Check out what you missed!
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
GREASE [1978]
Directed by Randal Kleiser
USA / Color / English
During a visit to America, Australian Sandy meets Danny Zuko at the beach and falls in love. She is heartbroken when Summer ends and she has to return home and their last kiss on the beach is a very emotional one. But fate lends a hand – her parents decide to stay in America and she finds herself attending the same school as Danny.
But Danny at school is different from Danny at the beach. He is the leader of the T-Birds, a leather clad gang, and has a reputation to keep up. He can’t be seen to fall in love with just one chick! Sandy is upset and seeks solace with some new friends she has made – a female gang called The Pink Ladies. But her prim and proper virginal ways do not fit in and she soon finds herself almost alone.
A change must be made. Does she attempt to get her man by turning him into a jock? Or must she get rid of her “Sandra Dee” image? Rated PG; 110 min.
Henry Winkler, who became a sensation as “Fonzie” on Happy Days, was considered for the role of Danny Zuko. However, he turned down the role for fear of being typecast.
Susan Dey and Deborah Raffin were the first choices for the role of Sandy (Dey declined the role after her manager advised against it). Marie Osmond later claimed on Larry King Live that she had been also been offered the role but declined “on moral grounds” though she later admitted this to be untrue.
Due to a zipper breaking, Olivia Newton-John had to be sewn into the trousers she wears in the last sequence (the carnival at Rydell).
Jeff Conaway (6′ 1½” (1.87 m)) had to walk slightly stooped so that John Travolta (6′ 2″ (1.88 m)) would appear taller.
Set in high school, most of the principal cast were way past their teenage years. When filming began in June 1977, John Travolta was 23, Olivia Newton-John was 28, Stockard Channing was 33, Jeff Conaway was 26, Barry Pearl was 27, Michael Tucci was 31, Kelly Ward was 20, Didi Conn was 25; Jamie Donnelly was 30, and Annette Charles was 29. Only Dinah Manoff, Lorenzo Lamas, and Eddie Deezen, all 19, were still teenagers.
“You’re the One That I Want” took just one afternoon to film.
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College St)
ADMISSION $5 TLF members / $7 General Public
PINK FLAMINGOS
Directed by John Waters
released in the USA March 17, 1972
USA / Color / English
Sleaze queen Divine lives in a caravan with her mad hippie son Crackers and her 250-pound mother Mama Edie, trying to rest quietly on their laurels as ‘the filthiest people alive’. But competition is brewing in the form of Connie and Raymond Marble, who sell heroin to schoolchildren and kidnap and impregnate female hitchhikers, selling the babies to lesbian couples. When the Marbles throw down the gauntlet, Babs and her family retaliate in a no-holds-barred battle to determine who truly are “the Filthiest People Alive.”
Not Rated; 107 min
The dog feces in the infamous final scene are real. According to director John Waters, the dog was fed steak for three days beforehand.
In some theatres, patrons were given a “Pink Phlegm-ingo Barf Bag.”
The house that Connie and Raymond Marble live in together was rented by John Waters and Mink Stole. Interiors were filmed in Stole’s part of the house with minimal redressing.
David Lochary and Mink Stole designed and colored their own hair for the film. David Lochary apparently colored his hair bright blue with a blue Magic Marker.
There was a “Revenge On Cookie” subplot, cut from the final film.
During filming, Divine was arrested for stealing, and in his defense said that he was a method actor playing a criminal.
John Waters originally wanted a man named “Mr. Ray” to be the narrator of Pink Flamingos. Mr. Ray was famous for his hair-weave radio ads and for his Baltimore accent. Mr. Ray refused, so Waters recorded the voice-over himself, imitating Mr. Ray’s voice as “Mr. J.”
When Connie and Raymond call the police to break up Divine’s birthday party, Raymond gives the police real directions, which would have easily guided real police (or anyone else, for that matter) to the site of the trailer.
At his request, the Singing Asshole is not credited, and John Waters maintains that he “certainly will remain nameless. It’s his choice.” This individual does, however, apparently still disclose his involvement in the film to friends.
Divine and the party guests are actually inhaling amyl nitrate during the party scene. At the time of filming, it was still legal to buy such “poppers” at the drug store. If you watch Divine’s face during the scene, she suddenly starts laughing uproariously. John Waters says that’s where “it kicked in”.
Elizabeth Coffey (Chick with a Dick) was a pre-op male-to-female transexual who had already undergone hormone therapy to develop breasts and female features at the time of filming. She had surgery to remove her penis a week to the day her scene was filmed, and appears as a completely female character in Waters’ next film, Female Trouble.
Connie and Raymond’s car belonged to a jive-talking black man that John Waters met during pre-production in Baltimore. In exchange for using the car, Waters attempted to work the man into some scenes he made up on set, where Connie would talk to a magic mirror and say, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the filthiest of them all?” A black pimp in a zoot suit and fedora would then appear in a cloud of smoke and say, “Divine is.” Waters couldn’t get the special effects for the scene to work correctly, though, so it was cut from the final product.
In the film MIDNIGHT MOVIES, John Waters says in part “I was high when I wrote this film. I was NOT high when I made it.”
John Waters
Growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s, John Waters was not like other children; he was obsessed by violence and gore, both real and on the screen. With his weird counter-culture friends as his cast, he began making silent 8mm and 16mm films in the mid-‘60s; he screened these in rented Baltimore church halls to underground audiences drawn by word of mouth and street leafleting campaigns. As his filmmaking grew more polished and his subject matter more shocking, his audiences grew bigger, and his write-ups in the Baltimore papers more outraged. By the early 1970s he was making features, which he managed to get shown in midnight screenings in art cinemas by sheer perseverance. Success came when Pink Flamingos (1972) – a deliberate exercise in ultra-bad taste – took off in 1973, helped no doubt by lead actor Divine’s infamous dog-crap eating scene.
Waters continued to make low-budget shocking movies with his Dreamland repertory company until Hollywood crossover success came with Hairspray (1988), and although his movies nowadays might now appear cleaned up and professional, they retain Waters’ playfulness, and reflect his lifelong obsessions. —IMDb
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College St)
ADMISSION $5 TLF members / $7 General Public
THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
released in France September 15, 1972
France, Italy, & Spain / Color / French and Spanish with English Subtitles
In Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric, Oscar-winning masterpiece, an upper-class sextet (Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig, Stéphane Audran, Bulle Ogier and Jean-Pierre Cassel) sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts repeatedly thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined. Perhaps his greatest film, Buñuel’s absurdist view of the upper class is a timeless satire about consumerism and class privilege.
Rated PG; 102 min
Most of the films of Luis Bunuel are comedies in one way or another, but he doesn’t go for gags and punch lines; his comedy is more like a dig in the ribs, sly and painful.- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
There are masterpieces scattered among Buñuel’s French films like confetti, but here one of cinema’s most brilliant directors made the most brilliant film of his career. – Jake Euker, Filmcritic.com
An exotic and brilliant hothouse flower of a film. – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
Take a look again at its dream sequences, especially the nocturnal one involving the young man in the side street, and you will see a master disturber still at work. – Peter Rainer, New York Magazine
Luis Buñuel’s 1972 comic masterpiece, about three well-to-do couples who try and fail to have a meal together, is perhaps the most perfectly achieved and executed of all his late French films. – Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Luis Buñuel
Often referred to as the father of cinematic surrealism, director Luis Bunuel was born February 22, 1900, in the Aragon region of Spain. While studying at the University of Madrid, he became friends with painter Salvador Dali, poet Federico Garcia Lorca and other Spanish artists.
Bunuel entered the film world with a bang in 1929 with the 17-minute Un Chien Andalou, a collaboration with Dali that shocked audiences with its image of a woman’s sliced eyeball. Bunuel, a Jesuit-educated atheist, followed this with his first feature, L’Age D’Or, which many saw as a scathing attack on the Catholic Church.
In 1967, Bunuel began a partnership with producer Serge Silbermand and writer Jean-Claude Carrie that would result in his greatest films, including Belle de Jour (starring Catherine Deneuve), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and That Obscure Object of Desire. Bunuel died July 29, 1983
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College St)
ADMISSION $5 TLF members / $7 General Public
THE GODFATHER
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
released in the USA March 24, 1972
USA/ Color / English, Italian, and Latin
Based on Mario Puzo’s 1969 best-selling novel of the same name, this Oscar-winning epic stars Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a powerful New York crime family. The story, spanning the years 1945 to 1955, centers on the ascension of Michael Corleone (Pacino) from reluctant family outsider to ruthless Mafia boss while also chronicling the experiences of the Corleone family under the patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando).
Rated R; 175 min
Awards
Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, won 3:
Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role – Marlon Brando
Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay – Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama
Golden Globe Award for Best Director – Motion Picture
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actor – Drama (Marlon Brando)
Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay – Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score – Nino Rota
Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music – Nino Rota
Grammy Award for Best Original Score for a Motion Picture or TV Special – Nino Rota
Acclaim
In its blending of new depth with an old genre, it becomes that rarity, a mass entertainment that is also great movie art. – Jay Cocks, Time Magazine
Francis Ford Coppola has made one of the most brutal and moving chronicles of American life ever designed within the limits of popular entertainment. – Vincent Canby, New York Times
The Godfather films remain so powerful, so ubiquitous, because in the Corleones we see the American Dream — and in turn, ourselves. – Rumsey Taylor, Not coming to a Theater Near You
Brando made Don Vito something we rarely see in movies: a tragicomic villain-hero, a vulnerable hood. – Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood’s most innovative and influential film directors.
Born April 7, 1939, to Italian-American parents in Detroit, Mich., Francis Ford Coppola grew up in a New York City suburb. Coppola graduated with a degree in drama from Hofstra University, and did graduate work at UCLA in filmmaking. He was training as assistant with filmmaker Roger Corman, working in such capacities as soundman, dialogue director, associate producer and, eventually, director of Dementia 13 (1963), Coppola’s first feature film. During the next four years, Coppola was involved in a variety of script collaborations,culminating in Patton, the film for which Coppola won a Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award. In 1969, Coppola and George Lucas established American Zoetrope, an independent film production company based in San Francisco. The company’s first project was THX 1138 (1971), produced by Coppola and directed by Lucas. Coppola also produced the second film that Lucas directed, American Graffiti (1973), in 1973. This movie got five Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture.
In 1971, Coppola’s film The Godfather (1972) became one of the highest-grossing movies in history and brought him an Oscar for writing the screenplay with Mario Puzo The film was a Best Picture Academy Award-winner, and also brought Coppola a Best Director Oscar nomination. Following his work on the screenplay for The Great Gatsby (1974), Coppola’s next film was The Conversation (1974), which was honored with the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and brought Coppola Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay Oscar nominations. Also released that year, The Godfather: Part II (1974). rivaled the success of The Godfather (1972), and won six Academy Awards, bringing Coppola Oscars as a producer, director and writer. Coppola then began work on his most ambitious film, Apocalypse Now (1979), a Vietnam War epic that was inspired by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1993) (TV). Released in 1979, the acclaimed film won a Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and two Academy Awards . To this day, Coppola is one of only eight filmmakers to win two Palme d’Or awards.
Many of Coppola’s ventures in the 1980s and 1990s were critically lauded, but he has never quite achieved the same success as in the 1970s. In the past ten years, he has reclaimed some critical success with the release of two independent films: Youth Without Youth (2007) and Tetro (2009). In 2011 his new film, Twixt, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and is currently in limited release.
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College St)
ADMISSION $5 TLF members / $7 General Public
WHAT’S UP, DOC?
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
released in the USA March 10, 1972
USA / Color / English
While two researchers are competing for a grant, one must deal with a strange woman who’s devoted her life to confusing and embarrassing him. Meanwhile, a woman’s jewels are stolen and a government whistleblower arrives with top-secret papers. All, of course, have the same style overnight bag. Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal and Madeline Kahn star in this homage to classic screwball comedies.
Rated G; 94 min
“This picture is a total smash.” – Variety
“Fizzy and loveable and always worth watching.” – Ian Nathan, Empire Magazine
“… a fun, nostalgic trip to the screwball comedy days of old Hollywood featuring Striesand at her most likable.” – Eric Melin, Scene-Stealers.com
“Miss Kahn, who has a voice that sounds as if it had been filtered through a ceramic nose, just about walks off with the movie as O’Neal’s impossibly square fiancée.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times
“Hilarious live cartoon directed by Bogdanovich with sexy, silly turn by Streisand, and equally funny O’Neal and Kahn.” – Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com
“…food at last for we who hunger for a screwball comedy utterly lacking in redeeming social importance.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
A noted film critic who became an acclaimed director, Peter Bogdanovich was born July 30, 1939, in Kingston, N.Y. In the early ’60s, Bogdanovich published several studies of famous film directors, including Orson Welles, John Ford and Howard Hawks, idols who would inspire much of his later work.
In 1966, Bogdanovich allied with B-movie king Roger Corman, assisting him on The Wild Angels and shooting new scenes for a dubbed Russian space epic retitled Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. Bogdanovich’s first solo directing effort, Targets, featured Boris Karloff in his last significant role.
The Last Picture (1971) Show brought Bogdanovich Oscar acclaim and a name as the greatest new director of his generation. He enjoyed further success with What’s Up, Doc? (1972), Paper Moon (1973) and Saint Jack (1979).
The National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress named The Last Picture Show (1971) to the National Film Registry in 1998, an honor awarded only to the most culturally significant films. Bogdanovich currently blogs for Indiewire and teaches for the film program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem.
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College St)
ADMISSION $5 TLF members / $7 General Public
THE GETAWAY
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
released in the USA December 13, 1972
USA / Color / English
Denied parole after four well-behaved years, Doc McCoy (Steve McQueen) sends his wife Carol (Ali MacGraw) to dirty politician Jack Benyon to get him out of prison. Carol secures Doc’s freedom, on the condition that he does one more bank job for Benyon. Doc and his accomplices Rudy and Jackson get the cash, but Doc soon discovers how Rudy intends to keep it all for himself and how Carol convinced Benyon to get him sprung. While Rudy hijacks a veterinarian and his wife to take him to get Doc in El Paso, Doc and Carol make their own embattled way south with the money. All sides converge in El Paso for a shootout…
Rated PG; 122 min
“… a complex drama about relationships and trust issues, complete with narrow escapes and explosive shoot-outs.” – Electric Sheep Magazine
“brutal but hugely entertaining” – The A.V. Club
“Laced with black humour and filled with bravura car chases and shotgun-blasting action sequences, The Getaway is Peckinpah’s gripping fantasy of escape from mechanised 20th-century America.” – Total Film
“Survival, purification, and the attainment of grace are achieved only by an extreme commitment to the Peckinpah existential ideal of action – a man is what he does. Peckinpah’s own control of the escalating frenzy is masterly; this is one of his coldest films, but a great thriller” – Time Out
” Peckinpah’s film is sexy, funny, violent, exciting, fun and strangely experimental. It’s the kind of movie that could only be made by a master at this particular point in Hollywood history, when studio films could be strange, hardcore and not solely appealing to the lowest common denominator” – Ain’t It Cool News
Director Sam Peckinpah was born Feb. 21, 1925, in Fresno, Calif. The former Marine began his career in television, writing scripts for “Gunsmoke” and “Zane Grey Theater.” His first film directing effort, The Deadly Companions, premiered in 1961, but it wasn’t until The Wild Bunch (considered incredibly violent for the time) came out in 1969 that Peckinpah earned the nickname “Bloody Sam.”
An intense personality with an abrasive manner, Peckinpah continued to stir up controversy with Straw Dogs (1971), going on to direct Steve McQueen in The Getaway the following year. But not all his films were marked by a high body count, as evidenced in the Western comedies The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) and Junior Bonner (1972).
Before his death from a stroke in 1984, Peckinpah also helmed Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974).
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College St)
ADMISSION $5 TLF members / $7 General Public
FRITZ THE CAT
Directed by Ralph Bakshi
released in the USA January 25, 1972
USA / Color Animation / English
In the hands of writer and director Ralph Bakshi, a popular underground comics character was the inspiration for the first X-rated animated feature in Hollywood history, over the strenuous objections of its creator, cartoonist Robert Crumb. Fritz is a feline college student of New York City in the ’60s, using hippie buzzwords and fashion to score easy sex and drugs. After smoking some strong marijuana in Harlem, Fritz hallucinates and ignites a shooting incident with the police. Fritz flees across country in a Volkswagen Bug with a girlfriend and encounters a heroin addict biker rabbit and bomb-making terrorist radicals, obvious references to the Hell’s Angels and the Black Panthers, respectively. A trippy journey through its anti-establishment times, Fritz the Cat was viewed as a must-see novelty, a radical departure from the juvenile, saccharine type of animation with which America was familiar. Nevertheless, the film was opposed by Crumb, who felt that his work had been bastardized. The film was followed by a sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974).
Unrated; 78 min
NOT SUITABLE FOR KIDS AT ALL!!!!
Q&A with Andy Mansell and Justin Crouse of Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find after the screening.
“constantly funny [...] [There's] something to offend just about everyone.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times
“Like Crumb, Bakshi and producer Steve Krantz have captured the funk and the fraud and the foible and resorted to outrageous laughter to stifle the scream. [...] Fritz the Cat is a ball for the open mind.” – Judith Crist, New York Magazine
“powerful and audacious” – Paul Sargent Clark, The Hollywood Reporter
“a harmless, mindless, pro-youth saga calculated to shake up only the box office.” – Newsweek
Ralph Bakshi (born October 29, 1938) is an American director of animated and live-action films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, five of which he wrote. He has been involved in numerous television projects as director, writer, producer and animator.
Beginning his career at the Terrytoons television cartoon studio as a cel polisher, Bakshi was eventually promoted to director. He moved to the animation division of Paramount Pictures in 1967 and started his own studio, Bakshi Productions, in 1968. Through producer Steve Krantz, Bakshi made his debut feature film, Fritz the Cat, released in 1972. It was the first animated film to receive an X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, and the most successful independent animated feature of all time.
Over the next eleven years, Bakshi directed seven additional animated features. He is well known for such films as Wizards (1977), The Lord of the Rings (1978), American Pop (1981) and Fire and Ice (1983). In 1987, Bakshi returned to television work, producing the series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, which ran for two years before it was canceled due to complaints from a conservative political group over perceived drug references. After a nine-year hiatus from feature films, he directed Cool World (1992), which was largely rewritten during production and received poor reviews. Bakshi returned to television with the live-action film Cool and the Crazy (1994) and the anthology series Spicy City (1997).
He founded the Bakshi School of Animation and Cartooning in 2003. During the 2000s, he has focused largely on painting. He has received several awards for his work, including the 1980 Golden Gryphon for The Lord of the Rings at the Giffoni Film Festival, the 1988 Annie Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation, and the 2003 Maverick Tribute Award at the Cinequest Film Festival.
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College St)
ADMISSION $5 TLF members / $7 General Public
WAY OF THE DRAGON (Meng long guo jiang)
Directed by Bruce Lee
release in Hong Kong December 30, 1972
Hong Kong / Color /Cantonese, Mandarin, Italian, and English with English Subtitles
Bruce Lee wrote and directed Return of the Dragon, his third film, a mix of hard-edged kung fu and goofy humor. Once again he plays the country boy who travels to a foreign land, in this case Italy, where his restaurant-owning cousins face trouble from the local syndicate. Their strong-arm tactics have driven customers away and now threaten the family, but Lee refuses to buckle under their pressure and takes them on in a series of impressive confrontations. The film ends with a memorable showdown with world-champion karate artist Chuck Norris in the Roman Colosseum, a brutal, almost inhuman battle that revels in the intense punishment taken by the combatants. Norris is one of Lee’s best opponents and a marvelous physical contrast: brawny and hairy, using power and blunt karate moves while lean, wiry Lee counters with speed, gymnastic prowess, and balletic grace. Originally titled The Way of the Dragon, this film was renamed in the wake of Enter the Dragon to cash in on that movie’s popularity.
Rated R; 100 min
“Kicking an enemy into oblivion with his flying feet, grunting and screaming triumphantly, achieving suspenseful pauses between blows, the late Bruce Lee is a pleasure to watch in his last kung fu picture” – Nora Sayre, New York Times
” Lee comes on as a sort of Gene Autry type; when a guy comes at him with a gun, he grabs the gun, throws it away and wades in with his fists.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“Strip down the excess of strange characters and bizarre humour, and you have Bruce: mesmerising, fast, witty, and one of the rare examples of true screen magnetism.” – BBC
“Bruce F*@king Lee!” – Cole Smithey
Enduring action icon Bruce Lee was born Nov. 27, 1940, in San Francisco, the son of Chinese performers who returned to Hong Kong. A successful child actor in Hong Kong, Lee later returned to the United States to study philosophy at the University of Washington.
Already renowned as a martial arts master, Lee landed a role as Kato in TV’s “Green Hornet” (1966) and appeared briefly in 1969′s Marlowe but found good roles for Asian actors scarce in America. Back in Hong Kong, he struck international gold as the kung fu hero of Fist of Fury, The Chinese Connection and Return of the Dragon. Their success brought him back to Hollywood for his first and only starring role in a Hollywood feature, the hugely successful Enter the Dragon (1973).
At the peak of his fame, Lee died of cerebral edema July 20, 1973, while filming Game of Death; the picture was completed with a double and released in 1979.
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College St)
ADMISSION $5 TLF members / $7 General Public
DELIVERANCE
Directed by John Boorman
released in the USA July 30 1972
USA / Color / English
Like other early ’70s Hollywood films, Deliverance ponders violent instincts and definitions of manhood, ideas made all the more pressing by the period’s escalating violence and assault on traditional gender roles. Regardless of these headier concerns, the critically praised realism of the action scenes on the river, with the actors performing a lot of the stunts, helped make the film a hit. Shooting on location on the Chattoga River in Georgia, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond captured the appeal and the peril of the river’s pristine isolation, enhancing both the adventure’s visceral thrills and Dickey’s philosophical inquiry into man’s true nature. Deliverance was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, although Dickey’s screenplay of his novel was passed over, as was Reynolds’ star-making turn. With its chilling sense of infinite menace, Deliverance spoke to contemporary anxieties over what anyone could do, given the right (or wrong) circumstances.
