Vera Zienema

Name: Vera Zienema
Address: Oosterstraat 44, Groningen, 9711NV, NL
Telephone: +31503134681
Price range: $

Your weekly underground cinema VERA Zienema is a small theatre located inside Vera Groningen, the Club for the International Pop Underground.

We show film from a wide variety of genres. We open every Tuesday evening. VERA Zienema also features a bar where you're able to enjoy a drink before or after the film.

02/03/2023

Our screening of SIRENS (2022) is coming up on the 7th of March!

In SIRENS we follow Slave to Sirens, a feminist thrash-death metal band from Lebanon. They navigate their way to fame during times of the October 17 Revolution, a period of Lebanese uprising against the mismanagement of a corrupt government. The band members are full of dreams, but have also been plagued by (inter)generational traumas. In a country full of repression, misogyny and homophobia, the film shows their struggle for freedom of self-expression in an unprecedented way.

The result is an intimate and layered portrait of a band with countless facets. One minute the band members are standing at a protest amid screaming sirens and hissing tear gas, shouting for the fall of the Lebanese regime. The next moment they are doing each other’s make-up, followed by some head banging on stage with heavily distorted guitars. Meanwhile, everything is interspersed with images of a budding, secret q***r relationship between band member Lilas and someone from Syria.

Sirens has all the ingredients for a successful collaboration between IFA and Zienema: raw music and in-your-face feminism. So come join us and let’s get in the mood for International Women’s Day together!

International Filmfestival Assen celebrates women filmmakers & strengthens their position in the film world, shows new perspectives & breaks stereotypical gender and s*x roles. IFA is one of the oldest film festivals with an (intersectional) feminist tradition in Europe and the only film festival in the Netherlands where female filmmakers take center stage. During the 43rd edition, IFA offers no less than 26 current and thought-provoking (inter)national feature-length films, 12 shorts during the short film competitions KersVers and Noordsterren, and a brand new festival talk show. IFA takes place March 10-12 in DNK, Assen. For the entire program, visit filmfestivalassen.nl/program

Tickets: link in bio
Artwork:

22/02/2023

Next week, on the 28th of February, we will be screening IFFR winner EXCESS WILL SAVE US (2022)!

This tragicomic fictive documentary tells the story of Villereau, a small village in northern France. When alarm is raised about a terrorist threat in this villige, young filmmaker Morgane Dziurla-Petit returns to her home town to investigate. Soon, she finds out that there is a big misunderstanding: there is no terrorist threat at all. And so, the roaming fake news story becomes a metaphor for something different: the absurdity of xenophobia, the media-driven paranoia and the rejection by the conservative villagers of anything outside the norm.

But besides the critical bird’s-eye view that the director takes, EXCESS WILL SAVE US is also a story about family relationships, about both the closeness and anguish. It is precisely through the transparent use of fictional elements within the documentary genre that the filmmaker manages to get closer to reality. This hybrid form of fiction-reality also reflects the position in which the filmmaker stands: intimately familiar but a spectator at the same time. Because unlike her father and niece, she díd manage to get away from the village.

EXCESS WILL SAVE US is a quirky, one-of-a-kind, docu-fiction film and deservingly won the Special Jury Award at the 2022 edition of IFFR. In short, come and see!

Tickets: link in bio
Artwork:

17/02/2023

Our Movies That Matter screening on the 21st of February, features Ukrainian War-Drama BUTTERFLY VISION (2022, English subtitles), this year’s Cineuropa Award winner!

Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance expert Lilia – military nickname ‘Butterfly’ – is freed after having spent two months as a prisoner of Russian separatists in the Donbas region. Her homecoming is shown on live television and she is celebrated as a national hero, but after the initial euphoria, traumatic memories from the war are starting to catch up with her…
Lilia struggles to readjust to civilian live and seems unable to reconnect with her loved ones. When she discovers that she is pregnant from a Russian soldier who assaulted her while she was held captive, she further withdraws into herself. Meanwhile, her husband Tokha gets in deep with an ultra-right vigilante group attacking Roma camps. But even though Lilia appears stoic and depressed, she is determined to liberate herself.

Shown in the official selection at Cannes 2022. With a very impressive performance by Rita Burkovska, who manages to visualize both Lilia’s mental torment and her determination with an understated anguish and vulnerability.

After the viewing, an open discussion will be led by specialist in international relations, Yara Marusyk, a lecturer and PhD Candidate at the University of Groningen.

