One of the first films by the American cinema avant-garde director Jonas Mekas shows the U.S. Marine Corps military prison where the guards and inmates are involved in the repressive ritual. This film is a protest against the inhumane treatment of people.
The Brig is based on the play from the US oldest experimental theater—The Living Theatre, New York. When the theater was closed by the tax office, the editor of the Film Culture Journal decided to save the play and make it into a film. To do this, the director and actors had to secretly sneak into the theater at night to perform the play for the last time, while Mekas filmed the production in one take. The film was awarded the best documentary at the 1964 Venice Film Festival.
The film will be presented by Aleksey Artamonov.
Aleksey Artamonov is a film critic and film program curator, author of texts on cinema and music in Afisha, Ъ-Weekend, Colta.ru, Séance, and Film Art magazines, Cine-Phantom Newspaper, and others. Aleksey has previously been Cinema section editor of Theory and Practice website, press secretary of the State Central Museum of Cinema, and editor at Seance magazine. He presently works as the managing editor of syg.ma website.
The Brig
Director Jonas Mekas
USA, 1964, 68 minutes, 18+
