28 - 31 August
MOONS OF CAVIA
outdoor cinema
@ the garden
As another year passes in our small but enduring cinema, Cavia is ready to host the sixth edition of Moons, our outdoor festival of film, performance, food, and, more than anything else, community. This year we want to look inward at the many Moons that make up Cavia’s sky.
Filmhuis Cavia means collective, it stands for the ability of many different identities to stand together, in solidarity. Through our program this year we will try to represent some of the principles that guide us, as an act of collective reflection between the cinema and its many communities. This exercise has led us to what is maybe one of the most exciting and rich programs ever!
On the first night we will celebrate our rich 40 years of history, getting back to one of the classics prints from our archive, and giving tribute to the role of horror in Cavia’s past. On the second evening, we will do what Cavia was born for, experimenting and leaving free rein to local artists, involving local musicians to add a new dimension to what a cinema can be. We will follow that with an event completely based on the platforming of community groups and external realities, giving them a space to call home and where to come together. Finally, the festival will close by putting the local film community, the very soul of our cinema, at the centre of the stage, hosting a screening and discussions with local artists and professionals.
So come with us, as we travel through the many Moons of Cavia…
Moons of Cavia, 2023
August 28 - 31
Doors and bar open at 20:00
Entry on donation (Cineville card valid)
→ Van Hallstraat 52, Amsterdam + follow the signs!
In case of bad weather the screening will take place in a studio next to the garden.
The garden itself is accessible for wheelchairs but getting to the toilets will require some special arrangements. Please reach out to info@filmhuiscavia.nl in advance to let us know what you need.
We are very grateful to our friends and neighbours at the Kempenaerstudio for generously sharing their space with us.
Thursday 28 August, 20:00
OUTDOOR CINEMA
Bride of Frankenstein (on 16mm)
James Whale | 1935 | USA | 75’ | no subtitles | 16mm
To open this year’s edition of our annual Moons festival, we’re shining a light on the history of Filmhuis Cavia – through celluloid onto a screen – with a very special projection of a 16mm print from our archive.
James Whale’s classic 1935 flick Bride of Frankenstein is a landmark in early horror cinema and a rare sequel that’s just as brilliant as its predecessor. A cornerstone of Universal’s iconic monster cycle, the film was shaped by (and in many ways subverted) Hollywood’s Hays Code, undergoing rewrites to dampen sacrilegious content. Whale, who was openly gay throughout the 1920s and ‘30s, infused the film with camp, German Expressionist theatricality and subtle queer subtext. As a result, it’s often argued to be one the earliest works of queer horror – a genre well at home in the Cavia archive.
To accompany the screening, the latest edition of the handmade Cavia Zine will also be available, reflecting on the past year’s program as well as the year ahead. Sangria, drinks and snacks will be served.
Full programme:
Doors open at 20:00
20:00 - 21:00 | Spooky sangria, snacks and Cavia Zine available at the bar
21:00 - 22:30 | Bride of Frankenstein
Friday 29 August, 20:00
OUTDOOR CINEMA
Man with a Movie Camera w/ live soundtrack by Minute Made Music + Afterparty by DJ Pink Tweaks
For one evening, at the 2025 Moons open air film festival at Filmhuis Cavia, Amsterdam’s very own Minute Maid Music’s Oscar Jan Hoogland, Andy Moor and Uldis Vitols will assemble. Together, they will bring an improvised score to Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929). Oscar plays the electric clavichord, Andy on the electric guitar and Uldis on the bass synth and electronics. Get ready for an experimental urban symphony at Cavia! After the screening, stick around for a funky afterparty with DJ Pink Tweaks.
Man with a Movie Camera (Restored version)
Dziga Vertov | 1929 | USSR | 68’ | no dialogue
Man with a Movie Camera is an experimental 1929 Soviet silent documentary film. It shows a man travelling around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention. The film was intended as a visual argument for the place of the documentary filmmaker as a worker, educator, and eyewitness in a proletariat society. It is an impressionistic view of urban daily life, seen from a purely cinematic perspective. Man with a Movie Camera is known for its groundbreaking range of cinematic techniques used – which, in that time, were usually limited. Vertov invented some, developed others, such as multiple exposure, slow motion, freeze frames, match cuts, split screens and more. Safe to say that this film changed filmmaking for good.
