Paradise Now: The Living Theater in Amerika(1969)

Emergency: The Living Theatre(en)

a 32-minute color film by Gwen Brown, featuring precious footage of Living Theatre productions “Mysteries” and smaller pieces, “Paradise Now” and “Frankenstein.” “The fusion of Brown’s freewheeling direct cinema and the Living Theatre’s performance for revolutionary change (amidst the heydays of both) unite as a dynamic concoction of the era, yielding for the viewer a shifting terrain of both critical insight and ecstatic zeal, not as a vacant nostalgia for a pre-commodified radicality, but as tactical inspiration for future days.” – Andrew Wilson (Artist’s Access Television)

Love and Anger(it)

Five short stories with contemporary settings. In New York, people are indifferent to derelicts sleeping on sidewalks, to a woman's assault in front of an apartment building, and to a couple injured in a car crash. A man, stripped of his identity, dies in bed with actors expressing his agony. A cheerful, innocent young man walking a city street in a time of war pays a price for this innocence. A couple talks about cinema while it watches another couple talk of love and truth on the eve of one character's return to Cuba. Striking students take over a university classroom; an argument follows about revolution or incremental change.

Après la Passion selon Sade(fr)

The Connection(en)

A title card announces that the film is a result of found footage assembled by cameraman J.J. Burden working for the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jim Dunn, who has disappeared. Leach, a heroin addict, introduces the audience to his apartment where other heroin addicts, a mix of current and former jazz musicians, are waiting for Cowboy, their drug connection, to appear. Things go out of control as the men grow increasingly nervous and the cameraman keeps recording.

Paradise Now(en)

At least forty films have been made about the Living Theatre; it remained to the American underground filmmaker Sheldon Rochlin (previously responsible for the marvellous Vali) to make the 'definitive' film about one of the most famous of their works, Paradise Now, shot in Brussels and at the Berlin Sportpalast. Made on videotape, with expressionist colouring 'injected' by electronic means, this emerges as a hypnotic transmutation of a theatrical event into poetic cinema, capturing the ambiance and frenzy of the original. No documentary record could have done it justice.

Rite of Guerrilla Theater(en)

Commissioned work by Julian Beck and members of The Living Theatre (featuring Beck and Judith Malina, co-founders of The Living Theatre, in performance) for broadcast on KQED-TV, San Francisco. The Dilexi Series represents a pioneering effort to present works created by artists specifically for broadcast.

The Brig(en)

An ultra-realistic depiction of life in a Marine Corps brig (or jail) at a camp in Japan in 1957. Marine prisoners are awakened and put through work details for the course of a single day, submitting in the course of it to extremely harsh and shocking physical and mental degradation and abuse.

This American Wife(en)

The body of a Real Housewife is an apparatus, an assembly of parts—hair, lips, dress, falsies, mic pack, cell phone, wine stem, camera, restaurant, brand, identity. This body is maintained and degraded, intoxicated and cleansed, in seasons and cycles, systems of supply and denial. The self needs a medium. Who cares who you are when you’re alone anymore?

7 Sounds(en)

How can a sound make you cry, or make your hair stand on end? Can sound be political?

Filth!(en)

In the late Eighties, there had been a series of comedy concerts (modelled on the Amnesty International “Secret Policeman’s Ball series”) to raise both awareness and raw cash for HIV/AIDS charities. The series was called Hysteria to reflect the hysteria (and downright untruths) surrounding the issue of HIV/AIDS. The last one of these had been in 1989, so in 1994, Pozzitive set out to revive the idea of a fundraiser with “Filth!” a night of comedy and music at the Sadlers Wells theatre, on Sunday 24 April. In fact, so many comedians and writers said “yes” to the idea, that we hit on the notion of doing two shows in one evening back to back. The first show was hosted by Lynn Ferguson and Arthur Smith, the second show by Mark Lamarr. Artists involved in the show included Tom Robinson, Steve Coogan, Spitting Image, Eddie Izzard, Jo Brand, Jeremy Hardy and Ben Elton.

The Affair(en)

When a husband has an affair and fathers a child with another woman, he discovers that she will go through extreme measures to keep him for herself.

This Is What The Future Looked Like(en)

This Is What the Future Looked Like is a documentary about the work of architect and futurist Buckminster Fuller, using his geodesic domes as the visual environment.

(Commissioned) Portrait of Las Vegas(en)

I’ve been to Las Vegas many times and have always experienced a familiar roller coaster of reactions to the city, from being fascinated and seeing it as a profound expression of grand historical forces and liberatory impulses to just seeing it as a totally fucking depressing place. I don’t think I’ve ever had such strong reactions to a city. This film is an expression of much of that and weaves together several elements: a visual portrait of Las Vegas; informal, verite-ish interviews with a wide range of interesting people we came across while shooting; archival images of the city from the 1950s and 60s; along with some first-person voice-over musings about the city and its history. My hope is that this film does justice to the endlessly fascinating, spectacularly libidinous, and deeply disturbing nature of Las Vegas and its history. —Sam Green

Love Letter to the Fog(en)

A Stockholm Silhouette(sv)

From Bern's salons at Berzelii Park in Stockholm. Exterior and interior from early morning until dawn the next day. Lunch and dinner. Entertainment and dancing to Mischa Angelini's orchestra.

22-17(en)

A narrator embarks on a retrospective journey into the final months of school with their best friends. Over five chapters and an epilogue, they reflect on friendship, yearning, and the fears of losing contact with these individuals who are so significant to them. They were 17, more or less.

MMM(en)

A spec observation showcasing the movement, shutters, and potential thoughts

In Their Name(en)

Filmmaker Peter Hegedus embarks on the challenging journey to make Sorella's Story, an immersive 360° film set on the beaches of Latvia in December 1941, when thousands of Jewish Women and children perished at the hands of Nazi collaborators. Along the way Peter teams up with Jewish-Australian 90-year-old Ethel Davies whose family was also killed in the same massacre.

Pasta and Test Score(en)

One day, Luigi receives full marks for his first school test. Excited, he decides to spend the night waiting for his mother’s return so he can share his results.

Intimate Betrayal(en)

When her brother is murdered, a young reporter sets out to find his killer. She is comforted by his boss, a wealthy computer magnate, until her investigation slowly points to him.