[Frameworks] º*¨¨*º Songs from the Nickel - Alina Skrzeszewska - DL screening º*¨¨*º

[Klaus W. Eisenlohr]

directors lounge screening:

Alina Skrzeszewska
Songs from the Nickel
Thursday, 28 April 2011
21:00

Z-Bar
Bergstr. 2
D-10115 Berlin-Mitte
U-Rosenthaler Platz
Alina Skrzeszewska created a colorful, sad and 
thoughtful film about the shadow sides of 
downtown Los Angeles, not without showing strains 
of hope. And there is music, songs by the 
protagonists starring in the film.

The Nickel, the Eastern part of downtown used to 
be an isolated island in the urban grid of L.A.: 
historic but sordid former grand hotels; the 
number of homeless people surpasses the number of 
inhabitants multiple times; a network of 
christian missions and charity organisations are 
entangled in what is called the Skid Row; from 
10 pm through 6:30 am you are allowed to sleep in 
the street (but then you have to move); there is 
a lack of over 12,000 beds for homeless shelter; 
on the other hand, a massive police presence and 
the reign of crack makes life in the street like 
a trip to hell. In this strange otherworldly 
urban zone, the old hotels seem to be islands in 
the stormy waters, and they are the cheapest 
places to live in town. Here, the artist 
Skrzeszewska rented a room for over one and half 
a year while shooting for her film. Those who 
live here, and whom we get to know in the film, 
have at least some kind of steady income, a job 
in the hotel, a veteran pension, or social 
welfare for the disabled. They were able to leave 
the state of homelessness or the circle of jail 
and drugs.

Thus, for Alina the hotels are a place of 
reflection, a retreat from the "war in the 
street" as Alina calls it. "In the street there 
is never time for thoughtfulness." Therefore, she 
uses these odd spaces of retreat that the hotels 
are as spaces of reflection - and possibly 
projection - to discuss life and the society that 
creates those biographies missing any hope. The 
artist's conditions for a talk in front of the 
camera was openness to have an earnest 
conversation. We see very little "false" acting 
in front of the camera, maybe because the artist 
does all the recording on her own, and it is this 
sincerity of a "one to one" talk and Alina's 
honest interest in the story of her counterpart 
that makes her bridge the gap: A young European 
woman who studies at CalArts and the finally 
settled tramps. Some of them tell stories of 
their life, they never told before. We get to 
know there are many reasons to strand at the 
hotels of the Nickel. Some were dropped out by 
the society that fits only for the fittest, and 
they lost everything they had in the past. Others 
decided not to "play their game." All of them 
still seem to be untouched by the epidemic that 
now spreads for 2 decades: crack.

In such a way, Alina Skrzeszewska also shows to 
us the poetry and wisdom of the underprivileged, 
all of which recorded by a camera that was 
inspired by Edward Hopper and the reading of 
Charles Bukowski, as Alina admitted to herself 
after she had finished the film. The positive 
notions of the film however derive from the 
examples of anarchistic renderings of their 
interests, like the illegal music studio in the 
hotel's basement. It's that very American idea of 
the self-made man that is still valid, and the 
roots of American pop culture based in the will 
of the poorest men to survive in dignity that are 
still showing, here.

A. Skrzeszewska, who was born in Wroclaw in 
Poland, and who lives and works somewhere in 
between Berlin, Los Angeles and Vienna, will be 
present at the screening at Z-Bar and will be 
available for Q&A.

In addition, Alina will present the short film 
"Notes from the Fields", 10 mins, showing a day's 
cycle on the crossing of 5th St. and Los Angeles 
St. in The Nickels.

Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr

More infos, German text and film stills:
http://www.richfilm.de/filmUpload/1-framesSkrzeszewska.html
Artist Link:
http://www.songsfromthenickel.com/
Press Links:
http://www.directorslounge.net
http://www.z-bar.de
-- 

Klaus W. Eisenlohr, Osnabrücker Str. 25, D-10589 Berlin, Germany



email:			klaus at richfilm.de
and film production:		http://www.richfilm.de


phone:			int.- 49 - 30 - 3409 5343 (BERLIN)
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