7pm *FREE*
Building a Broken Mousetrap
(Jem Cohen with Matt Boyd, US/Netherlands, 63 min., video, 2006)
Preceded by Jem Cohen's Blessed Are the Dreams of Men (11 min, 2006)
Following his feature-length documentaries on the musicians Fugazi (Instrument) and Benjamin (Benjamin Smoke), Cohen documents the Dutch anarchist punk band The Ex. Beautifully shot in black and white 16mm and over-saturated DV, Building a Broken Mousetrap captures the band, 25 years after their formation, giving an intense and exhilarating performance in NYC during (and in opposition to) the 2004 Republican convention. Interspersed with the concert footage are long, languid shots of a city suffused with contested sites and rough demonstrations of wealth and power.
