24 January - Maidens in Uniform

Now acknowledged as an early classic of gay cinema, Mädchen in Uniform / Maidens in Uniform is an atmospheric 1931 film so reviled by the Nazis that that they attempted – unsuccessfully – to destroy every copy.

Set in a Prussian board­ing school for the daughters of officers and the bourgeoisie, it follows the part-tragic story of an unhappy pupil, Manuela whose crush on her angelic teacher, Fraulein Von Bernburg ruffles the feathers of the demonic Headmistress.

The films starts at 7.45 and will be followed by discussion.

Entry to film £3 or £2 for unwaged, low waged, students or OAPs.

13 December - Memories of Underdevelopment

Memories of Underdevelopment is a seminal and unconventional film about gender roles in post-revolutionary Cuba.

Plot and perspective are organized around the character of Sergio, a bourgeois aspiring writer who stays in Cuba even when his wife and family leave the country.

A manipulative womanizer, Sergio likes to watch women from his privileged position of a high-up flat in Havanna, and he comments on them extensively. After his wife escapes (from him or from Cuba?) to the U.S., he becomes involved with the teenager Elena, who is only just discovering her sexuality – and this involvement eventually becomes his downfall.

The films starts at 7.45 and will be followed by discussion.

Entry to film £3 or £2 for unwaged, low waged, students or OAPs.

22 November - Viva Mexico!

For this one off screening, we are lucky to have the director of this new documentary about the Zapatistas, Nicolas Défossé, over from France for a special screening of Viva Mexico! This is a collaborative screening with Manchester Zapatista Solidarity Group

City of Los Angeles, USA. In the heart of the city, undocumented Mexican immigrants are hunted by the police and struggle to earn a living without losing their identity.

On the other side of the border, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico, dawn arrives, hidden in mist. It is January 1st, 2006; thousands of indigenous Zapatistas prepare to say farewell to their spokesman Subcomandante Marcos.

His mission: to travel across the country for the next six months to learn from the resistance of Mexican men and women who fight for a better Mexico. A journey that’s meant to reach the other side of the country begins... A journey that dares to “start building the image of the people we really are.”

This challenge is not made without risk. What starts as an isolated murmur grows to become the clamor of hundreds of thousands: Viva Mexico! How will those in power respond?

The films starts at 7.45 and will be followed by discussion with Nicolas Défossé.

Entry to film £3 or £2 for unwaged, low waged, students or OAPs.

18 October - Breaking News and other protest shorts

An evening of shorts films on policing and portest, built around Undercurrents’ award winning documentary, Breaking News.

The film investigates how the UK police control the national news agenda. Police video surveillance at demonstrations leads to arrests of journalists and, repeatedly, reporters are released without charge once their news deadlines have passed.

Undercurrents recorded incidents of reporters being arrested for filming police misbehaviour - and even for fogretting the PIN on their Press Card! A fantastic documentary, not to be missed.

The films starts at 7.45 and will be followed by discussion.

Film suggestions for the next theme - sex/uality

We have a new theme for the film co-operative's next series - sex/uality.

We've not got too long to decide the films to be shown as part of this, but we'd love to get your film suggestions or thoughts on those that have been suggested.

Once we've got the ideas in, we'll hold a meeting- which everyone can attend - to choose the best options.

Please post up by commenting below . . .

September 20 - Overheard

From the writer and directors of the superb “Infernal Affairs” movies, “Overheard” is a gripping, enthralling and ultimately tragic story of a trio of police officers conducting surveillance on a trading company with ties to a suspected criminal overlord.

The film begins with the police officers entering the company’s premises after hours and planting bugs and hidden cameras. In a pivotal moment of the film, they elect to keep their newly obtained information to themselves, in order to conduct a little inside trading.

The films starts at 7.45 and will be followed by discussion led by film lecturer Andy Willis.

Entry to film £3 or £2 for unwaged, low waged, students or OAPs.

23 August - Hidden Agenda

An implicit condemnation of the repressive tactics of the British government in Northern Ireland. When an American attorney working for a humanitarian group who is investigating the torture of IRA prisoners is killed in Belfast, Inspector Kerrigan is sent to investigate the crime.

He’s joined by Sullivan’s fiancee, a lawyer working for the Intenrational League of Civil Liberties. They learn that he had been given a tape by a former British army officer named Harris that contained highly incriminating material concerning the activities of the British government.

This well-made, low-key political thriller was highly controversial upon its release because it cited real names and events in presenting its case for the existence of a conspiracy at the highest levels of the British government.

The films starts at 7.45 and will be followed by discussion led Michael Herbert of the Working Class Movement Library.

Entry to film £3 or £2 for unwaged, low waged, students or OAPs.

19 July - We Live in Public

We Live in Public is the story of the internets revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of internet pioneer and visionary, Josh Harris.

Though once considered the godfather of the downtown Internet scene in NYC in the 90s, known far and wide for his outrageous parties, innovations in chat, streaming audio and the creation of the first online television network, Harris is but a footnote in history at this point all because he took his experiments with the Internet and media consumption too far.

Director Ondi Timoner focuses on the legendary, million-dollar millennium party 'Quiet', an experiment in voluntary submission to mass surveillance. The party, which took place at an abandoned loft-manufacturing building on lower Broadway, featured over 90 Japanese-hotel-style pods where artists lived, played, worked, and celebrated.

This was followed by Harris's submission of his own life, and new relationship to constant surveillance, whose disturbing results are like a pre-history of our current Web 2.0/Reality TV era.

The films starts at 7.45 and will be followed by discussion.

Entry to film £3 or £2 for unwaged, low waged, students or OAPs.

24 May - Erasing David

Filmmaker David Bond lives in the UK, one of the most intrusive surveillance states in the world. In this documentary, he decides to find out how much private companies and the government know about him by putting himself under surveillance and attempting to disappear a decision that changes his life forever.

Leaving his pregnant wife and young child behind, he is tracked across the database state on a chilling journey that forces him to contemplate the meaning of privacy and the loss of it.

As always, the films starts at 7.45 and will be followed by discussion.

Entry to film £3 or £2 for unwaged, low waged, students or OAPs.

19 April - Monkey Warfare and I Bike Mcr

To coincide with the I Bike Mcr festival, we'll be having an evening of ever so slightly anarchist films about bikes.

As well as some nice shorts, we'll be showing Monkey Warfare, a 2006 film about two ex-revolutionaries living underground who have their lives turned upside down by a young radical who goes from smashing SUVs to fighting gentrification with bombs.

The evening will be run by Nes from I Bike Mcr.

As always, the films starts at 7.45 and will be followed by discussion.

Entry to film £3 or £2 for unwaged, low waged, students or OAPs.