3rd Annual MoRUS Film Fest
I NRCHY: Subversion & the City
East Village Community Gardens Set Back Drop for Series Exploring Grassroots Activism
August 1st-8th, 2015
8:00PM @ Various East Village & LES Garden Locations
The spirit of anarchy is embedded in the everyday life of New York City, and has been a consistent theme running through the fabric of the Lower East Side since the late 1800s. Though not always occurring in the form of the aggressive anti-authoritarianism commonly associated with the word anarchy, the ideals of freedom and participation in shaping the community’s future and the refusal to recognize traditional authority has spread from this pocket of the city to inspire grassroots activist movements across the country. The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) is partnering with community and activist groups to present I NRCHY: Subversion & the City. With each night featuring a different theme, I
NRCHY: Subversion & the City runs August 1st through 8th, with screening times at 8:00pm. A limited supply of all-inclusive passes for $20.00 are now on sale at morusfilmfest.eventbright.com or by visiting MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets during hours of operation. Admission to each individual screening will otherwise require a suggested donation of $5.00.
This series of shorts, documentaries, oral histories and features will pay homage to the spirit and legacy of anarchy in New York City, its impact on the United States and explore self-determined communities fighting for their own forms of power today. Dates, times and locations for I NRCHY: Subversion & the City are as follows:
Saturday, August, 1st @ Orchard Alley, 350-54 East 4th Street between Ave. C & D. 8:00 PM – TENEMENT MUSEUM presents ‘Immigrants, Anarchism & the USA’ featuring ANARCHISM IN AMERICA, dir. Steven Fischler and Joel Sucher
Sunday, August 2nd @ Orchard Alley, 350-54 East 4th Street between Ave. C & D. 8:00 PM – ABC NO RIO presents ‘Bio Terror, Manufactured Fear & State Repression’ featuring MARCHING PLAGUE, created by Critical Art Ensemble and STRANGE CULTURE, dir. Lynn Hershman Leeson
Monday, August 3rd @ Le Petit Versailles, 346 East Houston Street between Ave. B & C. 8:00 PM – THE GOOD FIGHT presents ‘Neighborhood Narratives’ featuring oral histories from contemporary community activists.
Tuesday, August 4th @ 6th & B Garden, 6th Street and Ave. B. 8:00 PM – TIME’S UP! presents ‘Grassroots Gardening and Bicycling Change the City’s Urban Design’ featuring STILL WE RIDE dir. Andrew Lynn, Elizabeth Press, Chris Ryan and COMMUNITY GARDENS: 42 YEARS OF ACTIVISM IN GREENING MANHATTAN, dir. Jessica Kaller (debut with filmmaker in attendance)
Wednesday, August 5th @ La Plaza Cultural, SW Corner of 9th Street and Ave. C. 8:00 PM – 350NYC presents ‘Sustainable Activism’ featuring DISRUPTION, dir. Kelly Nyks and Jared P. Scott and IDLE THREAT, dir. George Pakenham (filmmaker in attendance)
Thursday, August 6th @ La Plaza Cultural, SW Corner of 9th Street and Ave. C. 8:00 PM – 596 ACRES presents ‘Reviewing Renewal’ featuring REZONING HARLEM dir. Natasha Florentino and Tamara Gubernat and THE RINK, dir. Sarah Friedland (with guest speaker DW Gibson and filmmaker in attendance)
Friday, August 7th @ El Jardin del Paraiso, 311 East 4th Street Between Ave. C & D. 8:00 PM – INTERFERENCE ARCHIVE presents ‘Rooted in Community: Filmmakers Collaborating with Community Movements’ featuring VOCES DE FILLMORE, dir. Ariana Allensworth, Teresa Basilio, and Regina Eaton; CLAIMING OUR VOICE, dir. Jennifer Pritheeva Samuel and FALLING, dir. Maya Suchak and Imani Peterkin (filmmakers in attendance)
Saturday, August 8th @ El Jardin del Paraiso, 311 East 4th Street between Ave. C & D. 8:00 PM – MoRUS presents for the closing night SALT OF THE EARTH, dir. Herbert J. Biberman (courtesy of www.organa.com)
FULL DESCRIPTIONS
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Saturday, August 1 @ Orchard Alley, 350-54 East 4th Street between Ave. C & D. 8:00 PM
TENEMENT MUSEUM presents Immigrants, Anarchism & the USA
This screening will examine the anarchist movement’s impact on American history and will feature a documentary film and a presentation that connects the anarchist movement to Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th century.
