SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents

Part of our POLITICS & THE PERSONAL series! Saturday, May 21, 2022

LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021

*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the building. Make a right on Wilson Street, then a right behind the building. We’re the first set of black steps after the big gate. We’ll have staff to help guide/park you.

6pm CHE PART 1: THE ARGENTINE (2008, dir by Steven Soderbergh, IFC, 134mns, 35mm presentation)

9pm CHE PART 2: THE GUERILLA (2008, dir by Steven Soderbergh, IFC, 135mns, 35mm presentation)

SPECIAL NOTE: We'll be showing CHE Parts 1 & 2 with a 45 minute intermission between the films. There are several restaurants within walking distance and audience will be permitted to bring food inside for the second showing. This is a fascinating epic movie and works best (in this programmer's opinion) screened in one day.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

***ALL AUDIENCE are still required to show proof of vaccination at the door. PLEASE HAVE YOUR VIRTUAL OR PHYSICAL VACCINATION CARD READY BEFORE ENTERING THE THEATER. If you have an exemption, please have proof of a negative PCR level COVID test within 3 days of the screening.

***As of April 1, 2022, masks are now optional for indoor theater events if you're fully vaccinated. Anyone with a vaccination exemption can still attend as long as they have proof of a RT-PCR level negative Covid test ( within 72 hours of the event) but will be required to wear a mask. We will continue to update our protocols with the dynamic situation.

HOW TO:

1)PLEASE BRING YOUR VACCINATION CARD (digital cards accepted).

2)PRE-ORDER ANY CONCESSIONS OR MOVIE MERCHANDISE you would like from the additional Add-Ons. You can pick up all concessions & merchandise at our tables in our lobby prior to the screening.

We will be able to sell concessions & merchandise at the theater. But it will make everything much quicker and easier if you pre-order!

3)PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ANYONE EXHIBITING COVID OR FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS AT THE DOOR, WILL BE OFFERED COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO A FUTURE SHOW AND ASKED TO RETURN WHEN HEALTHY. So please, if you’re feeling sick, just write us at community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer your complimentary tickets to a future screening when you’re healthy. Let’s all do our part to beat this thing so we can go back to the complete movie going experience!

All May 2022, we're running a "POLITICS & THE PERSONAL" series. We're screening some of the most fascinating movies about politics, political movements, and political figures of the last 60 years.

We've worked to curate a selection of movies that personalize and humanize some of the most history affecting figures and moments of the 20th century. At the same time, we salute these movies because they often show the complexities on all sides of an issue and avoid the understandable trap of favoring a side or ideology based on a filmmaker's own personal beliefs or politics.

Rather all these movies are great cinema, great examinations, and great watches.

Tonight we screen Benecio Del Toro's and Steven Soderbergh's CHE PARTS 1 & 2 with a 45 minute intermission between the two movies.

The complete epic examines two key periods of Argentinian political dissident, guerilla fighter, doctor, and committed Communist/Marxist-Leninist Ernesto "Che" Guevara's life.

Part 1: The Argentine examines the period surrounding the Cuban guerillia insurgency with Fidel Castro that led to the overthrow of the government and the installation of Castro as the leader of Cuba (a position he held for over 50 years until his death just 6 years ago in 2016).

Fidel's "right hand co-leader" was Che who was often seen as the more ideologically motivated, determined, and guided of the two. Played with the "performance of a lifetime" committment by Benecio Del Toro, Part 1 shows both the success of the Cuban guerilla insurgency against the pro-Capitalist and pro-American government as well as Che's and Fidel's controversial visits to New York to speak in front of the United Nations.

Part 1 operates as an examination of a "success". All the elements seem to come together for Che and Fidel despite occasional friction/disagreement between the two and those who fight with them. It's here in Part 1 that Che takes on an almost "Lawerence of Arabia" quality while at the same time digging down into what motivated Che, what compromises he was willing to make, how he viewed the importance of organization, commitment, sacrifice, and disciplined armed rebellion to work to bring liberation to colonized/oppressed Latin America.

Part 2: The Guerilla however focuses on Che's failed Bolivian revolution and how its ultimate chaos, inability to work lead to Che's downfall. Part 2 feels as tragic and frustrating as Part 1 feels fascinating and organized.

Soderbergh has gone on the record that the shooting of Che nearly destroyed him. The logistics and stresses of trying to make such an epic movie, often in the jungle, in remote places, on such a limited budget ($58 million for an epic that really needed at least $100 million) was draining for all involved.

And as Soderbergh often points out, movies become strangely documentaries of their own making. And one can feel the entire cast & crew struggling, straining, figuring out solutions to bring an incredibly complex story to life.

Benecio Del Toro so inhabits the role that he accomplishes what only few performers have-a non-iudgemental fully realized performance that feels like neither flattery nor criticism but pure complex ambivalent realization.

The thesis of Che (if there is one and this may be this programmer's own flawed take) is that there are many more elements that go into successful and failed historical moments and actions than are often considered and talked about.

Charismatic, driven, organized leaders and groups of people are ONLY one element. The weather, unpredictable human motivations, emotion, energy, other historical events happening parallel to one's own, can all lift a moment to fly on wings or tear a moment apart like a brittle leaf in a hurricane.

And the elements that might go into a successful moment in one country may be wholely inappropriate for the realities and history of another.

We show Che Parts 1 & 2 not out of some sense that Che was a hero or a model of a revolutionary (though we understand if some in the audience see him that way) nor do we show Che as some kind of condemnation of his behavior.

Rather, we show Che and applaud Soderbergh's and Del Tor's work because of their commitment to try and take a 360 degree fully realized approach to the complexities that drive people to political action, no matter who they are or what they succeed.

Everyone has a reason for feeling the need to get involved in the causes of their country, their people, or the world. Sometimes it's good to examine and consider them rigorously.

Best always,

Craig Hammill

35mm Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR OUR IN-DOOR THEATER SCREENINGS

REFUNDS:

We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.

However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write us at: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening.

HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:

We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.

We will have a staff member on duty to monitor all cars parked in the street-art alleyway at our entrance.

There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.

HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?

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You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter by writing us at community@secretmovieclub.com and using the header “SUBSCRIBE ME TO NEWSLETTER”.

HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:

You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.