Holding the Light

Pakhuis de Zwijger, Monday, June 15 at 08:00 PM GMT+2

Dreaming despite darkness: exploring life through pressure & uncertainty.

What kind of images survive in times of darkness? What does it mean to keep dreaming when exhaustion becomes part of everyday life? This programme brings together five Iranian short films that explore life in moments of pressure, uncertainty and fragile connection. The films move through spaces shaped by fear, distance, intimacy and tenderness, showing how political realities are felt in everyday gestures, silences and relationships. Borrowing its title from Home Work: Holding the Light, the programme understands light not as a simple symbol of hope or rescue, but as something people pass to one another. It appears in small moments: a face briefly visible in the dark, a voice reaching across distance, a gesture that keeps someone from disappearing. Across the five films, dreaming is not an escape from reality. It becomes a way of staying human within it. Moving between memory and the present, darkness and illumination, these films look not for heroes, but for the quiet ways people support one another through difficult times.

Filmmakers: Sahand Sarhaddi Majid Fakhrian Ali Jamshidi Film Critic Amin Pakparvar Mehraneh Salimian Mahyar Mandegar Parsa Ansari

Homework: Holding the Light | Writer & Director: Majid Fakhrian

In a night class in a palm grove, the students, with the help of their teacher, experiment with different types of light and observing objects. Meanwhile, a blind child is searching for a classmate whose name is unfamiliar to all the students.

Memories of a Window | Writers and Directors: Mehraneh Salimian and Amin Pakparvar

Following crackdowns on protests in Iran, civilians begin documenting the unrest from behind windows. When a woman is shot while recording, a film student writes her a letter raising the question: Can revolution emerge from behind windows?

Slaughter | Writer & Director: Sahand Sarhaddi

“Besmel/Slaughter” is an experimental short film that delves into the archival and historical footage of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, depicting a symbolic narrative surrounding the ritualistic act of animal sacrifice, known as “Besmel”. It serves as an allegorical representation of a nation’s sacrifice amidst the backdrop of political transformations.

Taha | Writer and Director: Mahyar Mandegar

In a rundown Iranian circus in Los Angeles, 70-year-old groundskeeper decides to participate in the show in order to see what the trapeze dancer sees every night, up in the sky.

The Villain- Director: Parsa Ansari / Writers: Mobarakeh Mortazavi, Parsa Ansari

An aging man who plays the villain in an Iranian Passion Play is haunted by memories of his past and the woman he wronged many years ago.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/holding-the-light

🎬 Pierre (1976)

Filmhuis Cavia, Sunday, June 14 at 08:30 PM GMT+2

Jan Decorte | 1976 | BE | 90’ | EN subtitles

Theater director Jan Decorte’s first feature film spans a day and a night in the lonely life of a Brussels municipal employee. Pierre lives with his mother in an old-fashioned house in a declining working-class neighborhood. Every morning, Pierre takes the tram to work at city hall, where he listens to his colleagues’ jokes during his lunch break. His only hope of escaping his boredom and frustrations lies with a girl from the gymnastics club. One evening, when his mother is out, he invites her over to his place.

“One person is an inscrutable mystery to another. The ultimate meaning and motives behind most of the actions a person takes remain hidden from him. What, then, of knowledge—of the possibility of knowing another person’s motives? Should we not question the very existence of motives?” — Jan Decorte
 

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/pierre-1976

Et le résultat (peu de locuteurs d' #espéranto au regard de ceux d'anglais) n'a rien d'une fatalité "naturelle". Il est la conséquence d'équilibres géopolitiques, et SURTOUT le triomphe d'une #domination de #classes sociales n'ayant aucun intérêt à autoriser les peuples à prendre la parole.

after afterlives: film screening and talk programme

W139, Wednesday, May 27 at 08:00 PM GMT+2

What does the ground unleash when it is denied keeping what it holds? How does soil get implicated in the carrying of catastrophe? And how does continuous excavation for artefacts reveal an obsession to erase history in order to create a new one? Against this erasure, how have material knowledges of burning, plastering, and burying offered different approaches to the ground—one where land and flesh are bound together in a rhythm of constant transformation? These are some of the questions we’ll be engaging with during this program, which will expand on the works of Areej Ashhab and Ola Hassanain, in the flour, water, soil exhibition, and bring in the work of Dina Mimi, to open up a conversation about the artefact as witness, the erasure of history through excavation, the objects and topologies of repair, and the relationship of people to their material environments. 

