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AV Pick: The Juche Idea (May 15)

“O bureaucratic capitalism! Wet slug to be suffocated in eggshells and beer!” Ah, the poetry of communist propaganda. Jim Finn has been attuned to it with a series of films exploring the links among cinema, art, and propaganda, including Interkosmos, which screened at Hallwalls last fall. His newest work, The Juche Idea, had the prestigious closing night slot at the recent New York Underground Film Festival. It explores the revolutionary art of North Korea, where “Juche” (pronounced “joo-CHAY”) is the state ideology and religion as described in texts written by the Dear Leader himself, Kim Jong-il. Finn, a Hallwalls Artist-in-Residence, mixes fictional footage (some of it filmed at the University at Buffalo and Kleinhans) with jaw-dropping scenes of massively choreographed Korean rallies and popular films that pleased the Dear Leader, a notorious movie buff. Don’t hold your breath waiting for Hollywood to remake The Tiny Dentures of Imperialism: Check out The Juche Idea as it makes its local premiere.

m. faust

8pm. Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, 341 Delaware Avenue

(854-1694 / hallwalls.org). $7 general, $5 students/seniors, $4 members.