Climate stickers, blockades, demonstrations and spray attacks. Is this law or crime? Does democracy need civil disobedience? “Investigation of a Flame” by Lynne Sachs documents an anti-war action by Catholic activists, the Catonsville Nine, against the Vietnam War – and interviews those involved about it thirty years after their action. The Frankfurt lawyer Samira Akarbian has just published her award-winning doctoral thesis on “Civil Disobedience as a Constitutional Interpretation”. We watch the film with her in the Kurbelkiste cinema and discuss civil disobedience today. Afterwards there will be Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” at the Münster Theater, which was inspired, among other things, by the action of the Catonsville Nine. Audience discussion following the performance.
This is the third event in Heaven, Hell, Happy End , the new series that accompanies musical theater productions. The deputy chairwoman of QueerBw, Lieutenant Colonel iG Anastasia Biefang, was a guest at the first event. At the second appointment we already had a conversation with the director Lynne Sachs about her film Investigation of a Flame.
Over a period of 35 years between 1984 and 2019, Lynne Sachs filmed her father, Ira Sachs Sr., a bon vivant and pioneering businessman from Park City, Utah. Film About a Father Who is her raw and eye-opening attempt to understand the web that connects a child to her parent and a sister to her siblings. Sachs’ cinematic exploration of her father offers simultaneous, sometimes contradictory, views of one seemingly unknowable man. As the startling facts mount, she discovers more about her father than she had ever hoped to reveal.
“[A] brisk, prismatic and richly psychodramatic family portrait.” – Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times
Filmmaker Michael Gitlin will moderate a conversation with Lynne Sachs, after the film.
In partnership with San Francisco Cinematheque | October 21, 2023, 3–5 PM
Join us for nine works by ten contemporary Bay Area filmmakers, a cross-section of the Bay Area’s ever-vibrant multi-generational community curated by Steve Polta, artistic director of San Francisco Cinematheque. These works present a compelling mix of contemplative landscape study, critiques of consumerism and media representation, poetic considerations of solitude and connection, and an abiding love for the physical and chemical charms of the filmic medium itself. Full program details, program notes, and artist bios available at sfcinematheque.org →
Curated by BAN9 Curatorial Counsel member Gina Basso, the ongoing BAN9 Film series will span the entirety of the exhibition, featuring acclaimed Bay Area filmmakers, collectives, and new media artists. Offerings will vary monthly, reflecting BAN9’s curatorial themes and diving into the breadth and depth of the Bay Area’s vibrant film scene by highlighting the local organizations and individuals who contribute to the shape and form of the region’s rich cinematic landscape.
Films
(sans)(image) (arc and Sophia Wang, 7 min, 2023, 16mm, black and white, sound)
Light Signal (Emily Chao, 11 min, 2022, 16mm screened as digital video, color, sound)
The city of Paderborn is ready to celebrate the highlights of international short film art when “Oberhausen meets Paderborn” opens its doors for an unforgettable short film night. The event will take place on Wednesday, 18 October at 8pm at Pollux by Cineplex (Westernstraße 34, 33098 Paderborn). Tickets are available online from Cineplex or directly at the box office.
The Short Film Night offers the opportunity to discover emerging talents and renowned filmmakers from all over the world. The programme includes new works by filmmakers such as Lynne Sachs from the USA and artists from Colombia as well as German and Austrian productions. The diverse selection reflects the global range of cinematic art and invites the audience to explore new perspectives and stories.
A special highlight of the event is the presentation of short films carefully selected by students of Paderborn University. Within a seminar, the students were able to experience the “69th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen” and have then put together a programme. These films are the result of passionate work and creative inspiration, covering a wide range of genres and narrative styles.
The 14th “Oberhausen meets Paderborn” Short Film Night is not only an opportunity to enjoy art and culture, but also a platform for filmmakers and the audience to exchange ideas and network. Film enthusiasts in particular will have the opportunity to see short films that are otherwise rarely seen on the internet or even on the big screen.
About “Oberhausen meets Paderborn
“Oberhausen meets Paderborn” is an annual short film night that presents the best short films from around the world. The event provides a platform for emerging filmmakers and established artists to present their work to a wide audience and celebrate the magic of short film.
Annette and LynneAnnette BrauerhochLynne Sachs at PaderbornStudent CuratorsStephan Ahrens Stephan Ahrens Lynne Sachs Annette B and projectionistsPorn CollectionPorn Collection
In May 1968, the Catonsville Nine, a group of Catholic priests and laypeople who wanted to stop the Vietnam War, burned draft records. They used homemade napalm. They had previously stolen the files from a district military replacement office in broad daylight. For some it was a crime, for others it was civil disobedience. For the composer Leonard Bernstein, this action, which caused a lot of attention in the public and also in the Catholic Church, was an important impulse for his musical theater piece Mass. He was friends with Father Daniel Berrigan, who was sentenced to prison for this action.
