Amanda Katz
14 May 2018
INTRODUCTION
At the end of El Elefante y La Bicicleta (Dir. Juan Carlos Tabío, Cuba, 1995), the island villagers time travel from 1925 to their present-day of 1995. For the first hour we witness them discover cinema, watching Robin Hood every night on folding chairs, but slowly the screen starts to depict moments from their personal struggle against the island’s capitalist landowner. There’s an over-the-top song and dance number about the importance of work, and then in the final scene, we’re confronted with the whole ensemble seated together in an auditorium, looking straight into the lens. They’ve been watching the film about their history with us, and are eagerly awaiting the final scene of the movie. Many of them are disappointed when they see that the final image is just a black and white shot of people sitting in an auditorium (themselves). “What a bore! Just people sitting there staring at us doing nothing” one man exclaims, and he and a few others leave to go back to work. El Elefante y La Bicicleta demonstrates how films have historically brought people together, and posits that moving images can be used to aid in revolutionary thinking. Before the fade out, we’re put on the spot as an older woman in the front row asks: “Let’s see what these people are going to do?”
The origins of Third Cinema are tied to the socialist revolutions of Argentina and Cuba, and in both the original theorists’ films and those of the inspired makers who came after them, we see an emphasis on communal, collective stories, what scholar Teshome H. Gabriel calls the Third World cinematic emphasis on “‘space’ over ‘time’” (Gabriel, “Towards a Critical Theory of Third World Films”). Unlike Western culture where time is money, and narratives reflect the individualistic hero’s journey, Third World films are more likely to reflect “the importance of collective engagement and action… the individual ‘hero’ in the Third World context does not make history, he/she only serves historical necessities” (Gabriel). Close-up shots emphasizing the psychology of one character are sparse in Third Cinema. You are more likely to see long takes and wide shots, the whole community in the same frame.
I recently had the opportunity to show a political film I co-directed to my neighbors in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in a collectively run space called The Sunview Luncheonette. After the screening, an intense but honest and productive conversation ensued, and I started to reflect on how the politics surrounding the physical environment may have facilitated the dialogue. My research grows from here, wondering what’s at stake in the era of Netflix and YouTube, and what it means to come together to watch movies in 2018. Where should we watch Third Cinema in the First World? Does it matter?
RESEARCH
In addition to being a 501(c)(3) non-profit, an organization can be a 501(c)(7), or a social club, which are “membership organizations primarily supported by dues, fees, charges or other funds paid by their members…the practical effect of the exemption is to allow individuals to join together to provide themselves with recreational or social opportunities on a mutual basis without further tax consequences” (IRS.gov).
There used to be a lot of social clubs throughout New York City’s boroughs. In North Brooklyn, they were primarily Polish, Dominican, Italian and Puerto Rican. Of course, rising property values and the breaking up of neighborhoods has made it harder for these clubs to exist. While none of the spaces I’ve research have officially filed for 501(c)(7) status, the social club model seems to be what they most closely resemble: They are run by a collective or volunteers, are free and supported by member dues (or are else extremely inexpensive) and often there is cooking and free food for guests.
#1: The Sunview Luncheonette
Location: 221 Nassau Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Website: www.thesunview.org
From the outside, The Sunview looks like an abandoned diner. And from the inside, it looks like that as well. I’ve been introduced to The Sunview through several local filmmakers over the past six years that I’ve been living in Greenpoint– first as a place to eat a pierogi lunch while taking a break from editing– and then gradually as an attendee for book talks, birthday parties, and film screenings. I’ve picked up bits and pieces about the history of The Sunview through word of mouth, but decided this was a good excuse to sit-down with one of the members and learn more about how the space functions. The following notes are from a conversation I had with professor, musician, and Sunview member Chad Laird.
The Sunview Luncheonette was a former diner, owned and operated by a Greek couple, Demetria (Bea) and Louis, for 45 years. In 2010, NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg instituted a restaurant health grading system that required the diner to undergo expensive renovations to continue functioning. Shortly thereafter, Louis passed away, and Bea couldn’t do all of the upgrades alone. The diner ceased operations, and while a few people approached Bea about renting the space and opening up their own restaurants, nothing panned out. Part of the reason why was that the ground floor diner is attached to the building she lives in and owns, and feels like an extension of her home. She didn’t want to rent the space to someone who was going to come in and gut it. Simultaneously, neighborhood people started sliding notes under the door, asking to rent the space for parties. She loved people coming in and enjoying the space. Greenpoint resident and artist Dylan Gauthier was involved in some of those parties, and Bea eventually suggested to Dylan: “Why don’t you just do a thing here where you come in and you hang out here and eat food and stuff, and you just do that and you don’t turn it into anything else.” So Dylan sent out an email to a bunch of people that asked if anyone wanted to get involved in a non-restaurant and see what they could make of it. It was agreed upon that everyone would chip in equally for rent, and it would run sort of like a Social Club.