ANARCHISM IN AMERICA
A colorful and provocative survey of anarchism in America, the film attempts to dispel popular misconceptions and trace the historical development of the movement. The film explores the movement both as a native American philosophy stemming from 19th century American traditions of individualism and as a foreign ideology brought to America by immigrants. The film features rare archival footage and interviews with significant personalities in anarchist history including Murray Boochkin and Karl Hess, and also live performance footage of the Dead Kennedys.
– Written by Harvard Film Archive
Directors: Steven Fischler and Joel Sucher; 75 minutes; 1983; English
The Tenement Museum preserves and interprets the history of immigration through the personal experiences of the generations of newcomers who settled in and built lives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, America’s iconic immigrant neighborhood; forges emotional connections between visitors and immigrants past and present; and enhances appreciation for the profound role immigration has played and continues to play in shaping America’s evolving national identity
**lawn screening – limited seats available – bring blankets**
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Sunday, August 2 @ Orchard Alley, 350-54 East 4th Street between Ave. C & D. 8:00 PM
ABC NO RIO presents Bio Terror, Manufactured Fear & State Repression
This program explores the use of art as a form of political activism in a post-9-11 where a robust security theater has now apparently become a new normal.
MARCHING PLAGUE is an exploration of germ warfare and its history which demonstrates that the state’s own early research on germ warfare was based on scare tactics and false assumptions
Created by: Critical Art Ensemble; 16 minutes; 2006; English
STRANGE CULTURE examines the case of artist and professor Steve Kurtz, a member of the Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). After his wife, Hope, died of heart failure, Kurtz is investigated by the FBI on suspicion of bio-terrorism upon the discovery of petri dishes and other scientific equipment related to Kurtz’s art in his home. Through a combination of dramatic reenactment, news footage, animation and testimonials the film scrutinizes post-9/11 paranoia and suggests that Kurtz was targeted because his work questions government policies.
Director: Lynn Hershman Leeson; 75 minutes; 2007; English
ABC No Rio is an arts center on the Lower East Side, founded in 1980 by artists committed to an actively engaged culture that promotes critical analysis and an expanded vision of possibility for our lives and the lives of our neighborhoods, cities, and societies. We’ve retained these values to the present. ABC No Rio is a place where people share resources and ideas in an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual support.
**lawn screening – limited seats available – bring blankets**
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Monday, August 3 @ Le Petit Versailles, 346 East Houston Street between Ave. B & C. 8:00 PM
THE GOOD FIGHT presents Activist Awakenings
During this program, we will hear excerpts of oral histories and long form personal interviews, with neighbors in New York City, who have been compelled to act for social change in environmental justice, housing justice and open space.
Doris Dieter, Rezoning Activist, West Village, NYPL Oral History Project
Richie Torres, public housing advocate & Bronx councilman, NYPL Oral History Project Laura Zelasnic, independent
Father Frank Morales, anti displacement and anti police brutality activist, NYPL Oral History Project
Ted Osbourne, tenant leader, Cooper Square Committee
Laura Hoffmann, environmental justice advocate, The Good fight Greenpoint Project
The Battle for El Bohio, oral historian
The Good Fight is a new community education project created by social historian Emily Gallagher and artist Emily Rawlings. The organization works to inform the public about social justice struggles past and present in their own neighborhood communities, utilizing oral history, public programming and walking tours. Stay tuned for new programming in 2016. (www.thegoodfighttours.com)
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Tuesday, August 4 @ 6th & B Garden, 6th Street and Ave. B. 8:00 PM
TIMES UP! presents Grassroots Gardening and Bicycling Change the City’s Urban Design
The films and discussions of this evening show the history of bicycle and green space advocacy in New York City. Bicycle culture, rooted in the Lower East Side, influenced NYC at large by increasing cycling. With community groups based in LES, transportation alternatives were improved. Time’s up!, Transportation Alternatives, Recycle a Bike, and the Hub station are all community based bike advocacy groups that were based in the LES and helped to influence the increase in bicycling across the city. This lead to safer urban design, including bike lanes, green-ways, auto-free plazas, and bridge access between Manhattan and NYC’s other boroughs.
STILL WE RIDE
On Friday August 27, 2004 just days before the start of the Republican National Convention, a massive police operation was underway. By the end of the night 264 people were arrested. It marked one of the largest mass arrests in New York City’s history – and the arrested had done nothing illegal. For many New Yorkers, August was the first time they heard of what has become a monthly ritual for New York City’s bike community; a free-forming ride called Critical Mass. Still We Ride is a documentary that captures the joyous atmosphere of this August ride before the arrests began and the chaos that followed. It recounts how this ride first started in San Francisco over 10 years ago and chronicles the police crackdown and resulting court battles in New York over the last twelve months. The movie takes on issues of civil liberties, surveillance, the power of mainstream media, and the benefits of alternative means of transportation.