In 2015, the film's only known complete cut of the film was restored by Eye Filmmuseum, here in Amsterdam, with additional digital work by Lobster Films. It is this wonderfully restored version that we will be watching and enjoying in an outdoor garden, along with Minute Maid Music’s funky tunes.
Minute Made Music
Wir lieben Echtzeitmusik. We love Instant Composers. Aber jetzt gibts auch Minute Made Music!
After their first victorious concert at BIMHUIS 50th anniversary, this group of artists brought together by Oscar Jan Hoogland, continues their trip. For Filmhuis Cavia, three of them will assemble. Standing on the shoulders of Amsterdams rich and notorious tradition of jazz and improvised music they go ahead into the future. The city is bursting of improvised music in dialogue with sexy cumbia, political post punk (The Ex), dada-esque performance art, live electronics, acoustic chamber music and more. In Minute Made Music all of these meet in the modular concept of the group. Minute Made Music is both a program and a band.
Oscar Jan Hoogland – electric clavichord
Andy Moor – electric guitar
Uldis Vitols – bass synth and electronics
Get a taste of what Minute Maid Music sounds like to get in the mood, HERE.
DJ Pink Tweaks
Rooted in the warmth of Neapolitan grooves and the pulse of percussion, Pink Tweaks weaves through funk, soul, Italo disco, and synth-driven sounds with a deep love for storytelling and human connection. Now diving deeper into the worlds of leftfield electronics, UK bass, experimental club, and genre-blurring dance music, Pink Tweaks crafts sets that feel both playful and intentional – an invitation to explore, move, and feel together.
Every set is a journey across rhythms and borders, blending joyful experimentation with a sense of togetherness on the dancefloor. Expect unexpected turns, emotional peaks, and a sound that celebrates curiosity as much as community.
Full programme:
Doors open at 20:00
21:30 - 23:00 | Man with a Movie Camera w/ live improvised soundtrack by Minute Made Music
23:00 - 03:00 | DJ Pink Tweaks in Cavia foyer
Saturday 30 August, 20:00
OUTDOOR CINEMA
Asian Movie Night: Sanguine Specters Stick To The Skin
+ Eastern Playgrounds: Food x Karaoke After Party x Mahjong Parlour
Asian Movie Night is a diasporic film platform in the Netherlands. Established as a direct response to the systematic lack of Asian representation in the Dutch cultural scene, AMN brings in radically different narratives and aesthetics to a broad audience through collaboration with various cultural venues.
For the summer edition, Asian Movie Night brings a performance and a selection of queer films that are a reflection on past and contemporary cinematic depictions of queer lives and histories and the cultural heritages that we carry with us. From the tenacious roars of 60s art subcultures in Tokyo, Japan to the spine-chilling, prayer-like whispers of contemporary Southeast Asian cinema, queer lives have always been found at the center of artistic reflections of cultures and histories. With this edition Asian Movie Night is exploring how to engage with our (queer) pasts and what we see in the (queer) stories told by those that came before us.
Who has been made present and who has been left wanting by the sidelines?
What happens at the intersections of queerness with national identity, culture, community and state?
Before the screening, there will be a performance by Qiao Chu Guo.
If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right
Wong Ka Ki, Vincent Ip | 2024 | Hong Kong, Ukraine | 5’
Two girls from two different worlds - they meet in the underground and try to heal their wounds, both physically and mentally, via their fantasies towards one another
Spring Will Come
Marion Hoang Ngoc Hill | 2024 | Vietnam, US | 15’ | Vietnamese, EN subtitles
Saigonese DJ Van Anh and her girlfriend Ly are struggling to end their relationship. Then a strange woman shows up to free the spirit of her long lost Father from their apartment.
