Cine Manifest: A Radical 1970s Film Collective

June 20–30, 2019

Active in the 1970s, the Bay Area–based political film collective Cine Manifest is little known today, but their works still speak to our own troubled times. Former members join us to reminisce and present their works in person.

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The Prairie Trilogy
Northern Lights
Over-Under, Sideways-Down
Cine Manifest

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Past Films

The Prairie Trilogy
John Hanson, Rob Nilsson
United States, 1978-80
Thursday, June 20 7 PM
Rob Nilsson in Person
John Hanson and Rob Nilsson uncover a forgotten progressive history with this rousing trilogy of shorts on the life of North Dakota poet and socialist organizer Henry Martinson, that “sunniest of radicals” (Village Voice).
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Northern Lights
John Hanson, Rob Nilsson
United States, 1978
Sunday, June 23 7 PM
Rob Nilsson in Person
This winner of the 1979 Camera d'Or prize at Cannes is a stunning, gritty re-creation of Midwestern agrarian life circa 1915, tracing the origins of the Nonpartisan League, a short-lived grassroots political movement against corporate takeovers.
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Over-Under, Sideways-Down
Eugene Corr, Steve Wax, Peter Gessner
United States, 1977
Thursday, June 27 7 PM
Eugene Corr and Steve Wax in Person
This East Bay–made drama explores the politics of everyday life in America through the experiences of a working-class couple caught between their assembly-line reality and a dream of stepping up. “A deeply sensitive, perceptive film, and an important precursor to a whole host of independent American films to come” (Anthology Film Archives).
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Cine Manifest
Judy Irola
United States, 2006
Sunday, June 30 4:30 PM
Judy Irola and Cine Manifest Members in Person
Cine Manifest member Judy Irola documents the collective’s reunion after thirty years in this frank, often hilarious investigation of the hopes, ideals, and sometimes messy realities of life in a leftist 1970s film collective.
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Cine Manifest: A Radical 1970s Film Collective

June 20–30, 2019

This series offers a glimpse into an intriguing, largely forgotten bit of local history. Cine Manifest, a Bay Area–based political film collective, made a few key films in the 1970s that addressed reality in all its messiness, particularly the daily challenges of those on the bottom rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. Collective members Eugene Corr, Peter Gessner, John Hanson, Judy Irola, Stephen Lighthill, Rob Nilsson, and Steve Wax engaged in what they’ve called “a social experiment” to make films that “might actually say something.” Their collaborative approach included discussions organized around memos outlining their political and aesthetic aspirations—“People inspire people. Facts don’t”—with the goal of integrating a critical process into their creative one. Corr observed in Cine Manifest, the 2006 documentary detailing the group’s history, “I think we were all a little lost . . . looking for roots to connect us to something deeper and more historic. It’s interesting that we made Over-Under, [Sideways-Down], a film about a factory worker, and that we made Northern Lights, a film about farmers.” As Wax further noted, it was unusual at the time to make politically inflected films that focused on individual lives instead of directly tackling broader issues. This impulse is apparent in the recently restored The Prairie Trilogy, a series of short documentaries featuring Henry Martinson, a political organizer in North Dakota, who is also heard in the hybrid Northern Lights, the collective's best-known film. Emerging from a particular moment in time, these films are just as vital to our own messy times.

Kathy Geritz, Film Curator

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Thanks to Eugene Corr, John Hanson, Judy Irola, Rob Nilsson, Stephen Lighthill, Steve Wax, Nels Bangerter; Jacob Perlin and George Schmalz, Metrograph; Andrew Adair, Cinema Conservancy; and Jed Rapfogel, Anthology Film Archives.

Cine Manifest: A Radical 1970s Film Collective

June 20–30, 2019

Past Films

The Prairie Trilogy

Northern Lights

Over-Under, Sideways-Down

Cine Manifest