Rated R; 109 min
Reviews
“This powerful adaptation of James Dickey’s best-selling novel finds director John Boorman establishing a sense of menace almost from the start, and the “squeal like a pig” sequence continues to haunt viewers even decades after the fact.” – Matt Brunson, Creative Loafing
“Each of the four lead performances is exceptional, none more so than Burt Reynolds’ beefy, supercilious Lewis.” – Time Magazine
“John Boorman’s 1972 film of the James Dickey novel has a beautiful visual style that balances the film’s machismo message.” – Don Druker, Chicago Reader
“Deliverance is the kind of classic where the subtext is the text: unspeakable horror derived from the same energies exerted to keep it suppressed.” – Jamie N. Christley, Slant Magazine
Awards
Nominated for:
Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Directing – John Boorman
Academy Award for Film Editing – Tom Priestley
New York Film Critics Circle for Best Film and Best Director
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama
Golden Globe Award for Best Director – Motion Picture – John Boorman
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama – Jon Voight
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song – Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith, Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel
Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay – James Dickey
John Boorman, born in Shepperton in 1933, fell in love with cinema at an early age. He became a critic on the radio before working as an editor for the BBC. In 1965, his first film, Catch Us if You Can was noticed by Hollywood and he went there to make Point Blank (1967), then Hell in the Pacific (1968), two international box office hits. He returned to London to shoot Leo the Last (Best Director’s prize at Cannes in 1970). He then directed Deliverance, Zardoz, and Exorcist II, making a highly personal work of it. His cult film, Excalibur, won an award at Cannes in 1981. He went on to make The Emerald Forest, then Hope and Glory, to critical acclaim. Following Where the Heart Is, he presents the very same year at Cannes, in 1995, Beyond Rangoon in Competition and the short film Two Nudes Bathing in Un Certain Regard. With The General, John Boorman came back in Competition in 1998 to win Best Director prize again. The Tailor of Panama, adapted from a John le Carré novel, was released in 2001, followed by In my Country (2004), then The Tiger’s Tail (2006). John Boorman has been nominated for an Academy Award five times. He is a Member of the British Academy and the author of two memoirs: Money into Light and Adventures of a Suburban Boy. He co-edited, alongside Walter Donohue, 13 issues of Projections, about the filmmaker’s craft.
WHERE UNCC Cone Center McKnight Theater // click here for campus map
ADMISSION $10 at the door // $11 online // Purchase tickets online here
Celebrating Odd And Hilarious Found Videos
The Found Footage Festival is a one-of-a-kind event that showcases footage from videos that were found at garage sales and thrift stores and in warehouses and dumpsters across the country.
We began collecting found videotapes in 1991 after stumbling across a training video entitled, “Inside and Outside Custodial Duties” in a McDonald’s break room. Since then, we have compiled an impressive collection of strange, outrageous, and profoundly stupid videos on VHS.
It was finally in 2004, after more than ten years of collecting and sharing, we locked ourselves up in our apartment for three months with more than a thousand hours of found footage, and we watched. We watched one thousand hours of this odd and hilarious, often surprising, found treasure. When we emerged, we had distilled a thousand hours of footage into just the most sublime spectacles, intriguing characters, and beguiling, if not insightful, looks into those who lived during the golden days of the VHS dynasty. We had found 90 minutes of needles in a thousand haystacks. We called it Found Footage Festival.
Approximately 90 min; NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN
Click here to purchase tickets. No discounts, coupons, etc are applicable for this screening.
Two rules govern Found Footage Festival: 1) Footage must be found on physical format. No YouTube. 2) It has to be unintentionally funny. Whatever it’s trying to do, it has to fail miserably at that.
Since the first tour in 2004, the Found Footage Festival has gone on to sell out hundreds of shows across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., including the HBO Comedy Festival at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. The festival has been featured on National Public Radio, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and G4 TV’s Attack Of The Show, and has been named a critic’s pick in dozens of publications, including The Village Voice, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle (“Riotous!”), AVClub.com (“Skull-crushingly funny.”), The Stranger, and The Chicago Tribune.
In 2009, we launched this website you’re at right now. And by the summer of 2010, we’ll have wrapped up a 9 month, 100 show, 69 city Found Footage Festival tour of the U.S. and Canada. Found Footage Festival will be back in September, 2010 to kick off an all-new “Volume 5″ tour in New York City.
Our comedy credits include The Onion and Late Show With David Letterman, The Colbert Report and Mystery Science Theater 3000. So you can be assured you are in good hands. We’re experts. We are also the directors of the award-winning feature-length documentary, Dirty Country, which won the 24 Beats Per Second Audience Award at the 2007 SXSW Film Festival.
So sit back, adjust the tracking on your VCR, and enjoy the show.
Follow the blog: http://foundfootagefest.com/blog
How’s our driving? Drop us a line. Let’s talk.
Joe Pickett, Co-Founder and Host, joe[at]foundfootagefest.com
Nick Prueher, Co-Founder and Host, nick[at]foundfootagefest.com
Glenn Severance, Business Whathaveyous, glenn[at]foundfootagefest.com
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
ELECTION [1999]
Directed by Alexander Payne
USA / Color / English
Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) appears to have the election for student council president sewn up until one of her teachers, Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick), rounds up a worthy opponent: a popular and naïve varsity football player (Chris Klein) whose knee injury has him sidelined for the season. Tracy is desperate to win the race at any cost. But Mr. McAllister is just as determined to see Tracy — a textbook overachiever — soundly defeated.
Rated R; 103 min
Apples are featured prominently in the movie, usually before trouble arrives for a character. They are used as an analogy to entice Paul Metzler to enter the election, an apple tree is shown before Mr. McAllister is stung by a bee, apples hang above the doorway to Mr. McAllister’s living room right before he discovers his wife knows he cheated on her, and Mr. McAllister wins the Apple Teacher of The Year Award at the beginning of the movie.
The apples on the tree in Mrs. Novotony’s back yard were tied onto the branches.
One of the porno videos in Jim McAllister’s collection is called “The Big Election”.
The casting director of the movie is the football player that appears in the adult movie that McAllister watches.
Both actor Chris Klein and director Alexander Payne are from Omaha, and the film was shot almost entirely in and around Omaha using actual high school students from the Omaha area.
G.W. Carver High School is actually Papillion-LaVista High School, located in Papillion, Nebraska, a suburb of Omaha. Director Alexander Payne wanted to use Omaha North High School (an older, more “traditional”-looking three-story school), but the Omaha Public School’s superintendent refused after reading the script and deeming it inappropriate.
Since the movie was shot in a real High School (Papillion La Vista High School, Omaha, Nebraska), adjacent classrooms had real class going on while some scenes for the movie were being done. In the soundtrack, some background noises come from real teachers and students. The director decided to leave that in as to give the movie a more realistic sound.
Loren Nelson, who played the custodian in the movie, was actually a custodian at Duchesne Academy in Omaha. He has since retired.
Thora Birch left the filming in Omaha on her third day because of creative differences with the director.
The source novel by Tom Perrotta is a reworking of Budd Schulberg’s 1941 novel “What Makes Sammy Run?” In Schulberg’s novel, an older writer (Al Manheim) watches young Sammy Glick rise through the ranks of New York journalism and the Old Hollywood studio system.
Matthew Broderick actually urinated against the tree in the scene outside Linda’s house.
Alexander Payne (born Constantine Alexander Payne; February 10, 1961) is an American film director and screenwriter, known for films like Sideways (2004) and Election (1999). His films are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society.
Payne’s films often revolve around adultery in marriage and relationships. He also tends to set his films in Omaha. He has scenes of historical landmarks and museums in his films, and tends to use non-actors for minor roles (real cops play cops, real teachers play teachers, etc). He frequently incorporates telephone monologues as a dramatic device. He also tends to cast actor Phil Reeves in his films. He is on the short list of directors who have final cut rights for their films. In 2005, he became a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Directors Branch). His writing partner is Jim Taylor.
Payne worked in various capacities on films and television before he wrote and directed his first full-length film Citizen Ruth in 1996. His film Election, starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon, which takes aim at politics and education in America, attracted attention when New Yorker film critic David Denby named it the best film of 1999. Payne was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Election.In 2003 he received a Golden Globe for his screenplay for About Schmidt, which was also nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.He won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe in 2005 for Best Screenplay for Sideways while the film also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. In total, Sideways received five Academy Award Nominations.Payne returned to directing in 2011 after a seven year hiatus with the film The Descendants, starring George Clooney. He also co-wrote the screenplay, winning the Oscar for adapted screenplay.
WHERE Park Avenue, between Camden & South Tryon (aka the lunch lot)
ADMISSION is Free. Concessions from food trucks available at 5:00pm.
RESCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY, AUGUST 24.
FILM, FOOD TRUCKS, FUN!
Presented by the South End Neighborhood Associated and The Light Factory,
Sponsored by Gaines Brown, Historic South End, and Center City Partners
August 11, 2012
5:00 PM: Food Trucks
Sunset: Show Time
Movie: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Location: Park Avenue, between Camden & South Tryon
Free showing of Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), the third installment of the series
Pack your picnic or enjoy offerings from the food trucks
Park Avenue between Camden & South Tryon will be closed for the event
Don’t forget to bring your blanket or chairs!
Rain cancels movie showing
TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON [2011]
Directed by Michael Bay
USA / Color / English
The interstellar war between the Autobots and Decepticons shifts into overdrive following the discovery of Sentinel Prime (voice of Leonard Nimoy) in this sequel from director Michael Bay. Only a precious handful of officials in the government and military realize that the 1969 moon mission was the result of an event that threatened profound repercussions for the entire human race. When the Apollo 11 astronauts discover the wrecked remains of Sentinel Prime on the surface of our natural satellite, they bring him back to planet Earth. But Sentinel Prime wasn’t the only alien object on the moon, and when a malevolent new enemy makes its presence known, only the Autobots can save humankind from certain destruction.
Rated PG-13; 2hrs, 34min
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
STRANGE BREW [1983]
Directed by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis
Canada, USA / Color / English
Purporting to be loosely based on Hamlet, Strange Brew is about an evil braumeister at the Elsinore Brewery who has discovered an additive that when guzzled in beer, allows the drinkers to be easily controlled. Braumeister Smith (Max von Sydow) has a plan to take over the world with his new brew, and only the Great White hosers of the North, Bob and Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) — with their plaid shirts, ski toques, fur-lined parkas, and addiction to beer — can stop the dastardly plan, sober or not. There are several jabs at “hoseheads” and the business of movie-making, including an epilogue that critiques the film itself. Strange Brew found a cult audience with fans of the Second City comedy troupe, of which Moranis and Thomas were members.
Rated PG; 90 min
At one point, Bob says, “He saw Jedi 17 times, eh!” What isn’t obvious two decades later, is that Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi opened in May 1983, while production of “Strange Brew” had wrapped five months earlier, in December 1982. Not only hadn’t the McKenzie brothers seen “Jedi” – but they couldn’t refer to it by its full title, since the “Revenge”/”Return” issue was still up in the air while they were filming.
The name of the brewery in this film is Elsinore Brewery. Max von Sydow, who played the Brewmeister in this movie, was also in the film The Seventh Seal. In that film he and his squire were heading towards the village of Elsinore, but decided not to because the plague was there.
The basic plot as well as many of the name of the brewing company are references to William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. The castle in “Hamlet” was Elsinore. The heir to Elsinore’s father was murdered by her uncle, who then comes to her as a ghost. In Hamlet, the uncle’s name was Claudius, and in the movie he is named Claude.
Rick Moranis’ feature film debut.
Among many others, the “If I didn’t have puke breath, I’d kiss you.” line was improvised.
Lynne Griffin’s character Pam Elsinore must have just turned 18 to inherit the company as outlined by the lawyer. But her birth date on the video game is in 1959. Her character would have been 23 when the movie was filmed in 1982. Lynne Griffin was actually 30 at the time.
Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis created their popular toque-wearing, beer-swigging “Great White North” hosers Bob and Doug McKenzie on the great TV comedy show SCTV to fulfill a Canadian broadcasting regulation that required Canadian shows to have a certain amount of “Canadian content.” In 1981, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas recorded a Bob and Doug McKenzie comedy album, The Great White North, which sold a million copies. Based on this success, they thought about parlaying that into a feature film. They hired Steve De Jarnatt to write the first draft. Initially, Thomas told De Jarnatt that he wanted to base the film’s story around Hamlet but he ended up being too faithful to the play and was told be more creative with the parallels to it. Moranis and Thomas’ agents sent the script to various Hollywood studios and a few days later they had a deal with MGM based not on the script but on record sales, “the breakout potential, and the fact that it was being advertised on a television show”, Thomas remembers. They were unhappy with the script because Bob and Doug were improvised characters done in their “comic voices” and they felt that nobody but themselves could write for these characters. Thomas began rewriting the script without Moranis who was now uncertain about doing the film. After working on the first 50 pages, Moranis took a look at what Thomas had done and they worked together rewriting it.Originally, Moranis and Thomas were not going to direct or write the film but ended up doing both with the guidance of executive producer Jack Grossberg, who had produced films by Mel Brooks and Woody Allen.
WHERE Crownpoint Stadium 12 (9630 Monroe Rd)
ADMISSION $ 5 (Charlotte Film Society members) / $8 General Admission
A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE [2012]
Directed by Casey Walker
Canada / Color / English
Infected by a virus during his bachelor party, a mild mannered HR manager attempts to fulfill his overwhelming desire for brains and avoid Max, the obsessed Zombie Hunter hot on his trail. All while keeping it together so as not to incur the wrath of his Bridezilla-to-be.
Not Rated; 87 min
Awards
Fright Night Film Festival: Best Feature Film, Best Comedy, Best Zombie Film
Worldfest Houston International Film Festival:Golden Remi for Best Dark Comedy
Canadian Film Festival: Best Feature Film
Reviews
“Sure, there’s gore and some gross-out gags, but for the most part this flick isn’t about what’s going to scare you next, but more about what’ll get the next laugh…” – Mark Bell, Film Threat
“ Intentionally illogical, overtly vulgar, and deliciously disgusting, A Little Bit Zombie succeeds because it never takes itself too seriously.” and “If George A. Romero is your idea of a cinematic god, then Walker and hisA Little Bit Zombie is a showcase of iconoclastic blasphemy.” – Justin Lin, Soundonsight.org
A director of high octane children’s TV for over a decade, it’s been Casey’s life long dream to make films. After 6 long years of trying, he has finally acheived that dream by producing and directing his first film: A Little Bit Zombie. More than anything, Casey likes to laugh.
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College St)
ADMISSION is FREE, but donations are gladly accepted.
MOVED INSIDE DUE TO RAIN. SCREENING AT THE LIGHT FACTORY (345 N. College St – inside Spirit Sq)
SCREENING STARTS AT 8:30PM
\THE DARK CRYSTAL [1982]
Directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz
USA & UK / Color / English
“Another World, Another Time… In the Age of Wonder. A thousand years ago, this land was green and good, until the Crystal cracked. For a single piece was lost; a shard of the Crystal. Then strife began, and two new races appeared: the cruel Skeksis… the gentle Mystics. “
1,000 years ago the crystal cracked, and the spirits of the UrSkek were divided into the peaceful Mystics and the evil Skeksis. A prophecy was written that stated if a Gelfling healed the crystal, the world would be renewed and the UrSkek would be reunited. Due to the prophecy, the Skeksis hunted down and killed all the Gelflings.
The last Gelfling left on Thra, a male named Jen, was saved and raised by the Mystics. Jen is sent by his dying master on a journey to heal the Dark Crystal. If Jen succeeds, the world will be saved; but if Jen fails, the Skeksis will rule the land forever. On his quest to The Castle of the Crystal, Jen meets Kira, another Gelfling. The two must battle the evil Skeksis and save Thra
Rated PG; 93 min.
WFAE sponsored trivia begins at 7pm! A little of the movie trivia seen here, as well as trivia about the 80s and people associated with the films be included in the trivia rounds. Bring your thinking cap to win fun prizes!
At the time it was made, it was hailed as the only live action film in which a human actor makes no appearance.
Pre-production work revolved around Brian Froud’s designs without a finished script. When Froud originally presented Jim Henson with concept drawings for the crystal, Henson seemed totally perplexed. When Froud asked why, Henson said he had no idea what the designs were for. As it turned out, Froud had misunderstood Henson during early production conversations – Henson intended the film to be called “The Dark Chrysalis,” referring to the Skesis dominance over the world. Henson, however, loved the concept art and integrated the idea of the crystal into the storyline.
Early drafts of the script featured Jen and Kira traveling through the underworld where they encountered a race of underground mining creatures. This concept was later integrated by Jim Henson into Fraggle Rock and served as the partial basis for the story of The Power of the Dark Crystal.
Although there are nine of them, the Skeksis were originally based on the seven deadly sins.
Brian Froud’s fascination with lobsters led to many crustacean touches in the design of the film, particularly in the design of the Garthim, the henchmen of the Skeksis.
The Garthim costumes were so heavy that the performers had to be hung up on a rack every five minutes to rest whilst still in costume.
The movie’s conceptual artist Brian Froud and puppet designer Wendy Midener met on the set of the movie and were later married.
Jim Henson
Jim Henson is creator of The Muppets and undoubtedly the most beloved puppeteer in history. In 1955 Jim, already a skilled puppeteer, began his studies in Theatre Arts at the University of Maryland. That year marked the appearance of his first television show, Sam and Friends, a five-minute late-night puppet show he produced along with another freshman, Jane Nebel, whom he would marry in 1959. The show featured some early incarnations of his famous Muppet characters, including a lovable frog named Kermit that Jim fashioned from one of his mother’s old coats and two ping-pong balls. In 1958 Sam and Friends earned Jim his first Emmy Award, and he would go on to win an impressive 30 Emmys during his lifetime for his work with the Jim Henson Company.
The Muppets — Jim coined the term “Muppet” to describe his unique combination of marionette and foam-rubber hand puppets — immediately proved popular, starring in TV commercials and regularly appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show. Then, in 1969, came the immensely successful Sesame Street. It wasn’t until The Muppet Show, which starred Kermit and the egotistical and hilariously outspoken Miss Piggy, was introduced in 1976 that Jim became a favorite of fans of all ages. An estimated 235 million viewers tuned in to The Muppets each week in more than 100 countries.
In 1979, Jim turned to the big screen with a feature film, The Muppet Movie, followed The Great Muppet Caper (1981), in which Jim made his directorial debut, and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). In 1989, he decided to entrust The Muppets to The Walt Disney Company. Jim died unexpectedly in 1990, robbing him of the chance to continue his work with Disney, a company he deeply admired.
Frank Oz
Frank Oz (born Frank Oznowicz) graduated from California’s Oakland City College during 1962 and joined the humans behind Jim Henson’s fledgling Muppet group as a puppeteer the following year. He was part of the first-season cast of Saturday Night Live as the Mighty Favag and appeared in The Blues Brothers with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. After The Muppet Show went on the air in 1976, Oz became vice president of the Henson organization, and was responsible for the portrayals of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Animal, among other characters, earning three Emmy Awards for his work on the show. He later served as a producer for The Great Muppet Caper (1980), directed by Henson, with whom he co-directed The Dark Crystal a year later. He later directed The Muppets Take Manhattan in 1984. Two years later, with Henson in the director’s chair, Oz was one of the voices in Labyrinth. Moving outside of Henson’s orbit, Oz directed the screen version of the musical Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), What About Bob? (1991), and the Kevin Kline vehicle In & Out (1997). He also served as the voice of Yoda in five Star Wars movies: The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones, and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
Transamerica Square is located at 401 N. Tryon Street. The courtyard is in the middle of the structure. Entrances to the courtyard are accessible from Tryon St. (to the right of Rock Bottom), 7th St., Church St., and 8th St. Click here for directions.
Transamerica does provide parking. For complete instructions, click here. Generally, parking is $5 after 5pm. The parking garage can be accessed from 7th St. There are many other surface lots and parking decks within walking distance, as well as some street parking. Make sure to do your research before you leave home so parking isn’t a headache!
* Rock Bottom provides some kind of parking validation for eating at their restaurant (as so many of the restaurants associated with parking decks). Grab dinner before the film, or get some grub to go and get your parking stamped. Make sure to call Rock Bottom to get full parking validation details (ie – it may not be totally free).
Where UNC Charlotte Center City Garden (320 E. 9th Street)
Admission is free!
Get to know the UNC Charlotte Center City Building.
Bring your lawn chairs & blankets for an outdoor screening of THE BLIND SIDE!
Pre-movie activities will include
* Music by DJ Zach
* Animation station with John Lemmon
* Hula Hoop competition,
* Animated shorts by art student Sarah Hartley
* Abuilding tour at 7:30pm with the Executive Director!
The Tin Kitchen food truck and Sticks & Cones Ice Cream will also be available.
Event begins at 7pm; movie begins at sunset (approximately 8:30 PM)
If rain occurs we will move this event inside the UNC Charlotte Center City building.
THE BLIND SIDE [2009}
Directed by
John Lee Hancock
USA / Color / English
Oversized African American Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), the teen from across the tracks and a broken home, has nowhere to sleep at age 16. Taken in by an affluent Memphis couple, Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock) and Sean (Tim McGraw), Michael embarks on a remarkable rise to play for the NFL. Bullock’s performance garnered a Best Actress Oscar and Best Actress Golden Globe Award. Kathy Bates co-stars.
Rated PG-13; 2hrs, 6min
Click on the map below to get directions to UNC Charlotte Center City:
UNC Charlotte does not provide free parking for this building. There are various surface lots and street parking available, but make sure to bring cash and/or change, and make sure to read all signs to avoid a ticket or having your car towed.
UNC Charlotte sugests parking at the surface lot at 11th & Brevard; $4.00 exact change is needed.
WHERE The Light Factory in Spirit Square (345 N. College St)
ADMISSION is FREE, but donations are gladly accepted.
THE NEVERENDING STORY [1984]
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
West Germany & USA / Color / English
Wolfgang Petersen made his English language film debut with the film adaptation of the German novel “Die Unendliche Geschichte”, or “The Neverending Story” by Michael Ende. The story begins with a troubled boy named Bastian (Barret Oliver), who is being raised by his father, his mother having recently passed away. An avid reader with an active imagination, Bastian walks into a used bookstore owned by Mr. Koreander and finds a mysterious book that captures his curiosity. Mr. Koreander seemingly doesn’t want to sell the book to him, but Bastian manages to run from the store with book in hand.
