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SEQUENCE:18815870
CREATED:20120803T062400Z
DESCRIPTION:Join Occupy the Richmond District for our screening of "Can Dialectics 
 Break Bricks?" (1973) -- the path-breaking detourned film of René Viénet, 
 member of the Situationist International. Begins at 6:00 p.m., to be 
 followed by a discussion about how we ALL can become dialecticians. 
 \n\nHere's an account from Ken Knabb's Bureau of Public Secrets 
 website:\n\n“Imagine a kung fu flick in which the martial artists spout 
 Situationist aphorisms about conquering alienation while decadent 
 bureaucrats ply the ironies of a stalled revolution. This is what you’ll 
 encounter in René Viénet’s outrageous refashioning of a Chinese 
 fisticuff film. An influential Situationist, Viénet stripped the 
 soundtrack from a run-of-the-mill Hong Kong export and lathered on his own 
 devastating dialogue. . . . A brilliant, acerbic and riotous critique of 
 the failure of socialism in which the martial artists counter ideological 
 blows with theoretical thrusts from Debord, Reich and others. . . . 
 Viénet’s target is also the mechanism of cinema and how it serves 
 ideology.” (PFA Program Note)\n\nSince Guy Debord has permanently 
 withdrawn all his films from circulation, Can Dialectics Break Bricks? is 
 virtually the only available example of a situationist use of cinema. 
 Viénet’s film is a far lesser creation than any of Debord’s, but still 
 well worth seeing for its consistent use of the situationist technique of 
 détournement — the diversion of already existing cultural elements to 
 new subversive purposes. Other filmmakers have used aspects of this 
 technique, but only in confused and half-conscious ways, or for purely 
 humorous ends à la Woody Allen’s What’s Up, Tiger Lily?\n\nViénet’s 
 film is even funnier, but its humor comes not so much from its satire of an 
 absurd film genre as from its undermining of the spectacle-spectator 
 relation at the heart of an absurd society. In both its social-critical 
 content and its self-critical form, it presents a striking contrast to the 
 reformist whining and militant ranting that constitute most supposedly 
 radical media. By turning the persuasive power of the medium against itself 
 (characters criticize the plot, their own role in it, and the function of 
 spectacles in general), it constantly counteracts the viewers’ tendency 
 to identify with the cinematic action, reminding them that the real 
 adventure — or lack of it — is in their own lives.\n\n(blurb can be 
 found here: http://www.bopsecrets.org/PS/Vienetfilm.htm)  \n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/08/02/18718768.php
SUMMARY:Occupy the Richmond (District) Movie Night
LOCATION:Westside Art House\n540 Balboa Street\nSan Francisco, CA 94118
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/08/02/18718768.php
DTSTART:20120806T010000Z
DTEND:20120806T030000Z
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