Film Club (1968) documents the vitality of the 16mm production workshops that took place both at Rivington Street and the Henry Street Settlement's Movie Club, founded by Bruce Spiegel. Barrios' film draws us into the enthusiasm of collective creativity involving more than a thousand students over the years, including hands-on experience with cameras and celluloid, the shooting of five films, and editing and sound post-production desks, as well as their particular format of distribution via the Moviebus throughout the five boroughs of New York, often projecting the films directly onto the walls of buildings.
With the support of the New York State Council on the Arts and using rudimentary means, the great formal and thematic diversity of the young filmmakers is testimony to their aspirations, frustrations, dreams and pleasures. Creating new links between the underground art of New York and Latin America, they reinvented cinema to the rhythm of the Beatles, Willie Colón, Bob Dylan and Ray Barreto, formulating a particular vision of masculinity through toy cars (Superbug), psychedelia and drug use (Hip Jean Jeannie), a lyrical look at teenage love (Young Love), marginality and rebellion (Young Braves) and a profound outpouring of anger in the face of the Vietnam War (America's Best).
Film Club, Jaime Barrios, 1968, 16 mm, 26'; Superbug, Anthony Joseph, 1972, 16mm, 8'; Young Love, Linda Rivera, 1970, 16mm to digital, 6'; Hip Jean Jeannie, Fred Pérez, 1970, 16mm to digital, 9'; Young Braves, Michael Jacobsohn, 1968, 16mm to digital, 9'; America's Best, Michael Jacobsohn, 1970, 16mm to digital, 15'.
16 mm and digital projection.
Film Club copy from The Film-Makers' Cooperative. Remaining copies from Michael Jacobsohn, courtesy of the artists. Thanks to Jessica Gordon-Burroughs.