Bastian takes the book to school with him, where he is tormented by three bullies. To avoid the them, Bastian finds refuge in a rarely-used attic within the school and begins to read from the book about a magical land called Fantasia. Fantasia is a wonderful place with many unusual characters and is ruled by the Childlike Princess, but something terrible is happening to Fantasia as parts of it are disappearing by an unknown force referred to only as “the nothing”. The Childlike Princess calls upon the strongest warrior to find a human child to stop “the nothing”. The warrior, a boy named Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) of a tribe similar to Native Americans, takes the protective signet that the Childlike Princess gives to him and sets off to find a human child, which can only be found beyond the bounds of Fantasia.
To his astonishment, as Bastian reads the book and the many adventures, challenges and dangers and Atreyu faces, Bastian slowly begins to realize whom Atreyu and the Childlike Princess are actually seeking.
Rated PG; 102 min.
BECAUSE OF RAIN: We will still show the movie, but it will be moved inside to Spirit Square at The Light Factory and will start at 8pm.
WFAE sponsored trivia begins at 7pm! A little of the movie trivia seen here, as well as trivia about the 80s and people associated with the films be included in the trivia rounds. Bring your thinking cap to win fun prizes!
The film itself actually “ends” about halfway through the book.
Author Michael Ende decided that he was unhappy with the film’s version of his story, and refused to have his name placed in the opening credits. A small credit appears at the end with his name.
The Night Hob says a profanity in the opening scene where the Rockbiter appears running down all in its path. This profanity is often dubbed over by the grumble of the Rockbiter’s scooter, so that it can be shown as a children’s film.
Most of the film was shot in Germany in the summer of 1983. It was Germany’s hottest summer in 25 years.
The original Auryn for this film now hangs in an enclosed glass display in Steven Spielberg’s office.
Noah Hathaway was hurt twice during the making of the movie. During his horse riding training he was thrown off a horse which then stepped on him. Then during the shooting of the drowning sequence in the “swamp of sadness” his leg got caught on the elevator and he was pulled under water. He was unconscious by the time he was brought to the surface.
The makeup team on the movie tried to paint Noah Hathaway green, just as Atreyu is in the book. “It wasn’t believable. I looked like fungi!” Hathaway said.
The theme song was sang by Limahl, who was the lead singer of the pop band Kajagoogoo.
“The Childlike Empress” wasn’t just child-”like”. She was portrayed by Iranian born dancer Tami Stronach who was only 11 years old when the production started.
According to the book the name that Bastian screams almost indecipherable into the night is “Moonchild”, but it has often been debated what Barret Oliver actually says.
You can “ride” on Falcor’s back on location at the Bavaria Filmplatz Munich, Germany.
Born in Emden, Germany, Wolfgang Petersen began directing stage productions at age 21 while still an acting student at Hamburg’s Ernst Deutsch Theatre. Eventually deciding to focus his efforts solely on directing, Petersen entered the Berlin Film and Television Academy, where he trained for four years.
In 1970, Petersen made his television directorial debut with I Will Kill You, Wolf which he followed with 6 two-hour telefeatures for the series Tatort (Crime Scene). Reifezeugnis (Final Grades), one of his shows in this series, turned newcomer Nastassja Kinski literally overnight into a star and to this day it is the most successful TV movie in the history of German television.
Among his other early successes were Smog, which won the 1975 Silver Prix Futura in Berlin, and Black and White Like Day and Night, for which he earned the award as Best Director at the Paris Film Festival in 1978.
Petersen started his feature film career winning the German National Film Prize of Best New Director for The One or the Other in 1973. He soon gained international recognition with the controversial 1977 drama The Consequence; the WWII nautical adventure Das Boot (1981), still the most successful German post-war movie today, garnering two Oscar nominations (Best Director, Best Screenplay Adaptation); The NeverEnding Story (1984), his first English-language film; the space fantasy Enemy Mine (1985), starring Louis Gossett Jr. and Dennis Quaid; and – after taking permanent residence in the United States – the suspense thriller Shattered (1991), starring Tom Berenger. In 1993, Petersen directed the critically acclaimed suspense thriller, In the Line of Fire, starring Clint Eastwood, which was nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Editing). This triumph was followed by the box office hits Outbreak (1995), starring Dustin Hoffman; and Air Force One (1997), starring Harrison Ford. In 2000, Petersen returned to the water with the seafaring drama The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. His next screen adventure took the audience 3000 years back in history to the Late Bronze Age with Troy (2004), written by David Benioff and inspired by The Iliad, Homer’s timeless poem about love and war, starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom.
Petersen’s last five films have grossed a total of $1.5 billion at the box office worldwide. He is currently developing a live-action adaptation of the 2006 anime film Paprika. He is directing a film adaptation of the science fiction novel Old Man’s War for a 2012 release.
Transamerica Square is located at 401 N. Tryon Street. The courtyard is in the middle of the structure. Entrances to the courtyard are accessible from Tryon St. (to the right of Rock Bottom), 7th St., Church St., and 8th St. Click here for directions.
Transamerica does provide parking. For complete instructions, click here. Generally, parking is $5 after 5pm. The parking garage can be accessed from 7th St. There are many other surface lots and parking decks within walking distance, as well as some street parking. Make sure to do your research before you leave home so parking isn’t a headache!
* Rock Bottom provides some kind of parking validation for eating at their restaurant (as so many of the restaurants associated with parking decks). Grab dinner before the film, or get some grub to go and get your parking stamped. Make sure to call Rock Bottom to get full parking validation details (ie – it may not be totally free).
The Never Ending Story Lipdub Contest.
Presented by The Light Factory and WFAE
Let’s face it, the first thing people think of when they heard ‘The Never Ending Story’ is the celebrated theme song. Poppy, infections, and impossible to get out of your head, the electro pop song is indicative of the sound of the 80s. Put your love (or inability to get the song out of your head) to good use and enter our lipdub contest! Follow these instructions:
1. Acquire The NeverEnding Story (Original Soundtrack) 3:34min by by Limahl .
2. Learn the lyrics to the song.
3. Record video of yourself lipsyncing to the song. Be creative!
4. Upload your video to the contest page. Click herefor Facebook Contest Page.
Videos are due by 6pm Tuesday, July 10. The best ones will be edited into a mashup for the theme song and played before the screening of the film on Thursday, July 12. Winners will be notified by 6pm on Wednesday, July 11.
Timeline for this contest -
All entries must be in by – Tue, Jul 10, 2012
Voting starts at – Tue, Jun 26, 2012
Voting ends at – Tue, Jul 10, 2012
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
THE WARRIORS [1979]
Directed by Walter Hill
USA / Color / English
A prominent New York City gang leader named Cyrus (Roger Hill) wants to wage an all-out battle against the police, and as part of his strategy he calls upon Gotham’s gangs to set aside their turf wars and come together at a summit. At the meeting, a rival leader kills Cyrus, but a Coney Island gang called the Warriors is wrongly blamed for Cyrus’ death. Before you know it, the cops and every gangbanger in town is hot on the Warriors’ trail.
Rated R; 93 min
Loosely based on Xenophon’s “Anabasis”, the account of an army of Greek mercenaries who, after aligning themselves with Cyrus the Younger in the battle of Cunaxa (401 BC) in his attempt to seize the Persian throne, found themselves isolated behind Persian enemy lines.
The name Ajax came after the Greek Warrior.
Newcomers were cast to create the feel of “real people caught in dangerous situations”. The cast felt like they were a gang before filming started. James Remar even spent time in Coney Island so he could observe real individuals to base his portrayal of Ajax on.
The Homicides were a real Coney Island gang, and they didn’t approve of fictional gangs wearing colors on their turf. The wardrobe department made sure nobody walked off location wearing The Warriors colors. The actors were safe during the cemetery scene in Brooklyn because of a fence surrounding it.
Crew members were sent death threats because local gangs weren’t cast. Thousands of dollars worth of equipment were damaged when one gang tore through the set during a lunch break.
The film trucks were “protected” by a real gang called The Mongrels for $500 a day.
The crew once got urinated upon from a tower block due to the noise they were creating in the night.
The Baseball Furies were created due to Walter Hill’s love of baseball and the music group Kiss.
Walter Hill is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Hill is known for male-dominated action films and revival of the Western. He said in an interview, “Every film I’ve done has been a Western,” and elaborated in another, “The Western is ultimately a stripped down moral universe that is, whatever the dramatic problems are, beyond the normal avenues of social control and social alleviation of the problem, and I like to do that even within contemporary stories.”
WHERE The Light Factory / 345 N. College Street, Charlotte NC 28202
ADMISSION $5 TLF members / $7 non-members
Thursday, May 31
Chocolate Milk [2011] 
Directed by Eliza Kinkz -Redwood City, CA
Run time 9:18
Narrative / Animation / Student – UCLA Animation Workshop
Chocolate Milk is the #1 goal. At least, that what the Rehab informs the teenage Izzy as she enters for drug treatment.If she follows all their rules, then she can have chocolate milk. But why would she want some lame beverage, when she’s got pogobals, monster trucks and a best friend with a silverware fetish to keep her busy in the Lone Star State. A humorous and bittersweet teenage odyssey of coming to grips with addiction and trying to get through life without letting the current pull you under.
Waiting for Jo [2011]
Directed by by Jennifer Hall – Charlotte, NC
Run time 3:50
Narrative / Local / Student – UNC Charlotte
Zoe is a young girl growing up in “anywhere USA”. The product of a broken home, she lives alone with her mother. On this particular day, Zoe is sitting on her front porch waiting for her father, Joseph.
Kingdom Incorporated [2011]
Directed by Christina Campagnola and Lauren Brinkman -Tallahasse, FL
Run time 15:00
Documentary / Student – Florida State University
This film explores the corporate power of a company whose image is associated with children and innocence. Having build an empire on its wholesome reputation, the Disney Company has expanded its influence globally and intimately, seeking to impact every person on the planet from birth onward.
Product [2012]
Directed by Erik Button – Charlotte, NC
Run time 8:50
Narrative / Local / Student – UNC Charlotte
In a dystopian world where certain people call prod are eaten for health benefit while a prod hunter faces morality in an immoral society.
My Friend and I [2012]
Directed by Jeffrey Simpson and Matthew Willets – Charlotte, NC
Run time 4:04
Narrative / Local / Student – UNC Charlotte
A young man struggles romantically between being a gentleman and listening to that voice in his head from below his belt.
Geomorphic: North Carolina [2011]
Directed by Mariah Dunn – Greensboro, NC
Run time 3:26
Experimental / Local / Student – UNC Greensboro
Geomorphic: North Carolina is a mediation on the diverse landscape of North Carolina. Objects, such as leaves or seashells, found in each location were collected and inserted into the camera. The result captured on the 35mm film is both a macro and micro image that defines the space. The rough stop motion emulates a sense of exploration through the land beginning in the mountans and traveling east to the coast.
Sugarcreek Prelude [2012]
Directed by Billy Haake and Robert W. Filion – Charlotte, NC
Run time 5:00
Documentary / Local
The dialogue in Sugar Creek Prelude is taken from the Introduction to my colleciton of short stories entitled Sugar Creek Stories. The Charlotte Parks and Recreation Department used the Introduction in their Sugar Creek Greenway Project Book.
Artifacts [2010]
Directed by Joe Keller – Charlotte, NC
Run time 14:54
Narrative / Local
Photographer Clayton Ardubon leads a life of indulgence comprised of women and success. But no amount of either can satisfy the hole at the center of his life. That is, until Marion, an ex-lover from his youth, shows up unexpectedly at a showing. Fueled by an insatiable curiosity and a longing for days gone by, Clayton tracks down Marion. But his search leads to Marion’s daughter, Paige; a rebellious youth who opens the door to an unexpected love affair as dangerous as it is sincere.
Coming and Going [2010]
Directed by Jay Yager – Sanford, NC
Run time 0:48
Experimental / Local
The setting is a woodland path lit by a low afternoon sun. Compressed and syncopated, this video poem plays with aspects of time and space.
Intermission
The Severe Psychosis of a Musicless Man [2011]
Directed by Ian McClerin -Winston-Salem, NC
Run time 12:58
Narrative / Experimental / Local / Student – North Carolina School of the Arts
One day in the supermarket, mild mannered Preston begins hearing music in his own head. Living in a dull, cartoonish world, the music becomes the only sanity he has left.
Beyond Superman [2012]
Directed by Alex Hadden – Elon, NC
Run time 5:32
Documentary / Local – Student – Elon
This documentary examines the evolution of the comic book world and the struggle of one young artist to achieve his dream.
Ghosts of Yesterday [2012]
Directed by Tony Gault – Glenwood Springs, CO
Run time 5:30
Animation / Experimental
Thousands of Kodachrome home movies are auctioned off every month on ebay.com, and I buy as many as I can afford to preserve this archive of anonymous history. Ghost of Yesterday is a collage of rotoscoped home movies. It is inspired by childhood memories of religion and altered consciousness. The film explores our collective abandonment of analog imagery and is a personal attempt to reconcile with digital imagery.
Vampire Gastelbrau [2011]
Directed by Hannah Ayoubi – Houston, TX
Run time 2:30
Animation / Student – CalArts
Vampire Gastelbrau helps Gerta and Gabi with their chores in order to earn back his vampire fang!
The Dream Life of Cleo De Merode [2010]
Directed by Julian Semilian – Winston-Salem, NC
Run time 14:38
Experimental
A surrealist inquiry into the omeiric journeys of the notorious femme fatale.
There is Wind that Blew [2011]
Directed by Carl Elsaesser – Oakland, CA
Run time 30:00
Narrative / Experimental
Two parents insert themselves into their son’s diary and assume several roles until the diary realizes their presence. As the passages fall apart and the son violently tries to get rid of his parents, a film crew appears -framing specifics-searching for concrete answers to an echoing repression. There is Wind That Blows explores the fluid relationship between repression, filmmaking, narrative representation, family history and agency.
Friday, June 1
Wolf Call [2010]
Directed by Rob Underhill – Raleigh, NC
Run time 12:00
Narrative / Local
It is 1956. The previous year, 14 year old Emmett Till from Chicago had gone missing in Money, Mississippi. Later, the boy’s mutilated body was found in a river. William Bradford Huie of Look magazine sits down with the two men acquitted for the boy’s murder, Roy Bryant Jr. and J. W. Milam, to discuss the trial. Not a word had been uttered outside a courtroom by them or their kin, until now…
Instinctive Travels [2011]
Directed by Cory Ring, Latimore Platz, Wilson Bondesen, Erik Anello – Winston-Salem, NC
Run time 4:51
Narrative / Experimental / Local / Student – North Carolina School of the Arts
A creature from a blissful world of solitude, far from civilization, embarks on a quest to find the origins of a procession he highly values, as well as what else this culler may offer.
Screaming for Joy: The Music of Sophie Sputnik [2012]
Directed by Matthew Schlissel – Fort Lauderdale, FL
Run time 9:46
Documentary / Student – Florida Atlantic University
A documentary about a young singer trying to make it in the business.
Carolina Ramblers [2012]
Directed by Heather D. Freeman – Charlotte, NC
Run time 1:30
Animation / Experimental
Animated re-mix of Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers 1930 hit “Goodbye, Sweet Liza Jane.” The individual animated “particles” were used in 2011 for a collaborative interactive sculpture with Steven Danilowicz (UNCC architecture graduate student) as part of “Digital Kennedy”.
Apologize: A Declaration [2010]
Directed by Tim Alden Grant – Charlotte, NC
Run time 3:22
Narrative / Experimental / Local
America’s founding fathers voice their grievances to King George the III through the power of music in this historical, satirical music video.
Tree Frogs [2011]
Directed by PJ Barnes – Charlotte, NC
Run time 10:52
Narrative / Local
Rod Miller is about to hire a hit man for the first time… ever. How will he react when he realizes this man might be a little off?
Cam Roulette [2010]
Directed by Dr. Michael Frierson -Greensboro, NC
Run time 6:20
Experimental / Local
A screen space built from symmetrical rotating shapes.
Internal Affiars Part 1 [2011]
Directed by Ben Sliker
Run time 5:20
Narrative / Local
Dim-witted patrol officer Bill has an issue with Mimes, a fear that reaches deep into his psyche. So when he has trouble with a certain street performer, things get out of hand, and he earns himself a trip to see his IA officer.
Internal Affiars Part 2 [2012]
Directed by Ben Sliker – Charlotte, NC
Run time 4:21
Narrative / Local
Dim-witted patrol officer Bill calls in back-up on a suspicious looking vehicle. What’s inside the vehicle will send him on the adventure of a lifetime, and earns him another trip to see his IA officer. spoiler alert … it’s drugs.
Wiggle Room[2011]
Directed by Joe Schenkenberg – Chapel Hill, NC
Run time 7:42
Animation
Many things happen around the kitchen when you’re not there. Come along for the ride with the most unlikely character… a slug. Watch as he ventures into a new world filled with vibrant colors and delicious treats. However, the soothing environment is only a disguise for the evil that is lurking nearby.
When Walt Whitman Was A Little Girl [2012]
Directed by Jim Haverkamp – Durham, NC
Run time 11:37
Narrative / Experimental / Local
Not your typical History Channel biography, “When Walt Whitman Was a Little Girl” tells the surreal truth about the formation of young Walt’s artistic sensibility. Starting out as an ordinary nine year old girl, she is soon catapulted into the world with all her senses ablaze, and neither will every be the same.
Based on a prose poem by Massachusetts poet M.C. Biegner, the film mixes drama, dance, puppetry, and surreal humor to portray the world through the eyes of a ‘sensitive kid.’ Walt, played throughout the film by nine year old Durham, NC actress Natalie Braun, first wakens to the beauty of the world around her, then must overcome family sturggles and finally a stint as a nurse during wartime. Each of these events indeliby mark her spirit and shape the artist that she will become.
Intermediate [2012]
Directed by Nicole Driscoll – Charlotte, NC
Run time 11:00
Narrative / Local / Student – Art Institute of Charlotte
Mackenzie Reed and her friends deal with hostile teachers, embarrassing crushes and bad school lunches on a daily basis. With a few awkward moments, this coming-of-age comedy explores what its really like to be in middle school. Re-live the most hellish years of your life and remember what it’s like to feel lost, humiliated, and excited about a budding future.
A Life’s Work [2011]
Directed by Adam R. Levine – Los Angeles, CA
Run time: 17:30
Documentary / Experimental / Student – CalArts
In the fifteen years since leaving the job he hated, D. J. Blanton has thrown himself into his practice as a blacksmith, building thousands of pieces in his home shop. A Life’s Work considers the intersection of art and life – the curiosities we are born with and the legacies we leave behind.
Connecting with Nature [2011]
Directed by Clint Enns – Winnipeg, Canada
Run time 1:28
Experimental
An instructional video that lies somewhere between the realms of infomercia and guide to spiritual enlightenment.
T
he 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse [2011]
Directed by Marc Russo – Raleigh, NC
Run time 9:35
Animation / Experimental / Local
The signs have begun. Silence prevents us from communicating with each other. If we do not communicate, we cannot remember our past and learn from our mistakes. Our silence brings the second sign: Decay. The decay of our social order and the material things that represent it. By ignoring the decay of our world, we are ignoring time, Nature’s singular tool to warn us of our impending turning point. The next sign will be our voracious Consumption of natural resources as we build around the ruins of our past. As we continue to consume and multiply, we are literally eating and destroying the earth from under our feet. It is impossible to forecast what mutations this will spawn; however, it is my belief that Mother Nature will defend herself, which will ultimately lead to our Death.
When We Fell [2011]
Directed by Drew Xanthopoulos – Austin, TX
Run time 13:00
Narrative / Experimental / Student – University of Texas at Austin
A man and a woman. A gun and a kiss. A game and blood let. Innocence lost.
Thank you to everyone who entered and to our judges, and congratulations to this year’s group of winning filmmakers.
Best in Show $500 Chocolate Milk by Eliza Kinkz
Best Local Film $250 Internal Affairs Pt. 1 by Benjamin Sliker
Best Narrative Film $200 Wolf Call by Rob Underhill
Best Documentary Film $200 Kingdom Incorporated by Christina Campagnola and Lauren Brinkman
Best Animated Film $200 Vampire Gastelbrau by Hannah Ayoubi
Best Experimental Film $200 There is Wind that Blew by Carl Elsaesser
Best Student Film $150 A Life’s Work by Adam R. Levine
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
JAWS [1975]
Directed by Steven Spielberg
USA / Color / English
Based on Peter Benchley’s best-selling novel, Steven Spielberg’s 1975 shark saga set the standard for the New Hollywood popcorn blockbuster while frightening millions of moviegoers out of the water. One early summer night on fictional Atlantic resort Amity Island, Chrissie decides to take a moonlight skinny dip while her friends party on the beach. Yanked suddenly below the ocean surface, she never returns. When pieces of her wash ashore, Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) suspects the worst, but Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), mindful of the lucrative tourist trade and the approaching July 4th holiday, refuses to put the island on a business-killing shark alert. After the shark dines on a few more victims, the Mayor orders the local fishermen to catch the culprit. Satisfied with the shark they find, the greedy Mayor reopens the beaches, despite the warning from visiting ichthyologist Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) that the attacks were probably caused by a far more formidable Great White. One more fatality later, Brody and Hooper join forces with flinty old salt Quint (Robert Shaw), the only local fisherman willing to take on a Great White–especially since the price is right. The three ride off on Quint’s boat “The Orca,” soon coming face to teeth with the enemy.
Rated PG; 125 min.
In addition to the well-known nickname of “Bruce”, Steven Spielberg also called the shark “the great white turd” when he really got frustrated with the troublesome animatronic fish.
Brody’s dog in the movie was actually Steven Spielberg’s real dog.
After the shark was built, it was never tested in the water, and when it was put in the water at Martha’s Vineyard, it sank straight to the ocean floor. It took a team of divers to retrieve it.
The mechanical shark spent most of the movie broken-down, and was unavailable for certain shots. This led Steven Spielberg to use the camera as the “shark”, and film from the shark’s point of view. Many think this added to the “chilling/haunting” quality in the final release saying that it would have made it too “cheesy” had they shown the shark as much as originally planned.
During pre-production, director Steven Spielberg, accompanied by friends Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and John Milius, visited the effects shop where “Bruce” the shark was being constructed. Lucas stuck his head in the shark’s mouth to see how it worked and, as a joke, Milius and Spielberg sneaked to the controls and made the jaw clamp shut on Lucas’ head. Unfortunately, and rather prophetically, considering the later technical difficulties the production would suffer, the shark malfunctioned, and Lucas got stuck in the mouth of the shark. When Spielberg and Milius were finally able to free him, the three men ran out of the workshop, afraid they’d done major damage to the creature.
