By Aleksei Guerman
Note special start time
Guerman’s most visually stunning, wildly provocative work, this fever-dream meditation on the crazed final days of Stalin's regime was a cause célèbre of the 1998 Cannes and New York film festivals. Based on a Joseph Brodsky story, the film takes off from the infamous “Doctor's Plot,” in which a group of predominately Jewish Moscow doctors were fingered as members of a conspiracy to assassinate Soviet leaders. Guerman creates a consistently amazing visual and aural rendition of the charged atmosphere of those sad times, in which no point of view is ever fixed, nor any shadow devoid of possible danger, nor any stray remark free from potentially lethal consequences. (1998, 150 min, 35mm) More details »

Inspired by physicist Brian Greene’s best-selling book, The Elegant Universe, “Punk Ballerina” (Vanity Fair) Karole Armitage has created a daring, high-speed work of elegance and force. Her response to Greene’s take on string theory is a sonic and pictorial interplay between video and kinetic imagery and live and electronic sounds exploring geometry, patterns in space and structures of rhythm.

Karole Armitage’s reputation as “punk ballerina” rose from her edgy interpretations of classical dance. Her company of dancers brings incredible energy and focus to the stage in dynamic choreography.

"Hello, YOU! I'm Michelle Tea, the host of the YBCA:You Book Club, and the first book we'll be reading is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. More details »

By Aleksei Guerman
After the banning of Trial on the Road, Guerman turned his attention to another WWII story. In the winter of 1942, Soviet Army Major Lopatin (Yuri Nikulin, a celebrated comic actor and circus performer cast against type) returns to his own home town to deliver the effects of a fallen comrade to the dead man’s wife. Above all a film of intimacy and tenderness, Twenty Days is Guerman’s melancholic tribute to those who remain on the homefront in times of war, and how none of them escape without their own physical and emotional scars. (1976, 101 min, 35mm) More details »

By Aleksei Guerman
Set in 1935 in the fictional provincial town of Unchansk, this was Guerman’s first film to receive wide international exposure. It wryly chronicles the material deprivations and minor satisfactions of communal life during the time in which Stalin’s cult of personality became a routine part of everyday life... and gangsters still ran rampant. Part adventure, part social commentary, and always shot through with Guerman’s signature ironic wit, Ivan Lapshin is a richly complex memory film about a “forgotten” era. (1984, 100 min, 35mm) More details »

New 35mm print!
Aleksei Guerman and Grigori Aronov
Having been arrested with other former members of the Tsarist bourgeoisie, Maj. Gen. Adamov (Andrei Popov) is cleared of his alleged crimes and released back into society. But in the post-revolutionary world, Adamov’s apartment has been turned into a crowded commune and, with nowhere else to turn (“The fact that you are alive is a misunderstanding,” he is told), the soldier begins a campaign to return to the battlefield. A dress rehearsal of sorts for the subsequent Trial on the Road and Twenty Days Without War, The Seventh Companion stands as an essential part of the Guerman filmography. (1967, 89 min, 35mm) More details »

By Ardak Amirkulov
Guerman produced and co-wrote this staggering historical epic about the intrigue and turmoil preceding Genghis Khan’s systematic destruction of the lost East Asian civilization of Otrar. Hallucinatory, visually resplendent and ferociously energetic, the film is packed with eye-catching (and gouging) detail and traverses an endless variety of parched, epic landscapes and ornate palaces. But this is also one of the most astute historical films ever made, its high quotient of torture and gore (Italian horror genius Mario Bava would have been envious) always grounded in the bedrock realities of realpolitik. (1991, 176 min, 35mm) More details »

By Aleksei Guerman
New 35mm print!
As great an anti-war film as Kubrick’s Paths of Glory, Guerman’s first solo feature was banned for 15 years (for its allegedly anti-heroic depiction of the Soviet involvement in WWII). Inspired by a real case, Trial on the Road tells the story of a Junior Sergeant in the Red Army who is forced to prove his patriotism via a series of increasingly perilous missions, climaxing in the nail-biting re-routing of a Nazi supply train that ranks among Guerman’s most dazzling set-pieces. Guerman cuts through the popular myths of WWII valor to show us a bitterly ironic battlefield where distinctions like “hero” and “traitor” cease to have any real meaning. (1971, 96 min, 35mm) More details »

