THIS MAGNIFICENT CAKE!
dir. Marc James Roels & Ema de Swaef, 2018
44 mins. Belgium.
In Dutch, French, Aka, and Malinke with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 16 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, AUGUST 29 – 10 PM

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An official selection at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Toronto International Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival, THIS MAGNIFICENT CAKE! (CE MAGNIFIQUE GÂTEAU!) is an unforgettable work of stopmotion animation exploring the bitter milieu of Belgium-occupied Congo.

In the late 19th century, keen to compete with other European imperial powers on the continent, King Leopold II of Belgium proclaimed, “I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake.” The subsequent occupation of the Congo would come to attract a contingent of servants, merchants and miscellaneous bourgeois driven by everything from insatiable greed to existential fear. From the intimate stories of these characters — many of whom pass through a luxury hotel in the middle of the jungle – emerges a greater narrative concerning the imperialist mentality.

In a film by turns surreal, darkly comic and brutal, directors Marc James Roels and Emma de Swaef ultimately turn their critical gaze on the colonists themselves in a work of stunning, mysterious beauty.

Presented by GKIDS.

playing with:
THE BURDEN
Niki Lindroth von Bahr, 2017
14 min., Swedish w/ English subs

OH WILLY…
Marc James Roels & Emma de Swaef, 2012,
17 min., No dialogue

Festivals and Awards: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs – Cannes 2018, Telluride Film Festival – 2018, TIFF – Special Jury Mention, Annecy Animation Film Festival, Animafest Zagreb – Best Feature Film Grand Prix, Ottawa Animation Film Festival – Feature Grand Prix

THE TRIAL
(O PROCESSO)
dir. Maria Augusta Ramos, 2018
140 mins. Brazil/Germany/Netherlands.
In Brazilian Portuguese with English subtitles.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 4 – 5 PM followed by remote Q&A with filmmaker Maria Augusta Ramos
NEW YORK CITY PREMIERE – ONE NIGHT ONLY!
(This event is $10.)

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In August 2016, Dilma Rousseff – survivor of torture at the hands of the Brazilian dictatorship, the first female head of state in the country’s history, and hand-picked successor to the wildly popular (later imprisoned) president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – came under scrutiny from Brazil’s lower house of Congress after being accused of corruption and nepotism. Led by her longtime rival Michel Temer and the speaker of Brazil’s lower house of congress, Eduardo Cunha, the subsequent impeachment trial became a “parliamentary coup”, whereby right-wing factions sought to discredit the Rousseff administration to consolidate power in the Senate and refract media attention from their own conflicts of interest. (In his own right, Temer would be accused of corruption by Brazil’s Attorney General in 2017; Cunha himself had already been indicted for laundering millions for personal gain in concert with Petrobras, the country’s semi-public oil powerhouse, and would be imprisoned the same year.) Among the politicians who came out against Rousseff was Brazil’s current president Jair Bolsonaro, who dedicated his vote to Carlos Brilhante Ustra, the dictatorship-era colonel who supervised the unit where Rousseff had been imprisoned and tortured.

A veteran documentarian with a keen eye for the machinations of law, Maria Augusta Ramos embedded herself within Rousseff’s legal team to capture her country’s still-young democratic institutions shaken daily by obstructionism and revanchism. Was the Truth and Reconciliation process a sham? Did Rousseff really have the following she claimed among feminists? Would it all have been different if her reelection in 2014 hadn’t been contested by her enemies? How did anti-corruption become the focus of right-wing populists? Assembled from 450 hours of material shot during the impeachment proceedings, THE TRIAL is a dizzying, Kafkaesque and nailbiting portrayal of power politics by any means necessary.

