The re:assemblage collective presents Farzad Moloudi’s intimate documentary Zone Zero (2015), followed by a discussion with the director.

Wednesday, 04 January 2017, 7 PM
Followed by Skype Q+A with the director
Tickets at the door: $5-10 suggested donation

Trinity Square Video is excited to support the re:assemblage collective in presenting a screening of Zone Zero (2015, Brussels, 105 minutes) by Farzad Moloudi. Zone Zero documents the end days of a former Jesuit School in Belgium that became the Gesu Project—a squatted home for houseless refugees, stateless individuals and political activists. The film delicately shares complications of the housing environment with necessary complexity, courtesy of Moloudi’s insider status as a former resident of the Gesu Project. A radical autonomous zone where decisions were made collectively by residents revealed many complications of life inside a so-called utopia. Competition, class warfare, gender roles, and ethnic and cultural rivalries collide as long term sustainability crumbled due to real estate speculation and municipal intervention.

“For a few years, a diverse group of people from all walks of life, those forced by circumstances into a life as illegal migrants and those in search of ways to realise utopian social ideals, formed a community of squatters in the heart of Europe. Farzad Moloudi’s Zone Zero documents their life together, without resorting to stereotypical images or discourse, without falling into the trap of identity production, without relying on simplistic explanation. With modest means yet a superbly edited structure and a beautiful soundtrack, this documentary draws its viewers into what must be seen as a highly relevant portrait of our current times.” – Jury statement, ARKIPEL Jakarta International Documentary + Experimental Film Festival, Grand Prize, August 2016.

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BIOGRAPHIES

Farzad Moloudi was born in 1960 in Iran and is a political refugee. In 2012, he graduated from the documentary department at the RITS film academy in Brussels.

The re:assemblage collective is committed to championing underrepresented voices and perspectives through public film/video screenings. We are itinerant and intentional. We are “reassembling” assumptions about artist film/video practices: who is shown and the forms of works championed. We are inspired by Trinh Minh-ha’s film Reassemblage (1982). The re:assemblage collective is Christina Battle and Scott Miller Berry based in Southern Ontario.

Special thanks to Tangled Art + Disability for their support of this event.