CONTACT:
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info@chicagocinemaforum.org
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(312) 480-1966
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Chicago Cinema Forum, in collaboration with Chicago Filmmakers,
presents a sidebar to the 19th Onion City Experimental Film and Video
Festival:
HELP US, DESTROY YOURSELVES
Rediscovering three key works
from the
Zanzibar Film cycle, 1968-70
June 15 & 16
LaSalle Bank Cinema
4901 W. Irving Park Rd.
Jackie Raynal in DEUX FOIS
"...a cinema of revelation." - Gilles Deleuze
"...an exciting bridge between the Nouvelle Vague and the avant-garde, between poetry and narrative. None of these films has lost anything in time..." - Jonas Mekas
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The phrase "Aidez-nous, détruisez-vous" (Help us, destroy yourselves)
was a rabble-rousing graffito that marked the walls of University of
Paris's Nanterre campus in May 1968. It was in this place and at this
volatile time in world politics that a generation of French artists and
thinkers defined themselves around youth and workers' movements
(recently chronicled in such films as Bernardo Bertolucci's THE
DREAMERS and Philippe Garrel's REGULAR LOVERS). Among them were the
Zanzibar filmmakers, who took the many street mottos and images of the
'68 protests and turned them into phantasmagoric film allegories, many
of them shot in North and East African countries in sumptuous 35mm (a
format rarely afforded to experimental cinema), and shown elusively to
late-night audiences by Henri Langlois at the Cinémathèque Française.
Difficult to see for decades, a selection of the thirteen or so films
made under the Zanzibar header from 1968-70 have recently resurged
through the efforts of researchers such as Sally Shafto and original
Zanzibar filmmaker Jackie Raynal, who will be present for both
programs. Programmed by Gabe Klinger with generous assistance from
Jackie Raynal-Saleh.
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:: PROGRAM 1 ::
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FRIDAY, JUNE 15
7:00pm (reception) / 7:30 PM (screening)
THE VIRGIN'S BED
(LE LIT DE LA VIERGE, Philippe Garrel, 1969, 105') 
Newly Struck 35mm Print!
Filmmaker Jackie Raynal will present the first-ever Chicago screening
of this film.
Description: In this post-revolutionary re-imagining of the story of
Christ, '60s fashion icon Zouzou (later the Chloe of CHLOE IN THE
AFTERNOON) alternates three roles as mourning mother, pregnant Virgin
Mary, and Mary Magdalene , while a withered Pierre Clementi (BELLE DE
JOUR, THE CONFORMIST) plays Jesus reborn into the present world.
Wandering, unable to understand the indifference around him, he bangs
on the doors of apparently empty houses, crying "I am the savior!" Shot
in black and white 'Scope, production began in France, but when further
financing came in from heiress and Zanzibar patron Sylvina Boissonnas,
Garrel expanded to exotic Marrakech and to the sacred Christian
catacombs of Rome. Punctuated by lyrical longtakes, the film is also
distinguishedby musicfrom John Cale and Nico, who Garrel met in
post-production and who would vitally influence many of his
later films. (Minimal French dialogue with English subtitles).
VIEW STILLS
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:: PROGRAM 2 ::
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SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1PM
VITE
(QUICKLY, Daniel Pommereulle, 1969, 37') 
DEUX FOIS
(TWICE UPON A TIME, Jackie Raynal, 1968, 72')
Newly Struck and Restored 35mm prints!
A Q&A session with filmmaker Jackie Raynal and critic Jonathan
Rosenbaum will follow the screening.
Description: The late painter-sculptor Daniel Pommereulle, who briefly
appears in both Rohmer's LA COLLECTIONEUSE and Godard's WEEK END, also
directed three films in his lifetime. In his best-known, VITE, he
interweaves footage of the moon and stars that he shotusing the
Questar, a state-of-the-art telescope, with a combination of
documentary and staged scenes filmed in Morocco. The film, previously
unseen in the U.S. in 35mm, presents an odd series of textures as
it grapples with the disillusionment of those involved in the May '68
movements. (Minimal French dialogue with no subtitles). DEUX FOIS is
the first film by Jackie Raynal, who,as a young film editor,
worked with several filmmakers of the Nouvelle Vague. About
non-images and non-sounds, the film opens with Raynal, who describes
everything we are about to see and boldly concludes, "This evening will
mark the end of meaning." The critic Serge Daney wrote that it is a "documentary on the place of the spectator in the room." (French
dialogue with English subtitles).
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CONTACT:
For further information on these programs:
info@chicagocinemaforum.org / (312) 480-1966.
For further information on
The 19th Onion City Experimental Film and
Video Festival, please contact Patrick Friel of Chicago Filmmakers:
programming@chicagofilmmakers.org / (773) 293-1447.
The LaSalle Bank Cinema is located at 4901 W. Irving Park Road,
Chicago, IL. Information: (312) 904-9442.
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