November 6th– 27th
Battle of Algiers, 1966.
To parallel their archive spectacular, Everything was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s, the Barbican have compiled a season of films foraging into the acceleration of ideals, politics, art and attitudes in the most cataclysmic period we’ve known.
A Grin Without a Cat, 1977.
The Barbican are treating us to a rare an exciting array of films, where we see a writer trying adjust to a post revolutionary Cuba, the Algerian independence struggle and a film of two young lovers wandering the streets of Dakar hatching wild schemes to raise money for their escape to Paris.
Touki Bouki, 1973.
The film season explores a time unprepared for the rapid change it was subjected to. This is most evident in the censorship of Winters Soldier which follows Vietnam veterans, in the wake of the Lai massacre, rallying a large group of privates to publicly discuss the slaughter they had seen. Not to mention banned film Even Dwarfs started small which uses the surreal narrative of dwarfs running riot around town, due to an authority breakdown, to mirror a 60’s youth culture filled with radical ideals.
Memories of Underdevelopment, 1968.
All films hark to the push and pull of cultural change bursting out of an oppressive system. The season opens our eyes, like Everything was moving did, to the fact these revolutionary waves were not only vibrating the west but were reverberating the world over. The revolution will not be televised so it’s a good thing we have the Barbican this November.
Winters Soldier, 1971.
Text by Rachel Ridge
rachel@octagonoctagon.com
