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SEQUENCE:18770718
CREATED:20110801T013900Z
DESCRIPTION:Film evenings begin with potluck refreshments and social hour at  6:30 
 pm,\nfollowed by the film at  7:30 pm, followed by a discussion after the 
 film.\n\nThe Battleship Potemkin\nby Sergei Eisenstein\n\nThis classic 
 silent film is based on a slice of real history of Russia — the 1905 
 unsuccessful Bolshevik revolution against the Tzar.   Fed up with the 
 extreme cruelties of their officers and their maggot-ridden meat rations, 
 the soldier-sailors of the battleship Potemkin stage a violent mutiny.  
 This, in turn, sparks an abortive citizens’ revolt against the Tzarist 
 regime.  This historic film illuminates this true story in five 
 segments.\n\nThe first segment, “The Men and the Maggots,” features 
 workers striking in Russia.  The crew of the battleship Potemkin feel a 
 certain kinship for the plight of their brothers.   The film opens with the 
 enlisted men on the battleship sleeping in hammocks — while the officers 
 beat them for imagined slights.  On deck, the sailors argue with their 
 officers over rotten meat.  Sergei Eisenstein clearly shows class 
 distinctions between the officers and men, with the irony that the ship is 
 kept clean and polished by the crew, but the meat offered to them is 
 rancid, riddled with maggots.  The second segment, “Drama in the 
 Harbor,” begins as the men are called on deck.  Those who didn’t like 
 the rancid soup are separated out, covered with a tarpaulin, and a firing 
 squad established.  Orders are given to fire, and an aged figure holding a 
 religious icon appears, and the squad refuses to fire on their own men.  A 
 free-for-all breaks out and the sailors kill or throw overboard the 
 officers and take control of the ship.  The sailor who made the call for 
 resistance is killed by an officer, and the martyr is brought to the port 
 city of Odessa.  In the third segment, “A Dead Man Calls For Justice,” 
 the townspeople walk by the body to pay their respects.  This is the man 
 who was killed for a bowl of soup.  Eisenstein cast mostly nonprofessionals 
 based on how they looked, not for their acting skills.  The film 
 establishes no characters, and therefore has little emotional bond with its 
 audience.  The audience cares about the outcome of the story, and less 
 about the people portrayed.  In a small on-camera role, Eisenstein looks 
 like a young student (he was 27), and his enthusiasm is clear in the energy 
 of the film.\n\nThe most renowned segment of the film is the fourth, 
 masterfully edited, “The Odessa Staircase.”  The townspeople are on the 
 town steps cheering the sailors when Tzarist troops appear at the top and 
 start shooting the unarmed populace.  Rather than tell the story in an epic 
 manner, Eisenstein individualizes the massacre with close-ups and medium 
 shots, including the ironic juxtaposition of a baby carriage rolling down 
 the steps amid the carnage.  The final segment of the film, “The Meeting 
 With the Squadron,” is still powerful.  The Potemkin heads out to sea, 
 uncertain if the other Tzarist ships will fire on them or join them in 
 rebellion.  In the conclusion of the film, Shostakovich’s music comes to 
 life, perfectly supporting the action. \n\n Wheelchair accessible around 
 the corner at  411  28th  Street\n\n$5 donations are accepted\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/07/31/18686600.php
SUMMARY:The Battleship Potemkin
LOCATION:Humanist Hall\n390  27th  Street\nuptown Oakland, between Telegraph and 
 Broadway\nhttp://www.HumanistHall.org
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/07/31/18686600.php
DTSTART:20110901T023000Z
DTEND:20110901T043000Z
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