sunday, september 11, 9 pm: man on wire

[pirate cinema berlin]

Today it's easily forgotten that most New Yorkers hated the Twin Towers, for 
being so obviously out of proportion. The only serious attempt to reconcile the 
public with their daunting presence in the city's skyline was undertaken in the 
early morning of August 7, 1974 by a French high-wire artist named Philippe 
Petit who, after six years of clandestine planning with a small crew of close
friends, managed to gain access to both rooftops and secretly install a steel 
cable, on which he crossed the void between the towers a total of eight times 
before surrendering to the Police. Crowds of spectators gathered in the streets 
of Downtown Manhattan, and even the authorities expressed their appreciation: 
The District Attorney dropped all charges of disorderly conduct and criminal 
trespass in exchange for a free performance in Central Park, and the Port 
Authority of New York and New Jersey issued the artist with a lifetime pass to 
the towers' observation deck. The ending, in case you don't already see it 
coming: While his friends are expelled from the United States, Petit himself 
becomes an instant celebrity, experiences a "magnificent explosion of pleasure" 
at the hands of a groupie, and his girlfriend, who had watched him walk the 
wire from 400 meters below, would not see him again for a rather long time.

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                                                            pirate cinema berlin
                                                                u kottbusser tor
                                                      sunday, september 11, 9 pm

                                                                     man on wire
                                                                     james marsh
                                                                   2008, 94 mins

                                                                  12 seats, rsvp
                                                          first come first serve
                                                       location in separate mail

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