Collective Space Doc Nights
Quality documentaries + social time | Twice a month at Collective Space | Powered by Hoovie.movie
Documentaries at Collective Space!
Join our community of big-hearted, socially and environmentally activated folks for a documentary meetup. This is our chance to watch an acclaimed documentary and have some good solid conversations.
Meet new people and see familiar faces twice a month.
Bring your reusable cup for tea. Snacks will be served. Feel free to bring something to share.
Join for the film and stick around for socializing after.
Tickets are $12. Advanced tickets highly recommended.
To buy a ticket, you’ll have to create a profile on Hoovie for security reasons, but as per the Terms and Conditions, your information will never be shared and you can opt out of email communications anytime. (Send questions to Hilary.)
Hosted by Collective Space member Hilary Henegar. Powered by Hoovie.movie.
Jan. 4: Collective Space Movie Night: Fractured Land
A coming-of-age story about a young Indigenous leader and lawyer, Caleb Behn, whose territory is at the epicenter of some of the largest fracking operations on earth. What would it be like to live alongside one of the shapers of human events, in their youth, before they transformed history? Behn may become one of this generation’s great leaders, if he can discover how to reconcile the fractures within himself, his community and the world around him, blending modern tools of the law with ancient wisdom. Hoovie audiences will be inspired by Behn’s courage, charisma and strong relationship with the land and the traditions of his people. The cinematography is superb, the music pitch perfect and the storytelling riveting.
Jan. 18: Collective Space Movie Night: Amplify Her
What does feminine expression look like, if women feel free and safe to express themselves? Amplify Her offers intimate portraits of three female DJs and a new perspective on women’s leadership and creativity, whether on the dance floor or in business. This dazzling film showcases the particular role women play in shaping electronic dancescapes as a way to describe the empathic powers women can hone and use to influence group dynamics. But it’s about more than that, obviously, since a conversation about women in their power necessarily means talking about the obstructionism of patriarchy. And what could be more threatening to patriarchy than female sexual power, an infinite well from which women draw strength and creativity. Again and again, the women in the film are confronted by their minority status in the electronic music scene. But rather than ask the expected, “why aren’t there more women in this male dominated scene?”, filmmakers Nicole Sorochan and Ian MacKenzie push audiences to consider, “what is unique about feminine expression and how might we all benefit when it flourishes?” Starring LUX MODERNA, APPLECAT and BLONDTRON, and featuring WALA, A Hundred Drums, Kytami, CloZee, Dubvirus and Ill-gates.
Feb. 1: Collective Space Movie Night: How to Change the World
A rulebook for social change, following the story of the founders of Greenpeace as they set out to stop atomic bomb testing and end up creating the worldwide environmental movement. With the goal to “make nature famous,” the eclectic group of young pioneers – Canadian hippie journalists, photographers, musicians, scientists, Quakers and American draft dodgers – are lead by former journalist Bob Hunter, who employs his media savvy to make Greenpeace’s experiments in direct, non-violent confrontation go viral. Of course, all is not smooth sailing, and the film offers a coherent picture of the trials and tribulations any successful activist organization may face. Largely told through 16mm footage from an organizational archive of some 1,500 film cans, How to Change the World offers an enduring look at the how and why of change work when the inevitable internal social dynamics interfere to make it so damn hard.
Feb. 15: Collective Space Movie Night: Unrest
A personal journey from patient to advocate to storyteller, Unrest tells the story of Jennifer Brea, a Harvard PhD student about to marry the love of her life, when she develops a fever that leaves her bedridden. When doctors tell her it’s “all in her head”, she turns her camera on herself and her community as she looks for answers and fights for a cure. Her personal story as one of millions of mostly women battling with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is at times naked in its intimacy. While the history of the disease is enraging, Jennifer’s courage and persistence are inspiring. Audiences touched by chronic illness and pain will find this film deeply gratifying.
Mar 1: Last Train Home
An intimate portrait of a moment in time: China, New Year’s holiday travel, 130 million factory workers migrating from city factory jobs to the rural towns where their families await their yearly visit. Filmmaker Lixin Fan follows the family of Zhang Changhua and Chen Suqin over three years, journeying with them each year from Guangzhou to Szechuan province as part of the world’s largest annual migration. In the city, they toil day in, day out at a garment factory making clothes destined for Western markets and sleep in a dormitory with little privacy or comfort – all so they can send money home to pay for the education that will deliver their kids out of poverty. In the country, their children work hard at their studies and farm the land with their grandma – until, that is, their daughter rebels. Fan is journalistic in his approach to documenting the family’s struggles, which are altogether commonplace in this age of industrialization, but no less heart wrenching to observe. A must-watch for anyone interested in socioeconomics, fashion or family dynamics, Last Train Home is deeply moving and tragically human.
Mar 15: A Wives’ Tale
***A Cowichan Valley International Women’s Day Festival event***
The story of how a bitter 9-month workers strike in an Ontario mining town transforms a community of women – and their families. Captured around kitchen tables, at labor meetings and chanting in picket lines, the women we meet become radicalized as they leave their traditional roles as housewives to become the breadwinners and strike organizers. Filmmakers Sophie Bissonnette, Martin Duckworth and Joyce Rock worked and lived among the women and their husbands for several months, and the result is an insider look at the making of a feminist insurgency that is warm, nuanced and wonderfully human.
