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28/7/2016 / Issue #008 / Text: AKG

Summer at Filmhuis Cavia

We’re about to start our summer stop here at Cavia. A well-earned rest. But before we go we have two things we need to tell you about. Firstly, we will be running a fund-raising campaign for new equipment which our recalcitrant cinema is in great need of. The specifics are still being formulated, but keep an eye out for information on our website because we will need your help. Secondly, we are excited to announce that we will be holding an outdoor screening at Museum Het Schip. They will be hosting us in their beautiful courtyard garden on August 24th. 

Our defiant little cinema has been running for over 30 years now and we’re held together with string and paper clips. All cinemas run into technical problems and demand maintenance during their lifetime, but as a not-for-profit, D-I-Y space that relies on subsidies, we do not have the budget for an apparatus overhaul. Our volunteer family have been working on a game plan to garner funds and in the next month or so we will launch a croudfunding campaign through Voordekunst.nl so that we can get our cinema running smoothly again. All the details will be released on our website and our facebook page. We will make sure you hear about it!

Every summer we run outdoor screenings somewhere in our neighbourhood and we’re very excited about collaborating with Museum Het Schip this year in August. A building unconventional from all angles. Built in a time when the Dutch government was happy to spend money on affordable housing. It is the single most important example of it’s style of architecture. Amsterdamse School, as I am sure many of you know, was an art and architectural movement of romance and social ideals. Het Schip was built as a workers palace. Consisting of 102 homes, a small meeting hall and a post office which the poorer class had previously had very little access to. In their time, the apartments of Het Schip were a radical change from the living conditions many of Amsterdam’s working-class people were used to. The apartments were spacious and had several separate rooms, unlike the one-room dwellings that were still common then. More importantly, these houses had flush toilets, ample natural light and ventilation from windows, amenities that one could not imagine being without today. They were also rich in detail and utility, built to give dignity and joy to the working class. The Amsterdamse School movement held that beauty and art should not only be reserved for the elite but should serve the whole society. A belief that we at Cavia stand behind whole-heartedly.

From July 2nd Museum Het Schip’s new expansion will be open, taking over the former school in the building. The new space will house a large exposition showcasing the artistry and attentive vision of architects, artists, housing authorities, passionate administrators and skilled craftsmen each of whom brought the ideals of the Amsterdamse School movement to life, each in their own way, and it is an art movement which the Netherlands can truly be proud of. 

Things have changed. The government today is no longer willing to give space to people who need it. Instead, more and more of our city is being taken away from us and redistributed to the rich and powerful. But we have a right to our city. We can resist gentrification. We can create alternative forms of living. We can create our own identities. We can take what we are not given. Space is political.  It is why we fight for it. It is why we all do what we do. Why we claim all the spaces we run as our own. Why we work hard to make our social spaces accessible and enriching. 

Amsterdam is getting harder and harder to live in. People who are able to be politically active are getting fewer and fewer. Rent has gone up. Squatting has become less stable. Housing companies and hotels have taken over the city. Authorities are using any power they can to intimidate us and limit our capacities. But while our anarchic community is getting smaller, we are still feeding each other, clothing each other, entertaining each other and teaching each other. We are still here. And we aren’t going anywhere without a fight.

We wish all our comrades here in Amsterdam, and throughout the world, good fortune in their resistance, a joyfully happy summer and strength and peace of mind. We’ll return with our sexy, dissident, colourful cinema programming in September. In the meantime, see you in August at Het Schip.