Illegal_Cinema

Illegal_Cinema is about showing and watching, talking and listening, looking and going deeper. We can also get bored, fall asleep or shift uncomfortably in our seats. Every session is different; different people suggest something for us to watch together. And then we talk about what we’ve seen.

So things don’t just stay inside our own heads.

So whoever has already watched it can listen.

So whoever didn’t know about it now does.

Someone suggests some kind of audiovisual material – however they want to understand that. The space can be used to watch it in a different way; perhaps the proponent feels like watching something they never have but would like to; or it might not even be a film.

The only rule is that you can’t propose or screen anything you’ve made yourself, which takes some of the responsibility off you.

There’s a wide range of possibilities – you decide.

There’s a discussion after each session. Almost everyone ends up saying something. It’s wonderful to be able to take apart what we’ve seen, and it ends with a smile, with no holding back and with our minds on fire.

Illegal_Cinema was conceived in 2007 in Belgrade by Marta Popivoda, a member of Walking Theory-TkH, as a form of community self-education. Special editions followed in Zagreb and Istanbul in 2008-2009, and in 2010 TkH set up another Illegal_Cinema at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris. In December the same year Marta Popivoda presented Illegal_Cinema at Bulegoa z/b, and it has been running in Bilbao since then. Jorge Núñez, Cristian Villavicencio, Leire San Martin, Marion Cruza Le Bihan, Ainara Elgoibar and Pablo Marte, and Akane Saravia and Aizpea de Atxa together have all coordinated the programme until now, and our current coordinator is Akane Saraiva. If you’d like to propose a film or audiovisual, please contact Akane at any of the Illegal_Cinema sessions, or at bulegoa@bulegoa.org or a.saraivarando@gmail.com.