KinoTopia 068: BBBC (Bulleke-Bek Brunswick Cinema)
Digby sat down with the collective BBBC
BBBC (Bulleke-Bek Brunswick Cinema)
Address: Studio 8, level 1 7A Hope St
Further information:
https://www.facebook.com/BBBCinema
https://www.gallerygalleryinc.com/
https://www.instagram.com/gallerygalleryinc/
Interview conducted by Digby Houghton
In an homage to the lettrist-influenced interests of the film club BBBC (Bulleke-Bek Brunswick Cinema) I might begin where my conversation ended with the group’s organisers: Cristóbal Escobar (lecturer in screen studies at Melbourne University), brothers Josh and Jake Wilson (Josh an artist and head of special projects at GalleryGallery Inc [GG], and Jake a film critic at The Age) and Laine Stewart (also an artist and Director of GG). Cris finished our conversation paraphrasing a quote from the Italian author Italo Calvino. “There are two ways of escaping this hell. The first one is by living so close to it that you no longer see it. But the second one which requires vigilance and attitude is…making sure what hell is and trying to avoid it by creating spaces of resistance…and so the only way that you can create an alternative world is by enduring those small spaces.” Cris distilled the ethos and enigma of the BBBC in this single anecdote.
The BBBC is the annual screen festival of local subsistence experimental art gallery, GalleryGallery Inc, in Hope Street Studios; a decommissioned factory turned studio complex in Brunswick on the corner of Hope St and Ovens St. Walking up the flights of stairs I’m aware the space is a site of resistance as mid-rise developments sprout up around the building – it still maintains its old-school charm, a large rusted machine is positioned near the kitchen. The cinema is positioned in the gallery exhibition space of GG. Describing the organisation to me Josh explains it “is a non-for-profit place for the public for public engagement with art. So, it's a cooperative of a wide range of people…and it's a cultural insurgency.” When I ask about the space’s position within the mainstream and the underground, Laine is quick to remind me “that's the nature of underground culture. It always pushes…it is the avant-garde that eventually gets into the mainstream.” This notion of insurgency is particularly important when chatting about the BBBC which started in 2020 through a COVID grant.
Josh says “[they] ran a project which is currently dormant called the BBISM (the Brunswick-Bulleke Bek International Screen Marathon). And that r[a]n, dusk till dawn every Friday and Saturday in the years of 2020 and 2021.” Later, a member of the gallery donated a carpet. With a projector and enthusiasts of film like Jake and Cris it seemed like a natural fit to program a cinema season. Cris specialises in Latin-American cinema, growing up in Chile and his screening of Ana Vaz’s It Is Night in America last year proved fruitful. This year ACMI partnered with Senses of Cinema and programmed the film alongside the 109th dossier launch (which Cris edited with Melbourne academic Barbara Creed). Speaking of the importance of last year’s screening Cris notes, “three of the papers in the dossier are writing on It's Night in America, and two of those people saw the film at the BBBC including Tessa Laird and myself.”
Pinpointing inception dates may seem trivial or banal to an institution founded on cultural insurgency, but Jake offers a nostalgic attachment from which BBBC may have been birthed. Speaking of growing up in Thornbury, Jake mentions the Valhalla cinema (now the Westgarth) and its frequent programs of The Blues Brothers (with dress-ups) and sci-fi marathons. Reflecting on this era Jake notes “if you played something in a different context and it’s part of a marathon or you’ve got a million people dressed up or something, it becomes something different. It becomes a different sort of event.” Later, Jake quotes the newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane who says, in Orson Welles’ 1941 film Citizen Kane: “I think it would be fun to run a newspaper.” Speaking of the cinema’s inception Jake reminds me “it's that idea that it would be fun to run a movie theatre.” This same fanaticism and enthusiasm dominate this year’s program which is one of the BBBC’s most daring.
I should begin where the calendar starts. Jake programmed seven silent films to be screened before dawn. The program has passed but it featured Carl Boese and Paul Wegener’s 1920 film The Golem: How He Came into the World and Frank Borzage’s 1922 The Valley of Silent Men. Speaking of the inception behind the program Jake returns to the point of paying attention. He states that he doesn’t want people to leave “thinking ‘we saw a film at 6 a.m. wasn't that an amazing event’”. For Jake it’s about raising awareness for those who bothered to come “about Mary Pickford or Frank Borzage.” He concludes by saying that “if you bothered to come out at 6am you're probably going to pay attention.” Whilst I was not present Cris notifies me that the program was very successful and at least a handful of people attended each of these screenings.