“Undermining the power of democratic institutions—that’s what Trump is trying to do now. In Brazil, when you impeach a president who hasn’t committed a crime, that is unconstitutional. You make this process appear pseudolegitimate when it is in fact a farce playing out in a theater of politics. The trial was a sham that has caused a certain crisis of legitimacy. They weakened democratic institutions in ways that have had unintended consequences; to eliminate an opponent, they undermined the very institutions that were legitimizing them. The recent elections in Brazil are a sign of how these institutions have stopped working. When they talk about upholding the Constitution . . . it’s empty performance. It’s an emotional, sensationalist gesture that feeds a nationalist and pseudopatriotic feeling, which is fascist. The trial was not about justice, it was not a search for truth. It was designed to make everything confusing and distorted. It’s just a downright lie. It’s exactly what Bolsonaro does, it’s what Trump does.” – Maria Augusta Ramos, interviewed by Nilo Couret in Film Quarterly

“Remarkable. Riveting. A crucial record of the travesty behind the impeachment hearings of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.” – Variety

“THE TRIAL is horrifyingly prescient. It is a film about power, corruption and reality, one that captures the atmosphere of unease and chaos that seems to dominate our 24/7 news cycle…. Ramos, who mentions the traditions of Dutch documentary filmmaking as a major influence, similarly draws on the works some of the great Dutch painters. There’s the casual grandeur of Rembrandt, the focused order of Vermeer and the chaotic lines of Van Gogh in her work… The Trial is a perfect articulation for the current political climate around the world.” – Little White Lies

“Under a veneer of legality and constitutionality, the process was one of bribery, blackmail and violence. Car Wash (Lava Jato), the biggest anti-corruption operation in history, somehow brought the country’s most corrupt individuals to power, as did its blueprint, Operation Clean Hands (Mani Pulite) in 1990s Italy… [THE TRIAL] manages to convey that despite Dilma not being implicated or charged in Lava Jato, it provided a pretext for her impeachment as if she was. Enabled by Rousseff-endorsed changes to the law intended to facilitate the pursuit of corruption, Lava Jato in turn damaged the economy so sharply that it provided another pretext, with the exacerbated recession and resulting unemployment used as auxiliary by supporters and corporate PR whenever doubt was cast upon the impeachment case itself.” – Brasil Wire

MARIA AUGUSTA RAMOS studied documentary film in Amsterdam and has been a guest at festivals worldwide since the start of her career. Her films have received multiple awards. Her film Justice (2004) won the Grand Prix at the Swiss festival Visions du Réel and the Amnesty Award at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, among other prizes. In 2007, her film Behave premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and was honoured with the FIPRESCI Award at DOK Leipzig and the Grand Prix at One World Int. Doc Festival in Prague. Her most recent film The Trial celebrated its world premiere in Panorama at the 2018 Berlinale, and also received the Grand Prix at Visions du Réel, Best Film at DocumentaMadrid, Best film by the Silvestre jury and the Audience Award at IndieLisboa and Best film at Buenos Aires Int. Doc Festival. In 2013, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights honoured Maria Ramos with the Marek Nowicki Prize for her examination of the subject human rights in film.

Special thanks to Grasshopper Film and Rodrigo Brandão (The Intercept).

FRIDAY, JULY 20 – 7:30 PM:
with No Evil Eye creators Rooney Elmi and Ingrid Raphael in person for Q&A with Nuotama Bodomo and Sahal Hassan (THIS EVENT IS $10)
MONDAY, JULY 22 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 28 – 5 PM

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Frustrated by the lack of multicultural, leftist film spaces in Central Ohio, local political organizers and ‘zinesters Rooney Elmi and Ingrid Raphael decided to co-create NO EVIL EYE, a radical micro-cinema that aims to redefine the creative and social parameters of non-metropolitan film scenes. By curating an eclectic mix of films from up-and-coming and emerging filmmakers with a mission to represent their respective audiences and build a healthy counterculture.

No Evil Eye’s inaugural film program, Sequence 01, explores the theme of diasporic reckoning through landscapes, legacy, and memory. This curated edition forms a lyrical mediation on race, class, and migration that mirrors the growing immigrant community and changing landscape in New York City

NEE is actively spearheading a physical space that fosters the union between the personal and the political with the great hope of igniting a radical imagination around the moving image by promoting a realistic yet utopian vision of cinema as a space of socio-political possibilities.

LANDMARK
dir. Sahal Hassan, 2018
4 mins.

A meditation on public space and public memory in the shadow of chattel slavery.

CONFRONTATIONS
dir. Natasha Woods, 2018
11 mins.

Tracing a mother’s journey from Brazil to Iowa for a better life analogous to the makers’ return to Iowa after leaving for more opportunity. A documented attempt to understand relationships of personhood, memory, life, and death.