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College Street)
ADMISSION $5 Members / $7 Non-Members
CRAZY HORSE [2011]
Directed by Frederick Wiseman
USA, France / Color / French with English Subtitles
Not Rated; 134 min
After examining the Paris Opera Ballet in La Danse, documentarian Frederick Wiseman returns to France to explore another famed institution: Le Crazy Horse, a long-running cabaret renowned for its elegant and innovative exotic dance revues.
Founded in 1951 by Alain Bernardin, Le Crazy Horse has become the Parisian nightlife ‘must’ for visitors, ranking alongside the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Le Crazy Horse sets itself apart from the average strip club by adhering to exacting standards in choreography, lights and physiques. The erotic revue is composed of songs and sequences that blend traits of old-fashioned burlesque, Bob Fosse and Cirque du Soleil, designed not only for the enjoyment of men, but also couples.
Wiseman’s impeccable eye finds the Le Crazy Horse a uniquely French showcase, with an emphasis on elegance, perfectionism and a grueling schedule (2 shows a night and 3 on Saturdays, 7 days a week). The film shows us the rehearsals for and the unveiling of the brand new show – Désir – created by the renowned French choreographer Phillippe Decoufle.
“It is a deft revelation of shared humanity, the kind of thing no one does better than Frederick Wiseman.” – Los Angeles Times
“Completing his wonderful French cultural trilogy that also includes portraits of the Comédie-Fran¸aise and the Paris Opera Ballet, indefatigable documentarian Frederick Wiseman freely, unobtrusively prowls the joint to create a movie that respects the serious work involved in simulating the sensations of pleasure.” – Entertainment Weekly
“The spectacle lodges somewhere between erotic reverie and the perfection of a revolving sculpture.” – New Yorker
“Every shot and edit in Wiseman’s film also suggests without over-explaining, allowing a viewer to lose herself in pleasure…” – Village Voice
“There are lots of different ways to make film. I don’t believe there has to be any orthodox way to making movies, or any rules. It’s what works for the filmmaker, and, theoretically, the audience.”
Documentarian Frederick Wiseman has been noted for his ability to capture the nuances of life in American institutions such as prisons, hospitals, welfare offices, and high schools. He started out in 1963 by producing a fictional feature film, The Cool World, an examination of the lives of Harlem teenagers. In the beginning, Wiseman was a staunch social reformist, and his films were calls for change. Titicut Follies, his first documentary, is an exposé of life in a prison for the criminally insane in Bridgewater, MA. It was controversial and left Wiseman with the reputation of being a muckraker. His four subsequent documentaries were all exposés of other tax-supported institutions designed to show the ineffectiveness of the bureaucracy that not only threatens to destroy them, but also dehumanizes the people they were meant to serve. Wiseman toned down his message and began focusing more on American culture to point out the symbolism of daily activities in his film Primate (1974). In the ‘80s, he began examining institutions as they relate to ideology. Unlike other documentaries, Wiseman’s work does not progress chronologically; rather, the segments are arranged thematically, like an essay, and are linked via rhetorical devices such as comparison and contrast to create a patterned structure. His films are never narrated, thereby forcing viewers to make connections between the sequences themselves. Wiseman has occasionally returned to fictional films, albeit in a non-fiction performance style, as with Seraphita’s Diary (1982) and La Derniere Lettre (2002). —allmovie guide
WHERE Outside in Transamerica Square (401 N. Tryon Street) – parking and directions
ADMISSION is FREE, but donations are gladly accepted.
LABYRINTH [1986]
Directed by Jim Henson
USA & UK / Color / English
Sarah (a teenage Jennifer Connelly) rehearses the role of a fairy-tale queen, performing for her stuffed animals. She is about to discover that the time has come to leave her childhood behind. In real life she has to baby-sit her brother and contend with parents who don’t understand her at all. Her petulance leads her to call the goblins to take the baby away, but when they actually do, she realizes her responsibility to rescue him.
Sarah negotiates the Labyrinth to reach the City of the Goblins and the castle of their King Jareth , played by a glam-rocking David Bowie, who performs five of his songs. The rest of the cast are puppets, a wonderful array of Jim Henson’s imaginative masterpieces. Henson gives credit to children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, and the creatures in the movie will remind Sendak fans of his drawings; the castle of the king is a living M.C. Escher set. The film combines the highest standards of art, costume, and set decoration. Like executive producer George Lucas’s other fantasies, Labyrinth mixes adventure with lessons about growing up.
Rated PG; 101 min.
WFAE sponsored trivia begins at 7pm! A little of the movie trivia seen here, as well as trivia about the 80s and people associated with the films be included in the trivia rounds. Bring your thinking cap to win fun prizes!
The owl in the title sequence is computer generated – the first attempt at a photo-realistic CGI animal character in a feature film.
Monty Python member Terry Jones wrote one early version of the script. Little of his material was retained beyond the point where Sarah eats the poisoned peach. The original script ended with Sarah punching and kicking Jareth, then watching him shrink down until he’s becomes a small and “snivelling” goblin. Also, Toby’s name was Freddie in the early drafts of the story. The baby’s name was changed because the infant Toby Froud would only react to his own name.
The full costume for Hoggle was lost for some time. It turns out that it was lost on an airplane and later bought from the airline by ‘The Unclaimed Baggage Center’, a store in Scottsboro Alabama. It is now on display in their museum.
The sources of the characters can be seen in Sarah’s bedroom at the beginning of the movie. She has a stuffed animal that looks like Sir Didymus on her dresser, a doll that looks like Ludo on the shelves next to her door (along with the book “Where the Wild Things Are” as the camera pans across her desk), a Firey doll on a shelves next to her bed, bookends with with Goblins reminiscent of Hoggle on her dresser, and figurine of Jareth on the right hand side of her desk. After you see the Hoggle bookend, there is a scrapbook shown. It shows newspaper clippings of Sarah’s famous actress mom with another man, David Bowie. In addition, the dress that she wears in the ballroom scene can also been seen adorning the miniature doll in her music box, and a wooden maze game on her dresser next to her books is reminiscent of the hedge section of the Labyrinth. There is also a small painting on her wall that depicts a contraption much like the one operated by the “Cleaners” that Sarah and Hoggle had to escape from. And there is a copy of the famous picture by M.C. Esher which is used in the room where the final confrontation with Jareth occurs.
Sarah’s dog “Merlin” is also used for Sir Didymus’ mount “Ambrosius”. In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain, Merlin is called “Merlin Ambrosius”.
The various things that Jareth does with the crystal balls (rolling them around his arms and in his hands and so forth) are not camera tricks or any other kind of special effect. They are actually done by choreographer Michael Moschen, who is an accomplished juggler. Moschen was actually crouched behind Bowie with his arm(s) replacing Bowie’s. Unlike a typical Muppet performance, however, he had no video screen to view his performance. In other words, his manipulations were performed completely blind.
David Bowie did the voice (gurgling) for the baby in the song “Magic Dance”.
Jim Henson is creator of The Muppets and undoubtedly the most beloved puppeteer in history. In 1955 Jim, already a skilled puppeteer, began his studies in Theatre Arts at the University of Maryland. That year marked the appearance of his first television show, Sam and Friends, a five-minute late-night puppet show he produced along with another freshman, Jane Nebel, whom he would marry in 1959. The show featured some early incarnations of his famous Muppet characters, including a lovable frog named Kermit that Jim fashioned from one of his mother’s old coats and two ping-pong balls. In 1958 Sam and Friends earned Jim his first Emmy Award, and he would go on to win an impressive 30 Emmys during his lifetime for his work with the Jim Henson Company.
The Muppets — Jim coined the term “Muppet” to describe his unique combination of marionette and foam-rubber hand puppets — immediately proved popular, starring in TV commercials and regularly appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show. Then, in 1969, came the immensely successful Sesame Street. It wasn’t until The Muppet Show, which starred Kermit and the egotistical and hilariously outspoken Miss Piggy, was introduced in 1976 that Jim became a favorite of fans of all ages. An estimated 235 million viewers tuned in to The Muppets each week in more than 100 countries.
In 1979, Jim turned to the big screen with a feature film, The Muppet Movie, followed The Great Muppet Caper (1981), in which Jim made his directorial debut, and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). In 1989, he decided to entrust The Muppets to The Walt Disney Company. Jim died unexpectedly in 1990, robbing him of the chance to continue his work with Disney, a company he deeply admired.
Transamerica Square is located at 401 N. Tryon Street. The courtyard is in the middle of the structure. Entrances to the courtyard are accessible from Tryon St. (to the right of Rock Bottom), 7th St., Church St., and 8th St. Click here for directions.
Transamerica does provide parking. For complete instructions, click here. Generally, parking is $5 after 5pm. The parking garage can be accessed from 7th St. There are many other surface lots and parking decks within walking distance, as well as some street parking. Make sure to do your research before you leave home so parking isn’t a headache!
* Rock Bottom provides some kind of parking validation for eating at their restaurant (as so many of the restaurants associated with parking decks). Grab dinner before the film, or get some grub to go and get your parking stamped. Make sure to call Rock Bottom to get full parking validation details (ie – it may not be totally free).
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College Street)
ADMISSION $10 Buy Tickets
In a slum divided, soccer is survival.
Without a Fight is a feature length documentary film that explores how soccer can facilitate social change in Kibera, one of Africa’s largest slums. Footage of violent clashes fueled by polarizing national presidential elections is intertwined with profiles of youth from different religious and ethnic backgrounds as they navigate daily life and prepare for the final championship soccer game of the season. The film provides a glimpse—often a very positive one—into an Africa few have seen. It attempts to break stereotypes associated with people who live in extreme poverty while depicting sports as a tool for social change, a tool that could be used to prevent violence among at-risk youth. The film made its World Premiere at the 11 MM Festival in Berlin, Germany in March 2012 and its North American Premiere at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, NC in April 2012. This film was produced by Chasing the Mad Lion Productions in collaboration with the UNC Center for Global Initiatives and Carolina for Kibera.
Carolina for Kibera Co-Founder Rye Barcott, Champions League Coordinator and Kibera resident Kenny Juma and WAF Producer Beth-Ann Kutchma will participate in a Q&A following the screening.
{ All proceeds benefit the Kibera Champions League }
http://www.withoutafight.org
Without a Fight—Set in the slums of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, against a backdrop of bloody unrest, village youth toss aside their often warring ethnic and religious tribalism to instead battle for supremacy on the soccer pitch. As the teams compete in the local and loftily named Champions League, the film chronicles the march toward the season’s championship and the backstories of some of its participants. Coaches must not only contend with political unrest and violence, but also players whose training is inhibited by such obstacles as hunger and a lack of shoes—impoverished kids occasionally have been killed trying to steal cleats. The film is both uplifting and illuminating, a look inside a place where the degree of bloodshed and poverty might seem foreign, but the healing power of team athletics is universal. (Dir. Jason Arthurs, 55 min.)
—NM From the Independent Weekly
“Another audience favorite with a local connection, “Without A Fight” concerns the work of the Chapel Hill-based outreach organization Carolina for Kibera, established in 2001, which sponsors youth soccer leagues in the ravaged slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Ten years in the making, the film shows how the soccer leagues have helped prevent violence in Kibera by bringing together young people across Kenya’s ethnic divides.
After the screening, the filmmakers were joined onstage by Kibera soccer coach and community organizer Kenny Juma, who plays a central part in the film. Juma said the youth leagues have helped bridge gaps not only between factions in Kibera, but also between Africa and America.
“This is a true-life story of what is happening in our community,” Juma said. “Trusting in one another is really a noble cause that can move us forward.””
–Raleigh News & Observer
“This is the true life history of what is happening in our community … unifying tribes,” said Juma at the screening. “Rallying them to a common goal is not an easy job,” he said.
-Durham Herald Sun
Jason Arthurs is the Director, Editor and Co-Director of Photography of Without a Fight. Jason is a photographer and documentary filmmaker based in Raleigh, NC. He was named North Carolina Photographer of the Year in 2005 and 2006, with portfolios containing work from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a documentary project in India and a story about a young mother battling terminal cancer. His work has also received awards from photojournalism’s most prestigious competitions including the Pictures of the Year International and National Press Photographers “Best of Photojournalism” competition. Arthurs graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he studied photojournalism and history. He has served as faculty on the University of North Carolina’s Photojournalism Workshops whose projects have also received international awards for digital storytelling. Jason served for one month in 2009 as a professional faculty coach to students working on LivingGalapagos.org the University of Chapel Hill’s most ambitious multimedia project to date, documenting the impact of man on the Galapagos Islands. In addition to keeping strong ties to the University, Jason remains actively involved in editorial journalism and has had work published in the New York Times, Washington Post, TIME magazine and the L.A.Times within the last year.
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
THE GOONIES [1985]
Directed by Richard Donner
USA / Color / English
Mikey Walsh and Brandon Walsh are brothers whose family is preparing to move because developers want to build a golf course in the place of their neighborhood — unless enough money is raised to stop the construction of the golf course, and that’s quite doubtful. But when Mikey stumbles upon a treasure map of the famed “One-Eyed” Willy’s hidden fortune, Mikey, Brandon, and their friends Lawrence “Chunk” Cohen, Clark “Mouth” Devereaux, Andrea “Andy” Carmichael, Stefanie “Stef” Steinbrenner, and Richard “Data” Wang, calling themselves The Goonies, set out on a quest to find the treasure in hopes of saving their neighborhood.
The treasure is in a cavern, but the entrance to the cavern is under the house of evil thief Mama Fratelli and her sons Jake Fratelli, Francis Fratelli, and the severely disfigured Lotney “Sloth” Fratelli. Can The Goonies survive Willie’s boobytrapped cavern, the Fratelli crooks, and each other in order to find the treasure and save their homes?
Rated PG; 114 min.
Director Richard Donner has a cameo as the gray-haired sheriff on the quads as the Goonies exit the cave with the ship.
The Goonies Oath that was cut out goes as follows: “I will never betray my goon dock friends / We will stick together until the whole world ends / Through heaven and hell, and nuclear war / Good pals like us, will stick like tar / In the city, or the country, or the forest, or the boonies / I am proudly declared a fellow Goony.”
The pirate ship was entirely real. All the shots were filmed in the ship. After the film, it was offered to anyone who would take it. No one wanted it, so the ship was scrapped.
According to Sean Astin, he was allowed to keep the treasure map used in the film. Several years later his mother discovered it, thought it was just a crinkled piece of paper, and threw it in the trash.
When the boys are sitting in the living room watching MTV, they weren’t actually watching the Cyndi Lauper “Good Enough” video, which was developed six months after filming wrapped up.
The cast was not allowed to see the pirate ship before the scene was shot. When they did see it, some of the kids said “Holy shit!” The scene had to be re-shot without them cursing.
When rocks are falling from the cave ceiling, Jonathan Ke Quan (Data) screams “Holy S-H-I-T!” He said he spelled the expletive because his mother made him promise not to use any bad language in the movie.
“Shit” or “bullshit”is uttered 19 times, not counting the line “Holy S-H-I-T!”
When Chunk and Sloth head down through the grate to follow the gang and the Fratellis, Sloth is wearing an Oakland Raiders T-Shirt. John Matuszak, who played Sloth, was a former Oakland Raiders football player.
RICHARD DONNER
Working briefly as an actor in the late 1950s, American director Richard Donner first wielded the megaphone for a group of TV commercials, then graduated to the weekly western Wanted: Dead or Alive. Some of Donner’s best early work was concentrated on the fantasy anthology Twilight Zone, including the imperishable 1963 episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” Donner also worked for Hanna-Barbera, directing several episodes of “Danger Island”, a component of the 1968 kid’s series The Banana Splits; there was, however, very little that was “kiddie” about “Mystery Island,” a hallucinatory symphony of hand-held camerawork. A film director since 1961 Donner turned to movie work full time with 1968’s Salt and Pepper. The Omen (1976), a demonic-possession opus, was Donner’s first major moneymaker, leading to his directing assignment on the first Superman film in 1978. Superman was popular enough to inspire three sequels, the first of which contained so much uncredited Donner-directed footage that the director was compelled to sue. Donner has struck gold at the box office several times since 1978, notably with the three action-packed Lethal Weapon films starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, and more recently with another Gibson vehicle, Maverick (1994) —allmovie guide
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
SHORT CIRCUIT [1986]
Directed by John Badham
USA / Color / English
Rated PG; 99min
Struck by lightning, an endearing little robot known only as “Number 5″ escapes from an experimental electronics firm. Technician Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) and his indecipherable East Indian assistant, Ben Jabituya (Fisher Stevens), set out to locate Number 5 before the military can go through with its plans to destroy the robot. Number 5 takes refuge with loopy Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy), who is convinced that the mechanical man is an extraterrestrial. Hoping to teach the “alien” all about Earth, she fills Number 5′s memory banks with reams of pop culture — and then the real fun begins. – Allrovi.com
- Number 5′s full designation is “SAINT Number 5″. The acronym SAINT stands for “Strategic Artificially-Intelligent Nuclear Transport”.
- This film was originally conceived as a dark high-tech thriller. Number 5 was originally intended to be the villain of the picture: an out-of-control, heavily-armed military robot that had escaped from the lab that had developed him. After several script revisions, the darker elements were toned down and the film became a high-tech comedy.
- The film pays homage to James Cameron’s TERMINATOR: The robots are designed very similar to the large fighting machines in the future battle scenes AND At the beginning of the movie, you see a close-up of flowers on a green field, and then the tanks roll over them.
- Stephanie and Number 5 dance to a scene from Saturday Night Fever which was also directed by John Badham.
- The 3 Stooges short that #5 is watching is the end of Woman Haters.
- The gangster movie featuring George Raft that Number 5 is watching, and later imitating (using Raft’s famous “coin flipping”) is Scarface.
- In this film and Short Circuit 2, Johnny 5′s voice is provided by puppeteer Tim Blaney. This casting decision was made due to the director’s belief that real-time interaction with the robot prop would make the interaction seem more natural on-screen than if they edited Johnny’s voice in during post-production.
- Many of the little tricks done by Johnny 5 on-screen (like flipping through book pages in a blink of the eye and tossing a washer into the air in a mimic of a scene from an old gangster movie he saw) were done using relatively simple, yet ingenious sleight-of-hand prop effects. For instance, the pages were flipped using an air hose, while the washer was flipped using a piece of string at both ends sideways. Not only did this save money for the producers for the actual robot and the screenplay, but they proved remarkably effective in getting just the right look needed for the scenes.
- As per the original movie’s attempt to portray a living robot in the “real world”, every part of Johnny and his brethren was built to have a specific, logical purpose behind them; this was originally a source of contention between the director and the prop designer, the latter of whom insisted on giving Johnny “eyes” to give the character a method of visually expressing emotion. As a result, Johnny’s iconic “eyelids” were created, with the explanation that they were sun guards/camera coverings.
- Newton “flips off” Ben (Fisher Stevens) with a mechanical hand. In My Science Project Vince (Stevens) did a similar gesture to a motorist tailgating him.
- When Number Five commandeered Ben and the Nova guard’s truck, he hums the U.S. Marines anthem.
Born in England, John Badham became a naturalized American citizen at the age of seven. He received a BA and MFA at Yale University, which he attended before and after his military service. He worked his way up the professional ladder at Universal Studios; his first directorial assignments included the trailers (or coming-attraction reels) of the studio’s features. In the early 1970s, Badham gained a good reputation as an able director of made-for-TV movies. It was his handling of the 1974 docudrama The Gun that won Badham his first theatrical-feature assignment, the 1975 baseball flick The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars and Motor Kings (Badham was a last-minute choice when Steven Spielberg suddenly priced himself out of the film’s budget thanks to Jaws). Badham’s first bona-fide—and indeed, one of the biggest moneymakers of the 1970s—was the disco-driven Saturday Night Fever (1977). The director’s striking visual sense and innate gift for montage has served him well in such nailbiters as Blue Thunder (1984), Wargames (1984), American Flyers (1985) and Point of No Return (1991); he was less successful with comedy, as witness Stakeout (1987) and Bird on a Wire (1989). In 1984, John Badham formed his own production firm, Great American Picture Show Company. —allmovie guide
WHERE Park Avenue, between Camden & South Tryon (aka the lunch lot)
ADMISSION is Free. Concessions from food trucks available at 5:30pm.
FILM, FOOD TRUCKS, FUN!
Presented by the South End Neighborhood Associated and The Light Factory,
Sponsored by Gaines Brown, Historic South End, and Center City Partners
JUNE 23, 2012
5:30 PM: Food Trucks
8:30 PM: Show Time
Movie: Captain America: The First Avenger
Location: Park Avenue, between Camden & South Tryon
Free showing of Captain America: The First Avenger, the Marvel 2011 film starring Chris Evans
Pack your picnic or enjoy offerings from the food trucks
Park Avenue between Camden & South Tryon will be closed for the event
Don’t forget to bring your blanket or chairs!
Rain cancels movie showing
visit the South End Neighborhood Association here: http://southendneighborhood.com/home/southend-events.php?event_id=63
Captain America: The First Avenger [2011]
Directed by Joe Johnston
USA / Color / English
Based on the Marvel Comics character from World War II. A brave, yet mild-mannered young soldier named Steve Rogers, volunteers to undergo a series of experiments for a US army Super Soldier program. The military succeeds in transforming him into a human weapon, but quickly decide that their Super Soldier is far too expensive a creation to risk in combat. So, they decide to put him to use as an army celebrity and parade him across Europe to boost morale by performing in USO shows for American troops. He is even given a costume that bear the colors of Old Glory for the stage. Then, when a Nazi plot reveals itself Rogers must rise up and and become the First Avenger, in order to save his country. Steve Rogers becomes Captain America and he earns his way into the hearts and souls of every American, bringing hope and justice to a war-weary nation. Later, during a mission to Germany to stop his archenemy – The Red Skull, from launching rockets at the allies, Captain America sacrifices himself and winds up frozen in ice for almost six decades! Revived, Steve Rogers now must join forces with new heroes and become an Avenger of the modern age.
Rated PG-13; 123 min.