April 11: California Typewriter
A beautifully crafted love letter to the humble typewriter, to the tactile, to the slow. As the pace of technological innovation quickens, California Typewriter peeks into the worlds of artists, writers, musicians and collectors who welcome the sensual materiality of life at a typewriter’s pace. Tom Hanks will buy you a typewriter if you show even a little interest. John Mayer, uncensored by spell check, weaves deftly between his keyboard and smart phone. Sam Sheppard and David McCullough hit the keys day in, day out, melodically tapping out their stories, one key at a time. Meanwhile, the Boston Typewriter Orchestra perform symphonies on their “fascist-killing machines.” And Jeremy Mayer deconstructs hundreds of typewriters to sculpt impossibly human forms. The thread that weaves this delightful film together is the family-run typewriter repair business in Berkeley, California. Its staff are expert in restoring and maintaining machines dating back decades (and longer), lovingly caring for them as kin. But can such a business survive the forward march of technology that threatens to shutter its door?
April 25: Chasing Ice
Acclaimed National Geographic photographer James Balog is an extreme person. So when his climate skepticism gives way to a commitment to documenting the mass extinction of glaciers around the Arctic, he’s extreme about that too. He and his team – The Extreme Ice Survey – set up time-lapse cameras on Arctic cliff faces, then check back annually to grab the data. Year after year, the photos they capture tell the story of a planet – our home! – warming fast; the glaciers and ice mountains retreat before our eyes. We also witness the heroic lengths Balog will go to capture this story. Brutal weather, four knee surgeries, extended periods away from his family: the guy won’t quit. Which is lucky for us because the photos, and this film, are credited by many former climate deniers as the wake-up call they needed. Beautiful, captivating, disturbing, eye-opening, Balog’s photos were captured from 2005-2009 and this film by Jeff Orlowski was released in 2012, and yet the urgency of this story is greater than ever.
May 15: Whose Streets?
(new start time: doors at 7:30pm, film at 8pm)
An energetic account of the Ferguson uprising against police brutality, as told by the people who lived it. Whose Streets? explores the aftermath of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen whose body was left lying in the street for hours. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest. Their peaceful gathering is met by military-style action, as police in full battle gear, bearing machine guns and tear gas, push the crowd into a pressure cooker situation that devolves – and the few isolated cases of looting and fires becomes the headline. What results is the activation of the local community and a momentous fanning of the flames for the Black Lives Matter movement. The filmmakers, Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis, spent considerable time on the ground, developing relationships within this tight-knit community and empowering them to tell their own story of standing up and asserting their rights to peace, public assembly and human dignity. The film premiered at Sundance; Rolling Stone magazine said it “may be the best doc of the year … it is assuredly the most vital.”
Watch the Trailer + Buy Tickets: https://go.hoovie.movie/screenings/112/collective-space-doc-night-whose-streets
May 29: 112 Weddings
In a post happily-ever-after world, finally a film that gets intimate with couples years after saying “I do.” The film by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Doug Block, who for 20 years has shot weddings to supplement his income, follows up with nine of his 112 past clients years after their big day, having long wondered what’s become of their marriages. Juxtaposing rapturous wedding day flashbacks with remarkably candid present-day interviews, 112 Weddings interweaves real-life love stories to reveal a bigger picture view of love and long-term relationships. The resounding theme: relationships are effing hard. As the director’s rabbi friend says, “The wedding is the easiest day to make happy. You’ve just thrown a ton of money and liquor at it. Marriage is harder. When you throw money and liquor at it, it makes it worse.” You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll nod knowingly at the screen. Enjoy the catharsis.
Watch the Trailer + Buy Tickets: https://go.hoovie.movie/screenings/113/collective-space-doc-night-112-weddings
More dates coming soon! Contact [email protected] for more info, to organize an event, or volunteer!
As we work to build community around Collective Space’s movie nights, we’re seeking volunteers who can help make these events fun, easeful and easy to attend. Volunteers receive a free ticket and training where required. Reach out to [email protected] if you’d like to volunteer for any of the following tasks:
- Set up / clean up – We’ll need help 3o minutes before doors open to arrange the screening room and until the end of each screening to help put the room back to order.
- Greeters and donation collectors – This person greets and checks in each person at the door, sells tickets and passes a donation basket for a cause related to the film.
- Drinks and popcorn maker – This person pops popcorn and sets up the drink station, including water, tea and specialty drinks, depending on the event.
- Popcorn topping maker – This person makes a specialty popcorn topping to share.
- Posterer – This person distributes posters around town while inviting shopkeepers/owners and other community members to join each screening
- Sponsorships – this person will approach local groups and businesses to partner with, such as bakeries, breweries, farms and non-profits who want to provide food, drink or swag for guests or even co-host and guide conversation.
Hoovie makes it easy for anyone, anywhere to host a film screening. More than just another way to watch a movie, Hoovie offers an interesting way to meet new people, discuss the things that matter, fundraise for a cause and/or make some extra cash. Contact Hilary to learn more about hosting your own Hoovie movie at [email protected].
