From Occupy Wall Street to the Sudanese Civil War, Mexico’s missing students to Hong Kong’s street protests, Goldsmiths, University of London’s latest film festival showcases contemporary political documentaries from, and about, almost every corner of the world

 

The Centre for Postcolonial Studies hosts ‘Films from the Underside 2015’ from 30 November - 8 December in venues across our New Cross campus, with all screenings free and open to all.

This year’s films include the UK premiere of Ayotzinapa: Recount of a State Crime (2015), as well as Lessons in Dissent (2014) and The Joe Show – a shocking and wildly entertaining documentary on America’s most controversial sheriff.

The festival’s programme explores Asia, Africa, Southern Europe and the Americas, with a particular focus on the human drama of the Mexico/US border, the resurgence of the Left, government corruption, and a half-decade of protest movements that have shocked the world.  

Films from the Underside 2015 also pays tribute to two important UK-based artists and filmmakers, Isaac Julien, with Julien’s earliest masterpiece Looking for Langston, and Agnieszka Piotrowska – the festival’s guest director.

Piotrowska’s latest film, Lovers in Time or How We Didn’t Get Arrested in Harare will be shown in London for the first time at the festival, on Thursday 3 December.

The festival reflects the principles guiding the Centre’s intellectual activities and new MA in Politics, Development and the Global South: that politics must be conceived in its broadest sense, as an arena of social contestation, not as merely electoral politics and the doings of the state.

Tickets for all screenings are free and can be booked through eventbrite.

Visit centrepostcolonialstudies.org or follow @pococentre #pocodocfest for the latest information on the film festival and the Centre for Postcolonial Studies.

Films from the Underside has been organised by Sanjay Seth, Francisco Carballo and David L. Martin

 

 

Films from the Underside 2015

 

Ayotzinapa: Recount of a State Crime (Xavier Robles, 2015, 101 min)

Reconstructing the climate of impunity, corruption and crime that prevails in Mexico.

5pm Monday 30 November – LGO1 Professor Stuart Hall Building (PSHB)

7pm Monday 6 December – LGO1 PSHB

 

 

Miners Shot Down (Rehad Desai, 2014, 86 min)

International Emmy Award-nominated exposé of the spiralling violence in South Africa after the deaths of 34 mineworkers by police brutality.

7pm Monday 30 November – LGO1 PSHB

5pm Monday 6 December – LGO1 PSHB

 

 

The Engagement Party in Harare (Agnieszka Piotrowska, 2013, 35 min)

Looks at post-colonial identities and racial relationships in Zimbabwe through the lens of the Harare International Festival of the Arts

5pm Monday 30 November – 137 Richard Hoggart Building (RHB)

 

 

Madina’s Dream (Andrew Berends, 2015, 80 min)

An unflinching and poetic glimpse into the ‘forgotten’ war as rebels and refugees fight to survive in Sudan’s mountains.

7pm Monday 30 November – 137 RHB

 

 

99% The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (Audrey Ewell, Aaron Aites, Lucian Read, Nina Krstic, 2013, 97 min)

Goes behind the scenes of 2011’s Occupy Wall Street movement.

5pm Tuesday 1 December – Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre

5pm Tuesday 8 December – 144 RHB

 

 

La Plaza: la Gestacion del 15m (Adriano Moran, 2012, 81 min)

The first documentary to analyse the origins and implications of Spain’s 15M movement.

7pm Tuesday 1 December – Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre

 

 

Lessons in Dissent (Matthew Torne, 2014, 97 mins)

A vivid portrait of Hong Kongers committed to creating a new Hong Kong

5pm Wednesday 2 December – 309 RHB

 

 

Başlangiç (Serkan Koç, 2012, 184 min)

Chronicles the Taksim Gezi Park protest that shocked Turkey and the word.

7pm Wednesday 2 December – 309 RHB

 

 

Cairo Drive (Sherief Elkatsha, 2013, 79 min)

Documentary exploring the life of one of the world’s most populated cities from its streets, spanning the Egyptian revolution.

5pm Thursday 3 December – 309 RHB

7pm Tuesday 8 December – 144 RHB

 

 

Lovers in Time or How We Didn’t Get Arrested in Harare! (Agnieszka Piotrowska, 2015, 63 min) – Followed by Q&A with the Director and Goldsmiths Professor of History Diana Jeater

Experimental docu-drama based on the production of controversial play Lovers in Time by Blessing Hungwe.

7pm Thursday 3 December – 309 RHB

 

 

Isaac Julien Retrospective (with guest speaker Gavin Butt, Professor of Visual Cultures) – Looking for Langston (1989, 45 min) and This is Not an AIDS Advertisement (1987, 15 min)

An exploration of the life and consequences of late African-American poet Langston Hughes

5pm Friday 4 December – LG01 PSHB

 

 

Rhizophora (Davide De Lillis and Julia Metzger-Traber, 2015, 16 min)

40 years after the end of the Vietnam War, the legacy of Agent Orange prevails.

7pm Friday 4 December – LGO1 PSHB

 

 

A River Changes Course (Kalyanee Mam, 2013, 83 min)

Captures the stories of three young Cambodians struggling to maintain a traditional way of life as the modern world closes in.

7pm Friday 4 December – LGO1 PSHB

 

 

Faces of Time (Charles D. Thompson Jr, 2014, 15 min)

Charles Thompson visits the elderly Mexican workers demanding retirement benefit promised to them half a century ago.

12pm Saturday 5 December – LG02 PSHB

 

 

Hotel de Paso (Paulina Sanchez, 2015, 98 min)

Profiles an old hotel in a red light district on the US-Mexico border as it receives hundreds of immigrants in pursuit of the American Dream.

12pm Saturday 5 December – LG02 PSHB

 

 

The Joe Show (Randy Murray, 2014, 105 min)

Shocking and wildly entertaining documentary on America’s most controversial sheriff and his approach to the media, politics and law enforcement.

2pm Saturday 5 December – LG02 PSHB

 

 

Who is Dayani Cristal? (Marc Silver, 2013)

In the desert’s ‘corridor of death’ a decomposing male body is found. Who is Dayani Cristal? shows how one life becomes testimony to the tragic results of the US war on immigration.

4pm Saturday 5 December – LG02 PSHB

 

 

Revolution and Religion The Martha’s Vineyard Cut (Bob Avakian Institute, 2015, 233 min)

Records the dialogue between renowned public intellectual Cornel West and Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party of the USA.

12pm Saturday 5 December – 309 RHB