Join the EEFF and Noaz Deshe for an exploration of our “priority needs”, and what it is about us that allows those in power to ruthlessly abuse and control us. From national myths to government mind control; and from brutal cults to extreme ideological violence; from news cycles to the emotional security that comes from filling up your fridge…This is an exercise in Deprogramming Cinema.

It is designed to ask: Why do we accept systems of control? How do we deprogram them? How do we regain our ability to make up our own minds?

Taking inspiration from the MONARCH and MK-ULTRA mind control programs, EEFF welcomes you to a series of screenings, discussions and audience manipulation: a guide to ‘deprogramming’, one film at a time.

Film highlights include: ex-cult members re-enacting their past in Moonchild, a vicious act of violence on the Japanese metro in the shocking documentary A, a lone woman pursuing an act of jihad in Day Night, Day Night, society’s complicity in the crimes of Soviet Russia, a special insight into the world’s most famous deprogrammer, and an array of dissonance, public information films and subliminal messages.

Sunday 5 July

SESSION 1 (12pm-4pm) | Ticket Price: £10 | BUY TICKETS

12pm | CIGARETTE BURNS PRESENTS:

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (16mm screening)

Director: Don Siegel | USA | 1956 | 80 min

One of the most iconic horror classics ever made, Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers sees the sleepy California town of Santa Mira invaded by the ‘pod people’, duplicate replacement humans grown from plant pods from outer space. When a local doctor discovers the plot to replace the human race, he must race to stop the invasion before it’s too late. A brilliantly tense portrait of mass indoctrination and control, screened on gloriously atmospheric 16mm.

2pm | EEFF PRESENTS:

A

Director: Tatsuya Mori | Japan | 1998 | 136 min

Aum Shinrikyo, the Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara responsible for the 1995 Sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway, becomes the subject of this riveting, horrifying documentary. Delve into the world of extreme brainwashing for dark, violent ends, and the code that lead to a group of people carrying out one of the most infamous terror attacks in recent history.

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SESSION 2 | Ticket Price: £10 |BUY TICKETS

4pm | EEFF PRESENTS:

Moonchild

Director: Anne Makepeace | USA | 1983 | 60 min

Former cult members play versions of themselves in Moonchild, a very special kind of horror cinema in which art imitates life. Chris Carlson is invited to a sleepy retreat in California by a friendly woman he meets, and finds himself slowly being indoctrinated by the Moonies, led by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Turned into an automaton by his new leaders,a group of ‘deprogrammers’ attempt to rescue him from this dar world of brainwashing. But what path will he choose?

Followed by a discussion the mechanics of brain washing, mind control and deprogramming by experts in the field, covering issues such as secret CIA mind control experiments and cults such as those explored in Moonchild and A.

6pm | EEFF PRESENTS:

Day Night Day Night

Director: Julia Loktev | USA, Germany | 2006 | 94 min

A 19-year-old girl prepares to become a suicide bomber in Times Square. Of unknown origin, she speaks with a nondescript American accent. We never learn why she made her decision, only that she seems to be carrying out her attack with the cold precision of an acolyte. Perhaps the most definitive film made wince 9/11 on the subject of modern political violence, this is an unmissable, little-seen drama of nail biting tension, indoctrination and belief, which challenges our expectations of where ‘terrorists’ might come from, and dangerous meaning of ‘programming’ in the modern age; all ending in Times Square, at the moment of truth.

BOTH SESSIONS | Special Price: £16.50 | BUY TICKETS