5/21 @ 7:00pm
NORTH KOREA-A-RAMA!:
The Red Chapel
shown with
The Frustrated Fascist Auteurism of Kim Jong-il
The Frustrated Fascist Auteurism of Kim Jong-il - 7:00pm
Ever since his early days overseeing his papa’s “Propaganda and
Agitation” department in the late ‘60s, Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il has
had cinema on the brain: his first mistress was a film star, he
reportedly owns several libraries’ worth of DVDs, he’s personally
overseen the production of many features -- and he’s even written a
textbook called “On The Art Of The Cinema”! From overly earnest
“tractor operas” to parade-sploitation choreography porn, all the way
through to the 1985 Big Rubber Monster-laden anti-capitalist allegory Pulgasari,
North Korea’s rich movie culture is ripe for exploration -- so join us
for a smattering of Cinefamily’s favorite film and video clips culled
from decades’ worth of the DPRK’s secret history of light entertainment!
The Red Chapel - 7:30pm
"Incredibly, uncomfortably funny! Like a love child of The Idiots and Borat." -- Alison Willmore, IFC.com
Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, The Red Chapel
is perhaps the most dangerous and compelling cinema prank ever
committed, and puts all other piddly culture-jammers to shame. In the
tradition of Michael Moore, Sacha Baron Cohen and The Yes Men, a trio of
Danes -- muckracking journalist/TV personality Mads Brügger, comedic
straight man Simon and self-proclaimed “spastic” Jacob -- fearlessly
travel to North Korea under the guise of a "cultural exchange":
pretending to be a small theatre group called The Red Chapel, they
present themselves as regime sympathizers and join in on an absurd
variety show in Pyongyang, for the purpose of collecting footage of the
regime from the inside. Beyond its sharp humor, The Red Chapel
is amazing because the stakes are extremely high: our heroes are not
just pranking a governor, a CEO or an arena full of beer-blasted hicks
-- they’re messing with one of the most notorious, mysterious and
literally insane Big Brother-esque regimes ever created. Epic,
terrifying stuff.
Dir. Mads Brügger, 2009, DigiBeta, 88 min.
Tickets - $10/free for members
More information available at http://www.cinefamily.org/calendar/events.html#redchapel