The calendar also features collaborations with film collectives like MAFI (Mapa Flimico de un País) and the return of the Factory House Band as well as guest curation from the French Film Society (located out of Melbourne University), Richard Munro and myself (James Clayden’s Melbourne-set neo-noir With Time to Kill). But the program is underpinned by a genuine concern with the ethics of film – a topic that is spoken about extensively by the crew in relation to copyright and licensing. Given the spaces ticketed system there needed to be a concern for the ethics of distribution which has led to fruitful alternatives. Josh explains “one year we showed some of the most amazing films from Brazil because Jake was very concerned about copyright and apparently in 1960s Brazil there [was] no copyright.” Jake qualifies this later by saying that while copyright terms for films are shorter in Brazil than in most countries, in hindsight he’s not certain how much actual significance this has under Australian law.
On the topic of piracy Cris says that “piracy is a means as much as an end in itself otherwise this film couldn't be seen but once [people] are seeing it, things start happening in favour of the work that we are showing.” This also returns to the success of Cris’ recent “official” Australian premiere of Ana Vaz’s It is Night in America, an eco-critical experimental film shot on expired film in the city of Brasilia.
Headless is often referred throughout the interview by Cris as well as metaphors of seeds being planted and cross-pollinated. The BBBC feels like a return to the past and an attempt to renew the importance of film culture. It felt particularly poignant hearing Jake ruminate on the relevance of old movies: “the further back you go in movies the more you have that feeling of…summoning ghosts you're summoning a part of the past.” Hopefully the ghosts summoned come in peace in our alternative world
Screening: Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays till July 13, with doors opening 6.30pm for a start time of 7pm.
WEEKLY FILM LISTINGS
Thurs 6 June - 13 June
Multiple venues starting today
Program here
Matinees
Monster
Hirokazu Koreeda, 2023
Screening Fri - Sun
New Voices in Australian Cinema
Sunflower
Gabriel Carrubba, 2023
Screening Tuesday
No screening this week
ASTOR CINEMA
Inglorious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino, 2009
Screening Sat
The Muppets Take Manhattan
Frank Oz, 1984
Screening Sunday
Citizen Kane
Orson Welles, 1940
Screening Sunday
The Good the Bad the Ugly
Sergio Leone, 1966
Screening Monday
BBBC CINEMA (GALLERYGALLERY BRUNSWICK)
Go here for program
No screening this week
CHINATOWN CINEMA
Haiku!! The Dumpster Battle
Susumu Mitsunaka, 2024
Screening Daily
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wes Ball, 2024
Screening Daily
I Love You, to the Moon, and Back
Wei-Jan Liu, 2024
Screening Wednesday
CINÉ-CLUB (Carlton)
Closed for winter
No screening this week
New Release
The Beast
Bertrand Bonello, 2023
Screening Daily
All About my Mother
Pedro Almodovar, 1999
Screening Daily
Radical
Christopher Zalla, 2023
Screening Thursday
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
George Miller, 2024
Screening Daily
A Great Friend
Eric Besnard, 2023
Screening Daily
General Release
The Way, My Way
Bill Bennett, 2024
Screening Daily
The Three Musketeers: D'artagnan
Martin Bourboulon, 2023
Screening Daily
Housekeeping for Beginners
Goran Stolevski, 2023
Screening daily
Monster
Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2023
Screening daily
Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus
Neo Sora, 2023
Weekend Screenings
Fremont
Babak Jalali, 2023
Screening Daily
The Taste of Things
Tran Anh Hung, 2023
Screening Daily
The Teacher’s Lounge
Ilker Çatak, 2023
Screening Daily
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino, 2024
Screening Daily
Freud’s Last Session
Matt Brown, 2023
Screening Daily
Evil Does Not Exist
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2023
Screening Daily
La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher, 2023
Screening Daily
DOGMILK DEGUSTATIONS: @ Miscellania
No screening week
Check the Facebook