DISINTEGRATION 93-96
dir. Miko Revereza, 2017
5 mins.

The insecurities and pent-up emotions of an Filipino immigrant in the USA give way to political ruminations and critical commentaries on the colonization of the mind by the American Dream.

HOW DID HOME RECEIVE YOU?
dir. Claudia Owusu, 2018
3 mins.

A reflection on what’s like for the immigrant to finally return home, the weight of a dual identity, and lastly, how home receives the immigrant’s return.

HERAT IN MY HEAD IN MY HEART
dir. Weeda Azim, 2016
2 mins.

A long-distance telephone call from Canada to Afghanistan remedies misplaced cultural nostalgia and soothes the pain of war in this avant-garde short.

YOU WILL BE MY ALLY
dir. Rosine Mbakam, 2017
20 mins.

In our only narrative short of the program, Cameroonian-Belgian filmmaker, Rosine Mbakam profiles an African woman, played by Bwanga Pilipili, facing a grueling interrogation at a European airport.

AFRONAUTS
dir. Nuotama Bodomo, 2014
14 mins.

Zambians try to make it to the moon in the 1960s.

Design by Sarah Z. Mamo / Concept by No Evil Eye. 

CHICAGOLAND SHORTS VOL. 5
dir. Various. 78 minutes.

TUESDAY, JULY 2 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 21 – 5 PM
TUESDAY, JULY 30 – 7:30 PM w/Chicagoland programmer Raul Benitez in person for Q&A!
(This event is $10.)

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Established in 2015, Chicagoland Shorts is Full Spectrum Features’ annual touring short film collection that highlights the incredible diversity of The Windy City and its surrounding communities. Featuring the best of women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ filmmakers, this traveling anthology has screened across Cook County and nationally from Seattle to New York. The artists in our collections are diverse, prolific, genre-bending, and quintessentially Chicago.

The fifth volume of Full Spectrum Features’ Chicagoland Shorts anthology offers a look into different worlds, with films spanning genres of narrative, experimental, and docu-fantasy, the collection will take you from an 8-year-old’s nightmares to the last remaining freed slave settlement. Artists in our collection include a Sundance Documentary Fellow, a Fulbright-García Robles Foundation Award recipient, and a Cannes award-winning director.

I MISS JAMIE WHEN SHE’S GONE
dir. Ashley Thompson
16 mins.

Two estranged sisters return to the suburbs of Chicago ten months after their father’s sudden death to clean out their childhood home.

SMART NIGHTMARES
dir. Marisa Tolomeo. 5 mins.

Hannah narrates her nightmares, while her family argues on who’s to blame for her creepy internet searches.

HALL OF FISHES
dir. Jennifer Boles. 9 mins.

An immersive archival film about the limits of visual knowledge and the webs of power and violence behind our desires to see, contain, and consume the ocean.

SHEEBOP! SHEEBOP! SHEEBOP!
dir. Jiayi Chen & Cameron Worden. 3 mins.

A trip to Florida spurs taxonomical speculation.

SCALING QUELCCAYA
dir. Meredeith Leich. 7 mins.

A surreal exploration of a melting glacier in Peru and an altered future in Chicago, weaving together 3D animation, satellite imagery, archival NASA footage, and speculative math about climate and snow.

EXODUS: SOUNDS OF THE GREAT MIGRATION
dir. Lonnie Edwards. 12 mins.

Told through live performance, dance and spoken word, Exodus looks into how the Great Migration gave birth to many artists that influenced and empowered black culture.

PALENQUE
dir. Sebastián Pinzón Silva. 25 mins.

Guided by motifs of life and death, PALENQUE is an ode to a small town that has greatly contributed to the collective memory of Colombia: San Basilio de Palenque, the first town in the Americas to have broken free from European domination.

Chicagoland Shorts Vol. 5 was curated by Raul Benitez (Comfort Station), Emily Eddy (Onion City) and Melika Bass (Creature Companion) and includes the latest films by acclaimed local filmmakers as well as debut works by emerging voices.