Directors: Andrew Lynn, Elizabeth Press, Chris Ryan; 37 minutes; 2005; English
COMMUNITY GARDENS: 42 YEARS OF ACTIVISM IN GREENING MANHATTAN (debut)
Director: Jessica Kaller; 37 minutes; 2015; English
(filmmaker in attendance)
TIME’S UP! is a grassroots environmental group that uses educational outreach and direct action to promote a more sustainable, less toxic city. For 25 years, TIME’S UP! has worked to educate people about the environmental impacts of everyday decisions, from the food we buy to the means of transportation we use.
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Wednesday, August 5 @ La Plaza Cultural, SW Corner of 9th Street and Ave. C. 8:00 PM
350NYC presents Sustainable Activism
In an age of tipping points and rapid social and planetary change this program explores why it’s important, as the last generation with the ability to do so, for people to remain engaged and active at the grassroots and individual levels in order to build a clean energy future.
DISRUPTION takes an unflinching look at the devastating consequences of our inaction on climate change. The exploration lays bare the terrifying science, the shattered political process, the unrelenting industry special interests and the civic stasis that have brought us to this social, moral and ecological crossroads. The film also takes us behind-the-scenes of the efforts to organize the largest climate rally in the history of the planet during the UN world climate summit.
Directors: Kelly Nyks and Jared P. Scott; 52 minutes; 2014; English
IDLE THREAT is a lively look at one man’s spirited struggle to improve public health by raising awareness about idling’s impact, starting in New York City. Against all odds, he succeeds, helping improve local air quality, and in the process gains world-wide recognition for the anti-idling cause.
Director: George Pakenham; 37 minutes; 2012; English
(filmmaker in attendance)
350NYC is the local affiliate of 350.org, a grassroots network of volunteer-run campaigns in over 188 countries working to solve the climate crisis. Here in New York, we are working locally for a cleaner, greener, better New York City for everyone.
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Thursday, August 6 @ La Plaza Cultural, SW Corner of 9th Street and Ave. C. 8:00 PM
596 ACRES presents Reviewing Renewal
New York City began to adopt “urban renewal plans” in 1949 to get federal funding to acquire land, relocate the people living there, demolish the structures and make way for new public and private development. The legacy of these neighborhood master plans remains active across the city. Even after federal funding for the program was cut in 1974, New York City continued to adopt renewal plans for neighborhoods. Urban renewal transforms the city, and changes the lives of many New Yorkers, for better or worse. What can we learn from the continuing story of urban renewal in NYC?
REZONING HARLEM
Since 2002, more than 100 rezonings have been signed into law in New York City, including the rezoning of 125th Street in Harlem. REZONING HARLEM follows longtime members of the Harlem community as they fight a 2008 rezoning that threatens to erase the history and culture of their legendary neighborhood and replace it with luxury housing, offices, and big-box retail. A shocking exposé of how a group of ordinary citizens, passionate about the future of their treasured community, are systematically shut out of the city’s decision-making process, revealing New York City’s broken public review system. This film provides a behind the scenes view of how policy affects gentrification, resulting in homogenous neighborhoods devoid of character.
Directors: Natasha Florentino and Tamara Gubernat; 40 minutes; 2008; English
THE RINK
Branch Brook Park Roller Rink, located in Newark, NJ, is one of the few remaining urban rinks of its kind. This concrete structure is nestled in a public park bordered by public housing and a highway. Upon first glance, the exterior resembles a fallout shelter; however, the streamers and lights of the interior are reminiscent of 1970s roller discos. This 55 minute documentary depicts a space cherished by skaters and a city struggling to move beyond its past and forge a new narrative amidst contemporary social issues.
Director: Sarah Friedland; 55 minutes; 2014; English
(filmmaker in attendance)
596 Acres is New York City’s community land access advocate. We have helped 32 groups of New Yorkers turn vacant lots in their neighborhoods into thriving community gardens, pocket parks and urban farms. We bring information about public land to where it matters most: the neighborhoods. Through LivingLotsNYC.org, we combine social media and organizing tools with open data to help New Yorkers expand our commons spaces; we have mapped of all our vacant public land. 596 Acres publication, the Urban Reviewer, is the first comprehensive publicly accessible atlas of every NYC Urban Renewal Area Plan ever published.
**Guest host DW Gibson author of The Edge Becomes the Center, an Oral History of Gentrification in the 21st Century**
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Friday, August 7 @ El Jardin del Paraiso, 311 East 4th Street between Ave. C & D. 8:00 PM
INTERFERENCE ARCHIVE presents Rooted in Community: Filmmakers collaborating with community movements
This screening brings together three short films that emerged out of community-based collaboration and organizing. Filmmakers work closely with their subjects, who become active participants in the process. The resulting films are both organizing tools and documents of the struggles and collective efforts from which they emerged. Filmmakers and organizers will be on hand for discussion and questions after the screening.
