Nottflix - UNMC Campus Screening Group

14/07/2021

Uni Per Arts, the UNM Performing Arts Platform, proudly presents A Night of Music & Poetry, a multidisciplinary virtual performance that, as its name suggests, combines music, dance, drama and spoken word acts, exploring the shades and the lights, the pains and the hopes we all have experienced and harboured during the life-changing experience of the pandemic.

Night of Music & Poetry will be held on CloudTheatre, an online ticketed streaming platform. www.CloudTheatre.com

Date: 17th of July 2021

Ticket price:

Night of Music & Poetry
RM20 - General
RM50 - Patrons of the Arts

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BONUS: Receive a 20% discount promo code from The Humble Food Company for every ticket purchased!

Click the link below to purchase tickets for Night of Music & Poetry and Brave New Normal theatre play. ⬇️
https://www.cloudtheatre.com/org/UniPerArts

Can't wait to see you all there! 🙈

18/12/2014

Please take part in this epic research project on The Hobbit movies (after you've seen the latest one!). You can do it in your own language (the Malay translation was provided by Nottingham Malaysia students!!!) please send it to all your friends and family, the more people who complete it then the more data they will have! Enjoy :D http://www.worldhobbitproject.org/

An International Audience Research Project on the Hobbit trilogy, conducted by over 145 researchers in 46 countries.

07/11/2013

Dear all, this is to let you know that the screening tonight ('The Act of Killing') is cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. We apologize for the lateness of this announcement. We'll keep you updates about forthcoming screenings.
Best,
The Nottflix team.

05/11/2013

Continuing our Season of the Perpetrators, Nottflix now turns our attention much closer to home. Our previous films all dealt with perpetrators who were on 'the wrong side of history' and now express deep regret for their actions while struggling with the effects of such a unique form of trauma. However, what if such individuals were instead celebrated as heros and liberators, despite engaging in one of the most heinous atrocities of the twentieth century? Our third screening, 'The Act of Killing', is a documentary following the Indonesian gangsters Anwar Congo and Adi Zulkadry who, in the late 1960s, personally tortured and brutally killed around 1000 people each as part of the North Sumatran Death Squads. Now hailed as heroes, the men and their friends are happy to boast of the genocide they committed and, when invited by the directors, they eagerly re-enact their killings for the camera.

In its depiction, the film breaks new ground in documentary by allowing the perpetrators to participate in the construction of their own film. What results is a surreal exploration of the minds and worldview of two self-confessed killers. Many have questioned the ethics of the filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer as he sought out and involved his two informants. Yet the powerful story the film tells complicates notions of ethics and justice. What unfolds is really the only way to challenge the deadlock over the past in Indonesia and open space for discussion and dialogue.

This film picked up 9 international awards and is tipped to win an Oscar.

Our screening will explore the film through three questions:

1. Unlike our previous protagonists, Anwar and Adi did engage directly in terrible crimes - However, to what extent do you think they are solely responsible for this?
2. Instead of being punished, the men live without guilt or remorse – what do you think this tells us about contemporary Indonesia and its past trauma?
3. Anwar and Adi do not seem to be exceptionally cruel or disturbed people - what does this tell us about our own capacity for violence and our society's tolerance of it?

All Welcome - the screening also includes a special introduction and discussion session with Indonesian film expert Dr. Thomas Barker.

24/10/2013

Dear all, we're giving you a night off! Due to technical reasons, the Screening of ‘Waltz with Bashir’ has had to be postponed. We are sorry for the lateness of this announcement - info about next showing will be up shortly!

20/10/2013

After the chaos and destruction of 'Downfall' and Traudl Junge's tearful admission of guilt, our season exploring the perpetrators now moves forward in history and turns to the Middle East. 'Waltz With Bashir' (2008) is a famous autobiographical film that tells the story of Israeli director Ari Folman's participation in the 1982 massacre of Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps as a teenager serving in the Israeli army.