GAY24 (Bar Flippy’s)
No screening this week
HITLIST (9 Gertrude St, Fitzroy)
Shut for now
LIDO / CLASSIC / CAMEO
General Release
Radical
Christopher Zalla, 2023
Screening Thursday
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
George Miller, 2024
Screening Daily
The Way, My Way
Bill Bennett, 2024
Screening Daily
Housekeeping for Beginners
Goran Stolevski, 2023
Screening daily
Golda
Guy Nattiv, 2023
Screening Daily
Monster
Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2023
Screening daily
Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus
Neo Sora, 2023
Weekend Screenings
Fremont
Babak Jalali, 2023
Screening Daily
The Taste of Things
Tran Anh Hung, 2023
Screening Daily
The Teacher’s Lounge
Ilker Çatak, 2023
Screening Daily
Spy X Family Code White
Takashi Katagiri, 2024
Screening daily
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino, 2024
Screening Daily
Freud’s Last Session
Matt Brown, 2023
Screening Daily
Evil Does Not Exist
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2023
Screening Daily
Late Night with the Devil
Cairnes Brothers’, 2023
Screening Daily
Civil War
Alex Garland, 2023
Screening Daily
OVA CLUB
No screening this week
THE MELBOURNE CINÉMATHÈQUE (ACMI)
Writing with Her Eyes: Suso Cecchi D’amico, Screenwriter as Observer
Le Amiche
Michelangelo Antonioni, 1976
+
The Passionate Thief
Michelangelo Antonioni, 1953
Screening Wednesday 29 May from 7pm
TOP OF THE HEAP (Tramway Hotel)
No screening this week
No screening this week
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY: SCREENING IDEAS
No screening this week
PALACE BALWYN / BRIGHTON / COMO / KINO / PENTRIDGE / MOONEE PONDS / WESTGARTH
German Film Festival - Tickets Here
General Release
Radical
Christopher Zalla, 2023
Screening Thursday
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
George Miller, 2024
Screening Daily
A Great Friend
Eric Besnard, 2023
Screening Daily
The Way, My Way
Bill Bennett, 2024
Screening Daily
The Three Musketeers: D'artagnan
Martin Bourboulon, 2023
Screening Daily
Fremont
Babak Jalali, 2023
Screening Daily
The Taste of Things
Tran Anh Hung, 2023
Screening Daily
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino, 2024
Screening Daily
Freud’s Last Session
Matt Brown, 2023
Screening Daily
La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher, 2023
Screening Daily
Late Night with the Devil
Cairnes Brothers’, 2023
Screening Daily
Civil War
Alex Garland, 2023
Screening Daily
No screening this week
General Release
Radical
Christopher Zalla, 2023
Screening Thursday
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
George Miller, 2024
Screening Daily
The Way, My Way
Bill Bennett, 2024
Screening Daily
Housekeeping for Beginners
Goran Stolevski, 2023
Screening daily
Golda
Guy Nattiv, 2023
Screening Daily
Monster
Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2023
Screening daily
Fremont
Babak Jalali, 2023
Screening Daily
The Taste of Things
Tran Anh Hung, 2023
Screening Daily
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino, 2024
Screening Daily
Freud’s Last Session
Matt Brown, 2023
Screening Daily
Robot Dreams
Pablo Berger, 2023
Screening Daily
La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher, 2023
Screening Daily
Late Night with the Devil
Cairnes Brothers’, 2023
Screening Daily
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Jim Jarmusch, 1999
Screening Thursday
La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher
Screening Thursday, Sat, Sun, Tues
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
George Miller, 2024
Screening Friday, Wed
High and Low - John Galliano
Jevin Macdonald, 2024
Screening Friday, Sunday, Mon, Wed
La Haine
Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995
Screening Saturday, Mon
Beetlejuice
Tim Burton, 1988
Screening Sat
Mulholland Drive
David Lynch, 2002
Screening Sat
Trainspotting
Danny Boyle, 1996
Screening Sun
Eraserhead
David Lynch, 1977
Screening Tuesday
Monster
Kore-eda Hirokazu, 2023
Screening Wednesday
Perfect Days
Wim Wenders, 2023
Screening Wednesday
Mars Express
Jérémie Périn, 2023
Screening Wednesday
UNKNOWN PLEASURES @ Thornbury Picture House
No screening this week - shut until July