TUESDAY FREE MOVIE NIGHT REBORN

7:30 p.m., the first & third Tuesdayz of the month. Don't buckle beneath relentless crushing despair and put an end to your empty life just yet... instead, visit the Iron Rail to enjoy FREE MOVIES in Spanish (with English subtitles) and stick around afterwards for Spanish convo. Burnish those language skills like you've been meaning to!

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NOV 3
El día de la bestia (1995, España)
Dirigida por Álex de la Iglesia. ¿Qué pasa cuando un cura, un roquero satánico y un presentador de un show de la tele traten a evitar el apocalipsis que venga con el paro del anticristo? ¡Hilaridad! Con el Diablo como estralla invitada. 666.
Directed by Álex de la Iglesia. What happens when a priest, a heavy metal head and a tv show host try to stop the birth of the antichrist and the coming apocalypse? Hilarity! With the Devil guest starring. 666.

NOV 17
Machuca (2004,Chile)
Dirigida por Andrés Wood. Un drama histórico centrado sobre tres niños durante a la revolución del Allende y el posterior golpe de estado por Pinochet en 1973. Pro-bablemente, va a llorar por el fin.
Directed by Andrés Wood. Historical drama centered around three kids around the Allende revolution and the subsequent coup by Pinochet in 1973. You will probably cry by the end.

DEC 1
Plata Quemada/Burnt money (2000, Argentina)
Dirigida por Marcelo Piñeyro. Dos mercenarios gayes y calientez en el año 1965 estropean un atraco a un banco, intercambiando disparos y miradas provocativas de pasión. Super elegante.
Directed by Marcelo Piñeyro. Two hottt gay mercenaries in 1965 botch a bank robbery in Buenos Aires, exchanging gunfire and smoldering gazes of passion. Muy Classy.

DEC 15
Película de Disney/ Some Disney Movie (EE.UU)
Dirigida por una Corporación. Disney hace lo mejor doblado (hay que entrar a las cabezas de los jóvenes de todas las lenguas). Entonces vengan y vuelvan a vivir una memoria sórdida de su niñez y cantamos. Hay varios, entonces vamos a hacer el voto.
Directed by a Corporation. Disney does the best dubbing (got to get into the heads of kids no matter the language). So come relive a sordid childhood moment and get to not sing along (unless you’re fluent that is). Got a couple of ‘em, so we’ll vote.

JAN 5
El Topo/The Mole (1970,México)
Dirigida por Alejandro Jodorowsky (Holy Mountain) hace su cosa y haciendo la locura. Una película de sicodélico del oeste. Más hay alegoría y sátira de la historia de México y La Iglesia Católica añadidas. Y también algo del occidental y los yogis, obvio.
Director Alejandro Jodorowsky (Holy Mountain) is doing his thing and making craziness happen. Psychedelic western cult flick. Plus some allegory and satire of Mexican history and the Catholic church thrown in. Oh and some eastern yogi stuff, of course.

JAN 19
!Ay Carmela! (1990, España)
Dirigida por Carlos Saura. Todavía otra película sobre La Guerra Civil en España, y como las otras es muy buena y todavía algo distinta. Un grupo republicano de vodevil se encuentra en el territorio fascista donde son forzada a actuar. Travesuras chifladas y la muerte de una España libre sigan.
Directed by Carlos Saura.
Yet another movie about the Spanish Civil War, and like all the others so good and still something different. A Republican vaudeville group finds themselves in Fascist territory where they are forced to perform. Wacky hijinxs and the death of a free Spain ensue.

YOU LIKE MIKE

This is not a picture of Mike; this is a picture of Charles Mingus, a hero of mine and the subject of a short film being shown tomorrow (Tuesday) night at eight.

If you know collective member Mike, you are likely as fond of him as I am. Mike has been an anchor-- a cornerstone-- of the Rail's existence for quite a while now.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE GOING TO DO WITHOUT HIM? For serious, we are experiencing a critical volunteer shortage!!

But in any case, it's Mike's birthday today-- he's turning 35 or so-- and if you're down for a small, low-key informal dinner gathering to honor one of the collective's Most Valuable Playerz tonight around 8 p.m., holler at me or Gina or "westbank reppin'"

We love ya Mike...

Movie Night

Tuesday 8:00 PM, FREE
Queimada (aka Burn!) (1969)

In Gillo Pontecorvo's epic drama, secret agent and scoundrel Sir William Walker stirs up a revolution in a Caribbean colony. On a mission to help Britain gain control of a Portuguese sugar cane island, Walker incites the locals to rise up against colonist rule. But a decade after the revolt, political problems continue to plague the small nation, and Walker returns to the island to help the crown protect its economic interests. Our short is Chaplins Police.

MOVIE NIGHT

Tuesday, May 12 8:00 PM (FREE)
El Ángel Exterminador (1962) - Luis Buñuel
After a lavish dinner party, the guests find themselves mysteriously unable to leave the room... and over the next few days all the elaborate pretenses and facades that they've built up by virtue of their position in society collapse completely as they become reduced to the people they actually are ...
This quietly hysterical film has languished in obscurity since its release in 1962; as of April this year, Criterion has cleaned it up - most versions were barely watchable public domain copies in horrible condition - and they have done a tremendous job restoring it.

Our short is Jan Svankmeier's The Death of Stalin in Bohemia.

