Burn!
FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION
Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo | 112 mins | 1969
A Caribbean island in the mid-1800s. Nature has made it a paradise; man has made it a hell. Slaves on vast Portuguese sugar plantations are ready to turn their misery into rebellion - and the British are ready to provide the spark. They send agent William Walker (Marlon Brando) on a devious three-part mission: trick the slaves into revolt, grab the sugar trade for England...then return the slaves to servitude. Gillo Pontecorvo, the acclaimed director of The Battle of Algiers, explores colonialism and insurrection in this searing epic. Both visually and narratively stunning, Burn! glows with the fires of Pontecorvo's unique filmmaking genius as well as Brando's complex, intelligent portrayal of a man who is both gentleman and scoundrel, revolutionary and colonialist.
This film also serves and an introduction to the study of the Haitian revolution that begins the following week in the Brecht Forum's ongoing "Revolutions" class. Participants can join the class at any point.
Sliding scale: $6/$10/$15
Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers
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