ZEITGEIST MULTI-DISCIPLINARY ARTS CENTER
1618 ORETHA CASTLE HALEY BLVD.
(Across from Cafe Reconcile in the Saturn Screen Printing Building)
New Orleans, Louisiana 70113 is our new address!
(504) 827-5858 recording or (504) 592-3220 office
zte@bellsouth.net
Welcome to our interactive website/blog where you may comment on the films and events you have seen or would like to see at Zeitgeist!
Zeitgeist founder and video artist Rene Broussard
Check out his website at www.myspace.com/Rene_fatboy
or to check out Rene's videos go to www.zeitgeistvideos.org
or for the
second annual
NEW ORLEANS MIDDLE EASTERN FILM FESTIVAL
August 1 through 10 , 2008
http://nolamideastfilmfest.blogspot.com/
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Come join us as we present our 21st year of programming.
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Please help us spread the word:
Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center's new home is now at
1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd @ Saturn Screen Printing
(between Terpsichore & Euturpe, just one block from the old Zeitgeist)
Zeitgeist Centro Multi-disciplinario de los Artes
1618 bulevar Oretha Castle Haley
(504) 827-5858 recording or (504) 592-3220 office www.zeitgeistinc.net zte@bellsouth.net
all events are by donation - $7 general / $6 students & seniors / $5 Zeitgeist members /Patrons & Children 15 and under free (unless otherwise indicted).
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SPECIAL THANKS TO THE NEW ORLEANS CONSULATE DE FRANCE for their continued support of Zeitgeist and our programming:
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GOOD NEWS:
Zeitgeist now has a super quiet, super cool new central air conditioning
Zeitgeist now accepts credit and debit cards
Zeitgeist now offers a full line of Ben & Jerry ice cream treats
Zeitgeist now offers a full line of fresh baked oatmeal cookies with Himalayan Goji berries along with our usual, exotic collection of snacks and beverages
Zeitgeist Now has comfortable new chairs, as well as sofas and lounge chairs
Zeitgeist has plenty of parking along with custom made bike racks out front
This is our best space ever....
– so you’re officially out of excuses.
Come and join us! Become a member tonight.
Join or renew your Zeitgeist membership at the $25 to $50 level and receive 4 free passes to upcoming Zeitgeist events and discounted or free admission to all events for an entire year.
Join or renew your Zeitgeist membership at the $100 or 150 patron or duel patron level and receive a free DVD from either Palm Pictures or from Film Movement, plus free admission to all film events (excluding benefits and film festivals) for an entire year.
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BECOME A ZEITGEIST MEMBER:
Get free or discounted admission to all events for a full year!
4 film passes & discounted admission to all events for a year:
Unemployed/Katrina Relief workers & volunteers: $25
Artists/Students/Seniors/: $30
Individuals: $35
8 film passes & discounted admission to all events for a year:
Dual/Family: $50
Free admission to all $7 general events for an entire year
and half off the regular member rate for events costing $8 general or more:
Patron: $100
Dual Patron: $150
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print this out and bring it with you or mail it to:
Zeitgeist inc,
1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70113
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CURRENTLY ON EXHIBITION:
40 to 67 / Active Stills
On view through August 10, 2008
An independent collective of Palestinian and Israeli photographers present 34 images from four Palestinian cities occupied by Israel:
Hebron, Jerusalem, Bethlehem & Gaza.
ActiveStills operates in Israel and Palestine and focuses on social and political documenting, projects production, publications and open exhibitions at topics in which the public is not exposed in its daily informative routines, managed by the established media.
For the Palestinians it is 40 Years of Occupation since the territories were occupied in 1967 and for Israel it is a victory celebration of the six day war which multiplied Israel's area threefold and was seen as the greatest success Israel could hope for. Is it truly a victory? Who are those who still pay the price for it? As victory celebrations are held in Israel the only narrative is that of the greatness and heroism of the state, while in fact settlements continue to expand on Palestinian land whose owners have been expelled. Millions of people live in a reality of imprisonment, oppression, dispossession, humiliation and denial of basic human rights. That reality is a mirror to Israeli society, an image it refuses to see. Those are the achievements of the war.
Local www.activestills.org contact:
Leo Gorman (504) 616-1777 lgorman1@hotmail.com

Far from focusing on oppression, genocide and suffering these two exhibitions look at the exquisite beauty and vibrant spirit of these people and places.
On view 30 minutes prior to all of Zeitgeist’s nightly programming and during the day via appointment. (504) 827-5858.
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MAY 2008 CALENDAR OF EVENTS:
(for event info, trailers, prices, etc. see below)
Wednesday, May 7:
7:00 p.m. – FILM - TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE
9:00 p.m. – FILM – NOTE BY NOTE: The Making of Steinway L1037
10:30 p.m. - CONCERT - ARMAND ST. MARTIN & BRIAN COOGAN
Thursday, May 8:
7:00 p.m. – FILM - TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE
9:00 p.m. – FILM – NOTE BY NOTE: The Making of Steinway L1037
10:30 p.m. - CONCERT - ARMAND ST. MARTIN
Friday through Thursday, May 9 through 15:
7:00 p.m. - FILM – TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE
9:00 P.M. – FILM – PARANOID PARK
also as a matinee on Sunday, May 11: 5:00 p.m. - CONSIDERING DEMOCRACY (filmmaker present)
Friday, May 16:
7:30 p.m. - FILM SERIES – VIVRE ENSEMBLE – WESH WESH
9:30 P.M. - FILM SERIES – VIVRE ENSEMBLE – SAMIA
Saturday, May 17:
3:30 p.m. - FILM - PARANOID PARK (special "skaters" matinee - all seats $5)
5:30 p.m. - FILM SERIES – VIVRE ENSEMBLE – WHEN YOU COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN (QUAND TU DESCENDRAS DU CIEL)
7:30 p.m. - FILM SERIES - VIVRE ENSEMBLE - VOISINS VOISINES
9:30 P.M. - FILM SERIES – VIVRE ENSEMBLE – ZIM & CO.
Sunday, May 18:
5:00 – 9:30 p.m. – FASHION – GLAMOUR & GLITZ – DRAG MAKE UP & FASHION SHOW
Tuesday, May 20:
8:00 p.m. – CREATIVE MUSIC CONCERT SERIES – HELEN GILLET, LUCAS AND NOIZY GUESTS
Wednesday, May 21:
7:30 p.m. – FILM SERIES – FRENCH/ARAB & VIVRE ENSEMBLE – WESH, WESH
9:30 p.m. – Film SERIES – FUTURE CULT CLASSICS - VIVA
Thursday, May 22 through Sunday, May 25:
7:30 p.m. – FILM SERIES – LAS AMERICAS -
9:30 p.m. – FILM SERIES – FUTURE CULT CLASSICS - VIVA
Tuesday, May 27:
8:00 p.m. - CREATIVE MUSIC CONCERT SERIES – JEFF ALBERT QUARTET (featuring Dave Cappello on drums, Ray Moore on alto sax, Tommy Sciple on bass along with Jeff Albert on trombone)
Wednesday, May 28:
7:30 p.m. – FILM SERIES – FRENCH/ARAB – BLED NUMBER ONE
9:30 p.m. – Film SERIES – FUTURE CULT CLASSICS - VIVA
Thursday, May 29 through Sunday, June 1:
7:30 p.m. – FILM SERIES – LAS AMERICAS – POSTCARDS FROM LENINGRAD
9:30 p.m. - FILM SERIES – FUTURE CULT CLASSICS - VIVA
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NOW SHOWING:
Tuesday, May 6 through Thursday, May 15 @ 7:00 p.m.
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE by Alan Gibney. 2008 Academy Award-winner, best documentary.
From the director of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark Side is a gripping investigation into the reckless abuse of power by the Bush Administration. By probing the homicide of an innocent taxi driver at the Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, the film exposes a worldwide policy of detention and interrogation that condones torture and the abrogation of human rights. This disturbing and often brutal film is the most incisive examination to date of the Bush Administration’s willingness, in its prosecution of the “war on terror,” to undermine the essence of the rule of law. The film asks and answers a key question: What happens when a few men expand the wartime powers of the executive to undermine the very principles on which the United States was founded. Incorporating rare and never-before-seen images from inside the Bagram, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons, and interviews with former government officials such as John Yoo, Alberto Mora, and Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, interrogators, prison guards, New York Times reporters Tim Golden and Carlotta Gall (who wrote the first stories about the homicides in Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan) and the families of tortured prisoners, the film dissects the progression of the Administration’s policy on torture from the secret role of key administration figures, such as Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales and others to the soldiers in the field. In the face of thousands of prisoners passing through the system, an astonishing number of admitted homicides, and a hastily drafted law -- the Military Commissions Act -- that grants immunity to government officials for crimes against humanity while denying the fundamental right of habeas corpus to others, Taxi to the Dark Side forces us to ask why, in the face of so much evidence of the ineffectiveness of cruelty as a means of obtaining information, we sought to insist on its use? Have we, by pursuing such ruthless means, lost the moral high ground in the war on terror and made ourselves less safe? Even more important, have we compromised our own sense of humanity, our democratic values and our effectiveness as a world leader?
