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Benefit screening: La Commune (Peter Watkins, 2001)
Saturday Dec 2, 6PM @ Red Emma's
Join us for the Baltimore premiere of director Peter Watkins
' iconoclastic masterpiece of documentary reenactment, La Commune, which retells the story of the Paris Commune of 1871. Watkins, whose film-making career spans over 4 decades, is famous for his unorthodox techniques of filmmaking, including his use of non-professional actors with a real connection to the subject matter(in La Commune, most of the Communards are portrayed by altermondialist activists), his creative use of anachronism and meta-narration(in La Commune he interpolates television journalists into the historical context to better address issues of revolutionary representation) and his non-commercially- dictated approach to film length(La Commune clocks in at just over five and a half hours, which is why were serving up vegan dinner halfway through, and inviting everyone to bring something more comfortable than the chairs we'll provide - think couches, pillows, lawn chairs...)
Because we expect a larger turnout than the current Red Emma's storefront can handle, we'll be holding the screening at St. John's Church(27th and St. Paul). Doors will open at 5:30 PM, and the screening will start at 6. Since it's a benefit for the next phase of the Red Emma's project (we'll have some announcements to make about that soon!), we're asking for $12 at the door - but this includes an amazing vegan dinner which will be served around 8PM. Again, if you want to, feel free to bring whatever you want to sit on.
If you plan on coming, it would be great if you could drop us a line at info@redemmas.org so we can get an idea of how much food to prepare.
We are now moving through a very bleak period in human history - where the conjunction of Post Modernist cynicism (eliminating humanistic and critical thinking in the education system), sheer greed engendered by the consumer society sweeping many people under its wing, human, economic and environmental catastrophe in the form of globalization, massively increased suffering and exploitation of the people of the so-called Third World, as well as the mind-numbing conformity and standardization caused by the systematic audiovisualization of the planet have synergistically created a world where ethics, morality, human collectivity, and commitment (except to opportunism) are considered “old fashioned.” Where excess and economic exploitation have become the norm - to be taught even to children. In such a world as this, what happened in Paris in the spring of 1871 represented (and still represents) the idea of commitment to a struggle for a better world, and of the need for some form of collective social Utopia - which WE now need as desperately as dying people need plasma. The notion of a film showing this commitment was thus born.
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