Plus an exclusive free private drawing lesson from 5-6pm for YOUers only!
Bring your sketchpad and charcoal pencils and come drink-and-draw with us! YBCA is delighted to be hosting Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School drawing workshops. Our fourth installment features guest model Kitty Von Quim in a tribute to John Waters! More details »

By Loy Arcenas

The image of the child Christ, the Santo Niño, holds special significance to the Filipino faithful. It is said to cause miracles, the idol a perfect representation of the country’s strange conflation of religion and superstition. It is why a young boy has been dressed up as the Santo Niño in this clever dissection of a fading aristocratic family. With the patriarch fallen ill, the debts piling up, the house crumbling, and the family falling apart, all that’s left is to pray for a miracle. With studied grace, Niño explores a social class rarely depicted in Filipino films, revealing a deeply human core to aristocracy. (2011, 100 min). More details »

Preceding the film, Alleluia Panis of Kularts will perform “Ritwal” with vocalist Kristine Sinajon.

By Monster Jimenez
US Premiere

In 1969, Victor Pearson arrived in the Philippines, having survived a bomb blast while fighting in Vietnam. He married a Filipino woman. Over the next few decades, he would marry a few more. He soon built himself a harem, partially populated with underage girls. Kano, through interviews with Pearson and his wives, uncovers a sordid tale of love, sex, crime and madness, all the while shedding light on the sad republic that allowed it to happen. (2010, 80 min) More details »

US Premiere

John Torres is one of the Philippines’ most accomplished, thoughtful and inspiring experimental filmmakers. His graceful and mysterious shorts mix hypnotic imagery with multilayered narratives. But watch and listen closely, because nothing is quite as it seems on the surface. We present this selection of recent work, including his newest film. (Total running time: 81 min) More details »

By Mes de Guzman
US Premiere

A scrappy band of poor kids roam the streets and countryside in the Nueva Vizcaya province, finding humor and friendship despite their desperate circumstances. A fine example of Filipino social realist filmmaking, it neither romanticizes poverty nor simplistically condemns it. Instead, it slowly allows the weight of the children’s circumstances to overwhelm the viewer, in a nuanced portrait of the reality of everyday survival. (2011, 100 min) More details »

8th annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival
Jun 8, 2012 – Jun 10, 2012
FREE
Novellus Theater at YBCA

The 8th annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival premieres 39 short films in 5 screening programs. The Festival Focus, I Do AND I Don’t: LGBTQ People of Color & Same-Sex Marriage encompasses a Featured Screening and a Panel Discussion that explores the egregious history and legacy of Prop 8. The festival will also showcase powerful documentaries from Chile and Colombia that examine facets of queer and transgender experiences in Latin America. From the lives of queer Africans in the U.S., to a Mexican mother coming out to her grown children, to magical musical film mash-ups and fairy godmothers, this joyous anniversary rips the veil off societal expectations, elopes with your heart, and solemnly vows undying delight!

http://qwocmap.org/festival.html

By Benito Bautista
Director in person

Boundary is set in the crowded urban roadways of Manila during Christmas. A nervous taxi driver picks up an easy-going businessman as his last passenger for the night. Their journey together to a far-flung suburb takes a wrong turn in more ways than one, and becomes a wickedly tense portrait of urban anxiety and shifting identities. (2011, 110 min) More details »

With a lurid title but a serious intent, this program of new shorts will give you a taste of the work of nine younger artists from all over the archipelago. Featuring a little bit of everything – doc, drama, experimental, and even some student work – this is a great intro to the contemporary film scene. All films (except Boxing in the Philippine Islands) are US Premieres. (Total running time: 97 min) More details »

An afternoon of live music, featuring independent and underground Filipino-American bands from around the nation. These bands have each created their own unique sound through the exploration and experimentation and represent a spectrum of musical genres such as indie, rock, punk, folk, garage, electro, funk and pop. The day will also feature experimental music videos, lots of head-bobbing and -banging, and delights from an assortment of Filipino food trucks. More details »

By Antoinette Jadaone
US Premiere

Lilia Cuntapay is a fixture in Filipino cinema, but not a lot of people know who she is. She has appeared in many of the country’s horror features, her unique visage giving a face to the terror being presented on screen. In this mockumentary, director Antoinette Jadaone follows the legendary bit player around while she prepares a speech for her very first awards show appearance. Alternately melancholy and comedic, the film explores a life on the edges of celebrity. (2011, 93 min) More details »