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Friday through Thursday, May 9 through 15 @ 9:00 p.m.
PARANOID PARK by GUS VAN SANT
An unsolved murder at Portland's infamous Paranoid Park brings detectives to a local high school, propelling a young skater into a moral odyssey where he must not only deal with the pain and disconnect of adolescence but the consequences of his own actions. As director of MALA NOCHE, MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO, GOOD WILL HUNTING, TO DIE FOR, GERRY and ELEPHANT, Gus Van Sant has created some of the most memorable films about youth ever committed to film. At the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, he was awarded the 60th Anniversary Prize for Paranoid Park which is largely considered on of his finest films. Based on the novel by Blake Nelson and photographed by the incomparable Christopher Doyle (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE), the film has captivated audiences worldwide, becoming a unanimous standout at the Cannes, New York and Toronto Film Festivals.
Please Note: There will be a special "skaters" matinee screening of the film on SATURDAY, MAY 17th @ 3:30 p.m. All seats will be only $5. The film has been arbitrarily rated R by the MPAA, which is merely an industry recommendation not mandated by law. As Zeitgeist is not a member of the National Theater Owners Association, we are not obligated to accept or enforce the ratings system.
"One of the most moving films of Gus Van Sants fascinating career...The films visual beauty is so striking." - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
‘Lovely and Lyrical." - A.O. Scott, The New York Times
‘"A beauty of a movie." - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
‘"EXQUISITE. A sublime coming-of-age film. And it is gorgeous. so far beyond the earlier work that you might be hard-pressed to guess the films were by the same auteur." - Mark Peranson, Cinemascope Magazine
‘"GRADE A! SEDUCTIVE AND MEMORABLE.... A film I cant wait to get lost in again." - Scott Tobias, The Onion AV Club
‘"DAMN BRILLIANT. Packs an emotional wallop." - Erica Abeel, Filmmaker Magazine
"One of the 10 best films of the year. RAPTUROUSLY BEAUTIFUL...THRILLING" - Amy Taubin, Art Forum
"A MASTERPIECE. THE BEST FILM I'VE SEEN SO FAR THIS YEAR. That might sound like faint praise, so let me phrase it this way: I will be astonished if I see a better film this year." - Noah Forrest, Movie City News
"Masterful. Truly uncanny. Van Sant comes close to inventing his own film language. Wonderfully lucid: It makes confusion something tangible and heartbreak the msot natural thing in life." - J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
"MOODY, MESMERIZING. DEEPLY MOVING...HEARTFELT". - David Edelstein, New York Magazine
"******! Unforgettable. Bursting with incredible visuals. Van Sant has created his most compassionate film about a lost boy since My Own Private Idaho." - Melissa Anderson, Time Out New York
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VIVRE ENSEMBLE (LIVING TOGETHER) - Presented by the NEW ORLEANS CONSULATE DE FRANCE. Integration or the difficulty of immigrants, youths, the unemployed and fringe populations to integrate into French society is a theme that has been frequently addressed by French filmmakers these last few years. That is why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has selected these recent films, which look at modern French society in all of its diversity.
* Friday, May 16 @ 7:30 p.m.
WESH WESH by RABAH AMEUR-ZAÏMECHE.
Kamel has returned to his parents’ home in the Paris suburbs after an absence of seven years, having spent five of them in prison in France and two in his native Algeria, where he was deported. Kamel sets out to re-establish his life in France but finds he is impeded at every turn.
* Friday, May 16 @ 9:30 p.m.
SAMIA by Philippe Faucon.
Fifteen-year-old Samia lives in Marseille’s periphery. Sixth in a family of eight children of Algerian descent, she suffocates in the moralistic atmosphere made oppressive by beliefs and rules she respects but no longer shares...Yacine, her unemployed older brother, justifies himself by upholding family and religious traditions.
* Saturday, May 17 @ 5:30 p.m.
QUAND TU DESCENDRAS DU CIEL (WHEN YOU COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN) by Eric Guirado.
Jérôme gets hired by the local mayor to assist another worker, Lucien, to decorate the town’s Christmas trees. But it’s not long before an unexpected and less pleasant aspect of his job is revealed when city hall applies anti-begging laws to “clean out” the town center of its homeless people and tramps during the Christmas period.
* Saturday, May 17 @ 7:30 p.m.
VOISINS VOISINES, by MALIK CHIBANE.
A rapper is racing against time—he has just three days to write his lyrics; otherwise, he can say good-bye to his advance from the record company. When he finally finds inspiration right on his doorstep, in the often comic struggles of his neighbors in the Mozart Estate housing project, he sets the stage for a lively hip-hop fable, set to the beat of the banlieues.
* Saturday, May 17 @ 9:30 p.m.
ZIM & CO by Pierre Jolivet.
After a banal motorcycle accident, 20 year old Zim must find a proper job to avoid prison, but all of the jobs he can find require a car and a driver’s license. He hasn’t got either, but he does have some good friends and an art for inventing schemes.
Please Note: Admission to the VIVRE ENSEMBLE series is Free. Donations are greatly appreciated. Special thanks to Adam Steg and the NEW ORLEANS CONSULATE DE FRANCE.
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Sunday, May 18 @ 5:00 p.m.
GLAMOUR! GLITZ! A New Orleans Drag, Fashion and Make up Show. For info and tickets contact Queen @ (504) 358-9020.
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ZEITGEIST CREATIVE MUSIC SERIES:
Starting May 20th: Zeitgeist will present the weekly "ZEITGEIST CREATIVE MUSIC SERIES" on Tuesdays @ 8:00 p.m. through July 8. The series of eclectic, dynamic and inventive concerts showcasing local talent is being organized by renowned musician/cellist Helen Gillet (a.k.a. Helen Celler – pronounced “cheller”). Admission to the series is a suggested donation based on our usual $7/$6/$5 scale. All donations go directly to the musicians so if you can donate more please do, if not, that’s cool too.
May 20:
8:00 p.m. – CONCERT - HELEN GILLET, LUCAS AND NOIZY GUESTS
MAY27:
8:00 p.m. – CONCERT - JEFF ALBERT QUARTET (featuring Dave Cappello on drums, Ray Moore on alto sax, Tommy Sciple on bass along with Jeff Albert on trombone)
JUNE 3:
8:00 p.m. – CONCERT - SASHA MASAKOWSKI PRESENTS
JUNE 10:
8:00 p.m. – CONCERT - CLINT MADGEN TRIO (WITH DARON DOUGLAS, VIOLIN AND HELEN GILLET, CELLO)
JUNE 17:
8:00 p.m. – CONCERT - ONE MAN MACHINE AND GUESTS
JUNE 24:
8:00 p.m. - BRIAN COOGAN PRESENTS
JULY 1:
8:00 p.m. – CONCERT - DIAMOND KINKADE QUARTET (DIAMOND KINKADE, SIMON LOTT, WILL THOMPSON, ASHLIN PARKER)
JULY 8:
8:00 p.m. – CONCERT - DIESEL COMBUSTION ORCHESTRA AND PUPPET SHOW presented by SKOOKUM HEEHEE TUMTUM AUTOMATION GENERATORS
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Starting May 21 through July 9th, every Wednesday Zeitgeist will present an 8 week touring series from Arteeast in New York of French/Arab Films called BEUR IS BEAUTIFUL: A RETROSPECTIVE OF MAGHREBI-FRENCH CINEMA. Presented by the New Orleans Consulat De France.
Starting Thursday May 22 through July 10th we will present a weekly series of new films from Latin America curated by Brian McKnighten of the local film distribution company LAS AMERICAS.
Wednesdays through Sundays, May 21 through June 1 @ 9:30 p.m.
VIVA a film by Anna Biller.
VIVA is a multi-award winning cult freak-out retro 1970's spectacle, about a bored housewife who gets sucked into the sexual revolution. Abandoned by her perfect Ken-doll husband, Barbi is dragged into trouble by her girlfriend, who spouts women's lib as she gets Barbi to discard her bra and go out on the town. Barbi becomes a Red Riding Hood in a sea of wolves, and quickly learns a lot more than she wanted to about the different kinds of scenes going on in the wild '70's, including nudist camps, the hippie scene, orgies, bisexuality, sadism, drugs, and bohemia.
