ON FRIDAY, MAY 15th, at 7pm, join us for a screening at The Film-Makers' Cooperative (475 Park Avenue South, 6th Floor) of Zoe Beloff's new film LIFE FORGOTTEN (2026) and the launch of her accompanying book of the same name!
TICKETS: https://filmmakerscoop.ecwid.com/Zoe-Beloffs-LIFE-FORGOTTEN-Screening-&-....
Life Forgotten (2026, 50 minutes) asks, how does everyday entertainment bring people together and act as a catalyst for social change? Situating archival film in parallel with reenactment, the film conjures up New York’s Lower East Side in the early years of the twentieth century, and centers on a real storefront cinema, Frank Seiden’s Variety Theater. Here silent movies were anything but. Frank and his sons improvised dialog for the films and sang Yiddish ballads to an audience that didn’t hesitate to join in or argue back. It was a welcoming space for women and the film follows a group of radical young garment workers who gather here to figure out how to fight for workers rights.
The book, Life Forgotten, is a companion piece to the film. It includes both Beloff's artwork and historical documents, and brings together multiple perspectives: oral histories from the Lower East Side, an essay, "Intellectuals between Critique and Power" by the historian Enzo Traverso, and Beloff's notes on Walter Benjamin’s concept of the Angel of History, our time of catastrophes. The book poses questions and offers a few signposts. How does history grow out of and weight upon live experience? How can people without power or influence change their world? How can we reach out to comrades across time?
Beloff will be in attendance to introduce and discuss her film and book, and answer audience members' questions.
*Act fast: seating for this event is limited.* We hope to see you there!