Participating Food Trucks:
Southern Cake Queen
Auto Burger and Fry Guys
Napolitano’s
Harvest Moon Grille
Dan the pig man
Cupcake Delirium
Sticks and Cones
Goody Woody’s
The Tin Kitchen
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College Street)
ADMISSION $5 Members / $7 Non-Members
ALL IN — THE POKER MOVIE is the story of the worldwide poker boom that started in the underground clubs of New York City and went on to be played at homes and casinos all around the globe. How did poker become the battleground for personal freedom and the fight for adults to choose how they spend their time and money? The film explains how poker has become the target of politicians who have cut off the ability for millions to play and for many to make a living.
ALL IN — THE POKER MOVIE tells the exciting story of poker’s renaissance in the first decade of the new millennium, from a game once played only by grandparents and teenagers unable to get a date on Friday night to a nationally televised sport played by millions, and watched by millions more. An activity so hip that even Matt Damon, George Clooney, and Leonardo DiCaprio have a regular game. Played in casinos, basements, on line, in college dorms or at charity events, poker is everywhere. The films explains the “tipping story” to the events and people that came together to make poker so popular that you could see it being played on twelve television networks a week.
This documentary weaves the quest for the American Dream, the ability to take risks, and the celebration of entrepreneurship with a game that began with conmen on riverboats and ended up being played by presidents. Poker has become a metaphor for making it big quick, and though millions play it, poker seems unable to escape it’s cinematic image of something done by people on the outside of society.
ALL IN — THE POKER MOVIE tells the story of how poker has come to be a part of mainstream culture while also exploring how poker satisfies our desire to play, win, and shape our identities as individuals.
ALL IN — THE POKER MOVIE the definitive story of poker.
“All In — The Poker Movie is indeed the celebration of poker as everyman’s game…poker is us. We are poker.
…Destined to emerge as a state-of-the-art overview of poker’s place in society today.
…One of the most comprehensive collections of poker archive footage and film/TV references seen in such a history of the modern game.
…One should expect All In — The Poker Movie to be a tour de force…and on that note it succeeds quite well.”
– PokerNews.com
…All In — The Poker Movie could be the definitive factual overview of poker’s place in society today.”
– RecentPoker.com
“This documentary will be a great and factual overview about poker’s standing in today’s society.”
–Pino, PokerBonusSource.com
“Those who truly enjoy looking back into the past and to see where our present came from will enjoy much of what this movie has to offer.”
– Brian Cherry, LaunchPoker.com
“This may be the first major film to take a shot at it…and succeed.”
– Jennifer Newell, PokerWorks.com
“If you play poker or a fan of poker or are interested in poker, you must see All In — The Poker Movie…it is a terrific primer on poker and its history, culture, and place in the world. Go see it!”
– World Series of Poker
“…the pic is stylishly composed, thoughtfully laid out and offers an effective dissection of one of the most unlikely cultural phenomena in decades…”
– Steven Zeitchik
DOUGLAS TIROLA — Director / Producer
As President of 4th Row Films Douglas Tirola has produced six documentary films in the past four years, two of which he directed. These include HBO’s An Omar Broadway Film (Tribeca Film Festival) and Kati with an I (NY Times Critics’ Pick and Gotham Award Nominee). Making the Boys (NY Times Critics’ Pick) premiered at Berlin International Film Festival. Fake It So Real (Critics’ Pick New Yorker and New York Magazine). All In — The Poker Movie premiered at Cinevegas where it won Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary. Doug has worked as a screenwriter for Paramount, Universal, Fox, Warner Brothers, Sony, and New Line. He also created a division of 4th Row Films, which utilizes independent filmmakers to create branding films for Fortune 500 companies such as American Express, Pepsi, Diageo, and Ford. Doug’s first job on a movie was as a production assistant on When Harry Met Sally.
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College Street)
ADMISSION $5 Members / $7 Non-Members
TYRANNOSAUR [2011]
Directed by Paddy Considine
UK / Color / English
Not Rated; 92 min
Expanded from his 2007 Bafta-winning short Dog Altogether, renowned actor Paddy Considine’s first feature behind the camera is a tour de force propelled by the sheer intensity of its performances and storytelling.
Joseph (Peter Mullan), a tormented, self-destructive man plagued by violence, finds hope of redemption in Hannah (Olivia Colman), a Christian charity-shop worker he meets one day while fleeing an altercation. Initially derisive of her faith and presumed idyllic existence, Joseph nonetheless returns to the shop and they become close friends. However Hannah has a dark secret of her own which threatens to plunge Joseph back into his former life.
An unconventional love story, Tyrannosaur transcends its bleak circumstances through Joseph and Hannah’s vigorous impulse toward redemption. Shouldering the weight of burdened lives with great humanity and a deep understanding of our capacity to heal, Mullan and Colman deliver two of the most outstanding performances of the year. Considine’s portrait of these two lost souls, bloody but unbowed, is a devastating and profoundly beautiful experience. –Sundance Film Festival
Reviews
“The best British film of the year” – Stuart McGurk, GQ Magazine
“Riveting, uncompromising, brilliant… 4/5 stars” – Empire Magazine
“Approach Considine’s brilliant directorial debut with caution. It’s a pitiless, fearsome beast that will hammer you in the gut, hard. And Olivia Colman will blow you away.” – Total Film
Awards
Sundance Film Festival 2011
Winner of the The World Cinema Award for Directing: Dramatic
Winner of the World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Breakout Performance: Peter Mullan
Winner of the World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Breakout Performance: Olivia Colman
British Independent Film Awards 2011
Best British Independent Film
The Douglas Hickox Award [Best Debut Director]: Paddy Considine
Best Actress: Olivia Colman
British Academy Film Awards 2012 (BAFTAs)
Outstanding debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
Patrick “Paddy” George Considine (born 5 September 1973) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and frequent collaborator with Shane Meadows.
Best known to audiences for his portrayals of dark, troubled, morally or mentally ambiguous characters. He has starred in films such as IN AMERICA, THE BOURNE ULTIMATIUM, 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE, SUBMARINE, REDRIDING: 1980, AND HOT FUZZ.
His directorial debut, the short film Dog Altogether, won a number of awards including the 2008 BAFTA Award for Best Short Film. TYRANNOSAUR is his feature length director debut.
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College Street)
ADMISSION is FREE but, you will be asked to fill out a survey about the film.
40 FEARS [2012]
Directed by A. Blaine Miller
USA / Color / English
Today is Burt’s 40th and all he wants is to make it through the day with a little dignity and self respect. A lofty goal indeed for a man with so much baggage. First up are his four unruly teenagers: the drug dealer, the Satan worshipper, the bimbo, and the soon to be tainted virgin. Then, he has to go head to head with his wife’s overwhelmingly irresistible Latin lover. And the corpse in the party hat… just complicates things. To save the day and his sanity, Burt must face and overcome a night of birthday “surprises”, each more outlandish than the last, and still get home in time to serve up dinner and a little thing called justice.
This film is not yet rated and may contain some subject matter not suitable for all audiences.
Recording devices will not be permitted.
HELP SUPPORT THESE LOCAL FILMMAKERS!!!
Audience members are participating in a test screening of this film. There’s no charge for admission, but you will be asked to fill out a short survey at the end of the movie. This information will be used to help the filmmakers understand how audiences view their film, and what, if any, changes need to be made.
http://www.dalliancefilms.com
Dalliance Films is committed to creating and producing quality, for-profit, independent films in Charlotte, NC and the surrounding areas. It promotes long-term industry growth by supporting new and established talent from the region. Dalliance Films cooperates with production companies in the Carolinas to create a local network of like-minded industry professionals; thus, generating a larger resource pool, fostering positive relationships, and welcoming productions from other regions. Selecting creative and original projects that focus on specific markets, Dalliance Films caters to untapped audiences by coupling time-honored film principles with innovative film techniques to craft stories with unique perspectives, resulting in an enjoyable movie going experience.
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
BARBARELLA [1968]
Italy, France / Color / English
*Rated PG; 98min
* Parents, don’t be dumb. There’s A LOT of sexual innuendo in this movie.
After an in-flight anti-gravity striptease (masked by the film’s opening titles), Barbarella, a 41st century astronaut, lands on the planet Lythion and sets out to find the evil Durand Durand in the city of Sogo, where a new sin is invented every hour. There, she encounters such objects as the Exessive Machine, a genuine sex organ on which an accomplished artist of the keyboard, in this case, Durand Durand himself, can drive a victim to death by pleasure, a lesbian queen who, in her dream chamber, can make her fantasies take form, and a group of ladies smoking a giant hookah which, via a poor victim struggling in its glass globe, dispenses Essance of Man. You can’t help but be impressed by the special effects crew and the various ways that were found to tear off what few clothes our heroine seemed to possess. Based on the popular French comic strip. —IMDb
- The scenes during the opening credits where Barbarella seems to float around her spaceship were filmed by having Jane Fonda lie on a huge piece of plexiglas with a picture of the spaceship underneath her. It was then filmed from above, creating the illusion that she is in zero gravity. (If you look carefully, you can see the reflection in the glass as she removes her gloves.)
- Future Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour was one of the session musicians who performed the film’s original score.
- Dildano’s password, “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch”, is the name of a real village in Wales, United Kingdom (unsurprisingly, it’s the longest place name in the UK).
- SoGo, the evil city Barbarella travels to, is a reference to Biblical cities Sodom and Gomorrah.
- The names “Stomoxys” and “Glossina”, the Great Tyrant’s nieces, are actually the names of flies. Stomoxys calcitrans is the stable fly, and glossina is the African (or tsetse) fly.
- The film’s missing scientist character famously inspired the band name of 1980s pop stars Duran Duran.
- Barbarella was the first science fiction hero from the comics to be adapted into a feature film as opposed to a serial (Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, her male predecessors, had only appeared in serials up to this point).
- The original author Jean-Claude Forest based the character of Barbarella on Brigitte Bardot – who ironically was director Roger Vadim’s previous wife.
- In the original comic, Barbarella was not a secret agent but an outlaw, and the movie omits some of the adventures she had on Lythion, including an encounter with an earlier villainess called the Gorgon, whose face changed into a duplicate of the face of anyone who looked at her. Her spaceship is not repaired, so for the duration of the first comic album she is trapped on Lythion.
- There was no Durand-Durand and no death ray in the original comic; the city was built around a monster that belched gas through a series of ducts, and the Great Tyrant wore an eye patch even in her true identity.
- Lobby card stills and set photographs survive, showing footage of a seduction scene between Barbarella and the Black Queen on a bed. However this footage has never appeared in any print of the film.
Originally a stage actor, and also a part-time journalist and screenwriter, Roger Vadim came to film as an assistant to movie director Marc Allegret, and subsequently married Allegret’s most well known discovery, Brigitte Bardot, whom he also starred with in numerous films of the 1950s. Vadim became internationally known for his 1956 debut film And God Created Woman, which trod new ground in eroticism during the 1950s, and also starred Bardot. His later films luxuriated in their lushness and decadence, a process that continued with Vadim’s subsequent marriage to Jane Fonda, who also became one of his most renowned leading ladies. However, since the late 1960s, with the general opening up of American films to more overtly sexual content, Vadim’s popularity and success outside of Europe have fallen off markedly, and an American remake of And God Created Woman (1988) provoked yawns as much as curiosity from critics and the public alike. Vadim and Fonda have since divorced. –allmovie guide
WHERE UNC Charlotte Center City Building (320 E. 9th Street)
ADMISSION is FREE but donations are welcome.
My Joy /Schastye moe [2010]
Directed by Sergei Loznitsa
France, Germany, Netherlands, Ukraine / Color / Russian with English Subtitles
Not Rated; 127 min
Russia, present day, summer.
Truck driver Georgy picks up his latest load and heads off for the highway, stopping off first at home, where he avoids contact with his wife. His journey is interrupted by two traffic police at a checkpoint. When he evades their seemingly unncessary attentions and returns to his cab, he finds an old man sitting in the front seat. The man asks for a lift, and in return, tells Georgy the sobering story of his return from the German front in 1946. After the old man disappears, Georgy drives into a traffic jam on the main road. A teenage prostitute appears and offers to show him a short-cut – along with her services – and they end up at a village market. There, hurt by Georgy’s attempt to show her some kindness, she abandons him.
Leaving the market, Georgy continues his journey alone and ends up lost in a field. By now, night has fallen and his truck has broken down. Three tramps appear out of the darkness, planning a robbery. They invite Georgy for a meal by a roadside fire and offer him a drink. Georgy refuses alcohol and asks for directions back to the highway, but the meal ends violently and abruptly…
The first fiction film by acclaimed documentarian Sergei Loznitsa, My Joy is a mischievous, ultra-nihilistic parable of post-Communist Russia, shot by master cinematographer Oleg Mutu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days).
“It’s suspenseful, mysterious, at times bitterly funny, consistently moving and filled with images of a Russia haunted both by ghosts and the living dead.” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“In the best way, My Joy expands the notion of what narrative cinema can do and can be to harrowing effect. The film is an undeniable artistic achievement that may stick in your mind longer than you’d like it to.” – Landon Palmer, Film School Rejects
“One of the year’s must-see provocations.” – Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
“A memorable jolt of a debut” – Benjamin Mercer, The L Magazine
“The most unexpected and arresting picture in the main Cannes competition.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com
Sergey Loznitsa was born September 5th, 1964 in the city of Baranovitchi, in Belarus. At that time Belarus was part of the Soviet Union. Later Sergey’s family moved to Kiev, Ukraine, where Sergey finished high school.
In 1981 Sergey applied and was admitted to Kiev Polytechnic Institute, with the major in applied mathematic and control systems. In 1987 he graduated with a degree in engineering and mathematics.
From 1987 through 1991 Sergey was employed as a scientist at the Institute of Cybernetics. He was involved in the development of expert systems, artificial intelligence, and decision-making processes.
In addition to his main job, Sergey worked as a translator from Japanese. During that time Sergey developed a strong interest in cinematography, and in 1991 he applied to Russian State Institute of Cinematography, in Moscow. After passing a very vigorous selection process, Sergey was admitted to the Institute. He studied in the studio of Nana Dzhordzhadze.
In 1997 Sergey graduated with honors with the major in movie production and direction. From 2000 he produces works in the Studio of Documentary Films in St.Petersburg. In 2000 he was awarded “Nipkov program” grant in Berlin.
In 2001 Sergey immigrated with his wife and two daughters to Germany. Sergey Loznitsa made three full size documentaries and eight short stories. Presently Sergey is directing several documentaries and working on new scripts. —loznitsa.com
WHERE UNC Charlotte Center City Building (320 E. 9th Street)
ADMISSION is FREE but donations are welcome.
Solaris / Solyaris [1972]
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Soviet Union / Color / Russian with English Subtitles
Rated PG; 167 min
Based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem, SOLARIS centers on widowed psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donata Banionis), who is sent to a space station orbiting a water-dominated planet called Solaris to investigate the mysterious death of a doctor, as well as the mental problems plaguing the dwindling number of cosmonauts on the station. Finding the remaining crew to be behaving oddly and aloof, Kelvin is more than surprised when he meets his seven-years-dead wife Khari (Natalya Bondarchuk) on the station. It quickly becomes apparent that Solaris possesses something that brings out repressed memories and obsessions within the cosmonauts on the space station, leaving Kelvin to question his perception of reality.
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, Solaris was remade by Steven Soderbergh in 2002.
“Andrei Tarkovsky spins a strange, slow but absorbing parable on life and love in the guise of a sci-fi theme.” – Variety
“More an exploration of inner than of outer space, Tarkovsky’s eerie mystic parable is given substance by the filmmaker’s boldly original grasp of film language and the remarkable performances by all the principals.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
“A dazzlingly imaginative work with awesome production values and special effects that bear comparison to those of ’2001.’” – Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
“An amazing celluloid poem by a filmmaker whom Ingmar Bergman called ‘the greatest.’” – Michael Wilington, Chicago Tribune
Considered one of Russia’s most distinguished contemporary directors, the late Andrei Tarkovsky is known for highly personalized and poetic films. The son of poet Arseni Tarkovsky, he studied Arabic and first worked as a geologist before attending the State Film School in Moscow under Mikhail Romm. While there he made a pair of short films, “There Will Be No Leave Today” (1959) and the acclaimed Katok i Skripka/The Steamroller and the Violin (his diploma film). Following graduation in 1960, Tarkovsky went to work for Mosfilm and made his feature-film directorial debut in 1962 with Ivanovo Detstvo/Ivan’s Childhood. The film earned him top honors at that year’s Venice Film Festival. His sophomore film, Andrei Rublev, is Tarkovsky’s most renowned work. Ostensibly a portrait of a 15th century Russian painter, the film is actually a metaphorical drama mirroring the plight of Russian artists. Some have expanded the film’s parable to reflect the dramatic effects of war and chaos upon humanity. Many critics consider this film Tarkovsky’s masterpiece, but though it was made in 1966, problems with Soviet censors deferred its release until 1971. The film won a FIPRESCI award at Cannes and brought Tarkovsky to the forefront of international cinema. His 1976 film Zerkalo/The Mirror, with its open-ended narrative and interesting camera techniques, was very popular among Russian intellectuals. An intimate, multi-layered autobiographical story in which the time frames fluidly move forward and backwards, it reflects Tarkovsky’s dreams and his experiences growing up in an artist’s community under Stalin’s rule. It is considered by many a subjective companion piece to Ivanovo Detstvo, which looked objectively at a boy’s experience growing up during the WWII era. In the early ’80s, Tarkovsky started making films outside of Soviet Russia. But though he would make films in Italy, Sweden, and London, they would remain uniquely Russian in subject and tone. In 1984, Tarkovsky was unable to get formal permission to remain abroad and learned that should he return to Moscow that he would no longer be allowed to make films, so he defected to Western Europe. In 1986, he made his final film, Offret/The Sacrifice. The film won a Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Later that year, Tarkovsky died in Paris of lung cancer.
WHERE The Light Factory
345 N. College Street
ADMISSION $5 Members / $7 Non-Members
SLEEPING BEAUTY [2011]
Directed by Julia Leigh
Australia / Color / English
Not Rated; 101 min
Jane Campion presents SLEEPING BEAUTY, the bold and provocative directorial debut of Julia Leigh, an official selection of the Cannes, Toronto and Chicago film festivals. Featuring a phenomenal breakthrough performance by Emily Browning, this coolly shocking retelling of the classic myth poses its heroine as a rarified sex-worker, confronting ideas of feminine sexuality with bravado and precision.
“You will go to sleep. You will wake up. It will be as if those hours never existed.”
Death-haunted, quietly reckless, Lucy is a young university student who takes a job as a Sleeping Beauty. In the Sleeping Beauty Chamber old men seek an erotic experience that requires Lucy’s absolute submission. This unsettling task starts to bleed into Lucy’s daily life and she develops an increasing need to know what happens to her when she is asleep.
Anna Smith, Empire
Julia Leigh (born in 1970 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian novelist, film director and screenwriter.
She received prizes and nominations for her novels The Hunter and Disquiet. The Hunter was adapted into a 2011 feature film starring Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill and Frances O’Connor. Leigh also wrote the screenplay Sleeping Beauty about a university student drawn into a mysterious world of desire. Leigh made her directorial debut with this screenplay in 2011 Sleeping Beauty starring Emily Browning. Her film was selected for the main competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. –Wikipedia
WHERE UNC Charlotte Center City Building (320 E. 9th Street)
ADMISSION is FREE but donations are welcome.
Battleship Potemkin / Bronyenosyets Potyomkin [1925]
Directed by Sergei Eisenstein
Soviet Union / Black and White / English Intertitles
Not Rated; 69 min
For eight decades, Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 masterpiece has remained one of the most influential silent films of all time. This all-new restoration restores dozens of missing shots, all 146 title cards, and Edmund Meisel’s definitive 1926 score, returning the film to a form as close to its creator’s bold vision as has been seen since the film’s triumphant Moscow premiere.
Planned by the Soviet Central Committee to coincide with the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the unsuccessful 1905 Russian Revolution, this film was developed by the 27 year-old Sergei Eisenstein from less than one page of script from a planned eight-part epic that was intended to chronicle a large number of revolutionary actions.
Starting with the Potemkin crew’s refusal to eat maggot-infested meat, the mutiny develops and their leader Vakulinchuk is shot by a senior officer. The officers are overthrown and when the Potemkin docks at Odessa, crowds appear from all directions to take up the cause of the dead sailor and open rebellion ensues. What became the most celebrated sequence in world cinema history follows as the Czarist soldiers fire on the crowds thronging down the Odessa steps; the broad newsreel-like sequences being inter-cut with close-ups of harrowing details.
Returning to sea, the Potemkin crew prepares the guns for action as the ship, flying the flag of freedom, steams to confront the squadron. When they finally meet their worst fears are allayed as, with relief coupled with joy, they are universally acclaimed. This film, which was destined to become such an influential landmark in cinematographic history, opened in Moscow in January 1926. It ran for only four weeks.
To see “Potemkin” in its restored glory, complete with Edmund Meisel’s pulse-pounding score recorded by a 55-piece orchestra, is to be astonished anew at what a dazzling piece of virtuoso filmmaking this is. Packed with movement, incident and beauty, this is no fusty museum piece but a thrilling jolt of pure cinematic adrenaline. – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
“For visual and aural quality, the Kino [restoration] is now the one to beat.” – Dave Kehr, The New York Times
“A work of straightforward emotion and pulse-quickening tension.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
“Its appearance in 1925 shook the film world, and many filmmakers still haven’t recovered.” – Don Druker, Chicago Reader
The father of montage, Russia’s Sergei Eisenstein was one of the principal architects of the modern cinematic form. Despite a relatively small ouevre of only seven completed films, most if not all of which suffered under the weight of communist intrusion, few individuals were more instrumental in enabling motion pictures to evolve beyond their origins in 19th century Victorian theater into a new arena of abstract thought and expression. While later criticized for the strong currents of propaganda coursing through his work, the continuing influence of Eisenstein’s films is, regardless of politics, undeniable; a master of metaphor and allusion, he brought to the medium a new depth of power and complexity. Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was born January 23, 1898, in Riga, Latvia. The child of an affluent architect, he studied at the Institute of Civil Engineering in Petrograd, and in the wake of the 1917 revolution he began working as an engineer for the Red Army. By the early ‘20s, he had become the set designer of Vsevolod Meyerhold’s Moscow Proletkult Theater, later graduating to the position of director; there he learned the principles of “bio-mechanics,” or conditioned spontaneity. Eisenstein’s interest in film began with an appreciation of the work of D.W. Griffith, whose editing style influenced him in the production of his first cinematic endeavor, the 1923 five-minute newsreel parody Dnevnik Glumova. A stint with Lev Kuleshov’s film workshop followed, as did an increasing fascination with the burgeoning avant-garde.