VIVA is a highly stylized film that draws on classic exploitation cinema for its look and characters. Saturated to the hilt with vibrant color, and exquisitely detailed in its depiction of the period, VIVA looks like a lost film from the late '60's, even down to the campy and self-assured performances, the big lighting, the plethora of negligées, and the delirious assortment of Salvation Army ashtrays, lamps, fabrics, and bric-a-brac. Whether you're looking for naked people dancing, alcoholic swingers, stylish sex scenes, a sea of polyester, Hammond organ jams, glitzy show numbers, white horses, blondes in the bathtub, gay hairdressers, or psychedelic animation, VIVA has it all!
VIVA'S AWARDS:
Best of the Festival - Boston Underground Film Festival
Best Style in a film from the Moscow Film Festival, VOGUE MAGAZINE
Best Director, Atlanta Underground Film Festival
Audience Choice Award, Best Narrative Feature, Cinekink Film Festival
Kodak Independent Spirit Award, Tromadance Film Festival
" A meticulously designed re-imagining of "classy"-minded '70's-era soft porn...pops with parodic joy" --Robert Abele, L.A. TIMES
"All the sexual revolution mischief 1972 Los Angeles has to offer...Campy delights...A riot of gratuitous full-frontal nudity...Production design is a triumph...Drop-dead costumes...Cinematography heightens color to an eye-popping degree" --Dennis Harvey, VARIETY
Special thanks to our good friend, "cutie-sugar-pie" Ryan Bruce Levey @ Vagrant Films in Toronto through his efforts Zeitgeist is second only to Film Forum in New York to screen this instant, queer, cult classic theatrically (before it hits the Landmark theatre circuit)!
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BEUR IS BEAUTIFUL:
A RETROSPECTIVE OF FRENCH-ARAB CINEMA
A touring film exhibition from ArteEast. Curated by Carrie Tarr.
Presented by Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center & the New Orleans Consulat De France.
Wednesdays @ 7:30 p.m. - May 21 through July 9, 2008
Premiering at ArteEast’s 2007 CinemaEast Film Festival in New York. The term “beur” is a French slang derivation of the word “Arabe”, and refers to the French-born children of North African (Maghrebi) immigrants—of Arab as well as Amazigh and Kabyle origin—who, for the most part, grew up in the concrete wastelands of the low-income housing projects in the working-class suburbs (banlieues) of France. While beur has been part of the European lexicon for over 20 years, the term and the culture it describes remain largely unknown in the United States. When violent riots erupted in the banlieues of Paris and other French cities in fall 2005, however, questions of beur immigration and assimilation thought long buried suddenly burst back into the light, given a new urgency by the post-9/11 politics that designate Middle East and West as enemies and fan the flames of nationalism and mutual intolerance. Although the story of Beur cinema since its beginnings in the 1980s banlieues is very specific historically, socially and politically to France, its essence is animated by themes universal to all contemporary experiences of migration, and particularly apt in our current climate: political, social, economic and cultural dislocation and adaptation, alienation and assimilation, bridging and disruption, inclusion and marginalization.
This groundbreaking program of Maghrebi-French cinema (an emerging trend reflecting upon the legacy of colonialism and the challenges of integration and assimilation of immigrant populations in France) screens every Wednesday @ 7:30 p.m. for eight weeks and features the following films:
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 @ 7:30 P.M.
WESH WESH, by RABAH AMEUR-ZAÏMECHE. France, 2002, 83 minutes. Kamel has returned to his parents’ home in the Paris suburbs after an absence of seven years, having spent five of them in prison in France and two in his native Algeria, where he was deported. Kamel sets out to re-establish his life in France but finds he is impeded at every turn by his illegal status and by the French police who harass the Algerian youth. His siblings have taken different paths to escaping poverty; his sister has become a lawyer and lives with a Frenchman outside the housing projects while his brother has chosen a life of violence and drug-dealing. Kamel finds some solace with a French woman and with the younger children of the ghetto, who accompany him on his fishing trips in the woods. The consequences of his brother’s criminal ways however come to a riveting climax that robs Kamel of any hope for a normal life.
Filmmaker’s Biography:
A long-time lover of cinema, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche decided in 2001, armed with a small DV camcorder, to direct Wesh, Wesh, qu’est-ce qui se passe? with a few friends, a film on a sensitive subject: the difficult re-insertion into the working world of a former delinquent. The young director took as a frame for his story the Cité des Bosquets in Seine-Saint Denis, a place that he has known well since childhood. This first shot took the Léo Sheer prize urging its distribution at the International Festival of Film de Belfort in 2001. In 2005, he signed his second production, Bled number one, in which he plays a former prisoner expelled from his country of origin, Algeria, a country that he reveals through European eyes.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 28 @ 7:30 p.m.
BLED NUMBER 1, by RABAH AMEUR-ZAÏMECHE. Algeria/France, 2006, 100 minutes. A follow-up to his well-regarded debut “Wesh-Wesh”, Bled Number One is a slice-of-life film that speaks volumes about the conditions of life in today’s Algeria. Kamel is deported from France back to his native Algeria after being released from prison. There he finds that beneath the veneer of tranquil and bucolic village life lays an intense struggle between many forces – religion, secularism, modernity, and notions of tradition and honor. He watches as these conflicts mar the lives of the townsfolk around him. Kamel’s cousin Louisa, who has taken her young son and left her husband, is violently received when she returns home to her mother and brother. A gang of young men, claiming to be acting in the name of religion, harass those who they deem to be offending it. With this tempestuous backdrop, Kamel must decide whether his birthplace is really is home.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 @ 7:30 P.M.
VOISINS VOISINES, by MALIK CHIBANE. France, 2005, 90 minutes. A rapper is racing against time—he has just three days to write his lyrics; otherwise, he can say good-bye to his advance from the record company. When he finally finds inspiration right on his doorstep, in the often comic struggles of his neighbors in the Mozart Estate housing project, he sets the stage for a lively hip-hop fable, set to the beat of the banlieues.
Filmmaker’s Biography:
Malik Chibane was born in the region of Drôme, France, in 1964. When he was three his family moved to Goussainville, a Parisian suburb. Trained as an electronics engineer, in 1985 he also learned stage lighting and worked at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin. That same year, he and three friends founded IDRISS, an association that organizes leisure and educational activities, community centers for the unemployed and video workshops. In 1990, Chibane received a diploma as cultural events organizer. He then wrote his first fiction feature, Hexagone, about his working-class suburb and immigrants of Arab origin and their offspring. Without a producer or public funding, the film was modestly financed through IDRISS and shot in 16mm with much of the cast working without pay. After some support from a variety of institutions, the film was transferred to 35mm and released in theaters in February 1994. It was a critical and popular success. Next, he wrote and directed Douce France (1995), the television drama Nés quelque part (1997) and Voisins Voisines.
DOUNIA, by ZAIDA GHORAB-VOLTA. France, 1997, 17 minutes. Dounia is the 20-year-old daughter of an Algerian couple living in France. One morning after her night shift at the hospital, she finds her father waiting at home for her. He is drunk and forbids her to go back to work, but Dounia refuses to give in...
Filmmaker’s Biography:
Born in 1966, Zaida Ghorab-Volta graduated with a degree in film studies from the Université Paris VII in 1986 and has built a rich career working as an actor, writer and director in film and theater. She wrote and directed the short fiction film Souviens-toi de moi in 1996 and co-directed Le Manège du métro Saint-Paul with Gilles Volta in 1997. She has acted in many films, including Romain Goupil’s Sa vie à elle (1996) and André Téchiné’s Les Innocents. She directed three films in 1997—Dounia, Chantal and On s’aime, on se donne la main—and her first feature, Laisse un peu d’amour, in 1998, Followed by: Never Been to London (1999), Vattelot-sur-Mer (1999), Jeunesse dorée (2001), Nationale 1 (co-directed with Eve Heinrich, 2002) and Marie et le loup (2003).
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11@ 7:30 P.M.
WHERE FIG TREES GROW (RUE DES FIGUIERS), by Yasmina Yahiaoui. France, 2005, 82 minutes. In Yasmina Yahiaoui’s congenial ensemble piece, the setting is Rue des Figuiers, a (fig-tree-less) North African neighborhood in Toulon, where women hold sway and fundamentalist puritanism is given short shrift. Djamila is a middle-aged, belly-dancing femme fatale whose long-term lover, the rakish hairdresser Marfouz, finally gives in to his family and imports a demure young bride from the Maghreb. This, needless to say, causes uproar among the street’s other inhabitants—including a no-nonsense madam, a teenage girl on the run from her own domineering mother and an eccentric grandmother, played by veteran Marthe Villalonga. Broad, boisterous and bracingly impious, Yahiaoui’s film is a provocatively upbeat broadcast from the female side of Islamic culture. Visually brisk and not a little cartoonish, Where Fig Trees Grow carries more than a dash of Pedro Almodóvar’s influence, camp lip-sync sequences included.
