We’re excited to announce the newest regular addition to our reader posts: Films at SPACE! Each month, SPACE Film Programmer Gregory Jamie will explore the content and connections between our upcoming films. Below Greg’s commentary, find the posters and trailers for each of the month’s films at the bottom of the Reader post. We have some brilliant films coming screening this month. We hope to see you at one soon!
The films that we will be showcasing in May all place a special emphasis on the past. In The Wobblies, film is used as a way to educate, contextualize and pay tribute to the history of the IWW and their radical determination to organize, change labor laws forever and be recognized. Hearing stories of the time firsthand is a privilege that would have escaped if not documented in this film.
Likewise, Jane By Charlotte uses the cinematic medium as a tool to examine the past- in this case the mother daughter relationship of Jane Birkin and Charlotte Gainsbourg. At times it seems that if the movie were not made, some of these conversations between this particular mother and daughter would have never occurred. The strange weight of celebrity, and familial ghosts of the past are gently integrated into the psyche of both of these iconic women.
The Wobblies and Jane By Charlotte were chosen to show on May 1st(International Workers Day) and May 8th(Mothers Day) respectively, reflecting the relevance of their content onto pertinent dates.
I’ve always felt that where and when you see a film has a significant impact on the overall viewing experience, and that is becoming truer each day as streaming dominates our modes of viewership. One thing lost in streaming is the undivided intentionality of bearing witness to the story being told. The grandness of cinema as a medium of mythic storytelling is explored in two new films from Italy- The Tale of King Crab and Il Buco. Both films are uniquely cinematic experiences that need to be seen as large as possible to marvel in their scope. King Crab takes place in an unspecified time in the 19th century, and operates as a kind of rambling storybook fable. Romantic, passionate and absurd.
Il Buco on the other hand, takes place at a very specific time as it recreates a 1961 spelunking expedition to the deepest cave in Europe, Italy’s Bifurto Abyss. Though time and place is specific, the film itself is otherworldly and feels as though it operates outside of time altogether. The physical becomes metaphysical, and a parallel story of a dying Shepard quietly observing the historic expedition becomes the more dominant story, and his death the deeper journey.
We round out the month with Freakscene: The Story of Dinosaur Jr. which deep dives backward on one of the most enduring active rock bands of our time. Getting to know the personalities, dynamics and musicianship of these oddballs is a special treat when our screen rests on our stage where many have rocked before. Best heard loud through our venue speakers, thanks.
View trailers, posters, and more details below:
