CINE CAPITOL Presents: The Great Dictator

Join us on Saturday, July 27 at 6pm for a special CARA iteration of CINE CAPITOL, a long-term domestic 16mm cinema series by artist Javier Téllez. The artist will be screening Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film The Great Dictator on 16mm film.

This iteration of Téllez's CINE CAPITOL provides audiences with a unique opportunity to engage with the references that informed Téllez’s exhibition Amerika, on view at CARA through August 11.

Amerika centers around the newly-commissioned film, made by Téllez in collaboration with Andrea Arias, José Díaz, Luisandra Escalona, Leonardo Mesa, Nazareth Merentes, Jesús Ramírez, Omar Ríos, Mariana Vargas—a group of Venezuelan refugees currently living in New York. Téllez, himself an immigrant from Venezuela who has been living in New York since 1993, worked with these non-professional actors to produce a short film inspired by the work of Charlie Chaplin—the iconic actor and filmmaker who challenged authority and social control in his work, advocating for social justice and human rights. Téllez and his collaborators draw from Chaplin’s films The Immigrant (1917), Gold Rush (1925), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940), reenacting scenes from these films to question power, hegemony, and intolerance toward the other.

CINE CAPITOL is named after one of Venezuela’s first cinemas, Cine Capitol, founded in 1914 in Turmero, Aragua State, by Téllez’s grandfather, Alfredo Pacheco Miranda.

Visitors are encouraged to arrive early on July 27 to view Téllez's film AMERIKA and then join us for CINE CAPITOL. Space is limited and reservations are required to attend this screening. RVSP here.

Cover image: Javier Téllez, AMERIKA, 2024, installation image by Kris Graves.