Filmmaker’s Biography:
Born in Saint-Denis in 1964, Yasmina Yahiaoui studied journalism and worked in the press before moving to producing segments for the television magazine Sucré-Salé and, later, Saga-Cités, which dealt directly with questions of immigrants and integration. In 1989, she directed Voilée-Dévoilée, Abou et Hol and in 2003, A Force, à force… y’en a marre!
MY LOST HOME (MA MAISON PERDUE), by KAMAL EL MAHOUTI. France, 2002, 19 minutes. On the eve of the demolition of a housing project in Saint-Denis, France, Moroccan-born filmmaker Kamal El Mahouti revisits the place where he lived from the age of six. His delicate, impressionistic document probes the graffiti-covered walls, broken windows and empty stairwells of a bleak apartment block to retrieve the memories of an immigrant family, its difficulties and its rituals.
Filmmaker’s Biography:
Kamal El Mahouti is a French writer and director of Moroccan descent. Born in Casablanca in 1963, El Mahouti moved to France at the age of six. He studied film at the Université Paris VIII, where he completed the 16mm short Once Upon a Time, the 14th of July 1945 (Il était une fois le 14 juillet 1945). In 2002 he directed My Lost Home (Ma Maison perdue); it was selected for screening at the Exodes de l’Écran Festival in Saint-Denis and the Biennale des Cinémas Arabes held at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. In 2005, with the help of a CNC grant, he finished the script The Past Is Dead (Lifat Mat); he is currently finishing shooting this feature. In April 2006, he initiated a film festival, Panorama des Cinémas du Maroc et du Maghreb, in Saint-Denis, Paris. This event was a great public and critical success and will see its third edition in April 2008.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 @ 7:30 P.M.
TEA IN THE HAREM (LE THÉ AU HAREM D’ARCHIMÈDE), by MEHDI CHAREF. France, 1985, 110 minutes. Two adolescent young men in the suburbs of Paris, Pat and Madjid, fail to find employment after leaving school and drift into a life of petty crime, stealing and pimping when the mood takes them. Both live in a run-down housing estate and both dream of a better life, but neither is able to break free of their situation. Although not the first film to address second-generation Maghrebis in France, Tea in the Harem was the first feature to be directed by a filmmaker of Maghrebi origin; Charef earned the César for Best First Film in 1986 and inspired the term cinéma beur. Despite the grim environment of the banlieues, the film refuses to dwell on racism and violence, emphasizing instead the friendship between white and beur youths and the problems they share.
Filmmaker’s Biography:
Mehdi Charef is an accomplished filmmaker and novelist. His first feature film, Tea in the Harem, based on a novel he penned, is considered a milestone in the emergence of Maghrebi-French (beur) cinema and won numerous prestigious awards, including the Prix Jean Vigo in 1985 and the César in 1986. He has since directed seven more feature films, including Miss Mona (1986), In the Country of Juliets (Au pays des Juliettes, 1992), Marie-Line (2000) and The Daughter of Keltoum (Fille de Keltoum, 2002) which screened at Zeitgeist. His newly completed film Cartouches Gauloises (2007) premiered at Cannes in the official selection. Charef has also published four novels: Tea in the Harem of Archimedes (Le Thé au Harem d’Archi-Ahmed, 1983), Le Harki de Meriem (1988), La Maison d’Alexina (1999) and À Bras le Cœur (2006).
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25 @ 7:30 P.M.
CHEB, by RACHID BOUCHAREB. Algeria/France, 1991, 79 minutes. Merwan, a 19-year-old beur, has been expelled from France and forced to return to Algeria, the country where he was born but where he is now an alien to the language and customs. His fellow nationals confiscate his passport and send him to the army; in the stuffy atmosphere of a desert military barracks, his fellow Algerians mercilessly remind him of his foreignness. He decides to escape this country that holds him against his will, only to return to the country that has rejected him, along the way discovering all the ironies of the myth of “homecoming.”
Filmmaker’s Biography:
Born in the suburbs of Paris in 1953, Rachid Bouchareb began his career in film as an assistant director for French state television. In 1988, he started his own production company, 3B (with associate Jean Bréhat). He has worked as producer, screenwriter and director on a long list of titles. His debut feature, Bâton rouge, was released in 1985, earning the grand prize at the Amiens Film Festival. Produced for television, Raï (featuring superstar raï singer Cheb Khaled) followed. In 1991, he directed Cheb. Dust for Life (Poussière de vie) followed in 1994, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1995. In 2001, he directed Little Senegal, starring rising star Roschdy Zem and Sotigui Kouyaté and featured in the 2001 Berlinale official competition. In 2006, he wrote and directed Days of Glory (Indigènes), starring Djamel Debbouze, one of France’s most famous comedians; it earned prizes at Cannes and the Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the Academy Awards. He has also produced a number of box-office and critically successful films, including Ziad Douéiri’s West Beirut (1998) and Bruno Domont’s L’Humanité (1999, Best Actor and Best Actress awards at Cannes).
MEMORIES OF OCTOBER 17 (MÉMOIRES DU 17 OCTOBRE), by FAIZA GUENE AND BERNARD RICHARD. France, 2002, 17 minutes. On the evening of October 17, 1961, the French police brutally repressed a peaceful demonstration supporting Algerian independence. Hundreds of Maghrebi immigrants died in police attacks, dozens were thrown into the Seine and more died in detention centers. The police, however, reported only two deaths. This powerful film unearths the painful memories of witnesses, keeping alive the memory of a massacre that French officialdom would like us to forget.
Filmmaker’s Biography:
Faiza Guene was born in France to Algerian parents and grew up in the housing project of Courtillières, where she still lives. After the huge success of her first novel, Just Like Tomorrow, she was offered a position by the government as a spokesperson on positive discrimination. She turned it down. It was, she says, “totally opposed to all the republican values I grew up with and which I adhere to. Society has always asked me to assert my French nationality, which I’ve done, and now I’m told to ‘integrate’. I don’t get it. I was born here, so it goes without saying that I’m integrated.” She is a member of Les Engraineurs, a young people’s filmmaking association in Courtillières. Her other short films include La Zonzonnière (1999), about a girl imprisoned by her father, and RTT: Réduction du Temps de Travail (2002), about the reduced working week.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 2 @ 7:30 P.M.
LIVING IN PARADISE (VIVRE AU PARADIS), by BOURLEM GUERDJOU. France, 1998, 105 minutes. 1961-1962, the Algerian War is under way, Lakhdar, an immigrant construction worker, lives in the Nanterre shantytown which is 3km away from Paris. He can no longer bear living alone, far from his family in Southern Algeria. Once he succeeds in bringing them to France, he starts looking for a decent apartment. Just as he is about to reach his goal, at the cost of a betrayal, history strikes back at him.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9 @ 7:30 P.M.
MEMORIES OF IMMIGRATION (MEMOIRES D’IMMIGRES), by YAMINA BENGUIGUI. France, 1997/8, 160 minutes (in three parts, will be screened with two 5 min. intermissions). In this seminal documentary, a triptych of stories spells out the painful fate of two generations of Maghrebi immigration to France. First we meet the men who left North Africa to forge their way in the paradise of France, only to discover that their paradise is one built of mud and tin roofs; then, the lives of the women who fared little better when they came to join their husbands struggling in this sad poverty. Finally come the stories of the children whose identity is blurred and forgotten as the pervasive French culture absorbs their Arab heritage.
Filmmaker’s Biography:
Born in France to Algerian parents in 1957, Yamina Benguigui is a writer and filmmaker who has received a number of prestigious national awards in France, such as the Legion of Honor and the National Order of Merit. She has been involved in documentary cinema since 1994, and was among the first French directors and producers of Algerian descent. Her other films include Women of Islam (Femmes d’Islam, 1999), The Perfumed Garden (Le Jardin parfumé, 2001) and The Glass Ceiling (Le Plafond de verre, 2005). In 2001, she directed her first feature, Inch’allah dimanche, which earned her 27 awards worldwide (and screened at Zeitgeist). She is presently working on her second feature, tentatively titled Le Paradis? C’est complet!, and she was appointed to the French government’s Higher Council for Integration in 2006.
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Wednesdays through Sundays, June 4 through 15 @ 9:30 p.m.
LOVE SONGS (LES CHANSONS D'AMOUR) by Christophe Honore.
