The Cinematheque

“His dense, prickly films—peopled with ciphers, mouthpieces, dialecticians, and strawmen—have been called elitist, onanist, and even inhuman. In Gangsterism, his most unshakably human work to date, the director doubles down with flair and lucidity.”

Alexander Mooney, The Brooklyn Rail

As he mulls over the budget for his next film, director-gangster Clem (Mark Bacolcol) sends his artist cronies after an old comrade rumoured to be a leaker. Following up on last year’s 10th anniversary screening of Isiah Medina’s 88:88 (2015), the filmmaker returns to DIM Cinema for the Vancouver premiere of his latest feature. With a disciplined bone to pick with Hegel and the finitude of language, in this sartorial cinéma à clef and avant-garde gangster film Medina repudiates the reproduction of racialized narratives for the state’s cultural agenda.

Post-screening Q&A with Isiah Medina, moderated by programmer Steff Huì Cí Ling.