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Alien Nation: The Cinema of Michel Lipkes

When:
Venue: Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square

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Alien Nation: The Cinema of Michel Lipkes

Presented by Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, Birkbeck Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies, and Close-Up Film Centre

Friday 21 October (Birkbeck) and Saturday 22 October (Close-Up) 

Book here for 22 October screenings at Close-Up Film Centre 

 

Mexican filmmaker Michel Lipkes has dedicated much of his professional life to programming, by means of which he has been able to participate in many festivals and institutions such as Cineteca Nacional, Guadalajara International Film Festival, and FICUNAM (former artistic director). He has also collaborated as a producer with Raya Martin, Manuela Laborde, Philippe Grandrieux, Lav Diaz, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Mara and Eugenio Polgovsky. His perhaps lesser-known filmography reveals an original talent that explores human solitude and yearning in a context of overwhelming urban alienation, in which relationships of power condition existential predicaments. His films convey a sense of cinema based on a variety of influences that go from Nicholas Ray to Robert Bresson and from Samuel Beckett to JG Ballard. These references enrich his fictionalised portrayals of a contemporary Mexican reality in which people are marginalised within a space that crushingly determines their fate.

 

Programme 1, Birkbeck Cinema, 18:00, Friday 21 October 2022

Films: The Legless Boy Cannot Dance (El niño sin piernas no puede bailar), Michel Lipkes, Mexico, 2008, Colour, 23 minutes

Malaventura, Michel Lipkes, Mexico, 2011, Colour, 67 minutes

Followed by a Q&A with Michel Lipkes

 

The Legless Boy Cannot Dance (El niño sin piernas no puede bailar), Michel Lipkes, Mexico, 2008, Colour, 23 minutes

A boy lives with and takes care of an old man. One day, the old man dies, and the boy is left alone. As he wanders across a country field, he finds a piglet, and they become friends. He unsuccessfully tries to communicate with the animal until one day it disappears, and the boy is once again left alone.Director: Michel Lipkes

Production: Milko Luis Coronel; Screenplay: Maximiliano Cruz, Michel Lipkes; Director of photography: Gerardo Barroso Alcalá; Music: Galo Durán; Starring: Sebastian Alvarado, Domingo Diaz Ordaz

 

Malaventura, Michel Lipkes, Mexico, 2011, Colour, 67 minutes

An old man roams Mexico City's streets on the last day of his life. Memories burden him, guilt drives him as pain takes shape. He carries on until the very end, while life continues in its strange ways.

Director: Michel Lipkes; Screenplay: Fernando del Razo, Michel Lipkes; Production: Michel Lipkes, Milko Luis Coronel, Paula Astorga; Director of photography: Gerardo Barroso Alcalá; Music: Galo Duran; Starring: Isaac Lopez

 

Programme 2, Close-Up Film Centre, 20:15, Saturday 22 October 2022

Films: Spitting Against the Wind (Escupir contra el viento), Michel Lipkes, Mexico, 2005, Colour, 28 minutes

Strange But True (Extraño pero verdadero), México, 2017, Black and white, 91 minutes

Followed by a Q&A with Michel Lipkes

 

Spitting Against the Wind (Escupir contra el viento), Michel Lipkes, Mexico, 2005, Colour, 28 minutes

Cyrille Henry Revueltas is a young musician, who after finishing school in Mexico City lived in Brussels and suffered many tribulations due to his alcohol addiction. Coming out of rehab in the city of Chihuahua, he decides to restart his life.

Director: Michel Lipkes; Screenplay: Michel Lipkes; Production: Michel Lipkes; Director of photography: Matías Meyer; Sound: Léon Felipe Gonzalez; Music: Cyrille Henri Revueltas; Starring: Cyrille Henri Revueltas

 

Strange But True (Extraño pero verdadero), México, 2017, Black and white, 91 minutes

The love story between Jonathan and Yesi, two trash collectors who work under the authority of a despotic and violent crew leader.

Director: Michel Lipkes; Screenplay: Gabriel Reyes, Michel Lipkes; Production: Michel Lipkes, Matias Meyer; Director of photography: Gerardo Barroso Alcalá; Music: Galo Duran; Starring: Krystian Ferrer, Itzel Sarmientos, Luis Enrique Parra, Alfredo Blanco

 

 

 

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