From the acclaimed director of Dans Paris comes an exhuberant and tender, Bi-Sexual Musical Comedy/Drama from France. LOVE SONGS (LES CHANSONS D'AMOUR) further laments Christophe Honore as one of the most exciting filmmakers of our generation. A modern day musical told through unforgettable songs sung entirely by the cast and scored by Alex Beaupain, the film has overjoyed audiences at the Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals. In the hope of sparking their stalled relationship, Ismael (Louis Garrel of DANS PARIS, THE DREAMERS) and Julie (Ludivine Sagnier of SWIMMING POOL) enter a playful yet emotionally laced threesome with Alice (Clotilde Hesme of REGULAR LOVERS.) When tragedy strikes, these young Parisians are forced to deal with the fragility of life and love. For Ismael, this means negotiating through the advances of Julie's sister (Chara Mastroianni of PERSEPOLIS) and a young college student (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet of STRAYED); one of which may offer him redemption. An unforgettable celebration of love, loss and new beginnings, Les Chansons d'Amour is a joyful homage to the French New Wave and Jacques Demy's classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Beautifully photographed on the streets of Paris and featuring songs by acclaimed musician Alex Beaupain - brilliantly sung by the cast - Christophe Honoré's beguiling film is a vibrant tale of longing and romance.
"A JOY...PROFOUND AND AFFECTING...(A) TRIBUTE TO THE PLAYFULNESS OF THE FRENCH NEW WAVE." - SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
"Not since I was a boy watching Cyd Charisse in Singin' in the Rain has a musical made me feel so happy." - SIGHT & SOUND MAGAZINE
"Christophe Honore's films aren't just films you like- you develop weird little crushes on them." - FILM COMMENT
"A SEXY QUINTESSENTIALLY FRENCH DELICACY. A DIZZY MUSICAL COMEDY." - THE NEW YORK TIMES
"SEDUCTIVE AND RAPTUROUS. The fact is that I didn't want it to end at all. A blend of Francois Truffaut's wistful Parisian sentimentalism and Pedro Almodovar's acrid polysexual comedy." - SALON
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for complete schedules and updates please go to www.zeitgeistinc.net
if you are willing or interested in volunteering or making a donation or sponsorship please contact Rene Broussard at 504 352-1150 (cell) or zte@bellsouth.net
We can't do it without your support!
Thanks
Rene Broussard
504 352-1150 cell
zte@bellsouth.net
www.zeitgeistinc.net
Zeitgeist also needs creative suggestions on what to call our new coffee/tea shop.
Just like Zeitgeist’s concessions, our coffee/tea shop will have an exotic/eclectic and international selection ranging from traditional Persian and Tibetan teas with our specialty being our homemade Somali Shah (a blend of three distinct black teas plus fresh ground cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves). We also hope to offer a unique line of decadent as well as vegan pastries with nightly dinner specials to fit thematically with our nightly film and performance programming.
Any suggestions? zte@bellsouth.net
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CALL FOR WORKS:
ZEITGEIST MULTI-DISCIPLINARY ARTS CENTER PRESENTS
the second annual
NEW ORLEANS MIDDLE EASTERN FILM FESTIVAL
August 1 through 10 , 2008
http://nolamideastfilmfest.blogspot.com/
In any writing or screenwriting class you quickly learn that the most important element to any good story is conflict. In the Middle East, conflict is a more abundant natural resource than even oil.
The first time festival, which was presented by ZEITGEIST MULTI-DISCIPLINARY ARTS CENTER on January 19 through 28, 2007, without any grants or public funds, featured 43 films never screened before in New Orleans from throughout the Middle East. Curated by Rene Broussard, this remarkable program of films explored the extremely rich and complex history, politics and culture of this volatile region. Then, to round things off to an even 44, the festival was immediately followed by a weeklong exclusive, theatrical engagement of the award-winning documentary IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS by James Longley.
The festival was created as an off shoot of the extremely successful NEW ORLEANS INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL, which Zeitgeist presents every April.
Sponsored by and special thanks to NEW ORLEANS PALESTINE SOLIDARITY, NEW ORLEANS HUMAN RIGHTS DELEGATION, CHARITABLE FILM NETWORK, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: WEST BANK AND GAZA, RAMATTAN NEWS AGENCY, and WWW.ARTEEAST.ORG
For submissions please contact Rene Broussard at:
Rene Broussard
Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center
1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd
New Orleans, LA 70113
(504) 352-1150 cell
(504) 522-0309 office/home
(504) 827-5858 Zeitgeist
zte@bellsouth.net
www.zeitgeistinc.net
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All Zeitgeist events are co-sponsored by L.I.F.T. Productions
and WTUL – FM._________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Come back baby!
New Orleans loves and misses you!
www.helenhill.org
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Zeitgeist is a proud sponsor of the NEW ORLEANS SHELL SHOCKERS
This ia an exciting opportunity to see world-class soccer here in New Orleans, so please come and show your support! Coming in March: The SHELL SHOCKERS will host a two day. international friendly tournament against the MLS teams NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION and the COLUMBUS CREW , a professional team from Honduras, CLUB DEPORTIVO MARATHON and our own NEW ORLEANS SHELL SHOCKERS. March 14 & 16 - Details to come...
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AND BE SURE TO SAVE THE DATES:
This year's festival promises to be the biggest and best yet!
www.nolahumanrights.org
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We would like to thank Tulane University for providing us with a venue as we begin renovations on our new arts center. We also want to thank L.I.F.T. Productions for their sponsorship.
To aid the renovations and creation of our new arts center, complete with a “Fair trade coffee/tea & gift shop”, the “Helen Hill Louisiana Video Library”, stage, lighting, gallery and raised seating, our good friends at First Run Features have provided us with a magnificent collection of DVD’s that we are selling as a benefit. They are all priced 20 to 30% below the retail price and the discounted price listed on Amazon.com So please take advantage of this mutually beneficial offer.
Plus: Film Movement has donated 20 DVD’s to Zeitgeist that we are offering free to the first 20 people to buy or renew their $100 Zeitgeist Patron membership or a $150 dual Patron membership.
Choose from the following 4 award-winning titles, none of which played here in New Orleans:
MOTHER OF MINE – Winner of 12 international awards and Finland's official entry for the Academy Awards. During World War II, more than 70,000 Finnish children were evacuated to neutral Sweden to avoid the conflict. "Mother of Mine," the latest from the award-winning Klaus Haro ("Elina"), tackles that painful patch of history in a tale of 9-year-old Eero, a child who increasingly feels abandoned by his biological Finnish mother and yet not attached to his Swedish surrogate mom. When he is returned to Finland, his confusion intensifies. The lifelong wounds from this tug of war become clear in the film's present-day black-and-white sequences, in which the middle-aged Eero (Esko Salminen) visits his mother (Aino-Maija Tikkanen), eager to talk about the war. The screenplay by Jimmy Karlsson and Kirsi Vikman, based on the novel by Heikki Hietamies, delivers sharp insights into the ways people use children to fill their needs. The contrast between Finland's frigid birch forests and the open expanse of the Swedish coast, captured in Jarkko T. Laine's striking camerawork, is a key element of the film's quiet power
ROADS TO KOKTEBEL – Winner of 6 major awards at international film festivals including the Special Critics Prize at both the Cannes and Moscow. After his wife's death and the loss of his job, an aerodynamics engineer sets off from Moscow with his 11 year old son for his sister's house in Koktebel by the Black Sea. With no money or means of transport, they drift through the expansive and mesmeric landscapes of Russia at the mercy of chance. The father is content to meander as he tries to rebuild his self-respect, piece together his broken life and win back the trust of his son. Meanwhile, the boy impatiently dreams of reaching the mythic coastal resort to start a new life of emancipation and gliders flying in the wind. When the father meets and falls for a beautiful young doctor, the boy sees her as an intrusion on the only loving relationship in his life sets off to complete the journey by himself…
MADEINUSA – Winner of 7 major awards at international film festivals including the International Critics Prize at Rotterdam and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Madeinusa is a girl aged 14 with a sweet Indian face who lives in an isolated village in the Cordillera Blanca Mountain range of Peru. This strange place is characterized by its religious fervor. From Good Friday at three o'clock in the afternoon (the time of day when Christ died on the cross) to Easter Sunday, the whole village can do whatever it feels like. During the two holy days sin does not exist: God is dead and can't see what is happening. Everything is accepted and allowed, without remorse. Year after year, Madeinusa and her sister Chale, and her father Don Cayo, the Mayor and local big shot, maintain this tradition without questioning it. However, everything changes with the arrival in the village of Salvador, a young geologist from Lima, who will unknowingly change the destiny of the girl.