Told mostly in fantasy flashback sequences, the film begins with the now middle-aged Folman who, while visiting a friend, is disturbed to discover that he has no memories of his activities, an attribute that a psychologist tells him is a form of post-traumatic stress disorder, a means of coping with extreme guilt. The film follows his attempt to regain his memories, through talking to fellow soldiers, historians and a TV reporter, to uncover the part he played in this now infamous massacre.

The film is a complex analysis of the psychology of the Israeli citizen, an individual who exists in a highly militarised society and is subject to extreme forms of state propaganda yet is nevertheless aware of the injustice they perpetrate. Such a situation (the film seems to suggest) results in a unique form of trauma that manifests itself in anger, nihilism, mental disturbance and extreme behaviour, resulting in a generation of damaged and conflicted individuals who, as we see in Folman's characters, approach their situation in various ways. Along with its unique form of animation, it is for its soundtrack that the film has also been heavily commended, which blends classical music, Trance tracks (which contemporary Israel is so famous for) and a host of anti-war songs.

This film picked up 40 international awards, including a Golden Globe, an Asia Pacific Screen Award (that's us!) and was nominated for the Palm d'Or at Cannes and an Oscar.

Our screening will explore the trauma of perpetration through three questions:

1. Like Traudl Junge, Folman did not play a direct role in the massacre - to what extent (as a citizen and a soldier) is he still responsible for the crimes of the state?

2. In the ending, Folman forces us to confront his guilt in a shocking way, one that contradicts and contests the previous sympathy we had built up for him - why do you think he does this?

3. In 'Downfall', Junge stated her final realisation that "youth is no excuse" for blindly following orders - do we think that this applies to Folman's case of forced national service?

All Welcome.

12/10/2013

For all those who enjoyed Sophie Scholl: The Final Days last week, here's an interesting article on The White Rose group from the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21521060

Ninety-nine-year-old Lilo Furst-Ramdohr remembers her role in the White Rose - an anti-Hi**er resistance group inside Germany.

12/10/2013

After our season of Resistance, Nottflix now turns our attention to the other side of this conflict. The perpetrators are those on the wrong side of history who ultimately made the wrong decisions. While we hold those who form resistance movements and sacrifice themselves as representing the best in humanity, those who instead perpetrate such oppression are people we would rather forget. But such a position is no less representative of humanity, and equally holds its own unique form of trauma. For the next three weeks, we will explore three films that depict those who were involved in the perpetration of unjust violence and cruelty, all of whom express deep regret for their actions, but were ultimately never punished.

Downfall: This very famous and groundbreaking film tells the true story of Traudl Junge, the 21 year old personal secretary of Adolf Hi**er. Picked purely by coincidence to visit the N**i headquarters, Junge quickly finds herself working for its charismatic leader and forms a very close paternal relationship with Hi**er, finding him to be a generous and caring employer. The film then flashes forward to depict the downfall of Germany and the N**i regime from Junge's perspective in Hi**er's bunker. Trapped by the allies and Soviets, Hi**er descends increasingly into madness, his generals commit su***de and Berlin is gradually reduced to rubble by bombing raids. The 21 year old Junge became one of the last living witnesses of Hi**er's final days, and the film is based upon her testimony. It also broke what has been known as the last taboo of German cinema - the portrayal of Adolf Hi**er by a German actor. Verteran actor Bruno Ganz was picked for the role, and decided to invest all his professionalism and energy into recreating the feared leader.

The film is also bookended by contemporary interviews with the real Traudl Junge, who tearfully explains how she struggled to reconcile her own past with the atrocities she now knows were committed by the man she cared for and the regime she worked for. Wracked by guilt and regret, the elderly Junge explains that it was only through learning of Sophie Scholl (who we saw depicted last week) that she was finally able to understand her own culpability and admit her guilt as 'an enabler' of the worst genocide of modern time.

This film picked up 17 international awards and was nominated for an Oscar.

Our screening will explore the film through three questions:

1. Traudl Junge did not commit any crime nor any violence - to what extent is she still responsible for the crimes of the state and the N**i regime?
2. Why do you think that learning about Sophie Scholl ultimately forced Junge to admit her own guilt?
3. Junge freely admits that she could have walked away from working with Hi**er, but chose not to - What would you have done?

