The (Other) 700 Club
Film Screening & Ticket Information
When & Where to See this Film!
LOCAL EXPRESS: A mixed bag from filmmakers across the city.
April 26, 2024 @ 2:00PM • MoMI Redstone
View the Trailer
Synopsis
At the intersection of Broadway and Thornton St in Brooklyn, a loose community of delivery workers gathers every day to hang out and share their experiences while waiting for their next job.
The (Other) 700 Club opens the door to a microcosm of street philosophers that discuss about their own beliefs, goals and motivations.
A poetic reflection on the reality of the high speed capitalist system in which we are trapped, but at the same time keeps us moving in order to survive.
Credits
Juan Blanco Garcia, Director
Juan Blanco García, Writer
Juan Blanco Garcia, Producer
Eduardo M Escribano Solera, Producer
Juan Blanco Garcia, Cinematography
Carlos Cuenca, Cinematography
Director Statement
The (Other) 700 Club has been the beginning of a trip into questioning the theories that
shaped my late teenage years and early 20s intense search for identity. A process of
opening to an organic sense of self based in the community that you choose to surround
yourself with and the way you decide to experience those relationships. It has also been
a reassertion that there are ways to cope with the system that we live in -from the inside,
but close to the edge- where you can almost see the end of it.
Back in early December 2021 I was running some camera tests for a short film that was
partially set around the Brooklyn Triangle area. One of those days, I was with the
cinematographer shooting under the train tracks on Broadway, close to Flushing Av. A
delivery worker all dressed up in Polo Ralph Lauren riding a powerful dirt-bike approached
me to say “hi” and ask “what are you guys filming?”. I was fascinated by his looks and got
his phone number for a potential collaboration on the project I was working on.
The following day, that project got cancelled because of some COVID infections in the
crew. However, I was feeling the urge to continue shooting on those vibrant streets
between Williamsburg, Bushwick and Bedstuy. I had only been to New York for a little
over a year -a quite weird one-, and that little corner felt unique and stimulating, I almost
felt its call. Hours later I decided to go back and I found Polo again, with Moto, Bah, Alex…
and that’s how I got to meet the guys from The 700 Club.
As the weeks went by and I spent more and more time with them, I realized that I had
somehow become a part of the community. What once seemed exotic or even weird, now
made total sense or was actually familiar. Despite having a very different personal
background, I felt that our connections were way stronger than our differences, and that
the guys from the club were facing obstacles that were very similar to mine, and also their
happiness came from the same sources.
– Araque Blanco
Director Biography
Juan Blanco Garcia was born in Alicante in 1992.
Untitled Film #1 (2017), his first film, is a 27 minute hybrid short that was nominated and selected at several international festivals. Over the last 5 years, he has directed and edited commercial, music video, editorial and video-art pieces for companies like Condé Nast, Royal Mountain Records or The Consulate of Spain in New York.
As a Fulbright scholar in New York, he has developed his first documentary short film: The (Other) 700 Club (2022), premiered at two Academy Awards Qualifying Festivals: DOC NYC and St Louis International Film Festival.