Everyone pays $50 per month towards the rent. When a member hosts an event, they put a jar out and attendees usually drop something in if they can. So members can make their portion of the rent by hosting an event, or if they don’t have the money they’ll offer to fix something. They also make money from renting out the space for film shoots, but that’s all of the supplemental money. There’s a committed anti-commercial element to all of the people involved, and the events are donation based. A lot of the people who are members who have events there make a conscious effort to cook and stock the fridge with wine and beer and give everything away for free. The experience is free, “and then if you want to donate money you can leave something in the jar.”
In the beginning it functioned more like a Social Club, where members primarily used the space to get together, cook, pay cards, and socialize. Talks and readings were organized pretty quickly, and they also got a projection screen pretty early on too which they used for slideshows. From Chad’s experience, “it’s been extraordinarily successful to watch filmmakers present their work here.” It’s very rare that someone will care about the dirt on the screen. “For the most part, people seem to really feel that it’s successful because of the way that it involves a different way of looking at the screen.” Watching a film at Sunview differs from a normal proscenium cinematic environment: people sit in booths or diner stools, people have to stand, lean, and a few people always sit in the phone booth. It’s more informal and therefore more conducive to audience participation. The space tends to handle shorter works better, especially if it’s crowded.
Bea is an extremely conscious building owner. She has polish families who live upstairs and she deliberately charges them non-market rent because she knows that they don’t have anywhere else to go in the gentrifying neighborhood. So their arrangement is a kind of an extension of Bea’s way of thinking about the building that she owns. It’s how they think about the way they relate to her: “We’re her guests, we’re here in her home– she thinks about this as her home, the space that we’re in. So the whole way of it being a completely non-commercial social enterprise is sort of embedded into the way that she thinks about this space.” For Chad, part of what he’s trying to do is to disallow people from “bring[ing] this into a normal mode of consumerism or commercial exchange. It has to be this kind of gift-economy sort of thing.” He thinks about ways of being in a space
That looks backwards in a way that isn’t necessarily nostalgic, but is politicized. It’s not a kind of presentist looking forward, ‘Oh my gosh this could be an amazing brunch space,’ but this sort of refusal to take something and abstract it into the logic of what it could be in the future. Which is reproducing the logic of property speculation and the way that it works and the way that it transforms peoples lives and displaces them. It’s to sort of try to turn it around and come in and say, ‘this is a present home and space that has traces of it’s lived history and existence in it. And to kind of refuse that moment… to try to figure out a way to be in that in a way that’s open, both private and public. That’s maybe a model. One day someone opened the door and said ‘are you open?’ And I said ‘nope.’ And they went ‘are you closed?’ And I said ‘nope.’ ‘Are you ever open?’ ‘Nope!’ ‘Are you ever closed?’ “Nope!’ So never open, never closed. That’s our motto now.
#2: Spectacle Theater
Location: 124 South 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249
Website: www.spectacletheater.com
Spectacle Theater is a volunteer-run microcinema. They have two film screenings seven days a week, with an occasional third screening on Sundays, so in a sense they operate like an actual movie theater. There are normal theater seats, a lot of unfinished plywood, and black painted walls. A lot of the programmers were also involved in the DIY music venues that used to populate Williamsburg (pre-hyper gentrification) so the theater functions in a similar way.
They charge a $5 cash admission, and $10 for special events, like when the filmmaker is present. The building they are in on South 3rd street is cooperatively owned, and one of the renters decided to start the theater when the bodega in the storefront space closed, circa 2010. A few people helped to build-out the space, and pretty soon after other programmers joined. To-date, there’s around 50 people involved. In addition to programmers, there are people who help run the space and booth. Since a lot of the films they show don’t have movie trailers, and because a lot of the people involved in the space are interested in culture jamming and found footage filmmaking, they always cut original trailers for their events. Some of the people who cut the trailers and create the posters don’t even live in New York anymore; they just want to support the effort.
In order to program there, a person has to volunteer for 6 months so they get to know the space and what they are all about. They always pay distributors, or the filmmakers themselves. They make all of the money from ticket sales, and decisions are decided on a consensus-basis. They program “overlooked works, offbeat gems, contemporary art, radical polemics, live performance and more,” and a lot of what gets screened is specifically Third Cinema. They try hard to show work that doesn’t get screened a lot in the United States, and that can’t be found on streaming platforms. For that reason they also show a lot of esoteric, b-movie type films.
#3: Woodbine Collective
Location: 1882 Woodbine Street, Ridgewood, NY 11385
Website: www.woodbine.website
Self-described as “an experimental hub in Ridgewood, Queens for developing the skills, practices, and tools for building autonomy in the Anthropocene,” the primary function of Woodbine is not as a screening venue, but there are many filmmaker-members, and they do have a projector and chairs. They also produce videos about their goals and initiatives, which get released on the web. Their storefront space is under the M-train tracks and their walls are white with gold tin ceilings. Woodbine started after Occupy Wall Street by a few people who were interested in creating something more long-term. The emphasis in the beginning was on autonomy, and they currently have an on-going health autonomy initiative, community garden, small library, member-coordinated events like poetry readings and research working groups, and a connection to an upstate farm. They are dues-based, their events are free, and they also rent out desk space to freelancers during the day.