Tickets: link in bio
Artwork:

08/02/2023

Our Valentine’s screening of PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002, USA) on the 14th of February is coming up 🤍🍫🍮🤍

After making the emotional rollercoaster with his 3-hour epic Magnolia (1999), director Paul Thomas Anderson surprised the world by saying that “Somebody I’d really like to use is Adam Sandler. I just cry with laughter in his movies.” The two went on to create a rom-com unlike no other.

Sandler plays the socially awkward Barry, who never seems to get the better of his low self-esteem, his many sisters interfering in his work and private life: he bottles so much frustration and silent anger, until one day at work, a car crashes, a harmonium is left on the sidewalk, and a mysterious and enticing stranger appears (played by Emily Watson), just like that.

Punch-Drunk Love starts off as one thing to become so much more of the other. Just listening to Jon Brion’s score, ranging from nervous breakdown to bursting romantic sweep, gives an insight to the many interiors of Adam Sandler’s twitchy Barry. And even a standard genre-definition like ‘rom-com’ can only limit this 90-minute film’s scope. Because why wouldn’t this be a superhero movie? If you think about it, isn’t Barry like a (Frequent Flyer Mile) Superman?

What remains are feelings of anxious hesitance, reckless assurance, and both quirky and creepy explosions of love in hues of red and blue. Barry at one point says “I have a love in my life. It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine”, which for my money might be the most brilliantly stupid utterance of the simple complexities of romance. Come and celebrate your Valentine’s Day with us at VERA this year and entice yourselves to the magic of Punch-Drunk Love.

Tickets: link in bio
Artwork:

01/02/2023

Next week, on the 7th of February, we’ll be screening Dutch Sci-Fi movie SPUTUM (2022)! Followed by a Q&A with the director!
„Dutch Sci-Fi movie“ sounds exotic as a film category as it is, but it‘s not the only thing that sets this film apart! The movie’s unique sound design was created by director Dan Geesin, based on his own sound theory called ‘percussive ambiance’. The film artfully ponders questions about heavy topics, such as the current ecological state of the world, class inequality and ways of resistance.
In short, Sputum offers plenty of food for thought.

Feel free to ask questions during the Q&A after the screening. Your questions don’t have to be limited to SPUTUM, as we will also be showing a pre-film: Olivantenvoeten (2011), one of Geesin’s earlier works.

Tickets: link in bio
Artwork:

27/01/2023

Next Tuesday, 31st of January, we will screen TRON (1982), a movie famous for it’s iconic visuals and early use of computer animation. 💜💾🏍️💛

Paradoxically the film contains far fewer computer-animated sequences than widely assumed. Instead, the unique visual style of this 70mm film was created using backlit animation, a labour-intense process that involves analogue photographic techniques and required whole truckloads of classic sheet film in its production.
The effort and material involved in this process was many times greater than with conventionally shot animated cartoons. In a very ironic twist, TRON was disqualified from the visual-effects category of the Academy Awards in 1982 because using computer animation was considered 'cheating'
TRON remains the only feature film in which the costly and labour-intensive backlit animation technique played such a central role, which is what makes the look of the film unique to this day.

Oscar or not, TRON is a visual treasure and pleasure to experience on the big screen, so get your tickets, man! (Link in bio)

Artwork:

20/01/2023

We made a few more tickets available for our screening of DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN on Tuesday the 24th!

The year is 1984, East-Berlin. Stasi-Hauptman Gerd Wiesler is tasked to eavesdrop on famous playwright Georg Dreyman and his lover. Wiesler, a committed communist, finds himself becoming entangled with his subjects, and sees his views on the role of the state challenged throughout the movie as he observes the couple.

Das Leben der Anderen combines the surveillance paranoia of thrillers like Coppola’s The Conversation or De Palma’s Blow Out with the poignant historical reality of its period setting – and 1984 as a period setting of course is no coincidence. In the years following its release, the film is considered to be only the first German drama dealing with the late Cold War, 17 years after the fall of the Wall.

Before the movie starts, there will be a speaker who will give a short introduction about Germany in the 80s. Join us and GHD Ubbo Emmius in a night of nightmarish voyeuristic Cold War espionage!