LE GRAND VOYAGE - Winner of 8 major awards at international film festivals. A few weeks before his college entrance exams, Reda (Nicolas Cazale), a young man who lives in the south of France, finds himself obligated to drive his father to Mecca. From the start, the journey looks to be difficult: Reda and his father (Mohamed Majd) have nothing in common. The wide cultural and generational gap between the two is worsened by the lack of communication between the two. Reda finds it hard to accommodate his father, who demands respect for himself and his pilgrimage. From France, through Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan to Saudi Arabia- the two will embark on a road trip to Mecca that will change their lives.
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We would also like to give very special thanks to our four corporate sponsors:
L.I.F.T. Productions
WTUL – FM
WAYNE TROYER – ARCHITECT
AIDAN GILL FOR MEN
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If you, your business or organization would like to help support Zeitgeist and the development our new space
Please send your memberships or donations made out to “Zeitgeist inc.” to:
Rene Broussard, Executive Director
Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center
1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd
New Orleans, LA 70113
www.zeitgeistinc.net
zte@bellsouth.net
504 827-5858 – Zeitgeist
504 352-1150 – cell
If you are willing to volunteer or intern with Zeitgeist please e-mail or call Rene at the contact info listed above.
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SPECIAL OFFER!!! A great deal for you and a fundraiser for Zeitgeist.
One of our favorite film distributors (and good friends), FIRST RUN FEATURES, has agreed (after some serious poor-mouthing/Katrina guilt) to offer our patrons a hefty 40% discount off ANY title in their DVD catalog. Their impressive collection of over 250 titles contains many films which began their theatrical life here. They have further agreed to donate an additional 15% of all sales generated from this offer back to Zeitgeist as a fundraiser. Shipping is free for orders of $25 or more
That’s a 55% discount, which is pretty damn generous.
Visit their web site (www.firstrunfeatures.com) to view their entire line-up. Over 250 independent, animated, foreign and documentary films to chose from. If you decide to buy, just use coupon code "ZEITGEIST" (all caps) at the checkout page to receive your 40% discount. Plus.
Most films retail for $29.95, but after deducting 40%, your cost is only $17.97. That’s cheaper than ordering from Amazon and Zeitgeist gets 15% of you purchase as a credit towards our future film rentals.
Titles Zeitgeist has shown from First Run Features and First Run/Icarus Films that you could now own include:
THE KNOWLEDGE OF HEALING, an illuminating examination of Tibetan medicine
DESERTED STATION from Iran
SILENT WATERS from Pakistan
S21: THE KMER ROUGE KILLING MACHINE
THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER
THE TAKE, an anti-globalization, real life political thriller
ANGEL ON THE RIGHT from Tajikistan
RACHIDA from Algeria
MARGARETTE’S FEAST from Brazil
WOMEN’S PRISON from Iran
TICKET TO JERUSALEM from Palestine
FEMALE MISBEHAVIOR by Monika Treut
MONGOLIAN PING PONG
HOWARD ZINN: You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train
DEATH BY DESIGN by Peter Friedman
BROTHERS IN ARMS, the John Kerry documentary
FEED, intercepted satellite feeds of politicians at their worst
HOMO SAPIENS 1900, doc on the history of Eugenics
LIVE NUDE GIRLS UNITE, doc about strippers organizing a union
PASSING IT ON a doc about the Black Panthers
ONE NATION UNDER GOD, about efforts to convert gays & lesbians into straights
ELECTRIC SHADOWS from China
BROTHERS IN TROUBLE from Pakistan/Great Britain
LEILA from Iran
MENDEL from Norway
MIDNIGHT DANCERS by Mel Chionglo
NO FEAR, NO DIE by Claire Denis
ONLY THE BRAVE from New Zealand
PETITE FRERES by Jacques Doillon
SEXUAL LIFE OF THE BELGIANS
THE DISENCHANTED by Benoit Jacquot
THE EMBALMER by Matteo Garrone
HALFMOON based on the three stories by Paul Bowles
HOLLOW CITY from Angola
I, WORST OF ALL by Maria Luisa Bemberg
THE WOUNDS from Bosnia
Etc.
Plus some of the films that Zeitgeist should have shown, but you can now buy include:
THE DEVIL’S MINER from Bolivia
THE INTERNATIONALE featuring Billy Bragg
LA COMMUNE by Peter Watkins
WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE about George Bush and the religious right
ARISTIDE AND THE ENDLESS REVOLUTION
WAR PHOTOGRAPHER
49 UP by Michael Apted
BRIGHT LEAVES by Ross McElwee
BLOOD IN THE FACE a documentary on the KKK in America
DANGEROUS LIVING a doc about being gay in non-western societies
GENDERNAUTS by rosa Von Praunheim
LET’S GET FRANK, doc about openly gay Rep. Barney Frank
POWER AND TERROR: NOAM CHOMSKY IN OUR TIMES
VENUS BOYZ doc about the Drag Kings
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO PHILIP K. DICK
GOOGOOSH: IRAN’S DAUGHTER
BUFFALO BOY from Vietnam
THE COW from Iran
THE CUP FINAL from Israel
DON’T LET ME DIE ON A SUNDAY from France
GO FOR ZUCKER a German/Jewish comedy
HAMOUN from Iran
TORREMOLINOS 73 from Spain
TUVALU by Veit Helmer
WHISKY from Uruquay
THE VIRGIN MACHINE by Monika Treut
Etc.
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ZEITGEIST IS NOW 21 YEARS OLD!
Founded in 1986 by Rene Broussard when he was a BFA student in the Drama & Communications Department at the University of New Orleans. Zeitgeist was initiated as an experimental theater troupe and derives its name from The Adventures of Phoebe Zeitgeist, a comic series which ran in Evergreen Review in the 1970's. Phoebe was the lead character in Zeitgeist's first theatrical production, Blood on the Cat's Neck by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The word Zeitgeist, is a German noun meaning "the spirit of the times". When Zeitgeist was incorporated as a non-profit organization with the sate of Louisiana, there mission statement simply became “something for and against everyone!”
Zeitgeist went on to produce several other successful plays including Shakespeare the Sadist by Wolfgang Bauer, Rocking Back and Forth by Gunter Grass, Let’s Eat Hair by Karl Lazlo and an environmental theatre piece/musical about the Manson Family entitled Commune. The emphasis of the organization changed to that of the city of New Orleans' leading exhibitor of alternative cinema with series and originally curated programs of experimental and underground films being presented in various locations.
In June of 1990, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, one of the top 10 alternative arts centers in the U.S. offered Rene Broussard the position of Film Curator. In the three years Broussard was in Buffalo, N.Y. (1990-1993), Zeitgeist continued to do sporadic programming. Broussard served as a the co-director of the WAYS IN BEING GAY FESTIVAL and the director of the OUTRAGE GAY & LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL.
In June of 1993, Broussard returned to New Orleans to establish Zeitgeist as a full-time alternative cinema doing regular programming at the Masonic Temple, The Latin American Bar, Muddy Waters and Pussycat Caverns eventually establishing their own screening room at the late Movie Pitchers. After three more address changes on O’keefe Ave (where we were partnered with Clinton Peltier’s x art gallery) and Magazine Street, Zeitgeist found it's current home, located at 1724 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., which Zeitgeist has shared with Barrister's Gallery for seven years.
Zeitgeist is an entirely volunteer, artist run organization that does not receive grants or public funds, who presents film, video, performance art, visual art and literary events six nights a week, year-round and is considered one of the premiere alternative arts center in the South. Zeitgeist was awarded the Mayor's Arts Award by the Arts Council of New Orleans and is the main venue for the NEW ORLEANS INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL (April 12 – 22, 2007), the NEW ORLEANS BOOK FAIR (every October) and the NEW ORLEANS MIDDLE EAST FILM FESTIVAL (December 5 – 17, 2006).
In preparation for this 20 year celebration I decided to make a list of
My 20 Favorite Films of the Last 20 Years
My goal was to screen all twenty of them, but there simply wasn’t enough time and money to do so. Plus in a couple of cases, (All About Lilly Chou Chou and Why Is Yellow The Middle Of The Rainbow?) the films were simply no longer in theatrical distribution in the U.S., but I did manage to program 13 of them now, the others I hope to find a way to bring them over the course of the upcoming year.
My 20 Favorite Films of the last 20 years, That Played @ Zeitgeist.
