11:00 AM, FILM SHOW AT THE BOLIVAR HALL

JOSE MARTI: THE EYES OF THE CANARY

Fernando Pérez Valdés, Cuba, 2010, [PG], Spanish with EST. 120 mins

This is the story of the early years of Jose Marti until at the early age of 17 when he was exiled by the Cuban Government for sedition. The film explores his relationship with his authoritarian father and also his challenges to the social and political issues Cuba was facing.

Discussion led by: Michael Chanan, documentary filmmaker and Professor of Film & Video at the University of Roehampton

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.

(Previous) Sunday, 10th of April, 10:20 for 11:00 AM Film Show at The Bolivar Hall

TOGETHER

Lorenza Mazetti, UK (black & white, silent), 1956, 52 mins

Two inseparable deaf-mute friends hang to each other while working on the East End docks. This strikingly stylised movie poem taps into the silent movie era to portray its two leading characters isolation from hearing-unimpaired people. Financed by BFI, film has been heralded as one of the founding works of British Free Cinema.

SI, SE PUEDE, SEVEN DAYS AT P.A.H. BARCELONA

Pau Faus, Spain, 2014, [PG] Spanish with EST, 52 mins

Since 2007, an estimated 550,000 foreclosures have been initiated in Spain. Given this acute housing situation, civil society has been forced to organise. In 2009 the PAH, the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages, was established as a citizen’s movement for the right to housing and in response to a housing emergency, using direct action and non-violent civil disobedience to stop evictions, occupy empty apartment blocks and re-house homeless evictions. The film portrays a typical week at PAH Barcelona and its tireless activities.

Discussion led by: Roz Cranston, Curato, BFI; Speaker on Housing.

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.

(Previous) SUNDAY 13 March 2016, 10.20 for 11:00 am,at the BOLÍVAR HALL

THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE,

Louis Frank, Spain, 1939, [U], 55 mins

A striking account of the Spanish Civil War, made during the last desperate days of the Republic. Drawn from the Republic’s rich film archives, this documentary provides in its partisan commentary and searing footage, a poignant epitaph to the dashed hopes of the Popular Front.

WAR IS BEAUTIFUL

Aelwen Wetherby, Spain/France, 2012, [U] 60 mins.

This film tells the story of a book, of a son’s search for a father, and of a road trip through Spanish history. Through interviews, archival footage, and the Spanish landscape, however, it will explore much more than this. Through the parallel narratives behind James Neugass’ War Is Beautiful and this contemporary quest to revisit the sites of its pages, this film seeks to bridge international and local experiences of the Spanish Civil War.

Discussion: Dr Miriam Frank, daughter of director, author and translator and

Dr Richard Baxell, Historian, Author of among other books: British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War: The British Battalion in the International Brigades 1936-1939, Chair of International Brigades Memorial Trust

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.

(PREVIOUS) SUNDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2016, 10.20 for 11:00

THE ACT OF KILLING

Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Norway/UK, 2012, [15] 115 mins Indonesian, English, EST

In this chilling and inventive documentary produced by Werner Herzog, Errol Morris and Andre Singer, the unrepentant members of Indonesian death squads are challenged to re-enact some of their many murders in the style of the American movies they love.

BAFTA Winner Best Documentary

Discussion led by Eric Sasono, PhD student, Kings College London
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.