By Quark Henares
Director in person

Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy starts a band with girl. With this basic setup, Rakenrol takes audiences on a guided tour of the Filipino rock scene. This bittersweet love letter to Filipino music details the universal struggles of a young band, from the heady early days all the way to the painful but inevitable breakup. Featuring music and cameos from some of the country’s top musical acts, the film also serves as a rich pop culture snapshot, capturing a very specific zeitgeist. (2011, 113 min) More details »

By Jade Castro
Director invited

Bading is Filipino slang for “gay,” referring specifically to flamboyant, effeminate homosexuals. A Zombading is the undead version, which the titular character has to deal with as he tries to lift a curse that is gradually turning him into a bading. This exuberant film satirizes the very idea of homophobia as it literally turns homosexuality into something to be feared. Blending the tropes of horror comedy, this film is a deliciously subversive piece of pop art. (2011, 96 min) More details »

By Bambi Beltran, Keith Deligero, Norbert Elnar, Donna Gimeno, Christian Linaban, Idden de los Reyes & Remton Siega Zuasola
US Premiere

There is a lot more going on in current Filipino cinema than what comes out of Manila. The province of Cebu, in the Visayas, is becoming a hotbed of independent filmmaking. Biyernes Biyernes is not intended to be an omnibus of short films, but rather a feature film made by seven directors about the city they live in. The film is set on a Friday, taking place over 24 hours. It is composed of seven different stories, from a political satire set in a mental institution, to tales of violence and prostitution in the urban corners, and even a lesbian love affair. (2011, 87 min) More details »

By Christopher Gozum
US Premiere
Special FREE screening in the Large Conference Room (2nd floor, 701 Mission St)

It is estimated that 11% of the population of the Philippines are Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). In the media, they are depicted either as heroes making sacrifices for their families or victims suffering injustices in foreign lands. In Lawas kan Pinabli, director Christopher Gozum (himself an OFW in Saudi Arabia) mixes found footage, interviews and impressionistic narrative segments to form a more balanced picture of life as an OFW. It delves into various issues and brings to light a startling complicity in fostering injustice. (2012, 195 min) More details »

By Khavn de la Cruz
US Premiere

Khavn de la Cruz is a key figure in the Manila arts underground. He’s cranked out dozens of films, produced arts festivals, published books, and is an accomplished musician. Mondomanila is a punk, freaked-out portrait of a band of juvenile delinquents, lost outsiders in the hellish slums of Manila. Abrasive and humorous, the film shatters many taboos and stereotypes, while implicating the viewer in the on-screen subversion. This is garbage cinema at its smartest and most sophisticated. And, yes, there is break-dancing. (2011, 75 min) More details »

By Arnel M. Mardoquio
US Premiere

This major discovery comes from Mindanao, the often-troubled southern region of the country. Few Americans visit here, despite its beauty and amazing cultural diversity. Gritty, poetic and a riveting plea for peace, the story is set against the harsh realities of Mindanao’s internal refugees or “bakwits,” victims of the separatist war that continues to ravage the countryside. They flock to makeshift houses in gymnasiums, schools, and churches to escape being caught in the crossfire. (2011, 105 min) More details »

By Lawrence Fajardo
US Premiere

The Pasay Rotonda is one of the busiest intersections in Manila. It is a place of absolute chaos: people, cars, buses, motorcycles, jeepneys and trains all compete for space as they try to navigate the crumbling, complex geography of the city in the sweltering tropical heat. It is here that the disparate lives of the characters in Amok converge, their fates united by the violence that sweeps through the streets. (2011, 83 min) More details »

By Gereon Wetzel and Joerg Adolph

For more than forty years, Gerhard Steidl has personally supervised the publishing and printing of some of the most significant books on fashion, art, and photography. We observe him as he collaborates with renowned artists like Jeff Wall, Ed Ruscha, and Robert Frank, working tirelessly to present their work in beautifully created books. Providing an insightful look at the way Steidl's printing press operates in Goettingen, Germany, this is a portrait of a dynamic entrepreneur with an uncompromising passion for the craft of bookmaking. (2010, 88 min, digital) More details »

It’s PRIDE MONTH and we’re reading venerable queer John Waters’ Role Models! Pick up your copy at Modern Times Bookstore and get a 10% discount when you mention you’re a YBCA:Youer. More details »

San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival

The World United Through Dance

Festival Artistic Directors Carlos Carvajal and CK Ladzekpo curated a thrilling line-up for the 34th Annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, featuring over 30 dance companies and hundreds of artists throughout the month of June. Each program includes innovative works by masterful dancers and numerous cross-cultural collaborations.