ARCHANGEL by Guy Maddin
WHERE IS THE FRIEND’S HOME? by Abbas Kiarostami
SCARED SACRED by Velcrow Ripper
BESHKEMPIR: THE ADOPTED SON by Aktan Abdykalykov
THREE ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA by Pirjo Honkasalo
HOLLYWOOD, HONG KONG by Fruit Chan
TALES OF THE GIMLI HOSPITAL by Guy Maddin
ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU CHOU by Shunji Iwai
GAZA STRIP by James Longley
KAIRAT by Darezhan Omirbaev
FREEDOM IS PARADISE by Sergei Bodrov
ABANDONED by Arpad Sopsits
THE GARDEN by Derek Jarman
PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS by Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky
TRIBULATION 99 by Craig Baldwin
WHY IS YELLOW THE MIDDLE OF THE RAINBOW? by Kidlat Tahimik
FIREWORKS (HANA-BI) by Takeshi Kitano
SMOKE by Mark D’Auria
LILIES by John Greyson
IN A GLASS CAGE by Augustin Villaronga
and
My Favorite Films Of The Last 20 Years That should have played At Zeitgeist:
REFLECTING SKIN by Philip Ridley
LES DIABLES by Christoph Ruggia (never released in the U.S., but I am working with the French Consulate to get it)
LEOLO by Jean-Claude Lauzon
THIS IS ENGLAND by Shane Meadows (So good, I saw it twice at the Toronto Film Fest, yet to premiere in the U.S.)
HAPPINESS by Todd Solandz
POISON by Todd Haynes
MYSTERIOUS SKIN by Gregg Araki
A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS by Shane Meadows
If you support what we are doing you should join us by getting a membership or signing up as a volunteer.
Highlights from Zeitgeist’s 21 years include:
visiting filmmakers:
Legendary lesbian/experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer, Mark Pauline (Survival Research Laboratories), Francis James (Moon Blue Traces), transgressive filmmaker Alan Sondheim, Leslie Thornton (Peggy and Fred In Hell), animator/screenwriter Tom Zummer, lesbian video artist Julie Zando, Janet Wondra & Jeff Walker (Uncool Orbit), Tom Richards & Marta (pixel-vision/video artists), drag/activist video artistsBrenda Sexual & Glennda Orgasm, documentary filmmaker Harrod Blank, New York gay filmmakerMark D’Aria, lesbian video artist Sadie Benning, hip hop video artist and media assassin Art Jones, Anne Craig & Maia Harris (Storyville: The Naked Dance), documentarian Paul Stekler, Isaac Webb (The Wedding), underground filmmaker Jeri Cain Rossi, Rene Broussard (The Fatboy Chronicles), German filmmaker/curator Ingo Petzke, Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov,
San Francisco filmmaker Eric Saks, transgressive filmmaker Joe Christ, Craig Baldwin (Sonic Outlaws), lesbian filmmaker/curator Jenny Olsen, New York experimental animator Donna Cameron, experimental & documentary filmmaker Lynne Sachs, experimental filmmaker Mark Street, legendary German gay filmmaker Rosa Von Praunheim, gay experimental filmmaker from Berlin Michael Brynntrup, gay filmmaker/producer from Berlin Jurgen Bruning, gay Canadian filmmaker Bruce La Bruce, Wash Westmoreland Squishy Does Porno and later Quincinera),
documentary filmmaker from Bombay Anand Patwardhan, legendary British filmmakers Isaac Julien & Mark Nash, documentarian Les Blank, documentarian Robert Mugge, Peter George (Surf Nazis Must Die), the legendary late Austrian experimental filmmaker Kurt Kren, lesbian experimental filmmaker Jennifer Reeves, legendary German experimental filmmaker Wilhelm Hein & photographer Annette Frick, German filmmaker Stephan Sachs, Will Frank, Mike Lyddon & Karl DeMolay (Zombie vs. Mardi Gras), black independent New Orleans video artists King Jeff & El Timo, documentary filmmaker Rick Delaup, screenwriter/filmmaker Henry Griffin, Cheryl Dunye (Watermelon Woman), Douglas Langway (Raising Heroes) , video artist/curator Courtney Egan, experimental animator/curator Helen Hill, experimental filmmaker Betsy Weiss, documentarian Neil Alexander, San Francisco experimental filmmaker Alfonso Alvarez, New York experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison, Chicago filmmakers Jim Finn & Dean Rank, cult filmmaker John Michael McCarthy, Shreveport filmmaker/curator David Nelson, experimental animator Devon Damonte, cult filmmaker/prankster Igor Vamos, Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker Laura Dunn (Green), Diane Zander (Girl Wrestler), documentary filmmakers Louis Alvarez & Andrew Kolker, San Francisco filmmaker/curator Melinda Stone, cut-up animator Martha Colburn, DIY-punk filmmaker James Schneider, documentary filmmaker/curator Matt McCormick, documentary filmmaker/sex worker Scarlet Harlot, legendary concert filmmaker Steve Gebhardt, inter-active computer/video installation artist Paul Vanouse, inter-active computer/video artist/curator Patrick Lichty, installation artist Andrew Wade Smith, legendary pranksters RTmark, film/music performers Wet Gate, legendary filmmaker/video artist/composer/musician Tony Conrad, New York underground filmmaker Rachel Amadeo, documentary filmmakers Jane C. Wagner & Tina Tina Di Feliciantonio, Academy Award nominated Cuban/American filmmaker Juan Carlos Zaldivar (90 Miles, Soldiers Pay), comedian/filmmaker/actor/writer Harry Shearer, Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground), Two time Academy Award nominated editor/filmmaker Dawn Logsdon (The Weather Underground, Paragraph 174), human rights activists/filmmakers Big Noise Tactical Media, Termite T.V., local activist turned filmmaker who went to Palestine with the New Orleans Human Rights Delegation Rebecca Rapp, German experimental filmmaker Caspar Stracke, filmmaker/hobo Bill Daniel,
Academy Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker Barbara Trent (The Panama Deception), New York filmmaker Michelle Stephenson (Faces Of Change), Leonard Abrams (Quilombo Country), New York activist/filmmaker Peter Kinoy, Mayorial candidate turned filmmaker Manny Chevrolet, concert filmmaker Michael Murphy, activist filmmaker Mary Beth Black, filmmaker/professor Mark Morris, computer animator David Sullivan, documentary filmmaker Royce Osborn, documentary filmmaker Jeremy Campbell, documentary filmmaker William Sabourin O'Reilly, Texas filmmaker Nick Cooper, New Orleans filmmaker Jason Vowell (Aperture), filmmaker/organizer Christopher C. Brown, video artist Tim Best, Gordon Soderberg (Walkin To New Orleans), Palestinian filmmakers from The Balata Film Collective, corporate pranksters The Yes Men, legendary feminist filmmaker Julie Gustafson, etc.Major Film series & Events:
The Performance Group on Film; Neue Deutche Kino; The World Made Flesh: American Experiments In Marginality; Beuys And Beyond: Contemporary German Artists On Film; Louisianalysis & Texastentialism; Kino Der Obsessionen; Avant-garde Cinema; Female Ejaculation Night!; Fluxus & Situationist Cinema; German Film in the Experimental Feature & Short; Contemporary Silent Classics; The Visual Politics of Hip Hop; Films In The Hood; Dissident Films; Recent African Cinema; Queerly Canadian; The Films of Kidlat Tahimik: A Third Wold Projector; Beckett on Film; Inspired by Bach; A Young Boy's Dreams Are Often Wet: Appropriated Images of Youth; The Films of Pier Paolo Passolini; The Films of Atom Egoyan; The Early Films of Peter Greenaway; The Surreal Animations of The Brothers Quay; The Films of Jan Svankmajer; The Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder; The Films of Danny Lyons; Northern Exposures; Tales from the Winnipeg Film Group; 50 Years of Perversion: The Films of Rosa Von Praunheim; The Films of Isaac Julien; The Films of Marlin Riggs; The Films of Kenneth Anger; The Films of Stan Brakhage; The Films of Derek Jarman; The Films of Andy Warhol; The Films of Fernando Arrabal; Mondo Manitoba Marathon; Movie Days: International Children's Film Series; Zelten verboten! (No camping!): New Queer Cinema from Germany; Laurels For The Stans: Films from the Silk Road; 15 Years/15 Films; Film Movement Presents; Why They Hate U.S.: Thirty documentaries depicting U.S. Acts of Terror and Foreign Policy Run Amok; The Silent Films of Stan Brakhage (as interpreted by the Improvisational Arts Council); Super Super 8 Film Festival Tour; Lenin Busted; Rural Route Film Festival Tour; Madcat Women's Film Festival Tour; Gadabout Film Festival Tour; Clermont-Ferrad Short Film Festival Tour; Rooftop Films; Iranian Films; Arab Cinema Celebration; Juvenile In-Justices; NOVAC Retrospective; Classic and Contemporary Japanese Cinema; The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival (I, II & III); Beyond the Veil; Global Film Initiative Tour; Soccer Cinema/Football Films; Zeitgeist Finds Religion; Tibetan Buddhism: A Film Survey; White Fluffy Duckies; Mao Now; Masculine/Feminine; Africa on Film; Europe Watches America; The Films of Michael Haneke; Free Cinema Retrospective; New Orleans Filmmakers Present; Banned Book Week Film Series; The Films of Pierre Coulibeuf; Zeitgeist's 20th Anniversary Retrospective; The New Orleans Middle East Film Festival (December 5 – 17, 2006), etc.
