This screening is part of a monthly film series presented by Soctalk and hosted and co-curated by WORM, exploring cinema through the lens of social reproduction feminism (for example, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uur-pMk7XjY). In the words of Cindi Katz (2001), social reproduction is the fleshy and messy _stuff_ of everyday life. The program invites audiences to look at film as a way of understanding the structures of regular practices that make life possible, while questioning whose labour remains unseen. Across four screenings, we explore how capitalist relations profit from the status quo and depend on keeping much of this work hidden.

The first screening is inspired by the work of Mierle Laderman Ukeles (1939), with the main focus on how social reproductive labour can be reappropriated as art. Jobs such as cleaning or repairing are often invisible, yet fundamental to public life. Ukeles has extensively documented her own maintenance labour as art, the repetitive constant work that disappears as soon as it happens. By foregrounding maintenance as a creative and political practice, this program challenges dominant ideas of value and artistic production.

program:

Semiotics of the Kitchen
by Martha Rosler, USA, 1975, 6 min, English
In Semiotics of the Kitchen, video artist Martha Rosler adopts the familiar format of a cooking show to present the mundane objects and tools to be found in a kitchen. Her demonstration of their use, bordering on rage and violence, captures the frustration women experience in response to their socially ‘assigned’ role as happy homemakers.

Koolhaas Houselife
by Ila Beka, Louise Lemoine
2008, France, 58 min, French with English subtitles
Koolhaas Houselife presents the iconic private residence Maison à Bordeaux, designed by architect Rem Koolhaas, from the perspective of those who clean and maintain it. The film primarily follows Guadalupe Acedo, the housekeeper, as she goes about her daily chores. In doing so, it offers an intimate view of the house while also questioning the often-overlooked labor that allows art and architecture to exist and endure.

Yard Work Is Hard Work
by Jodie Mack
2008, USA, 27 min, English
Through repetition and abstraction, Jodie Mack transforms everyday yard work into a rhythmic, animated study of labour. The film highlights the physical persistence of maintenance work, blurring the boundary between chore and performance.

Soctalk is a junior staff initiative within the Department of Public Administration and Sociology at* Erasmus University Rotterdam*. The collective organizes workshops and courses both inside and outside the university. Soctalk aims to foster a culture of care that critically engages with institutional structures, while redistributing and collectivizing resources to support communities and initiatives in the city of Rotterdam.

**Cineville valid at the door and online on the date itself!**