Areej will be sharing excerpts from her film Lime Through the Elements, and connecting them to her new installation, The Ground Keeps What it Holds, commissioned for this exhibition.  The work engages ancient burial practices in Palestine and the aftermath of their settler-colonial excavation. Through field research, experimentation, and collective labor, the film revisits the lost practice of lime making in Palestine and its elemental journey back to limestone as a reflection on return—what survives erasure and elimination.

We will also be screening Dina Mimi’s short film The Eyes That Never See, which narrates the story of Ram(z)i, a lonely working class man who died twice. Ram(z)i was renamed as soon as his first body died, to die again in Jerusalem, under the dusty ground while digging for artefacts from a 6,000 year-old ancient city. Just like in Areej’s work, Dina’s film exposes the obsessions of a settler state that continuously excavates, digging deep into the ground, to find artefacts in order to create new histories.  

Ola will present her spatial installation for the exhibition, Water Collection Points, and contextualise it within her ongoing project Tell The Water What The Clay Kept Secret. The work uses water collection points across the exhibition space to make visible the efforts to repair the environment that emerge at the onset of catastrophes. Framed as a site for the ‘ecology of repair’, Ola examines this collective effort to deal with crisis by highlighting roles within communities—especially those living near water—where watching and listening emerge as spatial practices shaped by environmental and political rupture. 

The films and talks will be followed by a conversation between Ola, Dina, and Areej, moderated by Margarita Osipian—interweaving their individual works and the stories that unfold through them.

Ticket: €7,50Student and solidarity ticket: €5

Buy your tickets via Eventbrite.

Areej Ashhab is an artist and researcher whose work addresses material heritage loss, more-than-human ecologies, and land politics. Areej’s practice spans material experimentation, writing, and film, and often unfolds collectively through walks, workshops, and shared meals. She is the co-founder of Al-Block, documenting lost narratives of the Palestinian landscape through collective walking, and Al-Wah’at, a translocal collective countering anthropocentric and colonial narratives around arid lands and futures. In her recent project A Hand of Fire and Stone, she traced abandoned lime pits in Palestine, built a lime kiln prototype in Bethlehem, and activated this lost architecture through fire, songs, and meals; following the elemental cycle of lime from stone, to paste, and back to stone.

Ola Hassanain is an artist whose work moves through architecture, film, and spatial strategies to reflect on how power becomes visible—and felt—through built environments. Her practice engages with places shaped by climate instability, postcolonial legacies, and displacement, thinking through the politics of inhabiting and how ecological and social systems shape one another across time. As she notes, “observation summons a form of power”.

Dina Mimi is an artist working in experimental film and moving image, exploring how, and when, bodies become sites of resistance. Often using found footage to explore themes including smuggling and tactics of movement, her work adopts non-linear forms of narration. She approaches editing as an open and exploratory process, experimenting with the opacity of footage—images that are in the act of vanishing.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/after-afterlives-film-screening-and-talk-programme

Techno Yoga - Start 20:00

Radion, Tuesday, May 19 at 08:00 PM GMT+2

Immerse yourself in the vibrations of techno during a vinyasa yoga flow. We move slowly through the flow to integrate music therapy, art and embodiment in a shared space. Together, we repurpose a nightclub space to create an alternative practice with our bodies and our breaths. Each class is set up with different music, a different concept that we work with with ourselves and our bodies. Everyone is welcome regardless of gender, expression, ethnicity, nationality, body type and sexuality.

