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Paradise Now

The Pacfic Festival of the Book presents the world premiere of a remastered film by Marty Topp produced by Ira Cohen: Paradise Now.

Camas Bookstore, 2590 Quadra St
Sunday. May 10, 7pm

“Life, revolution and theater are three words for the same thing: an unconditional NO to the present society.” - Julian Beck

“Paradise Now … more relevant now because we’re closer to now than we ever have been.” - Hanon Reznikov

Arthur Magazine proudly presents our PARADISE NOW: The Living Theatre in Amerika DVD release featuring rare, never-before-distributed films and a bacchanal of revolutionary multimedia documents from The Living Theatre’s historic and influential ‘68-’69 American tour. A fulminating art-meets-life installation brought to you in collaboration with The Living Theatre and Universal Mutant, Inc.

Featuring Films:

- PARADISE NOW: THE LIVING THEATRE IN AMERIKA (1969) a film by Marty Topp, produced by Ira Cohen for Universal Mutant

“Marty Topp’s beautiful film of ‘Paradise Now’ reveals how the theories of revolutionary change and the experience of sexual liberation are not separate paths to the beautiful nonviolent anarchist revolution. Practiced together they are a single thrust, encompassing both political action and sensual joy, leading to the dreamed-of terrestrial paradise.” — Judith Malina

- EMERGENCY: THE LIVING THEATRE (1968) a film by Gwen Brown, featuring precious footage of late 60's Living Theatre productions Mysteries and smaller pieces, Paradise Now, and Frankenstein

“The fusion of Brown’s freewheeling direct cinema and the Living Theatre’s performance for revolutionary change (amidst the heydays of both) unite as a dynamic concoction of the era, yielding for the viewer a shifting terrain of both critical insight and ecstatic zeal, not as a vacant nostalgia for a pre-commodified radicality, but as tactical inspiration for future days.” - Andrew Wilson of Artist’s Access Television

- THE PERMANENT REVOLUTION: CHANGE! (2007) a film by Will Swofford and Georg Gatsas

On Thursday August 23rd, 2007, in the south plaza of New York’s Union Square The Living Theatre presented Paradise Now in the streets marking the 80th anniversary of the capital executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti - Italian immigrants unjustly executed for their anarchist political convictions.

Witness the restaging of their landmark play Paradise Now in New York’s Union Square on the site of a historic mass protest by over 500,000 supporters of Sacco and Vanzetti on the fateful day in 1927 when they were electrocuted by the State of Massachusetts.

WHAT IS PARADISE NOW?

In 1968 The Living Theatre, led by Julian Beck and Judith Malina, triumphantly returned to America from years of self-imposed exile in Europe with their theatrical breakthrough Paradise Now. The play introduces the practice of collective creation, dissolving the boundaries of human interactions and forging a harmony between the actors and audience. Of this process, Julian Beck writes, “Collective creation is the secret weapon of the people… This play is a voyage from the many to the one and from the one to the many. It’s a spiritual voyage and a political voyage, a voyage for the actors and the spectators. The play is a vertical ascent toward permanent revolution, leading to revolutionary action here and now. The revolution of which the play speaks is the beautiful, non-violent, anarchist revolution. The purpose of the play is to lead to a state of being in which non-violent revolutionary action is possible.”

The result of this shared voyage is the spontaneous creation of a temporary anarchist collective, free from the enslavements of war, violence, the State, money and the self.

MORE ABOUT THE LIVING THEATRE

Founded in 1947, The Living Theatre has staged more than 80 productions performed in eight languages in 25 countries on four continents - a unique body of work. Visit their new space on Clinton St. in NYC – more info:www.livingtheatre.org












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