With his feature debut, 1924’s Stachka, Eisenstein introduced a new kind of film language, dubbed “montage.” Expanding upon Meyerhold’s theory of bio-mechanics, montage consisted of a sequence of conflicting images which served to abbreviate time spans and overlap symbolic meanings, with the cumulative emotional effect of a scene greater than the sum of its parts. Theorizing that it worked in a fashion similar to the dialectic of Karl Marx, Eisenstein sought to use the montage technique to make films for the common man; in the film’s most memorable sequence, a group of factory workers are shot down, with the scenes of their deaths intercut with the depiction of cattle at the slaughter, parallel images trading on the emotional impact of each other to heighten their combined impact. Eisenstein’s second film, 1925’s massively influential Battleship Potemkin, further honed the montage concept. The much-imitated “Odessa Steps” sequence, in particular, proved so powerful that many audiences believed they were viewing actual newsreel footage, prompting a pleased Eisenstein to label himself an “illusionist.” For the follow-up, he was commissioned to direct 1927’s Oktiabr in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. Communist officials, already wary of the impact of his work on audiences, forced Eisenstein to temper his montage style, although the film clearly remains the product of his distinctive vision. Generalnaya Liniya, his final silent film, premiered in 1929.
At the dawn of the 1930s, Eisenstein was sent to Europe and the U.S. to research the sound-film phenomenon. Greeted by the global movie community as a great hero, he was befriended by the likes of Albert Einstein, Abel Gance, Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, and his hero, D.W. Griffith. Encouraged by documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty to explore Latin America during his journey, he shot Que Viva Mexico in 1930 with the financial assistance of writer Upton Sinclair. Upon completing the principal photography, Eisenstein sent the completed footage to Russia, where it was intercepted by government officials and removed from the director’s control. In 1932, Eisenstein was named a scholar of the Moscow film school, where he wrote a number of essays about montage and motion picture direction which were later published in book form. In 1935 he began filming Bezhin Lug, but the screenplay’s bitter political commentary brought the wrath of Party officials, who shut down production prior to the picture’s completion. Only by submitting to a public apology was he allowed to begin work on 1938’s Aleksandr Nevsky, an attack on Nazi Germany later withdrawn from distribution after Josef Stalin signed a 1939 non-aggression pact with Adolf Hitler. In 1945, Ivan Grozny I, the first film in a projected trilogy documenting the life and times of the notorious 16th century czar, appeared to great acclaim within the Soviet Union; however, the second chapter’s 1946 completion was met with the furor of Stalin, who so despised the picture that he effectively buried it until 1958. Ironically, Stalin nevertheless agreed to allow Eisenstein to film the trilogy’s conclusion, but health problems forced the director off of the project before it could be completed. Sergei Eisenstein died of a heart attack in Moscow on February 11, 1948, just three days after his 50th birthday.
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
FRIDAY [1995]
Directed by F. Gary Gray
USA / Color / English
Rated R; 92 min
Hard-core rapper Ice Cube, after appearing in such hard-hitting films as Boyz ‘N the Hood and Higher Learning, played his first comic role in this picture he co-wrote with frequent musical collaborator DJ Pooh. Craig (Ice Cube) manages to get fired on his day off (though he claims it’s through no fault of his own) and spends the day hanging out with his buddy Smokey (Chris Tucker) and trying to avoid his father (John Witherspoon), who wants him to find another job immediately. Smokey (whose name might have something to do with his tremendous fondness for marijuana) has even more serious problems; he was given $200 worth of weed to sell by Big Worm (Faizon Love), but he ended up smoking it instead, and if he can’t come up with the money by the end of the day, he’ll be in a world of hurt (and will put Craig in the same place just for being his friend). And Deebo (Tom “Tiny” Lister, Jr.), a gargantuan bully who roams the neighborhood on his bicycle, has it in for Craig, while Craig tries his best just to stay out of his way. As one would expect, Friday features a strong hip-hop soundtrack, featuring tracks by such artists as Dr. Dre, Cypress Hill, Mack 10, and Funkdoobiest, as well as old-school R&B selections from The Isley Brothers, Roger, and Rose Royce.- allrovi.com
- The neighborhood where the film takes place is the same street where the film’s director, F. Gary Gray, grew up in South Central, Los Angeles. Principal houses that were used for filming were houses of old friends of the director. The scene where Deebo punches Red into the air is the house that F. Gary Gray grew up in.
- In the flashback scene where Smokey is in the car with Hector and his friend, a man can be seen sitting on a block wall in the background. The man was a resident of the neighborhood who wanted to be difficult towards the production staff, knowing they couldn’t tell him what to do on his own property. He remained in the shot despite offers from the staff which included compensation or a walk-on role in the film.
- Mr. Jones, a dogcatcher by trade, watches Man’s Best Friend, a movie about a genetically engineered dog that becomes homicidal.
- The clothes that Ice Cube wears in the first scene of this movie are exactly the same as the ones that his character wore in the final scene of Boyz n the Hood.
- The license plate on Smokey’s car is “FCK IT”.
- Director F. Gary Gray has a brief cameo in the film: The man mopping the floor in the store.
Felix Gary Gray (born July 17, 1969) is an American music video and film director. Gray was born in New York City. He was raised in South Central Los Angeles and Highland Park, Illinois. For a short time in the 1990s he worked at Bally Total Fitness as a trainer. He studied film and television at Los Angeles City College but dropped out to pursue his film-making. At first he worked as a cameraman for Fox Television, CNN and E!. This experience helped him find work as a music video director.
Gray has directed more than 30 music videos for musical artists such as Ice Cube, Queen Latifah, TLC, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Mary J. Blige, and won several awards for his video work. For Coolio’s “Fantastic Voyage”, he received the 1995 Billboard Music Video Award for Best Rap Video. For TLC’s “Waterfalls”, he received the MTV Music Video Award for Video of the Year, as well as an NAACP Image Award. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1998 for directing “How Come, How Long”, Stevie Wonder and Babyface’s video.
He made the transition into motion pictures in 1995 with his first film, the surprising hit Friday (with rapper-producer friend Ice Cube), firmly establishing himself in the feature world. He next directed the 1996 heist picture Set It Off (with Jada Pinkett Smith) and then The Negotiator (1998), whose $50 million budget was the highest ever given to an African-American director. Starring Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey and nominee Samuel L. Jackson, the drama earned Gray both Best Film and Best Director awards at the 1998 Acapulco Film Festival. Perhaps Gray’s best known film is The Italian Job, featuring an all-star cast including Academy Award winner Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, and Mark Wahlberg. Gray designed car and boat chases through downtown Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Venice, Italy. The film grossed over $100 million domestically and won Best Director award at the 2004 American Black Film Festival.Gray’s features also include the action-drama A Man Apart (2003) starring Vin Diesel and the crime comedy Be Cool (2005), based on the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. His new film, Law Abiding Citizen, starring Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler, was released on October 16, 2009.
WHERE EpiCenter Theatres (210 East Trade Street, Charlotte, NC)
ADMISSION $40 VIP ticket / $20 General Admission
Oscar Night: Viewing Party and Tweet-Off
Presented by The Light Factory and Mez & Epi-Centre Theaters
Sunday, February 26
Doors open at 6pm; show begins at 7pm.
EpiCenter Theatres
Click here for parking and directions.
Let’s be honest. You are watching the Oscars to know who won Best this or that. But you are also watching to see who will swear at the microphone, whose dress looks like a meringue and who hasn’t shaved in a week. Join The Light Factory’s Director of Film Linnea Beyer at EpiCentre Theatres for a live tweet-off on Oscar Night and do your worst. Come casual, get glitzed up or dress like a character from your favorite nominated film. Anything goes.
$40 VIP/Reserved seating
VIP guests receive one cocktail and light hors d’oeuvres from Mez
$20 General Admission
Advanced tickets click here.
www.epicentretheaters.com / (704) 971-2400
84th Annual Academy Awards: www.oscar.com
Play along! Pick favorites to win, or join us in a rousing game of Oscar Bingo the night of the event. And don’t forget to follow our twitter account during the event: http://twitter.com/thelightfactory
Downloadable ballot: coming soon
Thank you to Mez and Epi-Centre Theaters for hosting this event!
WHERE Crownpoint Stadium 12 (9630 Monroe Road) Get Directions
ADMISSION $10 TLF members / $12 General Public Buy Tickets
Cult animator and Academy Award nominee Don Hertzfeldt (Rejected, Billy’s Balloon, the Meaning of Life) is hitting the road for a rare series of events! A selection of Don’s classic animated shorts will return to the big screen, culminating in the exclusive regional premiere of his newest film, It’s such a beautiful day: the third and final chapter in a trilogy about a mysterious man named Bill.
Chapter One, Everything will be OK, won the Sundance Film Festival’s Jury Award in Short Filmmaking and was named by many critics as one of the “best films of 2007″. Chapter Two, I am so proud of you, received twenty-seven awards and was described by the San Francisco International Film Festival as, “[his] best yet… even the Hertzfeldt faithful may be too stunned to laugh.”
Nearly two years in the making, the 23-minute It’s such a beautiful day is Don’s longest, and most ambitious, piece to date: blending traditional animation, experimental optical effects, trick photography, and new digital hyrbids printed out one frame at a time, the movie was captured entirely on an antique 35mm animation stand, one of the last operating cameras of its kind left in America.
The entire animated trilogy will be screened together for the first time via new 35mm prints, immediately followed by a live on-stage interview and audience chat with Don Hertzfeldt.
This event is not rated, but is probably not suitable for children. Click on the tab that says ‘Sample Don’s Work’ to see if it is appropriate for your kiddo.
Don Hertzfeldt (born August 1, 1976) is the creator of many short animated films, including the Academy-Award nominated Rejected and Everything Will Be OK. His animated films have received over one hundred and fifty awards and have been presented around the world. Before the age of thirty, his films were already the subject of several career retrospectives. He was the youngest director named in the “They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They” list of “The 100 Important Animation Directors” of all time, and in 2010 he received the San Francisco International Film Festival’s “Persistence of Vision” Lifetime Achievement Award at the age of 33.
The popularity of Hertzfeldt’s work is unprecedented in the history of independent animation and his films are frequently quoted and referenced in pop culture. In 2009, the Sundance Film Festival noted, “If cinephiles think shorts don’t generate the same sort of hype and fanbase as feature films, they obviously haven’t heard of Don Hertzfeldt.”
In 2008 and 2009 Hertzfeldt embarked on a 22-city theatrical tour in support of his latest short film, the 22 minute I am so proud of you. “An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt” presented a retrospective of his animated films followed by the regional premiere(s) of I am so proud of you and a rare onstage interview and audience chat with him. At the conclusion of the tour at the Ottawa Animation Festival in October 2009, Hertzfeldt premiered a brand new five minute comedy short called “Wisdom Teeth” as a surprise.
Don Herzfeldt was born in Fremont, California where he attended local schools and drew comic books. At 15, he began to teach himself animation with a small video camera. From a 2001 interview, Don says: “I watched films relentlessly growing up, and was fascinated by visual effects. My family used to make outings to animation festivals in San Francisco every year, so credit my parents for that. I ended up seeing all of those classic [independent] cartoons throughout my teenage years. But animation production for me sort of just happened as a by-product. I’ve been drawing things and writing things all my life, and animating my stories was always cheaper to do and looked more interesting than low budget live action.”
Hertzfeldt has never held any job other than creating his own animated films, not even in his youth. His earliest video animations found film festival exposure, and in film school at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he was able to find international distribution for all of his 16mm student films: Ah, L’Amour, Genre, Lily and Jim, and Billy’s Balloon (all created between the ages of 18-22).
Hertzfeldt lives in Santa Barbara, California and has, to date, produced all his films there. He keeps a blog on his website that has been continually updated (and archived) since 1999. —wikipedia
:::: This version of REJECTED with director text commentary is one of many strange special features from the BITTER FILMS VOLUME 1 DVD collection::
Do your homework. Read about Don. Prepare questions he has never been asked before.
Selected Interviews:
Indiewire, January 2012
AFI Fest, November 2009
Articles and Interview Archives
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR CHAPTER ONE, EVERYTHING WILL BE OK
“…genius…Hertzfeldt’s offering, Everything Will Be OK, takes the prize… In his trademark 2-D animation, a stick figure enacts quotidian rituals – fruit buying, commuting – with a growing sense of ennui, existential angst, and eventually insanity. It’s hellish – and moving, too.”
Nina Maclaughlin, Boston Phoenix
“The highlight of the show was Hertzfeldt’s Everything Will Be OK, which packs more originality and voice into its 17 minutes than a lot of feature-length films… It blends Hertzfeldt’s signature bare-bones imagery with a fantasy-tinged bleakness to stunning effect.”
Margaret Lyons, Time Out Chicago
“…the story, music, figures, and optical effects have been brought into perfect alignment… for a long time afterward, a sense of wonder for everyday life lingers.”
J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader
“…darkly original…”
Rebecca Winters Keegan, TIME magazine
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR CHAPTER TWO, I AM SO PROUD OF YOU
“….a f*cking masterpiece. I can’t even begin to articulate my thoughts about the film but it just gave me shivers and I wasn’t able to attend the party after the screening. Just had to be alone. It had this effect on a number of other people here too…. stunning, beautiful, tragic, absurd work.”
Chris Robinson, artistic director Ottawa International Animation Festival
“A stunning gut-punch of a short film…. Proud is the latest mortality play from Oscar-nominated director Don Hertzfeldt, and it lives up to its pedigree, boldly taking on concepts like family, pain and loss. An intermission might be necessary after this program so audiences can step outside and catch their breath. It’s that effective.”
Orlando Weekly
“All of the animators featured in this year’s festival are dedicated artists who are intimately involved with their craft, but Hertzfeldt is a true auteur whose stick figure characters are a reminder of the heart and artistry that can be achieved with pencil, paper and an appreciation for the basic tools and methods of the animator.”
Brett Rogers, San Jose Examiner
“An extraordinary meditation on life, childhood, aging, futility and the search for meaning. Fusing the work of artists like Guy Maddin, David Lynch and Crispin Glover, animator Don Hertzfeldt has created a masterwork. Watching this twenty-two minute life story of stick-figure, Bill, is to see someone in complete control of their medium. It’s hysterically funny, whimsical, macabre, horrifying, sentimental, mawkish, chilling, insightful and sublime – all at the same moment. Make the time to see this picture – if you can’t see it at the Fest then put it on your queue, your download in-box, your phone insta-list – whatever, whatever you use to view films – make a note and see it.”
Jett Loe, the Film Talk
“…dazzlingly mixes stick-figure animation with live-action footage, compresses one sad sack’s whole life and family history into a handful of minutes. Events are narrated in non sequiturs as dryly funny as the drawings… the overall effect is as ecstatic as the bars of Wagner, which fill its final minute.”
FX Feeny, LA Weekly
“Hertzfeldt’s work channels a lot of the aspirations and anxieties of us all… I Am So Proud Of You made me cry. It’s not just slapstick humour. I’m sure a lot of it is about psychological abuse. He doesn’t use digital technology; everything you see in a Don Hertzfeldt film has been scribbled down on a piece of paper and shot directly on to film. The rostrum camera he uses allegedly shot all the Peanuts films, and there is a kind of synchronicity with Peanuts and Don’s work. It’s American childhood. His work is a subversion of that American ideal.”
Ian Gardner, Edinburgh International Film Festival
“…continues the independent animator’s expanding technique, which matches his minimalistic stick figure characters with gorgeous photographic imagery and filters that through the look and feel of silent film. He’s a tragic comedian with lovable streak of dark absurdity – like all great animators in the history of the medium.”
Eric Kohn, Indiewire
Thank you to our Sponsors!
Carolina Cinemas Crownpoint Stadium 12
9630 Monroe Road
Charlotte, NC 28270
(704) 847-2024
http://carolinacinemas.com/charlotte
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation works to create informed & engaged communities. http://www.knightfoundation.org/
National Endowment for the Arts
www.nea.gov
WHERE The Light Factory
345 N. College Street
ADMISSION $5 Members / $7 Non-Members
Directed by Aki Kaurismäki [2011]
France,Finland / Color / French with English Subtitles
93 min; Not Rated
In this warmhearted portrait of the French harbor city that gives the film its name, fate throws young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a well-spoken bohemian who works as a shoeshiner. With innate optimism and the unwavering support of his community, Marcel stands up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation. A political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville and Marcel Carné, Le Havre is a charming, deadpan delight.
“Buster Keaton isn’t dead, he’s alive and well in Finland … If the name Aki Kaurismäki doesn’t mean anything to you, it should, and Le Havre may be the film to make it happen.”
- Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times
“Grade: A! A perfect, deadpan, impishly optimistic fairy tale.”
- Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
“A stylized and sentimental fairy tale about the way the world might be … Aki Kaurismäki has become a major inheritor of the comic-humanist tradition of Charlie Chaplin, Jean Renoir and Jacques Tati.”
- A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“Four stars! There is nothing cynical or cheap about it, it tells a good story with clear eyes and a level gaze, and it just plain makes you feel good.”
- Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
“A gem! I left the theater thinking yes, there is a God who occasionally performs miracles.”
- Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, The Westchester Guardian
“Subversively funny.”
- Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
“Three and-a-half stars! A utopian dream of a comedy.”
- Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune
“Exquisite! One of the most enjoyable pictures of the year.”
- Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
“Recommended! One of Aki Kaurismäki’s warmest, most engaging films.”
- Mark Jenkins, NPR
Aki Kaurismäki, born in 1957, grew up in “the age terrorized by television,” and has tried and managed to stick to the inseparable realities of the real world and the “deep screen” that only 35 mm film – light against electronic machinations, the beauty of artisanal tradition against technological overkill – makes possible. He has never used any other material, least of all video, and is very proud for having continued the tradition of “real cinema.”
His minimalist style is all his own (and that of the great cinematographer of all his films, Timo Salminen); he never entered the Finnish Film School (as he was suspected to be “too cynical”). At the same time, his films are full of allusions, but always invisible ones, parts of a constant dialogue wherein particles of film culture reveal realities of human environment, society and psyche: as it is now, and as it was during the tender years of Aki’s childhood.
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
PULP FICTION [1994]
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
USA / Color / English
Rated R; 154 min
Outrageously violent, time-twisting, and in love with language, Pulp Fiction was widely considered the most influential American movie of the 1990s. Director and co-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino synthesized such seemingly disparate traditions as the syncopated language of David Mamet; the serious violence of American gangster movies, crime movies, and films noirs mixed up with the wacky violence of cartoons, video games, and Japanese animation; and the fragmented story-telling structures of such experimental classics as Citizen Kane, Rashomon, and La jetée.
The Oscar-winning script by Tarantino and Roger Avary intertwines three stories, featuring Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta, in the role that single-handedly reignited his career, as hit men who have philosophical interchanges on such topics as the French names for American fast food products; Bruce Willis as a boxer out of a 1940s B-movie; and such other stalwarts as Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Christopher Walken, Eric Stoltz, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman, whose dance sequence with Travolta proved an instant classic.
- Quentin Tarantino wrote two of the three stories before he wrote Reservoir Dogs and True Romance. After the success of those films, he decided to write a third story, intending to have each segment directed by a different person.
- Quentin Tarantino wrote the role of Jules specifically for Samuel L. Jackson, however it was almost given to Paul Calderon after a great audition. When Jackson heard this, he flew to Los Angeles and auditioned again to secure the role. Calderon ended up with a small role as Paul.
- Jules’s character was originally written to have a gigantic afro, but a crewmember obtained a variety of afro wigs and one jheri curl wig. Quentin Tarantino had never thought about a jheri curl wig, but Samuel L. Jackson tried it on, Tarantino liked it, and it was kept.
- The shot of Vincent plunging the syringe into Mia’s chest was filmed by having John Travolta pull the needle out, then running the film backwards.
- The marquee where Butch boxes advertises the following fights: “Coolidge vs Wilson” and “Vossler vs Martinez”. The first is a reference to United States Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Woodrow Wilson, the second is a reference to Russell Vossler and Jerry Martinez, who are two friends of Tarantino’s from when he worked in a video store.
- When Vincent calls Lance on his cell phone, Lance is eating a bowl of Fruit Brute, a cereal from the older monster cereal family. Fruit Brute (which, along with Yummy Mummy, Frankenberry, Boo Berry, and Count Chocula, make up the monster cereals) was later discontinued, along with “Yummy Mummy.” Quentin Tarantino has held onto a box and drops it into scenes from time to time. It appeared in Reservoir Dogs, too.
- Knoxville, Tennessee, where Butch was meeting his connection and where his great-grandfather bought the gold watch, is also Quentin Tarantino’s birthplace.
- The role of Vincent Vega was written for Michael Madsen, who played the character’s brother, Vic Vega, in Reservoir Dogs, but he couldn’t do the film due to scheduling conflicts for another film.
- The word “fuck” is used 265 times.
WHERE The Light Factory
345 N. College Street
ADMISSION $5 Members / $7 Non-Members
Directed by Céline Danhier [2010]
USA / Color / English
Not rated; 95 min
BLANK CITY tells the long-overdue tale of a disparate crew of renegade filmmakers who emerged from an economically bankrupt and dangerous moment in New York history. From the late 1970′s through the mid 80′s, when the city was still a wasteland of cheap rent and cheap drugs, these directors crafted daring works that would go on to profoundly influence the development of independent film as we know it today.
BLANK CITY weaves together an oral history of the “No Wave Cinema” and “Cinema of Transgression” movements through compelling interviews with the luminaries who began it all. Featured players include acclaimed directors Jim Jarmusch and John Waters, actor-writer-director Steve Buscemi, Blondie’s Debbie Harry, hip-hop legend Fab 5 Freddy, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, photographer Richard Kern as well as Amos Poe, James Nares, Eric Mitchell, Susan Seidelman, Beth B, Scott B, Charlie Ahearn and Nick Zedd. Fittingly, the soundtrack includes: Patti Smith, Television, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, The Contortions, The Bush Tetras, Sonic Youth and many more.