The group ranges from 40-50 people. Please bring your own mat to the venue. If you do not own a mat, please write to @technoyogagirl and she will arrange one for you. There are no refunds on tickets, however you are welcome to use ticketswap in case you can’t make it. Please communicate to the teacher any injuries and remember to listen to your own body during the practice. The class is for all levels of yoga, including beginners and advanced.

Some of the funds from the event go to different charity organizations, like Cry India, the Black Youth Project, Save the Children, LGBTQ organizations and other local charities given the type of event. I look forward to guiding you in this space! If you have any questions, please reach out to me on instagram: @technoyogagirl

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/techno-yoga-start-2000

Techno Yoga - start 18:30

Radion, Tuesday, May 19 at 06:00 PM GMT+2

Immerse yourself in the vibrations of techno during a vinyasa yoga flow. We move slowly through the flow to integrate music therapy, art and embodiment in a shared space. Together, we repurpose a nightclub space to create an alternative practice with our bodies and our breaths. Each class is set up with different music, a different concept that we work with with ourselves and our bodies. Everyone is welcome regardless of gender, expression, ethnicity, nationality, body type and sexuality.

The group ranges from 40-50 people. Please bring your own mat to the venue. If you do not own a mat, please write to @technoyogagirl and she will arrange one for you. There are no refunds on tickets, however you are welcome to use ticketswap in case you can’t make it. Please communicate to the teacher any injuries and remember to listen to your own body during the practice. The class is for all levels of yoga, including beginners and advanced.

Some of the funds from the event go to different charity organizations, like Cry India, the Black Youth Project, Save the Children, LGBTQ organizations and other local charities given the type of event. I look forward to guiding you in this space! If you have any questions, please reach out to me on instagram: @technoyogagirl

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/techno-yoga-start-1830

GEGEN

Radion, Saturday, August 8 at 11:00 PM GMT+2

Polish your leather. Tighten your harness.
We’re coming back to RADION to make Pride sweat, scream, and remember what it was built from.

For the faggots, dykes, dolls, słvts, switches, leather freaks, soft boys, hard girls, trans angels, gender disasters, power bottoms, service tops, and every body they tried to erase.
We are not here to behave.
We are here to move like a threat.
To sweat through shame.

This is not a rainbow decoration.
This is queer pressure. Queer pleasure.
Queer bodies taking space without asking nicely.

RADION becomes ours.
Boots stomping through the dark.
Latex melting under the strobes.
Bass hitting like collective memory.

Every stare becomes confrontation.
Every kiss becomes protest.
Every body becomes proof that we were never meant to conform.

Come dressed to disturb.
Come sweat for your freedom.
Come proud. Come filthy. Come together.

World Pride is calling.
Let’s make it loud!

EXTRA XXL AREA hosted by The Playroom Company

/// Consent is the heartbeat of Gegen.
Clearly understand and respect each other's boundaries.
Remember to seek explicit agreement for each unique experience, ensuring everyone is on the same liberating wavelength.
The Playroom Company team will be present to ensure a safe and enjoyable environment for all.

/// DRESSCODE ///
/// Come as your rawest self.
/// Fetish, latex, leather, rubber, sports, shine, skin, color, naked intent.
/// No casual wear. No half-effort.
/// Show up as the version of you they tried to silence.
/// Dress code will be reinforced upon entry.

/// HOUSE RULES ///
/// We want you and everyone else to feel safe and empowered, regardless of gender, race, sexuality, body, ability, class, or expression.
/// Please make sure there is consent before approaching any physical contact. Gegen is not a place for racism, any kind of discrimination, sexual harassment, or any sort of violence.‍
/// If you should observe or experience an inappropriate situation, please don't hesitate to go to the staff or the Club Care booth.‍
/// Those who shall not comply with these rules will be invited to leave.

Artwork by SUPER G

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/gegen

Yoga ⊙

NieuwLand, Friday, June 12 at 12:00 PM GMT+2

Vijñana yoga: Practicing from Inside.