Anyone is welcome to join their Sunday dinners or events, but there are no flyers and people tend to learn about things through word-of-mouth. Of the screenings that have occurred there, most of what has been presented is documentary work about community building and creating alternative infrastructures. The space feels open, and I personally feel like it would be a great space for an activist filmmaker to hold a screening and conversation of their work.
Article about one of Woodbine’s main founders, Clark Fitzgerald, in The Nation. In-house video productions: A Resolution (2015) and Health Autonomy (2018).
ADDITIONAL FINDINGS
In New York
#4: Wendy’s Subway
Location: 379 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206
From their Website: “Wendy’s Subway is a non-profit library and writing space located in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It provides an open, versatile space where cultural production flourishes through reading, research, and collaborative practice, and is manifested in performance, publication, and education. Wendy’s Subway hosts a range of public programs, including readings and screenings, interdisciplinary talks and lectures, discussion and reading groups, and writing workshops.”
#5: The Base
Location: 1286 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11221
From their website: “The Base is an anarchist political center in Bushwick, Brooklyn, committed to the dissemination of revolutionary left and anarchist ideas and organizing. The mission of the space is to spread ideas and practices to the broader populace and provide a place where individuals can learn, grow, and organize outside of traditional activist and educational institutions.”
Location: 388 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
A storefront coffee shop in the front with a large event space in the back.
From their website: “A radical movement-building space, only minutes from downtown Brooklyn… Groups and individuals are encouraged to use the COMMONS for workshops, classes, educational, and cultural events… We believe that by providing space where all views, even those we oppose, can be presented, examined, and perhaps refuted, we are helping to build a more just and free society…We can host anything from parties and benefits to forums, performances, films, and workshops.”
#7: The Film-Makers’ Cooperative
Location: 475 Park Ave South, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10016
The oldest archive and distributor of experimental film in North America. They used to operate out of the Clocktower Gallery in downtown Manhattan, and when they were getting evicted the Real Estate Developer and film producer Charles S. Cohen read about them in the NY Times, and decided to offer them free space in one of his new developments on Park Ave and 32nd street. Full disclosure, I am on the board here! But their office space has a very cozy screening room that seats about 30, and the admission is low.
#8: Deep Dish TV
Location: 168 Canal Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10013
From their website: “Since 1986, Deep Dish has been a laboratory for new, democratic and empowering ways to make and distribute video. It is a hub linking thousands of artists, independent videomakers, programmers and social activists.”
#9: UnionDocs
Location: 322 Union Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211
From their website: “UnionDocs (UNDO) is a non-profit Center for Documentary Art that presents, produces, publishes, and educates. We bring together a diverse community of activist artists, experimental media-makers, dedicated journalists, big thinkers, and local partners. We are on a search for urgent expressions of the human experience, practical perspectives on the world today, and compelling visions for the future.”
National findings
#10: Artists’ Television Access
Location: 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
Also located in a storefront!
From their Website: “Artists’ Television Access is a San Francisco-based, artist-run, non-profit organization that cultivates and promotes culturally-aware, underground media and experimental art. We provide an accessible screening venue and gallery for the presentation of programmed and guest-curated screenings, exhibitions, performances, workshops and events. We believe in fostering a supportive community for the exhibition of innovative art and the exchange of non-conformist ideas.”
#11: Exploded View
Location: 197 E Toole Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701
From their website: “Exploded View is a storefront microcinema and arts space supporting the exhibition and presentation of contemporary and historical visual, sonic and film arts. The Exploded View facility aims to provide a flexible space of operation that may be re-configured to encourage experimental, innovative and challenging projects.”
#12: Zeitgeist Theater Experiments
Location: 1618 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, New Orleans, LA 70113
From their wedbsite: “We are an entirely volunteer, artist-run organization that does not receive grants or public funds. Presenting film, video, performance art, visual art and literary events seven nights a week, all year round, Zeitgeist is considered one of the premier alternative arts center in the South.”
International findings
#13: La Lanchonete
Location: R. Paim, 235 – Consolação, São Paulo – SP, 01306-010, Brazil
From their website: “Lanchonete.org is an artist-led progressive cultural platform focused on how people live and work in, share and survive the contemporary city with the Center of São Paulo as our outlook. It gets its name from the ubiquitous lunch counters—convivial, fluorescent-lit, open-walled, laborious, points of commerce—that populate almost every street corner.”
Building location: Via Natale del Grande, 6, 00153 Roma RM, Italy
A mussolini-era cinema in the Trastevere neighborhood, a gentrifying area that used to be known as the Cinema District. Bought by real estate developers in 2002, in 2012 it was slated to be converted into luxury condominiums. A group of students occupied the building and continued programming, and successfully threatened it from getting torn down until 2015. They’ve since lost their space, but it exists like a pop-up theater, similar to the Rooftop Film Festival. NY Times article, 2017.