Performances by:
Richard Schechner, Kathy Randels, Vanessa Skantze, Lisa D’Amour, Anne-Liese Juge, Lucas Cox, J. Hammons, Tamer, Jose Torres Tama, Audrey Elizabeth, Nick Faust, Brenda Sexual & Glennda Orgasm, Penny Arcade, Moving Humans, ArtSpot Productions, Dennis Formento, John Sinclair, Caged, The Death Posture, Joe Goodrich, Brother Clit, Crescent City Puppetry Festival, Ronald Ehmke, Greg Walloch, Alan Reade, Wet Gate, Happensdance Modern Dance Company, Queerly Canadian Performance Festival, David Bateman, David Roche, Michael Achtman, ComedySportz, State Of The Nation: Third Annual Performance Festival, the Annual Sex Workers Art Show Tour, etc.
Concerts:
Multiple Places, Shot Down In Equator, Jr., The Royal Pendletons, Lump, Patsy Cline and the Memphis G-Spots, The Gas Tank Orchestra, Androo Cahill, James Singleton, Dave Easley, Charlie Miller, 3NOW3, 3NOW4, 3NOW4KESTRA, Wendy Mae Chambers, Glen Styler, Tony Green and Gypsy Jazz, The Violent Prawns, Tribe 8, Bonfire Madigan, Improvisational Arts Council, Hot Club of New Orleans, Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Peter Brotzmann, Frank Zappatistas, john Sinclair and his Blues Scholars, Quintron, Liquidrome, Bones, New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars, Jonathon Freilich, Naked On The Floor, The Naked Orchestra, Kevin O’Day, Live Animals, Peter Kowald, Heartifacts, Rick Trolson, Nick Sanzenbach, Unit One, Children of the Sun, Michael Ray and the Kosmic Krewe, Carl Leblanc, Mikiel Williams, Raymond Williams, Shiek Rashied, Jimbo Walsh, Jana Saslaw, Jeanne Hubert, Blake Amos & Saudade, Patrice Fisher, Arpa Latina, Duo Calibri, Chiko & Rogerio, JAC3, Rob Cambre, Endres Landsnes, Tim Green, Contra Contra Bass, Cambre/Copello, Dry Bones Trio, The Death Posture, Donald Miller, Quintology, The Silent Films of Stan Brakhage (as interpreted by the Improvisational Arts Council), LA Monster, Afroskull, Dan Sumner, Antijazz, Andrew McLean & Priyo Mujumdar, Tabla For 4, Henry Butler, Chris Alexander, Kelcy Mae Band, Dirtfoot, Jeff Albert, Albert/Ankrum Project, Roshibobo, Jeff Zielinsky & Ed Miles Duo, Mahfouz, Ear Floss Ensemble, Johnny Vidacovich, Jason Marsalis, Ken Vandermark, Vandermark 5, William Parker, Alvin Fielder, Mats Gustafsson, Harriet Tubman, Konk Pack, The New Thing, Joe Cabral, Egg Yolk Jubilee, Muvovum, Morning 40 Federation, Andrew Cyrell, Fred Van Hove, Dennis Gonzales, Dennis Gonzales Yells At Eels, Mark Fowler, Earl Tubinton, Rob Wagner, Rob Wagner Trio, James Alsanders, Melt Banana, Tony Conrad, Cluster (featuring Mobius & Rodelius), Melomane, Vic Thrill, Bond Bergland, The Brain, Blacklight Confessions of Pantopan Rose, Potpie, Ed Porter, Martin Krusche, The Rishis, Sean Johnson, Zeitgeist Creative Music Festival (I, II, & III), etc.
Theatrical productions:
Blood On The Cat’s Neck, Shakespeare The Sadist, Commune, Let’s Eat Hair with Rocking Back and Fourth, Eye Of The Beholder, The Elephant Man starring Mark Krasnoff; Rage Within/Without, Fields of Gold, The End and Back Again, Casino America, We Are Patriots With Dark Faces, In Exile Close to The Equator, Jackie O: The Show She Never Gave, What Dreadful Tings To Say About Someone Who Just Bought Me Lunch, Medea Mix, Ego Rites, Into the O, Salad Days, Boy With A Bugle, My Friend; Semen, Dah Teater, Nita & Zita, The Desperate Hours, Steaknife Bacchai, Xmas X; Venus, Vulcan, Mars and the Dancing Dwarf; Lucifer, Brecht On Brecht, The Music of Erich Zann, Dis+Graced, etc.
Visual arts:
Gary Oaks, Mary Jane Parker, Michael Landry, James Tancill, Paul Vanouse, Clinton Peltier, Eli Langer, John Lawson, Chuck Aswell, Annette Frick, Matthew Nesbit, Bonita Zielinski, Seth Boonchai, Ann Schwab, Jose Torres Tama, David Bateman, Ralph McGuiness, Hugo Montero, Spencer Livingston, Joe Knight, New Orleans Noir (I & II), The Unbearable Beuys Scouts of America, Framed, Feminine Products, Saints and Sinners, 10 For 10, etc.
I defy you to find or name another organization who has consistently done so much with so little. This is one hell of an accomplishment. Please come help us celebrate. And if you support what we are doing, please join us becoming a volunteer or a paid member. We can’t continue without your support. Please Join or Renew Today!
Thanks,
Rene Broussard
Founder/Executive Director
Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center
(504 827-5858
www.zeitgeistinc.net
www.zeitgeistvideos.org
www.nolahumanrights.org
zte@bellsouth.net
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THE ZEITGEIST STORY:
Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center (a.k.a. Zeitgeist Theatre Experiments, inc.) was founded in 1986 by Rene Broussard when he was a BFA student in the Drama & Communications Department at the University of New Orleans. It was initiated as an experimental theater troupe and derives its name from The Adventures of Phoebe Zeitgeist, a comic series which ran in Evergreen Review in the 1970's. Phoebe was the lead character, a vampire from outer space. Phoebe was also the lead character in Zeitgeist's first theatrical production, Blood on the Cat's Neck by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The word Zeitgeist, is a german noun meaning "the spirit of the times".
Zeitgeist went on to produce several other successful plays including Shakespeare the Sadist by Wolfgang Bauer, Rocking Back and Forth by Gunter Grass, Let’s Eat Hair by Karl Lazlo and an environmental theatre piece/musical about the Manson Family entitled Commune. The emphasis of the organization changed to that of the city of New Orleans' leading exhibitor of alternative cinema with series and originally curated programs of experimental and underground films being presented in various locations.
In June of 1990, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, one of the top 10 alternative arts centers in the U.S. offered Rene Broussard the position of Film Curator. In the three years Broussard was in Buffalo, N.Y. (1990-1993), Zeitgeist continued to do sporadic programming. Broussard served as a the co-director of the WAYS IN BEING GAY FESTIVAL and the director of the OUTRAGE GAY & LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL.
In June of 1993, Broussard returned to New Orleans to establish Zeitgeist as a full-time alternative cinema doing regular programming at the Masonic Temple, Muddy Waters and Pussycat Caverns eventually establishing their own screening room at the late Movie Pitchers. After three more address changes on O’keefe Ave and Magazine Street, Zeitgeist found it's recent home, located at 1724 Oretha Castle Haley, which Zeitgeist has shared with Barrister's Gallery for eight years. On November 19, 2005, Zeitgeist celebrated it’s 19th Birthday in New Orleans. Zeitgeist moves to Mid-City this Summer!
Zeitgeist is an entirely volunteer, artist run organization that does not receive grants or public funds, who presents film, video, performance art, visual art and literary events six nights a week, year-round and is considered one of the premiere alternative arts center in the South. Zeitgeist was awarded the Mayor's Arts Award by the Arts Council of New Orleans and is the main venue for the NEW ORLEANS INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL which is held every March/April and the NEW ORLEANS BOOK FAIR held every October.
If you support what we are doing you should join us by getting a membership or signing up as a volunteer.
Please renew your membership today!
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Zeitgeist is a proud sponsor of the Premiere Development League soccer team
for 2007 season schedule and info go to www.noshellshockers.com
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www.nolapalestinesolidarity.org
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ZEITGEIST = "SPIRIT OF THE TIMES"
our mission statement: "something for and against everyone!"
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and contrary to popular belief this photo from myspace and youtube is not of me!
but the advisory is quite appropriate...
posted by Rene Broussard @ 2:03 PM
81 comments
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