THE EAST IS RED
Dir. Wang Ping, 1965.
PRC. 117 min.
Mandarin.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 – 10:00 PM

What can we say? We’re damn surprised this hasn’t yet screened in the peeling walls of Spectacle, everyone’s favorite “lost and forgotten” community screening space; our cozy creaking frame around the questionable and curious. Is it low-hanging fruit? Maybe just a bit back and to the left? Is it a glorious paean romanticizing radical resistance role-play amongst ravenous refurbishing and reselling of riverside residency? Here’s an “r” word – RED.

Sisters and brothers, presenting the biggest, loudest, most glorious Mao-sical ever – THE EAST IS RED: A SONG AND DANCE EPIC. Produced and released by the real BIG RED MACHINE on the eve of the mid-60’s Cultural Revolution, THE EAST IS RED trumpets the trials and tribulations of the Communist Party in China – from its birth in proletarian imperialist resistance, through the final boWW of the Japanese, all the way to the last steps of the Kuomin-tango. The massive cast is studded with beautiful voices and movement, clad in costumes of a time long crushed. Think of Diane Warren if Michael Bay was Chairperson. Been jonesing for a bit of that 2008 Summer Olympics ceremony jazz, minus the Budweiser food trucks and brown M&Ms with the UPS logo? Throw out your Adidas, put this on your social list and invite your comrades to take a proper gander at this propaganda.