Full Spectrum Features is a Chicago-based 501(c)(3) nonprofitorganization committed to increasing diversity in themedia arts by producing, exhibiting, and supporting the work of women, LGBTQ, and minority filmmakers.

SATURDAY, JULY 13th – 7:30 PM w/discussion moderated by Sadie Benning & 10PM w/discussion moderated by Owen Kline
ONE NIGHT ONLY! NYC PREMIERE!
(These screenings are $10.)

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Spectacle is pleased to invite Uruguayan-born, NYC-based filmmaker and musician  Juan Wauters to the space for a one-night-only screening of recent short-form video works. ROMANE, JUIN 2016 builds a video portrait of the titular Romane, a 19-year-old postal service worker, living in a small village in France as she goes through her daily chores. BOLERO URUGUAY, DIC 2017 is a montage of images collected in Wauters’ homeland set to the tune of Maurice Ravel’s classic orchestral piece “Bolero”. Both videos portray life at its own pace; driven by curiosity, Wauters’ camera stares at people living their lives.

Having spent years in Jackson Heights, quotidian observation of people in their day-to-day environments has become central to Wauters’ life and artistic practice. This will be the first public screening of Wauters’ short films (which will include a few extra surprises) in New York, and Wauters will be in attendance for a discussion following the films.

Programmed in collaboration with Steve Holmgren and David Powell Steine. Special thanks to Captured Tracks, and Ivonne Sheen for Spanish translation.

SADIE BENNING is an American artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Benning’s work has been exhibited internationally since 1990. Over the last three decades, Benning’s work has taken the form of video, music, and more recently mixed-media works that trouble the distinctions between painting, photography, drawing and sculpture.

OWEN KLINE is a New York based film maker and cinema connoisseur. He is an actor, writer and director, known for THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (2005) and FOWL PLAY (2013), the later featuring Juan Wauters. Kline is currently in the final stages of completing his new film, TWO AGAINST NATURE.

JUAN WAUTERS has covered a lot of ground in the past few years, both artistically and geographically. The New York-based, Latin-American artist has been traveling Latin America extensively, taking time to pause and rethink his life, his art and his career after releasing two critically acclaimed albums on Captured Tracks: 2014’s N.A.P.: North American Poetry and 2015’s Who Me? Wauters originally planned to record his next album while traveling, seeking a break from his life in New York City, the city he has called home since moving from Montevideo in 2002. He settled in Mexico City in 2017 to focus on writing. However, shortly after, he was offered a role in an independent film being shot in Argentina. Never one to turn down a creative opportunity, Wauters packed up his 100 pound mobile recording studio into two suitcases and took off to Buenos Aires. When filming was complete, Wauters wound up writing and recording all over Latin America — from Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, and Chile to Mexico and Puerto Rico — seeking collaboration at every stop with local musicians who embody the traditions and energies specific to each region.

Puerto Rico was one of his first destinations. At a restaurant on the way to Charco Azul in Guavate – a natural swimming hole – Wauters heard a duo playing boleros, music he has been familiar with since his early childhood, but had never experienced in its original context. Those boleros would inspire the repeating melody that makes up the infectious love song, “Guapa.” Later, Mexico City was to become the home of “A Volar,” a beautiful, buoyant track about dreaming wildly that features multiple musicians that Wauters met in Garibaldi, a popular square in Mexico City where musicians for hire gather. Later, he would trek to Buenos Aires, Santiago and Montevideo, creating music and incorporating local traditions into his idiosyncratic, captivating yarns.

Until this point in his career, most of his songs had been sung in English, but revisiting his Latin roots inspired him to record songs in his native tongue. Thus, Wauters gives us the wonderful La Onda de Juan Pablo, the world of Juan Pablo Wauters. Wauters now calls Far Rockaway home, when he is not on the road making music or movies.

Juan Wauters: la vida a través de los ojos de Juan

SÁBADO, 13 DE JULIO – 7:30 pm con discusión moderada por Sadie Benning & 10PM con discusión moderada por Owen Kline
¡SOLO POR UNA NOCHE! NYC PREMIERE!
(Estas proyecciones cuestan $10).

Spectacle se complace en invitar al cineasta y músico uruguayo, establecido en la Ciudad de Nueva York, Juan Wauters, para una única proyección de sus últimos trabajos en video de formato corto .

