New York Year Zero Film Tour: the Mediterranean and Balkans

Posted By on May 9, 2014 | 0 comments


ULTRA/NYC FILM & VIDEO PROGRAM:

MEDITERRANEAN & BALKAN EDITION

We are currently traveling around southern Europe, along the Mediterranean and Balkans, meeting people, and giving presentations on some recent events and organizing in New York City over the last 5-10 years. Last December we did the same in a few places around France. This May and June we will visit Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, and Slovenia. Our itinerary, dates, and venues are still being finalized, so please be in touch if you would like to help or get together:newyorkyearzero[at]riseup.net

For the last 50 years, New York City has been considered one of the centers of both global and cultural capital. With over 8 million people living in New York, and over 20 in its metropolitan area, it is the largest city in the United States, and one of the largest in the world. During the city’s economically impoverished 1970s and 80s–in which industry was restructured into modern financial capital, and white families abandoned the urban centers for the surrounding suburbs–it also witnessed the birth of hip-hop and punk, and the resurgence graffiti and squatting. The contradictions between the Lehman Brothers and CBGB’s; the rising condos of Midtown and the burned-out tenements of the Bronx; Wall Street and Avenue C; all came to a head with the Occupy Wall Street Movement of 2011-2012, one of the few major political events in the United States in our lifetimes.

This presentation will build a narrative of the New York radical community’s political struggles explained through short clips from film collectives Anti-Banality Union & Red Channels, video evidence obtained from the New York Police Department, and other anonymous sources. Events covered will be Occupy Wall Street; the New School occupations of 2008-2009 and protests at the City University; responses to repeated NYPD murders of young Black men; May Day; and various riots and black blocs. The program can be a little over an hour, with brief commentary and time for questions, but can also be tailored to fit shorter or longer time-spans.

Selected films and videos will include:
Kittens/Communism (Donal Foreman & Group Affect, 2014, 4:38):http://year0.org/2014/01/22/kittenscommunism/
David Petraeus Heckled (Everyday News, 2013, 1:26): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjTeqEL8J0g
“Lovely May” (excerpt from Police Mortality, Anti-Banality Union, 2013, 6:00):http://vimeo.com/65115716
“Kimani Gray Protests” (Javier Soriano, 2013, 6:00): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAK_h-CEs1s
“NYC General Strike Promo Clips” (Anti-Banality Union, 2012, 5:00): http://vimeo.com/user10275424
Untitled Taru Document (excerpt, CineCAB, 2011-2012): https://vimeo.com/46444878
Defend Capital (2010, 1:52): http://vimeo.com/11809418
Catastrophe! Anarchists Riot in NYC… again (Rebel Diaz, 2009, 4:27): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnUgET92wp8

 

Confirmed dates:

May 11th, 5pm at at Lucernario Occupato in Rome. Facebook Event.

May 22nd in Ljubljana, Slovenia – A-Infoshop. More Details TBA

May 26th in Split, Croatia – Details TBA

 

 

Affiliated Projects:

Spectacle Theater – Collective Theater hosting lost and rare films including Death to Capitalism cinema.

NYC Antifa – Autonomous Antifascists in New York

ULTRAS – New website fostering Ultraleft activity in the U.S.

Red Channels – Radical Film Collective

Anti-Banality – Anti-Film and Art collective

Florence Johnson Collective – Solidarity project working mostly with healthcare workers

Fire Next Time Network – Flatbush Rebllion. Great recap and analysis of last year’s riots following the murder of Kimani Gray

The Base – New radical social space and organizing center in Bushwick

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