2017

On September 11, 1973, the democratically-elected socialist government in Chile was overthrown in a bloody coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. The Battle of Chile is an outstanding three part documentary film, which catalogues the events leading up to the country’s open and peaceful revolution, the election of President Salvador Allende, and the violent right-wing counter-revolution.

The film won countless awards on the international film festival circuit and this is an extremely rare opportunity to see all three instalments in one sitting. David Archibald and Maria Velez-Serna, with Martín Farías, researcher in Chilean cinema at the University of Edinburgh, will facilitate an interrupted screening, with the film paused at certain moments throughout for questions and discussion.

12pm-6pm

Free, but ticketed.

In association with Screen Seminars at Glasgow.

‘Bo’ Gritz is one of America’s highest decorated Vietnam veterans and the alleged real-life inspiration behind Rambo. A contentious public figure, he also killed 400 people, turned against Washington and moved to the Nevada desert where he now sleeps with many weapons. Filmed over ten years using impressive visual material, Andrea Luka Zimmerman’s portrait of Bo is an inquiry into the nature of human conscience and the limits of deniability, and embodies contemporary American society in all its dizzying complexity and contradictions.

Presented in collaboration with LUX Scotland. This screening is free to all SUPERLUX members.

We will be joined after the screening for a Q&A with Filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Director of LUX Scotland, Nicole Yip.

Moving through the corridors and bowels of an enormous and disorientating structure, the camera takes the viewer on a descent down to a dehumanized place of physical labor and intense hardship. This gigantic textile factory in Gujarat, India might just as well be the decorum for a 21st century Dante’s Inferno. In his mind-provoking yet intimate portrayal, director Rahul Jain observes the life of the workers, the suffering and the environment they can hardly escape from. With strong visual language, memorable images and carefully selected interviews of the workers themselves, Jain tells a story of inequality, oppression and the huge divide between rich, poor and the perspectives of both.

One man’s remarkable journey: from diplomat to anarchist. British diplomat Carne Ross worked on Iraq and its WMD, and resigned from the government over its lies before the 2003 invasion. His extraordinary personal and political odyssey culminates in a remarkable encounter with new forms of democracy in the midst of war – in Rojava, Syria. A profound examination of the political and economic problems that confront the world.

We will be joined after the screening for a Q&A with co-director John Archer.

Young Alexei is openly homosexual. Although his peers have no problem with his sexual orientation, his mother is unable to accept it. This documentary portrait follows Alexei during summer break, as he spends time with his new lover Grisha. The film takes an unusual observational approach in that the camera is often right up against people’s bodies and faces during impassioned discussions, arguments, or testimony. Provocative, confrontational and unapologetic.

Presented in collaboration with SQIFF, Scottish Queer International Film Festival.

A foremost Czech documentarist with a unique authorial vision challenges us once and for all to stop perceiving autism as a medical diagnosis and try to understand it as a fascinating way of thinking that’s often maddeningly difficult to decipher. Because who’s to determine what’s normal – living in a constant rush while disregarding the absurdity of modern life, or wistfully seeking order, peace and tranquility in the world?

This is an autism-friendly screening.