Tickets: link in bio
Artwork:

11/01/2023

Our screening on Monday, 16th of January, IRAN: BETWEEN BODY AND TOUCH, is nearly at capacity! If you can’t make it to the screening, please cancel your ticket/s by emailing [email protected]

For this screening, Zienema is collaborating with (local) Iranian artists to shine light on the theme of resistance in Iran. Between body and touch is a group screening programme of experimental films that draw from the history of resistance in Iran, in both concrete and more abstract ways. The films explore themes like destruction, isolation, the presence of the past, the female body, the depiction of intimacy, and our memory of societal events. The evening features work from Shilan Borhani, Jaleh Nesari, Maryam Tafakory, Minoo Iranpour, VidAmir, and Nebras Hoveizavi, who embrace a radical aesthetic in their work, combining the crafts of cinema and contemporary art.

This evening seeks solidarity with the struggles of incredibly courageous Iranian women and men fighting for equality, freedom and human rights. We present you with a visual history through films and video art, in hopes of offering some insight and context about Iran before and after the 1979 revolution. This screening has been curated by Vida Kashani, with special thanks to Parking Video Library for making their archive available to select some of the works included in this screening program.

Tickets for this screening are free. Get your free ticket through the ticket link to be assured of a seat (we have limited capacity).

At the event there will be an opportunity to offer a donation to an NGO supporting the resistance in Iran.

Tickets: link in bio
Artwork:

04/01/2023

Zienema is back from 2022… in 2023! with our Movies that Matter screening of THE THERAPY on the 10th of January

Following the lives and conversion „therapies” of two supposedly ‚recovering‘ gay men, the documentary provides a peak into the practice of Israeli conversion therapy.

54-year-old Orthodox Jew Lev is newly determined to overcome his s*xual attraction to men once and for all, an inclination he has struggled to come to terms with since his student days. Desperate and in a crisis after his wife divorces him for having watched gay p**n, Lev seeks help from his rabbi, who refers him to a conversion ‚therapist‘. Together they work on ‚curing‘ his homos*xuality and getting him into a heteros*xual marriage again.

Social work student Ben (23) who has been raised in the ultra-Orthodox community too, has been in conversion therapy for seven years. At university, he begins to conduct his own academic research and discovers that the practice is considered harmful and dangerous. He tries to distance himself from conversion ‚therapy‘ and to undo the harm it has done to him. Will he finally manage to accept his own s*xuality?

Tickets: link in bio
Artwork:
groningen

15/12/2022

We’re ending 2022 on a craazzy note, with KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988, US) on the 20th of December 💫🎪🤡🎄

This chaotic colorful cult classic was chosen by our colleague and birthday boy: Eltjo! 🥳

Teenagers Mike and Debbie witness a comet impact near their small town of Crescent Cove, California. They approach curiously, expecting to encounter a comet, but instead they find a circus tent. Filled with hungry alien clowns, entrance will cost you more than you’d like…

Brace yourselves for a not-so-Christmassy Christmas screening, with Christmassy beverages nevertheless 🍷🥵

Tickets: link in bio

08/12/2022

Our last Movies That Matter screening of 2022 of ERASING FRANK (2021, Hungarian spoken with English subtitles) is coming up on the the 13th of December!

1983, Budapest: Frank is in his early twenties and sings in a punk band that boldly protests the political system through their music and lyrics. They organize their concerts in secret without permission of the authorities. During one of the concerts, Frank is arrested by the police, taken to a psychiatric facility and stuffed with psychiatric drugs to break his rebellious spirit. A method employed to suppress the political opposition, without any regard for the health of the inmates.

In the psychiatric ward Frank meets Hanna, who has never heard of freedom, let alone punk music.

Despite his relative freedom in the open ward, Frank has trouble holding on to his sanity. Together with like-minded Hanna, he looks for ways to express himself in an environment which represses all individuality.

Tickets: link in bio
Artwork:

03/12/2022

We love the poster made for our december screenings💗💙💚

Adres

Oosterstraat 44
Groningen
9711NV

Openingstijden

20:00 - 01:00

Telefoon

+31503134681

Website

http://www.vera-groningen.nl/agenda/zienema

Meldingen

Wees de eerste die het weet en laat ons u een e-mail sturen wanneer Vera Zienema nieuws en promoties plaatst. Uw e-mailadres wordt niet voor andere doeleinden gebruikt en u kunt zich op elk gewenst moment afmelden.

Contact

Stuur een bericht naar Vera Zienema:

Snelkoppelingen

Wilt u dat uw bedrijf hét hoogst genoteerde Bioscoop in Groningen wordt?