VOCES DE FILLMORE is a documentary tracing the history and experiences of Puerto Rican families living on one block located in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The street, Fillmore Place, is a small block nestled in Williamsburg’s South Side, affectionately known as Los Sures. The documentary is a first-person narrative focusing on Latino families who have lived in the South Side for several decades. Their stories speak to the struggle of many New Yorkers, as they fight to maintain their homes, culture, and community in a rapidly transforming city.
Directors: Ariana Allensworth, Teresa Basilio, and Regina Eaton; 19 minutes; 2015; English and Spanish with English subtitles
CLAIMING OUR VOICE follows members of Andolan, a Queens-based organization founded and led by South Asian domestic workers as a means to support each other and collectively organize against exploitative work conditions in an industry prone to underpayment of wages, extended work hours without rest, sleep deprivation, lack of health care, verbal and emotional abuse, and sometimes, physical assault, and sexual abuse. This film presents the women of Andolan as they create, rehearse and refine acts for their first multi-lingual theater performance with the help of Sri Lankan-American performing artist YaliniDream. Through the course of the film, our main characters are revealed as their own heroines – challenging stereotypical images of immigrants and low-wage workers as well as notions of culture, race, gender, and class.
Director: Jennifer Pritheeva Samuel; 21 minutes; 2013; English, Bangla, and Hindi with English subtitles
FALLING is an experimental narrative film that explores the challenges faced by LGBTQ youth as they navigate the intersections of love and family. As two girls discover their feelings for each other, one of them is forced to choose between her new relationship and her father’s disapproval.
Falling was produced through Youth FX: Film Experience, an intensive hands-on program designed to introduce teens aged 14-18 to the artistic and technical process of digital filmmaking by offering a thorough overview of the production process from script to screen. Youth FX, a program of Grand Street Community Arts (GSCA), primarily works with young people who reside in the South End and Arbor Hill neighborhoods of Albany, NY, areas that have been historically under served and in need of meaningful opportunities for training and engagement in new digital media technology.
Directors: Maya Suchak and Imani Peterkin; Written by: Imani Peterkin and Mikayla Appleberry; Starring: Mikayla Appleberry, Ciara Rivas, and Paul Rivers Bailey; 10 minutes; 2015; English
Interference Archive explores the relationship between cultural production and social movements. This work manifests in public exhibitions, a study and social center, talks, screenings, publications, workshops, and an online presence. The archive consists of many kinds of objects that are created as part of social movements by the participants themselves: posters, flyers, publications, photographs, books, T-shirts and buttons, moving images, audio recordings, and other materials. Through our programming, we use this cultural ephemera to animate histories of people mobilizing for social transformation. We consider the use of our collection to be a way of preserving and honoring histories and material culture that is often marginalized in mainstream institutions. As an archive from below, we are a collectively run space that is people powered, with open stacks and accessibility for all. We work in collaboration with like-minded projects, and encourage critical as well as creative engagement with our own histories and current struggles.
(filmmakers in attendance)
**lawn screening – limited seats available – bring blankets**
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Saturday, August 8 @ El Jardin del Paraiso, 311 East 4th Street between Ave. C & D. 8:00 PM
MoRUS presents for the closing night SALT OF THE EARTH
Let’s celebrate the closing night of MoRUS Film Fest 2015 with a movie that Hollywood could not stop, one that combines multiple aspects of anarchist form and content with regard to production, distribution, exhibition, and reception.
SALT OF THE EARTH is a neorealist inspired drama film and one of the first pictures to advance the feminist social and political point of view. Its plot centers on a long and difficult strike, based on the 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Grant County, New Mexico. The film deploys actual miners and their families and is constructed around the tensions between the work place strikes and the home front difficulties as gender and hierarchical situations are fractured and shifted by intersecting responsibilities. The filmmakers were blacklisted by the Hollywood establishment due to their alleged involvement in communist politics and the film was banned by the House of Un-American Activities Committee.
Director: Herbert J. Biberman; 94 minutes; 1954; English
(courtesy of www.organa.com)
Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) aims to preserve the history of grassroots activism and promote environmentally-sound, community-based urban ecologies. The museum promotes scholarship of grassroots urban space activism by researching and archiving efforts to create community spaces. We also exhibit materials that document these actions in order to educate people on the political implications of reclaimed space. MoRUS is a volunteer-run nonprofit organization.
**lawn screening – limited seats available – bring blankets**