Made on shoestring budgets in collaboration with the pioneering musicians, visual artists, performers, and derelicts that ruled Downtown, the films surveyed in BLANK CITY are fitting documents of an exhilarating and unique cultural moment. This same legendary-but-fleeting period likewise birthed punk rock, hip-hop and Madonna, and brought New York City to the forefront of the international art world. Unlike the revered musical revolution of this era, this epoch of underground film has never before been chronicled.
BLANK CITY is a love letter to New York, a cultural portrait of Manhattan in the days before Reagan, big money, and gentrification forever altered the fabric of the city. Though a look back, the heart of BLANK CITY does not live in the past. In this new age of digital democracy, the maverick spirit of the New York Underground has risen again in emerging creative communities worldwide. The Do-It-Yourself ethos, audacious storytelling, and sense of urgency guiding “No Wave” and the “Cinema of Transgression” are more relevant and inspiring than ever.
“‘Blank City’ provides a vivid, vicarious tour…[Ms. Danhier] illuninates a hectic and fascinating place and time, bringing it back to life and tracing its continuing influence…”
“The point of ‘Blank City’ is neither to celebrate the ones who made it big nor to scold the sellouts. The movie aims, rather, to evoke a moment in as much detail and with as much insight as will fit into 95 minutes. In this it succeeds beautifully.”
Read more in the NYT
- A.O. Scott, New York Times
“It’s high time someone chronicled the fertile underground film scene” (read more here)
- David Fear, TimeOut New York
“Blank City is the first movie to tell the definitive story of the downtown New York film scene in the late ’70s and early ’80s. The overlapping art, music and film movement boomed with the city’s cheap rent, the artists’ disregard for money and technique, a general nihilist spirit and plenty of drugs.” (read more here)
- Kelley Hoffman, W Magazine
“[A] passionate chronicle of cinematic rebellion…A smoldering and riotous work about a time when art seemed dangerous, while leaving open the possibility that it could be so again.”(read more here)
- Chris Barsanti, Film Journal
WHERE The Light Factory
345 N. College Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
ADMISSION $8 General Public
Free to The Light Factory Paparazzi
& The McColl Center Contemporaries
Directed by Heather D. Freeman [2011]
Not Rated; 18 min
Followed by Q & A with Director
Pennipotens (Capable of Flight) is an animated re-interpretation of the Flemish fairytale Black Caroline, White Caroline, first printed with illustrations by Edmund Dulac in 1916.
The original fairytale may be read here.
In the fairytale, a mother’s beautiful daughter is beloved by all, while her ugly daughter is shunned. Heartbroken by the mistreatment of her ugly daughter, the mother decides to kill the beautiful daughter. The ugly daughter loves her beautiful sister, and repeatedly foils her mother’s murderous attempts. The imperiled daughter eventually escapes, and later the siblings are reunited and transformed.
The animation stresses the symbolism of the original fairytale. Influenced by Japanese shadow-puppets, the work uses digital cutout animation combined with hand drawn animation.
Pennipotens Production Blog: www.pennipotens.blogspot.com
Tonight’s screening is presented in partnership with The McColl Center for Visual Art.
- Best Animation at the 2011 Columbia Gorge International Film Festival (August 2011)
- Official Selection of the 2011 Atlanta Horror Film Festival (September 2011)
- Official Selection of the 2011 Atlanta Underground Film Festival (September 2011)
- Screened on KET, KET2 and KETKY as part of Reel Visions (September – October 2011)
- Gold Award for Experimental Animation at the Jamfest International Film Festival (October 2011)
- AIGO Award for Most Compelling Antagonist at the Jamfest International Film Festival (October 2011)
- Official Selection of the Offshoot Film Festival (October 2011)
- Official Selection of the 7th Annual River’s Edge International Film Festival (November 2011)
Heather Freeman received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts and German Studies from Oberlin College in 1993. In the Fall of 1998, she entered the MFA program at the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University at New Brunswick, New Jersey concentrating in installation art. While exploring the relationship between the history of science and metaphysics, Freeman’s medium of choice became single channel video and digital print.
After a brief flirtation with advertising, Freeman taught at Allegheny College and Youngstown State University. She continued her research at the University of Kentucky as Assistant Professor of New Media in the College of Fine Arts. In fall 2005 she became Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History and the RCID PhD Program at Clemson University and spent a truly wonderful year with the Clemson Tigers. In fall 2006 Freeman began her appointment as Assistant Professor of Electronic Media at the University of North Carolina – Charlotte in the Art Department. Her work is regularly exhibited nationally and has appeared in international exhibitions in Canada, China, Cuba, Germany, Hungary, Sweden and Thailand.
More on Heather: www.epicant.com
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
Directed by Paul Verhoeven [1995]
USA / Color / English
Rated NC-17; 131 min.
“I’m gonna dance,” Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) insists in the opening scene of SHOWGIRLS, and dance she does. In this quasi-update of ALL ABOUT EVE, Nomi is a drifter whose sole ambition is to headline the “Goddess” topless dance show at the Stardust in Las Vegas.
Of course, even Nomi must pay her dues, and she does so at the Cheetah, grinding poles and lap dancing her way to a future. Fortunately, her roommate, Molly, works at the Stardust and invites Nomi to see the show, where she meets Crystal Conners (Gina Gershon, in the Bette Davis role), with whom she immediately forms a love/hate relationship. Nomi soon learns what she must do to get ahead, and the rest of the film documents her cat-like crawl up the showgirl ladder of success.
SHOWGIRLS was conceived as the first big-budget “adult” film since 1977′s CALIGULA, and the first such production to wear the NC-17 rating; its failure at the box-office discouraged further attempts at large-scale adult productions.
- The cover image for this movie is a remake of a famous photograph by Slovak photographer Tono Stano.
- Set an all-time RAZZIE Award record with 13 nominations (one or more in all 11 categories of the 1996 Awards). Its seven “wins” tie it with Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 as the second most dis-honored film in RAZZIE history (I Know Who Killed Me now holds the dubious distinction with eight “wins”).
- When the film swept The 16th Annual RAZZIE Awards, Paul Verhoeven turned up in person to accept Worst Director and Worst Picture. He was the first director to ever turn up to collect the Award.
- Elizabeth Berkley spends approximately 20 minutes, or 1/6 of the entire film, completely nude.
- Elizabeth Berkley regularly worked 16 hours a day in high heels, while filming the dance scenes.
- The only interior scenes that were actually filmed in Las Vegas are the first ones in which Nomi plays slot machines and at the Forum Shops/Spago in Caesar’s Palace.
- The name “Nomi Malone” came from Joe Eszterhas’s wife’s nickname, Nomi (her real name is Naomi). He chose “Malone” because he thought of Nomi as being “alone” in the world.
- Charlize Theron auditioned for the role of Nomi Malone.
- Sharon Stone auditioned for the role of Crystal Connors.
Paul Verhoeven is a Dutch film director, screenwriter, and producer who has made movies in both the Netherlands and the United States. Explicitly violent and/or sexual content and social satire are trademarks of both his drama and science fiction films.
He is best known for directing the American feature films RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Basic Instinct (1992), Starship Troopers (1997), and Hollow Man (2000). Turkish Delight (1973) received the award for Best Dutch Film of the Century at the Netherlands Film Festival. His films altogether received a total of nine Academy Award nominations, mainly for editing and effects. Both RoboCopand Total Recall won an Academy Special Achievement Award. In contrast, his film Showgirls (1995) was poorly received and won seven Golden Raspberry Awards, but has become a cult film over time.
WHERE
7:30 PM Hodges Taylor Art Consultancy
(401 N. Tryon – Transamerica Square)
For directions and parking, click here.
8:00 PM The Light Factory
(345 N. College Street)
ADMISSION $5 Members / $7 Non-Members
Directed by Constance Marks [2011]
USA / Color / English
Not Rated; 80 min
Beloved by children of all ages around the world, Elmo is an international icon. Few people know his creator, Kevin Clash, who dreamed of working with his idol, master puppeteer Jim Henson. The film traces Kevin Clash’s rise from his modest beginnings in Baltimore to his current success as the man behind Elmo, one of the world’s most recognizable and adored characters.
Pivotal to the film is the exploration of Jim Henson’s meteoric rise, and Kevin’s ultimate achievement of his goal to become part of the Henson family of puppeteers. In addition to puppeteering Elmo, Mr. Clash is arguably the creative force behind today’s Sesame Street, producing, directing and traveling around the globe training other puppeteers.
Includes interviews with Frank Oz, Rosie O’Donnell, Whoopi Goldberg, Carroll Spinney, Joan Ganz Cooney, Marty Robinson, Fran Brill, and Bill Barretta.
“Being Elmo is a rare documentary that will delight viewers of all ages and cultures world wide for years to come. Being Elmo is one of the most sincere portraits of a creative genius who doesn’t get the recognition he deserves.”
- Jason Elsbury, SOUND ON SIGHT
“The documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey, which should make Kevin Clash a household name, is an INSPIRING AND JOYOUS celebration of art, skill, determination and making kids happy.”
- Kyle Smith, NEW YORK POST
“Of all the fur-swathed celebrities at the Sundance Film Festival this year, none holds a candle to Elmo… The squeaky-voiced muppet moved fans to tears Sunday at the world premiere.”
- Julie Makinen, LOS ANGELES TIMES
“Production values are top-notch, particularly the cinematography by James Miller and Joel Goodman’s energetic, fanciful score. Being Elmo is a rare documentary that will connect across generations and cultures to delight viewers worldwide for years to come.”
- Justin Lowe, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
“Look for Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey to have a Michael Moore-style box-office-pumping effect.”
- Andrew Pridgen, SALT LAKE MAGAZINE
“THE ONE FILM THAT REALLY STOLE MY HEART AT SUNDANCE was Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey, the inspiring and heartwarming story of Kevin Clash, the voice and genius behind one of the world’s most iconic children’s personality.”
- Raffi Asdourian, THE FILM STAGE
“It is impossible to come out of this documentary about Kevin Clash, the man behind Elmo, without wanting to hug someone.”
- Jada Yuan, VULTURE/NEW YORK MAGAZINE
CONSTANCE MARKS (Director, Producer) Constance Marks is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker. She is the founder and president of Constance Marks Productions, Inc., a documentary production company based in New York City.
Marks began her filmmaking career over 30 years ago as an assistant editor for the renowned Cinema Verite pioneers, David and Albert Maysles. Marks’ critically acclaimed films have been shown theatrically, broadcast widely, and garnered numerous awards. Her productions include Return to Appalachia which aired on PBS, Let’s Fall in Love: A Singles Weekend at the Concord Hotel. which was selected by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as one of the outstanding documentaries of the year, and Green Chimneys – a full-length documentary feature film which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO.
Marks has produced numerous films focusing on important social issues including homelessness, the elderly, experimental charter schools and substance abuse recovery residences. Green Chimneys is available on Amazon and Netflix.
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
Directed by Ed Wood [1956]
USA / Black and White / English
Not rated; 78 min
With its incoherent plot, jaw-droppingly odd dialogue, inept acting, threadbare production design, and special effects so shoddy that they border on the surreal, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE has often been called the worst movie ever made. But it’s an oddly endearing disaster; boasting genuine enthusiasm and undeniable charm, it is the work of people who loved movies and loved making them, even if they displayed little visible talent.
In PLAN 9, alien invaders attempt to conquer the world by raising the dead, starting with an old man dressed in a Dracula costume (Bela Lugosi, in a few minutes of left-over footage grafted into this film), his much-younger and well-proportioned wife (Maila “Vampira” Nurmi), and a remarkably overweight police officer (Tor Johnson). Often funny and consistently entertaining (if almost always for the wrong reasons), PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE is an anti-masterpiece if there ever was one, and as Criswell so brilliantly puts it, “Can you PROVE it didn’t happen?!?”
- Funded by a Baptist church. Several members of the cast let themselves be baptized.
- The film’s original title was “Grave Robbers from Outer Space”, but, supposedly, the Baptist ministers who financed the picture objected to it, so Ed Wood changed it to “Plan 9″.
- The aliens obligingly fly by the ABC, CBS and NBC buildings in Los Angeles.
- Bela Lugosi appears in footage shot just before his death, but with no script in mind. Ed Wood wrote the script to accommodate all the footage shot in a cemetery and outside Tor Johnson’s house in the new production. Lugosi was doubled by Tom Mason, Wood’s wife’s chiropractor, who was significantly taller than Lugosi, and played the part with a cape covering his face.
- The scar worn by actor Tor Johnson had to be moved every day, as it caused severe skin irritation.
- One of the legends about the production of this film was that Ed Wood used everything from automobile hubcaps to pizza pans to pie tins and even paper plates as flying saucers. The truth is that he bought a number of children’s plastic model kits of flying saucers for use as props.
As a child, Ed Wood loved movies and eventually found a job as a cinema usher. He got his first movie camera at 17. After serving in WWII as a Marine, Wood indulged his love the bizarre by joining the freak show of a carnival. At times, he played the part of the bearded lady and created his own prosthetic breasts. During the 1950s, Wood began to write, produce, and act in a variety of low-budget science-fiction, horror, and cowboy films. To make ends meet, he also wrote pulp novels and horror stories.
Today, Wood’s films like Plan 9 From Outer Space are both mocked and celebrated. Wood’s legacy and cult following lives on with, for example, the University of Southern California holding an annual “Ed Wood Film Festival” for which students are charged with writing, filming, and editing an Ed Wood-esque short film based on a predetermined theme. His movies has been spoofed on Mystery Theater 3000 and many have been remade as pornographic movies. Additionally, many of his bizarre transvestite-themed sex novels have been republished.
WHERE Hodges Taylor Art Consultancy
(401 N. Tryon – Transamerica Square)
For directions and parking, click here.
ADMISSION $5 Members / $7 Non-Members
Directed by Gereon Wetzel [2010]
Germany / Color / Catalan w/ English subtitles
Not Rated; 108 Minutes
Pictures are taken down and cutlery wrapped up in cellophane foil, as a delivery van is loaded with machines and boxes. In the tiny cove of Montjoi below, waves pound the beach. We are at El Bulli, witnessing the closing of probably the most famous restaurant in the world. No, it’s not forever, just until next season.
Each winter the restaurant closes, and Ferran Adrià, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch cloister themselves in their experimental kitchen in Barcelona for half a year, to create their new menu for the following season.
“Creativity means not copying.” Ferran Adrià and his team have made Jacques Maximin’s aphorism the motto of their everyday pursuits. The film El Bulli – Cooking in Progress is the close observation of that quest – from initial experimentation to the premiere of the finished dish. In the course of that process, however, many an ingredient is examined in a totally new way. What novel product can one derive from the sweet potato?
Taste and texture are systematically analyzed: by boiling, roasting, frying, steaming – vacuumizing, spherifying, freeze-drying – and then, tasting. Ideas emerge, are discussed and, finally, all the results, whether good or bad, are thoroughly documented – on a laptop beside the cooking spoon.
After all, research means to examine closely, with an understanding of fundamental principles. And research means work, sometimes until exhaustion. Ideas don’t usually fall from the sky, they evolve in the diffuse realm between the intentional and the accidental, experience and the unfamiliar.
Then, come summer, everything changes. Within no time, a cold restaurant must be thrown into full gear – by a brigade of 35 new cooks from around the world, who here, on the Catalan Costa Brava, are entering uncharted culinary territory. Of course, not everyone is up to speed right out of the gate; and the previously so even-tempered Oriol is forced, now and then, to raise his voice to the group to drive home the strict and hierarchical structure.
Meanwhile, Ferran Adrià puts the finishing touches on the new dishes, which are already served on opening evening, in addition to the menu from the previous year. This is when the defining decisions are made: How will each dish look, how will it be served and, above all, in what order? Which filling goes inside the ravioli, whose pasta disintegrates as you dip it in water? And where do the small ice cubes go – with the tiny tangerines or the vacuumized champignon in hazelnut oil?
Even on opening evening, there’s a curious premiere – when a cocktail is served composed only of water, hazelnut oil and salt. In the experimental kitchen, it had already been tested by Eduard Xatruch, and the simple principle and silky sensation of oil in one’s mouth were just what had convinced Ferran. Yet later, during a course for the new cooks, he would ask himself in jest, “And what were they serving at El Bulli?” Only to instantly answer: “Water!” Great ideas are usually simple and autonomous, beyond what is known and familiar.
El Bulli is at once complex and simple, Ferran says. And perhaps there’s only one fitting answer to the question, “So what is the film El Bulli – Cooking in Progress about?” – “Water, oil and salt!”
Synthesis of El Bulli Cusine
“CRITICS’ PICK! Fans of shows like Top Chef are well advised to check out this fascinating and artful look at the meticulous research-and-development process for the experimental dishes at El Bulli, where every unique dish came with plentiful bragging rights.”
- New York Magazine
“It’s cooking like you’ve never seen.”
- Charlotte Druckman, The Wall Street Journal
“For a foodie, the new film about Spain’s renowned El Bulli restaurant is a bit like an Angelina Jolie movie for a teenage boy… Food lovers can now salivate via celluloid. El Bulli: Cooking in Progress, a meticulous exploration of how this famously avant-garde eatery comes up with its insanely inventive creations…for those passionate about the artistry and indeed the science of cooking, it’s dangerously close to porn. There are some unintentionally very funny moments, like when two chefs go to the local market and ask for five single grapes for their testing – and three beans”
- Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press
“By now there have been so many documentaries about restaurants that they form a film genre… But here now is El Bulli, which in some ways transcends them all, and poignantly serves as a memorial.”
- Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic
“Molecular gastronomy rock star Ferran Adria’s Catalonian culinary paradise… the culinary impossible is realized one painstaking step at a time.”
- Karina Longworth, Village Voice
Gereon Wetzel was born in Bonn on 30. September 1972. After his M.A. in Archeology from Heidelberg University, worked for a year, as a language teacher in Barcelona, then as an archeologist at the Institute for Marine Archeology in Girona, Spain. From 2000 to 2006, completed the documentary filmmaking program at the University for Film and Television (HFF München) in Munich, where he currently lives and works as a freelance author and filmmaker. His other documentary credits include HOW TO MAKE A BOOK WITH STEIDL (2010), about the German publisher Gerhard Steidl; DIE REPRODUKTIONSKRISE (2008); CASTELLS (2006); and the short SPRECHPROBEN (2004).
Interview with Gereon Wetzel (director) and Anna Ginesti Rosell
WHERE The Light Factory’s Knight Gallery
(in Spirit Square, 345 N. College St.)
Click here for directions.
ADMISSION $5 members / $7 non-members
Directed by Fritz Lang [1927] Germany
Composed and Arranged by Giorgio Moroder [1984] USA
Black and White / English Subtitles
Not Rated; 82 min.
Freder Fredersen (Gustav Frohlich) is the son of Joh Fredersen (Alfred Able), who reigns over the great city of Metropolis. Freder is surprised to discover his lifestyle has been built on the unseen but backbreaking labor of an entire class of unseen workers who tend the machines that make the city run–and he descends to the subterranean levels of Metropolis in an effort to understand their lives… and, not incidentally, to find the mysterious but beautiful woman Maria (Brigitta Helm) who has inspired his interest in the workers’ plight. But his father is concerned by both Freder’s interest and Maria’s activities among the workers, and he turns to scientist C.A. Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) for aid. Rotwang has created a robot, and he agrees to give it the likeness of Maria in order to undermine both Freder’s love for the girl and her own activities. But Rotwang has a hidden agenda of his own: once the robot has been unleashed, he will use her to destroy Metropolis and thereby exact revenge on Joh Fredersen for past transgressions against him.
In 1981, 3-time Academy Award Winning composer Giorgio Moroder began a three-year endeavor to restore the science fiction classic, Metropolis. During this restoration Moroder made the controversial decision to give a film a new, contemporary score and added a pop music soundtrack featuring songs from some biggest pop and rock stars of the early MTV era including Pat Benatar, Billy Squier, Freddie Mercury, Bonnie Tyler, Adam Ant, Jon Anderson and more! In addition, to the new score, missing footage was re-edited into the film, intertitles were removed and replaced with subtitles and sound effects and color was added, creating an all new experience… and an all new film. For more than a quarter century, this version of the film has remained out of print, until now.
“For many of my generation, Moroder’s re-scored version provided our introduction to Fritz Lang’s silent science fiction classic….Moroder almost certainly got people to see Metropolis who would have never even considered watching a silent film…a fascinating companion piece to The Complete Metropolis and an excellent example of how music can drastically alter your reaction to a film. Whether you’re a fan of Metropolis or the trapped-in-amber ’80s time capsule soundtrack, this is a release to get excited about. For those of us who saw it back in ’84, it’ll be a nostalgic time machine trip back to an experience we thought we’d never get to have again.”
-Adam Jahnke, The Morton Report
Giorgio Moroder is one of the world’s best known, most active and innovative composers of film, dance, and other popular musical forms. Like so many other influential musicians of our time, Moroder has always maintained an abiding interest in visual as well as musical expression. Indeed, he was trained as an artist before he turned to playing and composing music. Mr. Moroder was recently inducted in the “Dance Music Hall of Fame,” and is the winner of 3 Oscars: “Top Gun,” “Flashdance,” and “Midnight Express”. He has also been honored with 4 Golden Globes, and 3 Grammies.
In addition to working with great talents such as David Bowie, Freddy Mercury, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Elton John and Blondie, Giorgio wrote the theme songs “Reach Out” for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, “Hand in Hand” for the 1988 Seoul Olympics and “Forever Friends” for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Recently Giorgio had hits with Jessica Simpson and Beyonce.
Mr. Moroder’s entrepreneurial talents have accredited him honors in Filmmaking, Digital Artistry and the Production of the exotic Italian Super-Car, The “Cizeta Moroder,” and exquisite 16-cylinder sports car that set new records for Italian High-Performance Technology.
WHERE The Neighborhood Theatre 511 East 36th Street
Click here for map and directions.
ADMISSION is FREE
Directed by John Landis [1981]
USA / Color / English
Rated R; 97 min
John Landis blends the macabre with a wicked sense of humor in this contemporary take on the werewolf genre. While wandering the English moors on vacation, American college students David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are attacked by what appears to be a wolf… David survives but is plagued by strange nightmares that include visits from his dead friend Jack. David is also befriended by a beautiful nurse named Alex. Upon his discharge from the hospital, Alex takes him in, and the two start up a romance.