The Festival presents three exhilarating weekends at Yerba Buena's Novellus Theater from June 16 to July 1 and a lovely Benefit Evening at 6pm on June 30. Join us for a celebration of cultures from around the world and discover what Alastair Macaulay, Chief Dance Critic of the New York Times, describes as "a glorious achievement." He writes: "Here is one of the finest of all American dreams: a setting where cultures can celebrate their own traditions while honoring and applauding others. What I love is that the festival makes me feel so utterly a student, indeed, a novice."

Program Book: pre-purchase your program book along with your performance tickets.
More details »

Photo: RJ Muna, pictured La Tania

Series coda screening:
By Lav Diaz
US Premiere

Master filmmaker Lav Diaz, the conscience of Filipino cinema, makes epic social dramas which require a special commitment from the viewer because of their extreme running times. His new film consists of several oblique narratives, including the story of Florentina and her father’s efforts to trap her into prostitution, and two treasure hunters from the city. With majestic black-and-white cinematography, the film is an extraordinary immersion into the fundamental principles of cinema and its unique beauty. It is also an indelible portrait of the psychological aftermath of injustice. (2012, 6 hours) More details »

The Forum: Conversations at YBCA is a new quarterly series of moderated conversations with artists, activists, and thought-leaders.

For our second program, YBCA is pleased to welcome Van Jones, the globally recognized and award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean energy economy. Jones worked as the green jobs advisor to the Obama administration in 2009, during which time he helped run the inter-agency process that oversaw $80 billion in green recovery spending. He will be joined on stage by award-winning, nationally-known journalist Farai Chideya, whose reporting has been featured in Newsweek, The New York Times and on National Public Radio. More details »

By Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor

Obscene is the definitive film biography of Barney Rosset, the influential publisher of Grove Press and the Evergreen Review and a continued inspiration to defenders of free expression. Rossett was the first American publisher of acclaimed authors Samuel Beckett, Kenzaburo Oe, Tom Stoppard, Che Guevara and Malcolm X, and challenged the obscenity ban on groundbreaking works of fiction such as Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Tropic of Cancer and Naked Lunch. But the same unyielding and reckless energy Rosset used to publish these works and distribute films like I Am Curious (Yellow) also brought him perilously close to destruction. (2007, 97 min, digital) More details »

By Julie Moggan

Every four seconds a Harlequin Mills & Boon romance novel is sold, giving hope to readers throughout the world—an Indian woman pining for her straying husband, a Japanese housewife yearning for her handsome ballroom dancing teacher, and a British mother-of-three aiming to spice up her marriage. The film does not only follow female readers: model Stephen has graced over 200 book covers but can’t find his true love, while Roger, a pensioner in Northern England, writes romance novels under the pseudonym “Gill Sanderson.” Guilty Pleasures explores our universal struggle to reconcile inner fantasy with the tragicomic truths of real-life relationships. (2010, 85 min, digital) More details »

Fairytale documents Ai Weiwei’s project of the same name for Europe’s most innovative art event, documenta 12, in Kassel, Germany in 2007. Ai Weiwei invited 1001 Chinese citizens of different ages and from various backgrounds to live in an abandoned factory for a massive-scale performance art project. It was the most sensational artwork at the exhibition. This 152-minute film documents the whole process, from the preparations for the project to the challenges the participants had to face before actually travelling to Germany as well as the artist’s ideas behind the work. (2008, 152 min, digital) More details &Raquo;

“That-has-been” is what Roland Barthes has described as photography’s defining feature. It always points to something that is no more. One could say photos are souvenirs; photos frequently assume the role of one's own memories. Films, on the other hand, “flicker” — as Susan Sontag noted — and then “go out” again. They always occur in the here and now. Yet film can also be viewed as a memory container: it safeguards something. This program is comprised of photofilms in which private, personal histories and world history confront each other, and features works by Thierry Knauff, Agnès Varda, Franz Winzentsen, Jerzy Ziarnik, Helke Misselwitz, and Janet Riedel, Katja Pratschke, and Gusztáv Hámos. (93 minutes) More details »