Movie Night

We regret terribly that we cannot show the scheduled film, The Garden. It hasn't been officially released and the makers terms for showing it are astounding and well beyond our budget. So perhaps next year. In the meantime, we will show the excellent 1996 Spanish Civil War drama, Libertarias. Here's a summary from imdb:

As social commentary, Libertarias succeeds incredibly well. Despite the ignorant reviews written by some critics complaining that "90's politics ruin war drama," it is clear to any student of the Spanish conflict that the politics displayed are those of the 1930's. The film roundly criticizes the absurd hypocrisy of the Catholic Spain that Franco and his fascists were defending, illustrated perfectly by a scene in which the nun Maria is forced into bed with a bishop in a brothel - women are expected to be both whores and chaste nuns simultaneously.

As an encapsulation of Spanish (and international) anarchism it also succeeds - the film is peppered with quotes from Bakunin and Kropotkin, Buenaventura Durruti is portrayed as a character (giving his famous "new worlds in our hearts" speech) and the film even goes so far as to portray the ghost of Mateo Morral, an actual historical figure, who in 1906 attempted to assassinate the Spanish royal couple. Unlike Land and Freedom, Libertarias portrays the Spanish Revolution more than the Civil War, showing the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo and Federacion Anarquista de Iberica (CNT-FAI) at their height, in 1936 after having liberated Barcelona from the fascists. This film does an excellent job of correcting many of the slanders launched against anarchism, and of unearthing one of the most important events of the 30's, the Spanish Revolution. For anarchists, this film is a superb vindication that finally shows the movement at its most powerful.

MOVIE NIGHT

Tuesday 8:00 PM - FREE
MODERN TIMES (1936)
The idea of the film was apparently given to Chaplin by a young reporter, who told him about the production line system in Detroit, which was turning its workers into nervous wrecks. In the film, Charlie becomes literally trapped in the machine and, in one of his finest patches of comic invention, is battered and buffeted by an automatic feeding machine introduced by his bosses to save time and money. After his breakdown, he is arrested for 'communism' when he picks up a red flag that has fallen off the back of a truck, and runs down the street to return it, exactly the same time as a left-wing demonstration comes round the corner. He meets 'The Gamine' (Paulette Goddard) in the back of the police van, who has also been arrested for stealing bread. From then on the theme is about two tramps just trying to get along in modern times. "Smile, though your heart is breaking ..."



In place of Jazzfest I have some old performances of Oscar Peterson,Count Basie and Louis Armstrong to play as shorts.

TUESDAY MOVIE

Tuesday, April 14 8:00 PM FREE

IDIOCRACY (2006)
To test its top secret Human Hibernation Project, the Pentagon picks the most average Americans it can find - an Army private and a prostitute - and sends them to the year 2505 after a series of freak events. But when they arrive, they find a civilization so dumbed-down and so relentlessly stupid that they're the smartest people around. Mike Judge and Etan Cohen reteamed for this futuristic, utterly hysterical farce (or documentary, depending on your point of view). Our short is 1986's Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Come count the Camaros!

TUESDAY FILM NIGHT

TUESDAY MARCH 31 8:00PM
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)

After a young girl receives a pair of bewitched earrings, her world is turned topsy-turvy. Soon, vampires and lascivious priests disrupt the girl's sleep, ravaging her innocence and awakening the woman within. From one of Czechoslovakia's top New Wave directors, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders blurs the line between fantasy and reality with a decidedly sexy emphasis.

TUESDAY FREE MOVIE

Orpheus (1950)

Jean Cocteau's 1950 film is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and
Eurydice; the film updates the action to post-war Paris, with Orpheus as a
famous but dissatisfied poet. Cocteau turns the everyday world into a magical realm: mirrors turn to pools which are portals to other worlds, and car radios pick up coded messages from the underworld. Orpheus is nominally about a fascination with death, but Cocteau finds room to examine the role of artists in modern society and how they function as observers, social critics and trailblazers in an increasingly fractured world.

TUESDAY FILM NIGHT

March 17
8:00 PM - FREE
SOLYARIS (1972)

Director Andrei Tarkovsky's science fiction cult classic presents an uncompromisingly unique and poetic meditation on space travel and its physical and existential ramifications. Scientist Kris Kelvin travels to the mysterious planet Solaris to investigate the failure of an earlier mission. When his long-dead wife appears on the space station, he realizes that the planet has the power to perceive human desires and make them a reality. Leave your ADHD at home for this one.

Tuesday Movie

Feb. 10: Ran (1985)

Akira Kurosawa's extravagant retelling of King Lear is set in 16th century Japan and tells the story of the Great Lord Hidetora Ichimonji, who at the age of seventy, after years of consolidating his empire and ruthlessly exterminating all opposition, decides to abdicate and divide his domain amongst his three sons. The youngest defies the pledge of obedience and is banished. He warns his father: “You have spilled an ocean of blood. You showed no mercy, no pity. We too are children of this age, weaned on strife and chaos ...” When inter-filial squabbling erupts, the tragic engine of this film starts firing on all cylinders as Hidetora is dropped into a nightmarish hell of civil war and madness as his comeuppance for a lifetime of inflicting misery comes due, along the way receiving an earful of choice dialogue from his former court jester. One of the most stirring tragedies ever put to film.

For a flyer for our film schedule please see the link on the right, "See what's playing"

Tuesday Movie

Feb. 3: F For Fake (1974)
Orson Welles' brilliant, multi-layered, free-form cinematic essay on fakery focuses on the notorious art forger Elmyr de Hory and his biographer, Clifford Irving, who also wrote the celebrated fraudulent Howard Hughes autobiography, then touches on the reclusive Hughes and Welles' own career (which started with a faked resume and a phony Martian invasion). More than simply about fakery, Welles uses this theme as a means to discuss authorship, authenticity and the nature of expertise. “If a faker can fool an expert” Welles' magician narrator asks, “who is the expert, and who is the faker?” On the way, Welles plays a few tricks of his own on the audience.