ROMANE, JUIN 2016 – construye un retrato en video de Romane, una trabajadora de 19 años de edad del servicio postal, quien vive en un pequeño pueblo de Francia mientras realiza sus tareas diarias.

BOLERO URUGUAY, DIC 2017 es un montaje de imágenes recopiladas en la tierra natal de Wauters, acompañadas de la melodía de la clásica pieza orquestal “Bolero” de Maurice Ravel. Ambos videos retratan la vida a su propio ritmo; conducido por la curiosidad, la cámara de Wauters mira a las personas que viven sus vidas.

El haber pasado años en Jackson Heights y la observación cotidiana de personas en sus entornos cotidianos, se han convertido en un aspecto central de la vida y la práctica artística de Wauters. Esta será la primera proyección pública de los cortometrajes de Wauters en Nueva York, y Wauters estará presente para una discusión posterior a las películas.

Programado en colaboración con Steve Holmgren y David Powell Steine. Agradecimientos especiales a Captured Tracks.

SADIE BENNING es una artista estadounidense que vive en Brooklyn, Nueva York. El trabajo de Benning ha sido exhibido internacionalmente desde 1990. Durante las últimas tres décadas, el trabajo de Benning ha tomado la forma de video, música y, más recientemente, trabajos en medios mixtos que complican las distinciones entre pintura, fotografía, dibujo y escultura.

OWEN KLINE es un cineasta y conocedor del cine con sede en Nueva York. Es un actor, escritor y director, conocido por THE SQUID AND WHALE (2005) y FOWL PLAY (2013), el último con la participación de Juan Wauters. Kline se encuentra actualmente en las etapas finales de completar su nueva película, TWO AGAINST NATURE.

JUAN WAUTERS ha cubierto mucho territorio en los últimos años, tanto artística como geográficamente. El artista latinoamericano con base en Nueva York ha viajado extensivamente por América Latina, tomándose su tiempo para pausar y reconsiderar su vida después de lanzar dos álbumes aclamados por la crítica en Captured Tracks: 2014’s N.A.P.: North American Poetry and 2015’s Who Me? Wauters originalmente planeó grabar su próximo álbum mientras viajaba por la ciudad de Nueva York, la ciudad a la que llama su hogar después de mudarse de Montevideo en 2002. Se estableció en la Ciudad de México en 2017, para concentrarse en la escritura. Sin embargo, poco después, se le ofreció un papel en una película independiente que se filmó en Argentina. No pudo rechazar una oportunidad creativa, así Wauters empacó su estudio móvil de 100 libras en dos maletas y se fue a Buenos Aires. Cuando el rodaje terminó, Wauters continuó escribiendo y grabando a lo largo de Latinoamérica — desde Argentina, Uruguay, Perú y Chile hasta México y Puerto Rico — buscando en cada parada, colaboración con músicos locales que encarnan las tradiciones y la energía específica de cada región.

Puerto Rico fue uno de sus primeros destinos. En un restaurante de camino al Charco Azul en Guavate — un agujero natural para nadar — Wauters escuchó a un dúo tocando boleros, música con la que está familiarizado desde su infancia, pero que nunca había experimentado en su contexto original. Esos boleros inspirarían la melodía repetitiva que conforma la canción de amor infecciosa, “Guapa”. Más tarde, la Ciudad de México se convertirá en el hogar de “A Volar”, una pista hermosa y boyante, sobre soñar salvajemente, la cual cuenta con la participación de múltiples músicos que Wuaters conoció en Garibaldi, una plaza popular en la Ciudad de México donde se reúnen músicos de contrato. Luego, viajaría a Buenos Aires, Santiago y Montevideo, creando música e incorporando las tradiciones locales en sus idiosincrásicas y cautivadoras creaciones.

Hasta este punto en su carrera, la mayoría de sus canciones se interpretaron en inglés, pero el revisitar sus raíces latinas, lo inspiró para grabar canciones en su lengua materna. Así, Wauters nos regala la maravillosa La Onda de Juan Pablo, el mundo de Juan Pablo Wauters. Wauters ahora llama a Far Rockaway su hogar, cuando no está haciendo música o películas en el camino.