In its essence, photography is static and silent. It subtracts sound and movement from everything it captures. But in photofilms, the editing process adds sound, music, and language to the photographs; the static images begin to move, even to dance. This program reveals how illusions of movement are created: from stasis to movement, from rhythm to animation. Featuring work by Sabine Höpfner, Paul de Nooijer and Menno de Nooijer, Agnès Varda, Arthur Lipsett, Ken Jacobs, Maki Satake, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Dan Geesin and Esther Rots. (85 minutes) More details »

The program brings together films that take as their subject the photographic: the search for the motif, the gesture of photographing, the materiality of the image, the reality beyond the image (hors-champs), and the description of the found image. The film medium requires a linear arrangement of the photographs, which the authors utilize to develop an analytical discussion on perception, recollection, and desire. Featuring work by Silke Grossmann, Shelly Silver, Esaias Baitel, Hollis Frampton, and Sean Snyder. (90 minutes) More details »

Tan Zuoren is a civil rights advocate who investigated the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, including the deaths of 512 Wenchuan students, and the corruption which resulted in poor building construction. For his efforts, he was charged with “inciting subversion of state power.” During his trial, police violently detained witnesses, which is an obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Disturbing the Peace is a confrontational film, with Ai Weiwei directly taking on the police and other authorities, and paying a heavy price for doing so. (2009, 78 min, digital) More details &Raquo;

We seem to be obsessed with recording as many images as possible. And nowadays we often mentally record a multitude of photos in a single moment. This permits us to observe the moment from different perspectives. This film program brings together films that appraise the surface of the photographic image, circling the moment and even entering it. Features works by Paul de Nooijer, Jean Eustache, Tim Macmillan, Maki Satake, Jean-Gabriel Périot, and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen. (92 minutes) More details »

DOUBLE FEATURE: Ordos 100 & So Sorry

Ordos 100
Ordos 100 is a massive construction project in inner Mongolia, curated by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, who had previously worked together on Beijing's "Bird's Nest" stadium. One hundred architects from 27 countries were chosen to design a 1000-square-meter villa to be built in a new community. The 100 villas would be designed to fit a master plan designed by Ai Weiwei. In January 2008, the 100 architects gathered in Ordos for a first visit to the site. The film documents a total of three site visits, during which time the master plan and design of each villa was completed. As of this date, the Ordos 100 project remains unrealized. (2012, 61 min, digital)



So Sorry
Ai Weiwei travels to Chengdu to be a witness at the trial of the civil rights advocate Tan Zuoren, whom we first encountered in Disturbing the Peace. After being beaten by the police, Ai Weiwei traveled to Munich, Germany to prepare his exhibition at the Haus der Kunst museum. The result of his beating led to intense headaches caused by a brain hemorrhage, which was treated by emergency surgery. These events mark the beginning of Ai Weiwei’s struggle and surveillance by state police. (2012, 55 min, digital)

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Special Sneak Preview
by Stefano Savona

A real-time, cinéma vérité-style chronicle of the two most exciting weeks in the history of modern Egypt. Together with thousands of other citizens, Noha, Ahmed, and Elsayed have been involved in a massive movement of street protest for political freedom. Day after day, sleepless night after sleepless night, until the capitulation of the defeated pharaoh, the film follows these young and unexpected heroes and their shattering fight to attain freedom. (2011, 90 min, digital) More details »

In June 2008, Yang Jia carried a knife, a hammer, a gas mask, pepper spray, gloves, and Molotov cocktails to the Zhabei Public Security Branch Bureau and killed six officers, injuring another and a guard. He was arrested on the scene and subsequently charged with intentional homicide. In the following six months, while Yang Jia was detained and trials were being held, his mother mysteriously disappeared. Ai Weiwei traces the reasons and motivations behind the tragedy and investigates a trial process filled with shady cover-ups and questionable decisions. The film provides a glimpse into the realities of a government-controlled judicial system and its impact on the lives of citizens. (2010, 180 min, digital)More details »