Essentials: Protest gathers together subversive and radical documentaries on global politics and war from Cuba to Vietnam.
The programme presents iconic cine-pamphlets, cine-manifestos and film-essays that mobilised the social energies of discontent, crisis and struggle that convulsed the 20th century. Drawing upon aesthetic traditions of negation, critique and provocation, these artists use the political forms of montage, collage and appropriation to produce radical interventions. Including: Jean Vigo, Harun Farocki, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Santiago Alvarez and Jorge Furtado.
Programme curated by The Otolith Group, Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar.
Histoire Du Soldat Inconnu / History of the Unknown Soldier
Henri Storck | Belgium | 1932 | 10min
Banned by the French government, pioneering documentarist Henri Storks’ Histoire Du Soldat Inconnu is an anti-imperialist collage and a classic indicment of war.
À Propos De Nice
Jean Vigo | France | 1930 | 20min
À Propos De Nice, Vigo’s first film is a city symphony and attack on the inequities of leisure.
79 Primaveras / 79 Springtimes
Santiago Alvarez | Cuba | 1969 | 26min
79 Primaveras is an impassioned tribute to Ho Chi Minh, the revered leader of the Viet Min independence movement.
Die Worte Des Vorsitzenden / The Words of the Chairman
Harun Farocki | Germany | 1967 | 3min
The Words of the Chairman is a cine-pamphlet that stages a Maoist formula typical of the ’68 era: “words can become weapons.”
Introduction to Arnold Schoenberg [...]
Jean Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet | Germany | 1973 | 12min
Introduction to Arnold Schoenberg’s Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Score was commissioned by West Germany’s Süd-West-Funk television station as one of a series of short films on composers.
Ilha Das Flores / Isle of Flowers
Jorge Furtado | Brazil | 1989 | 12min
Isle of Flowers uses animation, archival footage and parody to indict the distribution of wealth and food around the world.