CINE-REBIS – The London Underground Film Festival
6.20 PM - GRASP THE NETTLE
Dir: Dean Puckett | UK, 2013 | 89 mins
FOR ADVANCE, DISCOUNTED TICKETS £3.50 + BOOKING FEE, CLICK HERE!
OR £5 ON THE DOOR.
Grasp the Nettle follows the exploits of a ragtag band of land rights activists in London as they struggle against corporations, government, police - and themselves - in their efforts to create alternative communities outside the framework of consumer society.
When an eco-village pops up on a piece of disused land in West London , film-maker Dean Puckett (The Crisis of Civilization) gives up everything - his flat, job and normal life - to live among its eclectic inhabitants in an effort to understand what makes them tick. Before he knows it, he is pulled into an epic, inspiring and at times harrowing journey of discovery, as he follows the villagers from the suburbs to the heart of London outside the Palace of Westminster, where they occupy Parliament Square. Their ranks swelled by the homeless, the visionaries and eccentrics of the new-found Democracy Village clash with authority, and each other, as they grapple with how to balance their ideals of freedom with the increasing chaos around them.
Shot over three years in the aftermath of the 2008 banking collapse, Grasp the Nettle is an intimate exploration of the rise and fall of two radical social experiments, pioneered by the loved and the lost of a city reeling from the impact of economic and ecological crisis. In the process, it asks hard questions about the nature of freedom and the meaning of activism in ‘interesting times’.
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8.30 PM – ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW Dir: Randy Moore | USA, 2013 | 104 mins FOR ADVANCE, DISCOUNTED TICKETS £3.50 + BOOKING FEE, CLICK HERE! http://www.wegottickets.com/event/248988
OR £5 ON THE DOOR. The most provocative film of the year, Escape From Tomorrow should not exist. Like nothing you've ever seen, Randy Moore's directorial debut is a bold and ingenious trip into the happiest place on earth. Shot without permission on location in Disneyland, this film is a truly unique motion picture that is not only a bold and daring production but an original and masterful work of art that will leave you breathless!
An epic battle begins when a middle-aged American husband and father of two learns that he has lost his job. Keeping the news from his nagging wife and wound-up children, he packs up the family and embarks on a full day of park hopping amid enchanted castles and fairytale princesses. Soon, the manufactured mirth of the fantasy land around him begins to haunt his subconscious. An idyllic family vacation quickly unravels into a surrealist and darkly comic nightmare of paranoid visions, bizarre encounters, and an obsessive pursuit of a pair of sexy Parisian teenagers. Chillingly shot in black and white, Escape From Tomorrow dissects the mythology of artificial perfection while subversively attacking our culture's obsession with mass entertainment.
10.30 PM – TÁU
Dir: Daniel Castro Zimbrón | Mexico, 2012 | 74 mins
R ADVANCE, DISCOUNTED TCKETS £3.50 + BOOKING FEE, CLICK HERE!
R £5 ON THE DOOR.
Gustavo (Brontis Jodorowsky), a botanical biologist, travels to the desert of Wirikuta in search of native species for his research. During his lonely journeys in the desert, a series of strange events haunt him until one night he’s assaulted. All by himself and without his possessions, the will to survive makes him start the crossing of the desert. When no more water is left, Gustavo, suffering from dehydration, finally gives up. It seems all is lost, when Ana, his long dead wife, appears. What seemed to be a hallucination at first, gradually becomes an imminent reality. With the help of an old Huichol (a Mexican indigenous) who lives in the desert, Gustavo will be challenged to confront his past and present life.
See full programme here: http://theundergroundfilmstudio.co.uk/cine-rebis/