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ZAPATISTA!
56 min
A film from the front lines of the civil war in
Mexico.

“This is not the last gasp of guerrilla resistance in Latin America. What you see here is not Communism or Socialism or Anarchism. This is something you have never before in your life imagined… this is the truth”

ZAPATISTA! won First Place for Documentaries at the NEXTFRAME festival and Best of the Festival at the Smithsonian Institute’s Latino Film Festival. It has been honored at festivals around the world, but its real success has been underground, where it has been seen by tens of thousands and has become a powerful manifesto for a growing global movement.

ZAPATISTA! is a non-profit project of Big Noise films co-produced, edited and designed by the Media Boutique.Profits from the film return to the people of Chiapas in the form of humanitarian aid.

ZAPATISTA! is narrated by Edward James Olmos (Blade Runner, Selena), Daryl Hannah (Blade Runner, Splash), Geronimo Pratt (former Black Panther and political prisoner recently released after the discovery of falsified LAPD and FBI testimony),and Mumia Abu-Jamal (also a former Black Panther, who reads narration from his death-row prison cell).

ZAPATISTA! includes interviews with the elusive, poetic spokesperson of the Zapatista movement, Subcomandante Marcos; Comandantes Trini, Tacho, David, and Zebedeo; dissident and MIT Professor Noam Chomsky; international human rights attorney Karen Parker; international women’s rights activist Vivan Stromberg; former prisoner of war Javier Elorriaga; Rage Against the Machine lead singer Zack de la Rocha, and many more.
Music plays an integral role in ZAPATISTA!, weaving in and out of the story reflecting the diverse movement and identities that the Zapatistas have managed to bring together. The film includes songs donated by Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Rage Against the Machine, Ozomatli (a Los Angeles-based salsa/hip-hop/funk band), Silvio Rodriguez (a Cuban folk singer),as well as DJ’s from Moscow, London, and San Francisco.

Zapatista! will be proceeded by:
-BURMA BEHIND BARS
A 30 min. Video Documentary on Burmese Political Prisoners & Prisons in Burma under the military junta. By Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. (www.aappb.org)

Produced & Presented by former political prisoners from Burma.
The living proof of how the military junta in Burma oppresses its own people to silence the movement towards democracy and freedom.  A plea to the world to work towards the immediate release of all political prisoners of Burma including Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,leader of the nonviolent movement for human rights and democracy in
Burma (now Myanmar).

1) I, An Actress
This film was shot in ten minutes with four or five students of mine at the San Francisco Art Institute. It was to be a screen-test for a girl in the class. She wanted something to show producers of theatrical productions, as the girl was interested in an acting career. By the time all the heavy equipment was set up the class was just about over; all we had was ten minutes. Since 400 feet of film takes ten minutes to run through the camera … that was the answer: Just start it and don’t stop till it runs out. I had to get into the act to speed things up so, in a way, this film gives an insight into my directing techniques while under pressure.
1977, 16mm, b&w/so, 10m

2) House of the White People
Cast: Donna Kerness, artist George Segal and his wife Helen, Walter Gutman. Having nothing to do with racial tensions, HOUSE OF THE WHITE PEOPLE is actually a chunk of film removed from a bigger chunk called UNSTRAP ME. It is a documentation of George Segal creating the basic elements for one of his statues preceded by rare glimpses into his own private museum. Donna Kerness serves as his live model. Walter Gutman sits on a chair and walks around a bit, being that he produced the film. Helen Segal, personifying the ageless saying, “behind every man there stands a woman,” stands behind her man and also stands in front of him occasionally. The film is a unique invitation to view the hidden rituals of a famous artist and his infamous model, half naked, snowbound together on a lonely farm, with a silent wife and a notorious guest.
1968, 16mm, color/so, 16.5m

3) Wild Night in El Reno
This film documents a thunderstorm as it rages in full fury above a motel in May on the southern plains. There’s sun, wind, clouds, rain and electrical pyrotechnics … with perhaps a glimpse of a fleeting human figure. But only a glimpse.
1977, 16mm, color/so, 6m

4) Forever and Always
A marriage on the rocks that hurts the heart almost as much as the colors hurt the eye. “… a full color portrait of a break-up that comes closer than any other to being an operetta.” – B. Ruby Rich
1978, 16mm, color/so, 20m

5) Hold Me While I’m Naked
“A very direct and subtle, very sad and funny look at nothing more or less than sexual frustration and aloneness. In its economy and cogency of imaging, HOLD ME surpasses any of Kuchar’s previous work. The odd blend of Hollywood glamour and drama with all-too-real life creates and inspires counterpoint of unattainable desire against unbearable actuality.” – Ken Kelman
“This film could cheer an arthritic gorilla, and audiences, apparently sensitized by its blithely accurate representation of feelings few among them can have escaped, rise from their general stupor to cheer it back.” – James Stoller, The Village Voice
1966, 16mm, color/so, 15m

Admission for entire program:
Seniors,

$5
General,

$7

See fresh perspectives and formula shattering techniques in film and video
art from the Bay Area and beyond! Open Screening accepts one hour of
shorts every month on an open revolving basis. Live local bands open every
show, and the refreshments are darn good.

FREE admission for exhibitors.
Door, Bar: 7pm
Live Local Music Preshow: 7:30pm w/ Grandpa Shig (http://mudang.4t.com)
Projector: 8pm

PROGRAM:  

Jessica Pezalla, Jesse Wiens, Victor Diaz, Cris Hall, Mike Okum, and others.

OS Submission Info:

Cue and label all tapes w/ name, contact, title and length.
Mail dubs to: “openscreening”, 992 Valencia, SF, 94110
1-2 week advance submissions strongly recommended
Email inquiries do not guarantee a space. Tapes do
Max trt: 20m
DVD, miniDV/DVcam, sVHS, sm beta, 8mm and 16mm
All genres. Student, “in progress”, and segments welcome
Info: contact meg @ 415-824-3890 or openscreening@hotmail.com