 

The heart of this practice is grounded on inner listening and coming back  to simplicity, supporting a  space for
self exploration and discovery. 

In the begining, guidelines are given to get to know the strucure and the technique of this practice,  with time  a sense of quietness emerge.
The class last one hour and forty-five minutes and begins with a short meditation, we do simple exercises to regulate the breath (pranayama) and  some postures (asana).

 

For more info & signing up:
click here

For last minute signs up: it will be updated here whether the lesson is full or cancelled :)
If you like to be added to a weekly sign up reminder, let me know here

Duration: each session will be between 1h 45 - 2 hours.
Please be there at least 5 minutes before the class starts, at 12.00 the door is closed.

The minimum suggested donation is €10
NOTAFLOF. For other alternatives, please just talk to the teacher.
_ Free for NieuwLand volunteers 

The classes are held at Stonewall Studio in NieuwLand.

 

 Everyone is welcome :)

 

 

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https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/yoga-49

Yoga - All Levels All Welcome

NieuwLand, Monday, June 15 at 06:00 PM GMT+2

To sign up:

send an e-mail to: [email protected]

Please read the information below -- it should answer any questions:

Location:
Pieter Nieuwlandstraat 95
1093XN Amsterdam

Doors open at 17.45

NOTE: Due to road works on our street, there is no bicycle parking at Nieuwland (until April 2026!). Please make sure you plan you arrival accordingly. We apologize for any inconvenience...

Yoga mats and all necessary equipment for the class is available, just bring yourself!

This one-hour evening class (18.00 - 19.00) is for all levels, all are welcome. It is taught by an experienced and certified Iyengar Yoga teacher.

This approach to classical yoga allows the postures to be understood in depth. In this way, the practitioner learns to bring the body, mind and breath into a workable state of unity. Support, such as chairs, blocks, belts or blankets, can be used to deepen the learning process for all bodies to benefit from the practice.

Attention:
Mutual care is a practice: please stay home if you are unwell. Self-testing before sharing the room is most welcome. Do let us know if you can’t make it, so we can make space for those on the waiting list.

The suggested donation makes it possible for us to continue offering amazing classes here!

Suggested Sliding Scale

One-Hour Single Lesson: 10 - 15 EUR (***CASH ONLY***)

Class cards (multiple lessons) availble, just ask!
It is very important that no one be excluded due to the cost of classes-- alternatives welcome --: Please talk to the teacher.

 

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/yoga-all-levels-all-welcome-137

Yoga - All Levels All Welcome

NieuwLand, Monday, May 25 at 06:00 PM GMT+2

To sign up:

send an e-mail to: [email protected]

Please read the information below -- it should answer any questions:

Location:
Pieter Nieuwlandstraat 95
1093XN Amsterdam

Doors open at 17.45

NOTE: Due to road works on our street, there is no bicycle parking at Nieuwland (until April 2026!). Please make sure you plan you arrival accordingly. We apologize for any inconvenience...

Yoga mats and all necessary equipment for the class is available, just bring yourself!

This one-hour evening class (18.00 - 19.00) is for all levels, all are welcome. It is taught by an experienced and certified Iyengar Yoga teacher.

This approach to classical yoga allows the postures to be understood in depth. In this way, the practitioner learns to bring the body, mind and breath into a workable state of unity. Support, such as chairs, blocks, belts or blankets, can be used to deepen the learning process for all bodies to benefit from the practice.

Attention:
Mutual care is a practice: please stay home if you are unwell. Self-testing before sharing the room is most welcome. Do let us know if you can’t make it, so we can make space for those on the waiting list.

The suggested donation makes it possible for us to continue offering amazing classes here!

Suggested Sliding Scale

One-Hour Single Lesson: 10 - 15 EUR (***CASH ONLY***)

Class cards (multiple lessons) availble, just ask!
It is very important that no one be excluded due to the cost of classes-- alternatives welcome --: Please talk to the teacher.

 

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/yoga-all-levels-all-welcome-134