The feminist filmmaker Lynne Sachs made a film about this action in 2001 and allowed the activists, but also employees of the authority, jurors and the public prosecutor to have their say: How do they see the action in retrospect?
She comes to Münster for the premiere of the film (with German subtitles) and speaks to Professor Dr. Oliver Tolmein after the screening about the film and the meaning and consequences of civil disobedience.
This is the second event in “Heaven, Hell, Happy Ending”, the new series that accompanies musical theater productions.
For the final PETROPRESENTS at Petrohradská 13, we have invited American poet and filmmaker Lynne Sachs for two evenings of hand-picked short film screenings and one workshop, which are free for the public. Curated by Christopher Small and Daniela Hanusová.
TUESDAY 10 19:30 Program 1: Film is a Collaborative Art (90 mins)
THURSDAY 12 18:00 Lynne Sachs: Making Films Personally and Politically (Workshop, 60 mins) 19:30 Program 2: Feminism as Filmmaking (90 mins)
Lynne Sachs will be present for two nights of screenings, on Tuesday 10th and Thursday 12th October. Before the second program on the 12th, Lynne will give a special workshop to the students of Film Studies at Charles University, which is also open to the public, at Petrohradská kolektiv in Prague, Czech Republic.
Admission to the screenings and the workshop are free of charge, but the capacity of the workshop is limited, so please register if you wish to take part.
Lynne Sachs’s work — both cinematic and poetic — and theoretical thinking teeter on multiple edges; somewhere between the deeply personal and the general, the corporeal and the abstract, the introspective yet always relatable. Kino Petrohradská will screen two blocks of her short documentaries: one exploring feminism as a method of filmmaking, the other Sachs’ frequent tendency to make films collaboratively and communally – whether with her family or with other filmmakers (as in her collaboration with queer cinema pioneer Barbara Hammer on A Month of Single Frames).
In her talk, Sachs will combine film and feminist theory with labour history, focusing on the concepts of reproductive labour, performativity and somatic cinema. The lecture will be based on her forthcoming collaborative publication (with contributions from, for example, the prominent feminist theorist Silvia Federici). The book analyses the process of making her film The Washing Society, exploring the milieu of New York’s laundries and the intersections of immigration, race and capitalism. The talk will be followed by a discussion.
DRAWN & QUARTERED (3 min., 1987) Recently read Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. Male gaze challenged. Talk about French feminist theorists Helene Cixous, Luce Irigeray and Julia Kristeva.
WINDOW WORK (9 min, 2000) I was performer, cameraperson, and director – one woman band so to speak. Talk about domestic work, being a mother, Silvia Federici (who came into my life much later), “Wages for House Work” and her theories of Reproductive Labor. Talk about Chantal Ackerman’s “The Bed”.
ATALANTA: 32 YEARS LATER (5 min., 2006) Revision of mythic story of the princess Atlanta whose father, the King, wanted her to marry a prince. She refused, unless he organized a competition of princes around the kingdom who would race to see who was the fastest. The fastest could marry her. I rewrite this, “queer” it, feminize it as we might say today. Dedicated to Barbara Hammer.
AND THEN WE MARCHED (3 min. 2017) How do we as artists participate in the swirl of mainstream politics. Can we change thinking? How does our witness make a difference?
CONTRACTIONS (10 min. 2024) Working collectively to speak out for reproductive justice. Just the act of coming together can make a difference at least amongst ourselves. Talk about Fred Moten’s concept of “hesitant sociology”. Talk about Meredith Monk’s “Elis Island.”
THE JITTERS (3 min. 2023) Coming full circle with Drawn and Quarted almost 40 years later. Talk about Carolee Schneeman’s “Fuses”.
Interactive Section – how do we move a concern, concept or conundrum from just being an idea to being a visual or oral experience of very short duration?
Listen to topics from our volunteers and brainstorm on a film they really could make with their cell phone and a computer editing program they probably already have.
Film director Lynne Sachs, with the CHSA Museum and San Francisco Cinematheque are proud to present “Your Day Is My Night,” a hybrid documentary by Lynne Sachs, at the CHSA Museum on Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 1pm.
Immigrant residents of a “shift-bed” apartment in the heart of New York City’s Chinatown share their stories of personal and political upheaval. As the bed transforms into a stage, the film reveals the collective history of the Chinese in the United States through conversations, autobiographical monologues, and theatrical movement pieces. Shot in the kitchens, bedrooms, wedding halls, cafés, and mahjong parlors of Chinatown, this provocative hybrid documentary addresses issues of privacy, intimacy, and urban life. More info at yourdayismynight.com
Director Lynne Sachs will be available to discuss her film.