Memori Dia
Asarela Orchidia Dewi | 2023 | Indonesia | 17’ | Bahasa Indonesian, EN subtitles
Triggered by an old family photograph, a young adult named Azka retraces their childhood – a sacred stage of life when they became aware of the external world around them and their inner self. While revisiting these long-forgotten memories, Azka discovers unresolved pains they never knew existed. This revelation marks a new beginning, one that unfolds the tapestry of profound self-embrace and acceptance, allowing Azka to move forward unapologetically into their truest essence.
The Deity Yet to Be Seen
Junn Zhou | 2024 | NL | 14’ | Mandarin, EN subtitles
A re-enactment of the legend of the white serpent (白蛇传), an ancient Chinese folktale, the film traces a serpent spirit through its transformative states of gender and identity. It evolves from a formless being to a man, woman, both, and neither.
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Eastern Playgrounds
Eastern Playgrounds is an Amsterdam-based Queer/Asian-led collective. Through hosting community events with Asian board games, mahjong workshops and karaoke sessions, they create space for connection and belonging through playfulness and joy.
Before the screening, Ko-Yu (Sara) Huang, a Taiwan-born interdisciplinary artist based in the Netherlands, presents an intimate serving of nostalgia and relearning — Tied Beancurd Knots and Seaweed Knots with homemade Sha-Cha Sauce (沙茶醬). This cold platter features soy-and-spice-braised beancurd and seaweed knots — ingredients that literally “tie” together, but whose meaning goes beyond the culinary. The word “結” (knot) can suggest connection, fate, or entanglement.
After the screening, Eastern Playgrounds keeps us tied up with a karaoke after party and a mahjong parlour at the cinema room of Cavia. Born from a desire for joy that centers Asian identities, their priority as a Queer/Asian-centered initiative is to carve out a space for a community to exist and grow while celebrating individual identities that never neatly fit into one way of being Asian.
Full programme:
Doors open at 20:00
20:00 - 21:00 | Eastern Playgrounds: Taiwanese food by Sara
21:00 - 21:15 | Performance by Qiao Chu Guo
21:30 - 22:30 | Asian Movie Night: A selection of queer shorts
23:00 - 03:00 | Eastern Playgrounds: karaoke after party x mahjong parlour
Sunday 31 August, 20:00
OUTDOOR CINEMA
Working Progress: Filmmakers’ Community Event + Happy Fuji News
To close up Moons, we are happy to announce another amazing collaboration. On Sunday, we will have a comeback of Working Progress, the series of screenings of works-in-progress aiming to strengthen the community of local filmmakers through interaction with the audiences. In this special edition, we will also be inviting back some of the previously shown directors and other local film professionals to join the audience, as well as for social drinks before the screening.
On top of this, we will have another fantastic return, with Happy Fuji News by Eric Kinny, a live coming back to the cinema, to make a truly unmissable event!
Happy Fuji News
Eric Kinny | 2022 | Belgium | 33’ | English
After a first very successful visit in March, we are welcoming back our favourite “live-animated performed” film, Happy Fuji News, created with a technique which feels in equal parts innovative and archaic. Here the story of a tourist guide escaping commercial hardship through the chance meeting of an ASMR artist, will be told through over 200 woodcuts, all printed, written and carved by Eric Kinny, a Brussels-based artist. The woodcuts will be shown and thrown at the rhythm of an audio soundtrack with MIDI guitar music by Raphaël Desmarets, with sound effects, and voice acting by McCloud Zicmuse, Siet Phorae, Molly Rex, Ma Clément, Alice Perez & Joey Wright.
Working Progress
Working Progress is a series of screenings that enable filmmakers to present their unfinished works to meet audiences with the aim of receiving feedback, generating a conversation and network for filmmakers and other film people! Filmmakers and works are chosen through an open call on a monthly basis. For interested parties, please email: workingprogress.ams@gmail.com
The screening will present around 3 work in progress films or audiovisual works, with each filmmaker or artist receiving up to 30 minutes to present their unfinished work and talk with the audience about the work. More details about the selected projects to follow in the week before the screening.
Full Programme:
Doors open at 20:00
20:15 - 20:45 | Happy Fuji News, performed by Eric Kinny
Followed by Working Progress drinks for Amsterdam-based filmmakers and film professionals: OPEN TO ALL
21:15 - 23:00 | Working Progress