But David is still plagued by nightmares. Jack returns and warns him that they were attacked by a werewolf, and that David needs to kill himself to end the curse and free his victims from limbo. Will David be able to stop the curse, or will he be saved by love?
One of many films to engage the werewolf mania of the 1980s, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON won an Academy Award for Rick Bakers breathtaking special effects.
- All the songs in this film have the word “moon” in their titles.
- John Landis originally wanted three other songs to add to the soundtrack: Cat Stevens wouldn’t allow “Moonshadow” to be used because he had stopped allowing his secular music to be licensed for films following his conversion to Islam; Bob Dylan wouldn’t allow his version of “Blue Moon” to be used in an R-rated film, as he had just begun his brief conversion to Christianity; and Elvis Presley’s version of “Blue Moon” proved unavailable due to the ongoing lawsuits involving his estate.
- The legal disclaimer in the closing credits reads, “Any resemblance to any persons living, dead, or undead, is coincidental.” This was also placed at the end of anotherJohn Landis project: Thriller, which was reportedly inspired by (and held several allusions to) this film.
- At the close of the credits is a congratulatory message for the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (as Lady Diana Spencer). It was included because during the scene when David is trying to get arrested, he shouts, “Prince Charles is gay!” The film was shot months before the preparations for the couple’s July 1981 wedding.
- Studio executives hoped John Landis would cast Dan Aykroyd in the role of David andJohn Belushi as Jack. John Landis refused.
- David Naughton was reportedly cast because John Landis had seen him in a television commercial for Dr. Pepper.
- The episode of The Muppet Show playing on the television during David’s nightmare sequence is indeed a real episode, but the portion shown was never shown in the US. This is why it was considered a fake episode and why Miss Piggy (Frank Oz) and Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson) are credited.
- Because of this film, makeup and industry technological contributions became recognized by the Academy Awards in 1981. Makeup artist Rick Baker was the first to receive an Oscar in the new category. William Tuttle was the first makeup effects artist to receive an Oscar (being an honorary one) for his work on 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.
- The final look of the werewolf beast was based on make-up creator Rick Baker’s dog Bosko.
A successful director, John Landis is best known for his comedies, which include National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980), and Trading Places (1983). He started out his career in the mail room at Twentieth Century Fox and soon found other behind-the-scenes jobs, including working as a stuntman. His first effort as a director was the 1973 horror comedy Schlock, for which he wrote the screenplay. Landis also starred in it as the title character, a monster created by makeup artist Rick Baker.
For his next project, Landis directed the comedy Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), which featured a series of skits that spoofed a number of film genres and other forms of media. He went to direct his first big box office hit, National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). Again working with Belushi, Landis directed The Blues Brothers(1980). The following year, Landis returned to the horror comedy genre with An American Werewolf in London (1981), which starred David Naughton. He had reteamed with Rick Baker for this gory story of two Americans attacked by a werewolf while on vacation.
The next two years were a challenging time for Landis. While filming the Vietnam scenes for his segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed after a helicopter crashed on top of them. Landis and several other members of the production were later charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection to these deaths. In the subsequent trial, they were all found not guilty.
While his reputation was somewhat sullied by the tragedy, Landis continued to find success on the big screen. Branching out into television, Landis helped create the HBO comedy Dream On in the early 1990s. More recently, Landis has directed episodes of such television shows as Psych, Masters of Horror, and Fear Itself.
WHERE The Neighborhood Theatre 511 East 36th Street Click here for map and directions. ADMISSION is FREE
Directed by Terence Fisher [1961] UK / Color / English Not Rated; 91 min. Horror movie masters Hammer Studios only foray into the werewolf mythology, THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF is based on Guy Endore’s novel The Werewolf of Paris. This is a story of sex, sadism and decadence, a curse produced from human evil. In Spain, Leon is born on Christmas day to a mute servant girl who was raped by a beggar. His mother dies giving birth and he is looked after by Don Alfredo. Young Leon’s development is marred by savage, violent behavior during the full moon. Upon adulthood, Leon’s (Oliver Reed) only relief from his murderous impulses comes from the love of Christina (Catherine Feller)… but he soon begins to fear that this cannot contain the beast within.
- The only werewolf movie made by Hammer Studios.
- Makeup-artist Roy Ashton based his makeup for this film on Jack P. Pierce’s makeup forThe Wolf Man.
- In an interview, Richard Wordsworth stated that in the original screenplay his beggar character was a werewolf. Hammer told him that the censor had problems with the notion of a werewolf/rapist, so out it went.
Terence Fisher was a film director who worked for Hammer Films. He was born in Maida Vale, a district of London, England. Fisher was one of the most prominent horror directors of the second half of the 20th century. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit horror in his films, while mild by modern standards, were unprecedented in his day. His first major gothic horror film was The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), which launched Hammer’s long association with the genre and made British actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee leading horror stars of the era. He went on to film a number of adaptations of classic horror subjects, including Dracula (1958), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) and The Mummy (1959). Given their subject matter and lurid approach, Fisher’s films, though commercially successful, were largely dismissed by critics during his career. It is only in recent years that Fisher has become recognised as an auteur in his own right. His films are characterised by a blend of fairy-tale, myth and sexuality. They draw heavily on Christian themes, and there is usually a hero who defeats the powers of darkness by a combination of faith in God and reason, in contrast to other characters, who are either blindly superstitious or bound by a cold, godless rationalism.
WHERE The Neighborhood Theatre 511 East 36th Street Click here for map and directions. ADMISSION is FREE
- TEEN WOLF is technically Michael J. Fox’s first leading man role but was released after the success of BACK TO THE FUTURE.
- Scott Howard’s (Michael J. Fox) house was located on the same block as 1955 George McFly’s and 1955 Lorraine Baines’s houses from BACK TO THE FUTURE. The Howard house in TEEN WOLF is the same house as Marty’s mother’s house (the Baines house) in 1955 BttF.
- Since this movie was released after BACK TO THE FUTUREin Brazil, “Teen Wolf” received the title “Garoto do Futuro” (“Boy from the Future”) there, even though the plot has nothing to do with time travel whatsoever.
- “Teen Wolf”, whose Italian title is “Voglia di Vincere” (“It wants to win”), was released in Italy shortly after BACK TO THE FUTURE. Due to this, the main character’s name Scott was changed to Marty, the same name as Michael J. Fox’s character in BttF.
- If the “teen” actors seem too old to be high school students, it’s no wonder. Scott is played by Michael J. Fox: age 23. Stiles is played by Jerry Levine: age 27. Chubby is played by Mark Holton: age 26. Mick is played by Mark Arnold: age 27.
- The character Stiles (Jerry Levine) wears a number of colorful shirts in this movie. They appear in the following order: 1. Yellow shirt that says “Life sucks then you die”, 2. Blue “Obnoxious: the movie”, 3. Black “What are you looking at Dicknose”, 4. Gray “Drunken State Florida”, 5. Pink – no text, 6. Gray – unreadable, 7. Black – unreadable, 8. Hawaiian shirt, 9. White – “Wolf Buddy” and 10. a white Teen Wolf shirt. Of all the shirts he wears, only one appears to have no text on it.
- When Scott sinks the final shot and wins the game at the end of the movie, he goes into the stands and hugs his father. Immediately behind actors Michael J. Fox and James Hampton, an extra (in a red sweater) can be seen with an unzipped fly. This incident later resulted in an Internet rumor that the extra is a man exposing himself. However, the unmatted full frame version of the film reveals that the extra is actually a woman.
WHERE The Neighborhood Theatre 511 East 36th Street Click here for map and directions. ADMISSION is FREE
Directed by Joe Dante [1981] USA / Color / English Rated R; 90 min.
After a traumatic experience at work, TV reporter Karen White (Dee Wallace) checks into a plush California resort called The Colony to rest. Yet, on her first night there, the howling outside her window leads her to suspect there’s more going on than meets the eye. Now she must discoverthe secret — if she can survive! Rife with in-jokes, horror film references and genuine scares, this John Sayles-penned howl fest is a werewolf classic.
Directed by George Waggner
Upon the death of his brother, Larry Talbot returns from America to his ancestral home in Wales. He visits a gypsy camp with village girl Jenny Williams, who is attacked by Bela, a gypsy who has turned into a werewolf. Larry kills the werewolf but is bitten during the fight. Bela’s mother tells him that this will cause him to become a werewolf at each full moon. Larry confesses his plight to his unbelieving father, Sir John, who then joins the villagers in a hunt for the wolf. Larry, transformed by the full moon, heads for the forest and a fateful meeting with both Sir John and Gwen.
Directed by Darren Lynn BouSmanin
Repo! The Genetic Opera
The near future an epidemic of organ failures devastates the planet. Out of the tragedy, Geneco emerges to provide organs for a profit. Unfortunately one outcome of the financ-ing options includes repossession by a skilled assassin. At the heart of this tragic musical is Shilo who has a rare blood disease and is kept locked up by her protective father who isn’t exactly what he seems.
Bad Moon Rising – Werewolf movies every Monday in October
This year The Light Factory celebrates Halloween by indulging in one of our favorite monsters – the werewolf. Every Monday in October we’ll screen a hair-raising werewolf film. With so many great homages to the legendary beast, it’s already got us wishing for more Mondays. Screenings will be held at The Neighborhood Theatre at 7:30pm. All screenings are FREE and open to the public. More details to come!
Bad Moon Rising is a partnership between The Light Factory, The Neighborhood Theatre, Actor’s Theatre, and Visart Video.
Live Imitates Art
To celebrate our exhibition, The Night Time is the Right Time, we’ll host a film series of music documentaries and concert films, with live music after every screening. Screens will be held the 2nd Wednesday of November 2011 – February 2012 at The Neighborhood Theatre. Full schedule and more details to follow shortly.
Live Imitates Art is a partnership between The Light Factory, The Neighborhood Theatre, Shuffle Magazine, and Visart Video.
This epic mythological adventure stars Harry Hamlin as Perseus, son of Zeus (Laurence Olivier), who embarks on a series of perilous quests in the hopes of rescuing Princess Andromeda (Judi Bowker) and winning the keys to the kingdom of Joppa. With winged horse Pegasus as his steed, Perseus must answer vexing riddles, capture the head of Medusa and slay a ravenous sea monster. Burgess Meredith and Ursula Andress co-star in this classic tale.
The special effects used to create the various creatures in the film were done by Ray Harryhausen who employed stop motion animation. Harryhausen was also co-producer of the film, and retired from filmmaking shortly after the movie was released, making this his last main feature film.
Warner Bros. released remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS in post converted 3D and starring Sam Worthington and Liam Neeson on April 2, 2010. Though the remake has recieved mixed to negative reviews, a sequel is still in the works.
WHERE Hodges Taylor Art Consultancy
(401 N. Tryon – Transamerica Square)
For directions and parking, click here.
ADMISSION $5 Members / $7 Non-Members
Directed by Brian Crano [2010]
USA / Color / English
Not Rated; 87 min
A BAG OF HAMMERS revolves around the friendship of two charming grifters, Ben and Alan, played by Jason Ritter and Jake Sandvig. Ben and Alan have built a successful though larcenous business, posing as car valets, only to steal the vehicles instead of parking them. Because of their less-than-ideal childhoods and a “job” that allows them to remain likeable boyish rogues well into their 20’s, their penchant for crime is almost forgivable.
However, everything changes when they meet a twelve-year-old boy named Kelsey. Neglected by his mother, Kelsey is drawn to Ben and Alan and they to him – eventually, Kelsey becomes part mascot, part protégé. His presence ultimately forces Alan and Ben to choose between a life of crime and fun (an extended childhood) and the opportunity to grow up and deal with the emotional consequences that come with it.
“First-time feature helmer Brian Crano maneuvers some tricky tonal shifts with impressive ease in “A Bag of Hammers,” a droll, quirky comedy with a pleasant amount of heart.”
- Variety
“This is a movie that can’t quite decide whether it wants to be a madcap comedy or an intricate drama, and that turns out to be a very good thing. Most films marry their comedic and dramatic elements by watering down each to create a somewhat consistent tone. But A BAG OF HAMMERS repeatedly juxtaposes sharp, quick-cutting wisecracks with sober treatments of some truly heart-rending issues. The back-and-forth could give you whiplash in an inferior movie, but first-time director Brian Crano makes it work in spades. ”
- Paste Magazine (#9 of the 12 best films to see at SXSW)
A Bag of Hammers … is a well-made, engaging and emotionally honest indie film – a real rarity in a field where the films have been opting either for big time Fox Searchlight cheese or alienating mumblecore distance.
- BadAss Digest
A BAG OF HAMMERS Crano’s first feature film will premiere at the 2011 South By South West Film Festival. Crano wrote BAG with co-writer Jake Sandvig. The film stars Jason Ritter, Rebecca Hall, Chandler Canterbury, Carrie Preston, Todd Louiso, Gabriel Macht and Jake Sandvig. BAG is being produced by Peter Friedlander, Lucy Barzun Donnelly and Jen Barrons.
RUBBER HEART Crano’s debut short film was an official selection at Palm Springs International Festival Of Short Films, then played another twenty four international festivals including: Los Angeles International Short Film Festival, New York City Short Film Festival (Audience Choice Award), Rio De Janeiro International Short Film Festival, Oslo International Film Festivals, London Short Film Festival, Washington D.C. Independent Film Festival, Swansea Film Festival (nominated Best International Short), Latitude Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival and Venice International Short Film Festival.
OFFICIAL SELECTION Crano’s follow up short, stars Golden Globe nominee Rebecca Hall, Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper; and premiered at Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films in August 2008.
SIMPLY PLIMPTON is also Crano’s brainchild. He writes and directs the cult web series, a fictionalized look at the life of regarded actress Martha Plimpton.
12th PREMISE Prior to making films, Crano was a playwright and actor. His play 12th PREMISE played around the world at the Edinburgh Festival, workshopped on London’s West End and in New York, and ran in Los Angeles.
EDUCATION Crano earned his B.A. in Theatre in acting and playwrighting at UCLA and his post graduate degree in classical acting and text at the London Academy of Dramatic Art. He was part of the Royal Court’s Young Writer’s Program.
REPRESENTATION Crano is represented by ICM and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
Directed by David Robert Mitchell 2011 / USA / Color / English
Hodges Taylor Art Consultancy (401 N. Tryon – Transamerica Square) $5 Members / $7 Non-Members Not Rated / 93 mi
An official selection of Cannes Critics Week and winner of the Special Jury Prize at SXSW, THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER is a youthful and tender coming-of-age drama from first-time writer/director David Robert Mitchell. In the tradition of free-wheeling tributes to adolescence like DAZED & CONFUSED, the film follows four young people (a cast of brilliant young newcomers in their feature film debuts) on the last night of summer – their final night of freedom before the new school year starts. The teenagers cross paths as they explore the suburban wonderland they inhabit in search of love and adventure – chasing first kisses, elusive crushes, popularity and parties – and discover the quiet moments that will later resonate as the best in their youth. ACCLAIM “CRITICS PICK! critics pick! A lovely debut feature. What Mr. Mitchell gets splendidly right in this quiet, observant film, is the unsteady mixture of sophistication and naïveté that is central to the modern American teenage way of being in the world.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times “The American debut film of the year, and an experience you must work into your summer calendar. A one-of-a-kind teen movie.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon “Heartbreaking, funny and lovingly told.” – Anthony Breznican, USA Today
AWARDS WINNER – Jury Prize for Best Ensemble Cast SXSW Film Festival 2010 WINNER – Prix du Jury Deauville American Film Festival 2010 WINNER – American Indie Newcomer Prize Munich International Film Festival 2010 WINNER – Best Narrative Feature Award New Orleans Film Festival 2010 OFFICIAL SELECTION – Critics Week Cannes Film Festival 2010
About WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
Eccentric candy man Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) prompts a worldwide frenzy when he announces that golden tickets hidden inside five of his delicious candy bars will admit their lucky holders into his top-secret confectionary. But does Wonka have an agenda hidden amid a world of Oompa Loompas and chocolate rivers? This fantasy based on Roald Dahl’s award-winning book was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Score in 1972.
The film was received well critically, but was a box office failure. However, the film gained cult status through repeated television airings and home video sales. Roald Dahl, however, did not like the film adaptation. He was upset about plot changes, casting, and the emphasis on Wonka rather than Charlie. Thus, Dahl did not allow the sequel, Charlie and the Glass Elevator, to be made into a film.
The remake of WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, titled after the book, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, was released in 2005, with Tim Burton as the director and Johnny Depp as the infamous Wonka. Though the film enthusiastically received the blessing of the Roald Dahl estate, many audiences consider this film to be Burton’s second remake mistake (with the first being PLANET OF THE APES). Let’s hope the director has better luck with his adaptation of DARK SHADOWS.
Directed by Janus Metz 2010 / Denmark / Color / Danish with English Subtitles
Hodges Taylor Art Consultancy (401 N. Tryon – Transamerica Square) $5 Members / $7 Non-Members Not Rated / 100 min
ABOUT ARMADILLO Armadillo is an active military base, used to support tactical operations in Helmand, Afghanistan. It houses a mixture of 170 Danish and British soldiers in the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), who are responsible for providing security to the surrounding area and eliminating any Taliban insurgency. The first documentary ever chosen to compete in the International Critics’ Week at Cannes (where it won the grand prize), Janus Metz’s Armadillo follows a platoon of Danish soldiers on a six-month tour of Afghanistan in 2009. Metz creates an unforgettable portrait of the reality of military life on the frontlines — with unprecedented access to the soldiers both in the camp and in the field. Documenting both the boredom and horror of warfare, Metz shows us the soldiers playing video games and laughing at pornography, struggling to communicate with unhappy civilians, and brutally killing a group of Taliban soldiers who are found hiding in a trench. The film avoids judgments for or against the war, and instead shows the soldiers struggling to maintain their humanity in a world filled with violence. An intimate, visually stunning account of both the horror and growing cynicism of modern warfare, the film premiered at the top of the box office in Denmark, provoking a national debate over government policy and the rules of engagement. Festival Highlights/Awards Official Selection: Cannes (International Critics’ Week – Winner), Toronto, London (Grierson Award), DOC NYC Critical Acclaim “An astonishing leap forward for nonfiction storytelling.” Eric Hynes, The Village Voice “A mesmerizing, beautiful and terrifying documentary that can stand among the greatest war movies ever made.” – Salon.com
The Poseidon, an ocean liner larger than the Queens Elizabeth and Mary combined, is charting its course on New Year’s Eve. Just after midnight, Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen) spots the mother of all tidal waves. It is the last thing that Harrison and practically everyone else onboard sees before drowning — the Poseidon is turned upside down, with only a handful of survivors. The ten lucky ones — including Mike Rogo (Ernest Borgnine), Linda Rogo (Stella Stevens), Acres (RODDY MCDOWALL), Belle Rosen (Shelley Winters), and Manny Rosen (Jack Albertson) — led by no-nonsense minister Frank Scott (Gene Hackman), desperately attempt to climb from the top of the ship (now submerged) to the bottom (now “the top”).
The film’s theme song, “The Morning After,” sung by Maureen McGovern, earned an Oscar. In addition, The Poseidon Adventure received the Special Achievement Award for Special Effects; L.B. Abbott and A.D. Flowers were the recipients. A sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, came out in 1979.
Director: Robert Greenwald Writers: Richard Christian Danus, Marc Reid Rubel Stars: Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly and Michael Beck
Sonny Malone (Michael Beck) is a talented artist who dreams of fame beyond his job, which is the uncreative task of painting larger versions of album covers for record-store window advertisements. As the film opens, Sonny is broke and on the verge of giving up his dream. Having quit his day job to try to make a living as a freelance artist, but having failed to make any money at it, Sonny returns to his old job at AirFlo Records. After some humorous run-ins with his imperious boss and nemesis, Simpson (James Sloyan), he resumes painting record covers. At work, Sonny is told to paint an album cover for a group called The Nine Sisters. The cover features a beautiful woman passing in front of an art deco auditorium (the Pan-Pacific Auditorium). This same woman collided with him earlier that day, kissed him, then roller-skated away, and Malone becomes obsessed with finding her. He finds her at the same (but now abandoned) auditorium. She identifies herself as Kira (Olivia Newton-John), but she will not tell him anything else about herself. Unbeknownst to Sonny, Kira is one of nine mysterious and beautiful women who literally sprang to life from a local mural in town near the beach. Sonny befriends a has-been big band orchestra leader-turned-construction mogul named Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly); Danny lost his muse in the 1940s (who is seen in a flashback scene to bear a startling resemblance to Kira); Sonny has not yet found his muse. Kira encourages the two men to form a partnership and open a nightclub at the old auditorium from the album cover. She falls in love with Sonny, and this presents a problem because she is actually an Olympian Muse (“Kira’s” real name is Terpsichore, and she is the Muse of dance.) The other eight women from the beginning of the film are her sisters and fellow goddesses, the Muses, and the mural is actually a portal of sorts and their point of entry to Earth.
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Director: Benjamin Heisenberg Writers: Benjamin Heisenberg (screenplay), Martin Prinz (novel), and 1 more credit » Stars: Andreas Lust, Franziska Weisz and Florian Wotruba
Austrian-German co-production, Der Räuber (The Robber, 2010), based on the real events, tells the story about the long-distance runner, who could’ve lived a decent life, having a loving and caring girlfriend, a solid place to stay, and this extraordinary talent for long-distance running that he could’ve made a good living on, but instead, he additionally specializes and excels in bank robbing, becoming an addict of this unusual activity for no other obvious reason but for possible “beauty of a criminal campaign” and adrenaline rush received along. (He’s hinted times and again that he couldn’t have cared less about the stolen money itself, by jamming it into plastic bags, as if he was going to trash it.) One of those life stories that one cannot help but get unpleasantly amazed with how all the reasonable prerequisites for a good life, though inexplicably, yet seemingly so unnecessarily, get flushed down the drain, apparently faithfully presented in the movie with understandable, ergo acceptable lack of intention to ease the answers to the hard whys.
Following on from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, this musical is set several years later in Brad and Janet Majors’ hometown – which has become a giant TV station; residents are either participants or viewers. They are married now, but their romance has fallen on the rocks. Ostensibly to fix their marriage, Brad is imprisoned on the program “Dentonvale” (the local mental hospital) while Janet is conscripted to become a new star. As Janet is entranced by the high life, she forgets Brad. Who is trying to woo her away?
