Paradise Now: The Living Theater in Amerika(1969)

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.

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.

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.

The Brig(en)

Jonas Mekas’s film captures The Living Theatre’s stage production of The Brig, an unflinching portrait of life inside a U.S. Marine Corps jail in Japan in 1957. Over the course of a single day, prisoners endure relentless drills, abuse, and dehumanization, exposing the brutality of military discipline with stark immediacy.

The Connection(en)

A professional recording of the official play. The play has a play-within-a-play format, with characters Jim Dunn as the "producer" and Jaybird as the "writer" attempting to stage a production about the underbelly of society using "real" addicts. Some of the addicts are jazz musicians. They all (except for the "producer", "writer", and two "photographers") have one thing in common: they are waiting for their drug dealer, their "connection". The dialogue of the characters is interspersed with jazz music.

Après la Passion selon Sade(fr)

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?

Cour d'honneur de Jérôme Bel - Avignon 2013(fr)

Jérôme Bel's show features the memories of spectators at the Avignon Festival.

We Gotta Get Out of Here(en)

We Gotta Get Out Of Here is a feature length documentary that chronicles the journeys of five youth struggling to beat the odds as they navigate their way out of the foster care system in Los Angeles, California.

Raspberry(fa)

Hamid and Homa are incapable of having a baby. Rezvan accepts to carry their child in her uterus through artificial impregnation until the child is born. When Homa dies and Hamid loses his memory in a car accident, things get complicated.

Go Tell Ricky Scrotum(en)

Follows 7-year-old Jackie on a quick but rough trip through her daily life: Typical stuff like dealing with her mom's torments, OCD, and talking to 80s TV star Ricky Schroder in the bathroom.

The Dragon House(en)

The Dragon House portrays the confrontation between tradition and modernity which the Kingdom of Bhutan is currently experiencing. This is done by means of two Bhutanese characters: a young Buddhist monk, heir to the local tradition, and the first disc jockey to dare to play House and Techno music in the small Himalayan kingdom.

Renewable(es)

Years after their break-up, Tanya and Josean meet again at a conference on renewable energy. She has a lot to tell him...

Guest House(en)

Three women in a re-entry house experience the reality of reintegration and attempt to acclimate to life after being released from incarceration and battling addiction.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Oh My God I Think It's Over(en)

“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Oh My God I Think It’s Over” is a peek behind the curtain as the team behind the award-winning comedy series “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” wraps up its final season. We watch as co-creators Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna and their many talented collaborators steer the show through its final episode. The film highlights their unique process as they juggle writing, songwriting, choreography on a spinning turntable, last minute big ideas and emergencies, and the “impossible task” of creating a smart, feminist, musical comedy show that’s a process unlike any other show ever to air on network TV.

Mengejar Mas Mas(id)

After running away to Jogja to escape her mother’s new marriage, rebellious teen Shanaz finds herself lost in the city's red-light district—until an unlikely friendship with a compassionate prostitute gives her a chance to find her way back.

Twelve(sv)

Twelve is set during a day at a public swimming pool. Tilde announces to Alva that she has just had her first period. This sets off a mounting sense of insecurity in Alva, which only increases when she notices her crush paying Tilde more attention.

Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story(en)

Chronicles the lives of women who perform the stunts in some of Hollywood’s biggest action sequences — from the early days of silent movies to today’s blockbusters.