THE LONG TAKE FILM CLUB | Afterlives

THE LONG TAKE FILM CLUB

Films worth thinking about. People worth talking to. Monthly.

We screen standout cinema you won’t find elsewhere, then discuss it properly over beer and pizza. Curated by film curator and critic Deniz Sertkol and François Smit—who’ve spent their careers finding films that matter.

Not film theory. Just films that deserve your full attention, and conversations with people who give them exactly that. Monthly screenings for members and friends at The Bioscope.

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No membership fees, just a passion for film is essential.

MORE INFO AND OTHER FILM CLUB SCREENINGS WILL BE LISTED HERE

Afterlifes

Kevin B. Lee is a filmmaker, media artist and critic with more than 360 video essays to his name. His Transformers: The Premake introduced the desktop documentary, was named one of the best documentaries of 2014 by Sight & Sound, and screened at Berlin Critics Week, Rotterdam and the Viennale.

Afterlives is his first feature, and it's still travelling the festival circuit: world premiere at Doclisboa, followed by BFI London, Stockholm, DocsBarcelona and Vancouver. We're bringing it to Joburg while it's still on the road.

The film asks what happens to images of violence once they've done their work. Starting from a piece of extremist propaganda made with blockbuster polish, Kevin B. Lee sets out to read it as a critic and finds he can't stay outside it. From there the film moves between screen and street, from the Medusa of Hatra to digital archives, meeting an artist, an activist and a researcher who each take that imagery and make something new from it.

Our final screening of 2026. Discussion in the cinema afterwards, then pizza and beers in the courtyard.

Germany/Belgium/France, 2025, 88 min, English.
Content note: includes extremist propaganda footage and scenes of graphic violence.