Manchester Film Co-operative – in association with the IF Campaign – would like to invite you to a special double-bill film screening of We’re Not Broke and the award-winning Secret City, including a director Q&A.

6:30pm – 8pm: We’re Not Broke (90m)

America is in the grip of a societal economic panic. Lawmakers cry “We’re broke!” as they slash budgets, lay off schoolteachers, police and firefighters, crumbling the country’s social fabric and leaving many Americans scrambling to survive. Meanwhile, multibillion-dollar American corporations like Exxon, Google and Bank of America are making record profits. And while the deficit climbs and the cuts go deeper, these corporations—with intimate ties to our political leaders—are concealing colossal profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. income tax.

“We’re Not Broke” is the story of how American corporations have been able to hide over a trillion dollars from Uncle Sam, and how seven fed-up Americans from across the country, take their frustration to the streets and vow to make the corporations pay their fair share.

8:30pm – 9:45pm: Secret City (72m)

London and the City of London are not the same place. London is a metropolis of 8 million people. The City of London is the famous square mile in the middle, with about 7,000 residents but many more businesses.

A Corporation older than Parliament, the City of London has played a key historical role in protecting and promoting the interests of finance capital. Secret City investigates the historical power wielded by the Corporation of London over British economic policy, through which it sustains London‘s prime position at the hub of global finance capital — not least through control of the majority of the world‘s tax havens.

This award-winning film exposes the Corporation‘s anti-democratic constitution, the ancient laws which allow it function as a state within a state, and what happens to those who oppose it.

10pm: Q&A session with Secret City director Lee Salter.

Date: Tuesday, 14th of May.

Time: Doors open at 6pm, the event will finish by around 11pm.

Admission: £5 waged, £4 unwaged for the double bill (or £3 waged, £2 unwaged for single film).

Venue: Didsbury Parsonage, Stenner Lane (Off Wilmslow Road), M20 2RQ.

Optional RSVP: Facebook.

Manchester Film Co-operative – in association with Antwerp Mansion – would like to invite you to a special double-bill film screening, with live musical entertainment from Richard Barry and the Chaps.

6:30pm – 8pm: Invisible Circus [FILM]

Meet the ring master of this invisible circus Doug Francis as he leads Bristol’s anarchist circus from margins to mainstream with the motto: ‘If it’s not impossible, we’re not interested’

The film’s 3 year span takes them from chaotic squat crew to licensed building managers with huge show budgets – via rotting garages, crumbling cathedrals and a takeover of Bristol’s ex-police HQ.

8pm – 8:30pm: Richard Barry and the Chaps

Local folk group Richard Barry and the Chaps will play a short musical set during the intermission. Richard is one of the most fondly revered performers on the UK folk circuit and has supported the likes of Bob Geldof, Kiki Dee, Midge Ure, Fairport Convention and Dr Feelgood. He is also a much-demanded voice-over artist, narrator and actor.

8:30pm – 10pm: Exit Through the Gift Shop [FILM]

Street artist Banksy that tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles, and his obsession with street art.

The film charts Guetta’s constant documenting of his every waking moment on film, from a chance encounter with his cousin, the artist Invader, to his introduction to a host of street artists with a focus on Shepard Fairey and Banksy, whose anonymity is preserved by obscuring his face and altering his voice, to Guetta’s eventual fame as a street artist himself.

10pm – 10:30pm: Richard Barry and the Chaps

A second set from Richard will follow our film screenings. The bar will remain open until 11pm.

Date: Wednesday, 24th of April.

Time: Doors open at 6pm, the event will finish by 11pm.

Admission: £5 waged, £4 unwaged for the double bill (or £3 waged, £2 unwaged for single film).

Venue: Antwerp Mansion, Rusholme.

Optional RSVP: Facebook.

To celebrate Climate Week (4-10 March), Manchester Film Co-op invites you to a screening of the brand new environmental documentary, Chasing Ice.

In the spring of 2005, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment for National Geographic: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the biggest story in human history and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very well-being at risk.

Chasing Ice is the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.

As the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, Balog finds himself at the end of his tether. Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality. It takes years for Balog to see the fruits of his labor. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet.

Date: Tuesday, 5th of March.

Time: Doors open at 7:30pm, film begins at 8pm.

Admission: £3 waged, £2 unwaged/student.

Venue: Merci, Beswick Street, Ancoats, Manchester.

Optional RSVP: Facebook.