All Welcome - the screening also includes an introduction by and special discussion session with Dr. Patrick O'Reilly.

10/10/2013

I hope everyone enjoyed tonight, what an incredible film. The discussion afterwards was excellent too, I think we were all quite stunned and needed to recover...

07/10/2013

For the final screening in our season of 'Resistance' we explore an incident which has become known as the greatest act of resistance of the 20th Century. 'Sophie Scholl: The Final Days' is a dramatization of the real-life arrest and trial of a group of German students protesting against the N**i regime in 1943. Among them the 21 year old Sophie Scholl.

Unlike our last two films, where the protagonists were forced to act against oppression, Sophie was not in direct danger and could simply have ignored the atrocities of the N**i regime. However, alarmed and impassioned by what they saw, Sophie and her friends formed the student resistance group 'The White Rose' and began distributing the pamphlet "The Manifesto of the Students of Munich" around Germany. The film depicts Sophie's arrest, imprisonment and trial, using actual transcripts from the trial as dialogue. Repeatedly told by her interrogators that some people do not deserve to live and must be erased for the good of society, Sophie counters that "every life is precious". She then faces a choice: if she admits her guilt and expresses support for the regime she may go free, but if not she must face the worst penalty.

This film won 19 international awards and was nominated for an Oscar.

Our screening will explore this act of resistance through three questions:

1. Sophie is one young girl in the center of the all powerful N**i region, she could clearly do virtually nothing to stop it - do we think that her struggle was worth it?

2. Sophie Scholl has recently been voted the world's 'Most important German' (beating Bach, Goethe and Einstein) and the "greatest women of the 20th century" - why do you think her actions are still so relevant to people today?

3. What makes this act of resistance so spectacular?

All Welcome - the screening also includes a special discussion session with experts on Sophie Scholl and Germany History.

04/10/2013

Hope everyone enjoyed last night, a big thanks to Arul for coming along and sharing his thoughts on anti-colonial struggles. Here's an article from him about the Hakka people protesting against eviction that he mentioned last night http://partisosialis.org/en/node/2713

The first Monday Every October is designated by the UN as the World Habitat Day. The main purpose to celebrate this date among others is to reflect on the basic right of all to adequate shelter. UN has dedicated one day to highlight the plight of people fighting for shelter as it seems that the righ...

30/09/2013

For the second screening in our season of 'Resistance' we explore this concept in a context of anti-colonial struggle. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) is a dramatisation of events in French Algeria during the Algerian war of Independence from 1954-1957, a bloody and violent revolution. The film coincided with the post-war period of decolonization, when many former European colonies around the globe were beginning the task of forming new societies separate from the previous colonial rule. It inspired activists around the globe, from Ireland to America, and is considered to be a masterpiece, regularly being placed in the top 100 movies of all time.

Our screening will explore three ways in which the film can be considered to be an act of resistance:

1. Through depicting a perspective that was not given prominence at this time - anti-colonial struggles were not generally depicted in European films until later in the 20th century.

2. Through screening the film in societies which attempt to erase this perspective – The film was originally banned in France (demonstrating its powerful disruption of the colonial narrative) and has only begun to be shown during recent years.

3. Through its unique presentation of both sides of this conflict – although we support the rebel's cause, the increasing violence of the conflict causes us to question their actions and the film does not romanticise its protagonists. Likewise, many of the French settlers are now established in Algeria and consider the city their home, placing them in a difficult and contradictory position.

This film was nominated for 8 international awards, including three Oscars. The film is in Arabic and French with English subtitles.

All Welcome - the screening also includes a special discussion session with Mr Arutchelva, a councillor from Kajan Municipal council who will talk about resistance movements in Malaysia. Arul has been involved in Resistance Struggle in Malaysia for over 30 years, and leads the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), he recently won 5,568 when standing for Semenyih (that's our town!) in the general election.