Calendar
Chac: The Rain God
Seattle Premiere!
Feb 03 - Feb 09
(Rolando Klein, 1974, Mexico/USA, 35mm 95 min)
In his first film, Chilean filmmaker Rolando Klein did something remarkable. Working with non-professional actors in the Mexican state of Chiapas, he created a mystical adventure about a drought-stricken village that seeks a diviner (or witch doctor) to conjure rain. Their faith in his abilities is increasingly tested as their journey takes them deeper into the mountains. With each step leading farther away from home, the villagers doubt that this bizarre diviner can truly summon Chac: The Rain God. Long thought lost since the 1970s, we’re pleased to unearth a beautifully restored print of this classic.
The Nine Muses
Seattle Premiere!
Feb 03 - Feb 09
(John Akomfrah, 2011, USA, Blu-ray, 94 min)
Twenty-five years after the end of the Trojan War, Odysseus still has not returned home. His son, Telemachus, sets off on a journey in search of his lost father. So begins Homer's revered epic poem, The Odyssey, the primary narrative reference point for The Nine Muses, John Akomfrah's remarkable meditation about chance, fate and redemption.
Structured as an allegorical fable set between 1949 and 1970, The Nine Muses is comprised of nine overlapping musical chapters that mix archival material with original scenes. Together they form a stylized, idiosyncratic retelling of the history of mass migration to post-war Britain through the suggestive lens of the Homeric epic.
"As a structuring device to the montage, the nine Greek muses—of dance, tragedy, music, history, etc.—chiefly allow director John Akomfrahto punctuate this very personal meditation on England's changing social fabric." —Seattle Weekly
The Last Command
At the Paramount Theatre
Feb 06
(Josef von Sternberg, 1928, USA, 35mm, 88 min)
The Last Command is a silent film from1928. The film starts in 1928 Hollywood director Leo Andreyev (William Powell) looks through photographs for actors for his next movie. When he comes to the picture of an aged Sergius Alexander (Emil Jannings), he pauses, and then tells his assistant to cast the man. Sergius shows up at the Eureka Studio and is issued a general's uniform.
A Good Man
Northwest Premiere!
Special introduction by former Bill T. Jones dancer Catherine Cabeen
Feb 09
(Gordon Quinn, Bob Hercules, 2011, USA, 86 min)
Commissioned by the Ravinia Festival, renowned choreographer Bill T. Jones sets out to create a contemporary dance piece in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial. In a documentary that covers two years of artistic process, A Good Man portrays Jones grappling to express the legacies of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War and slavery. In a film both personal and political, the viewer is privileged to watch Jones create movement out of the contradictions of a “post-race” society.
Framing Pictures
Free!
Jan 13 - May 05
Join us for the first three film discussions in what will be a monthly talk with three longtime Seattle film critics (and occasional guest commentators) who have much to say on the subject of cinephilia past, present and future. Topics include a revival of The Last Picture Show, trilogies, The Interview and the movies of the moment. The critics include former Stranger film critic Bruce Reid, Film Comment writers Richard Jameson and Kathleen Murphy, and Everett Herald/KUOW critic Robert Horton. Beer and wine are available and encouraged.
We Can't Go Home Again
Seattle premiere!
Friday show free for members
Special introduction by author David Spaner on Saturday (beginning at 6:30)
Feb 10 - Feb 16
(Nicolas Ray, 1973-1979, USA, Blu-ray, 90 min)
On the occasion of Ray’s centenary, we are proud to present the most complete version of this one-of-a-kind film in a stunning digital restoration undertaken by Ray’s widow, Susan Ray. Made by the one-eyed legendary director and his students during his stint as a film professor at State University of New York, Binghamton, under abysmal financial conditions, the film records Ray’s groundbreaking use of multiple images as a way of telling more than one story simultaneously, and of colorization as a way to heighten emotional expression.
Don't Expect Too Much
Seattle premiere!
Friday show free for members
Feb 10 - Feb 16
(Susan Ray, 2011, USA, Blu-ray, 70 min)
Using film, video, and stills from Nicholas Ray’s archive, along with interviews with original crew members and directors Jim Jarmusch and Victor Erice, Susan Ray reconstructs the making of Nick’s last, long-unseen work We Can’t Go Home Again.
Feedback Loop
Feb 12
Filmmakers are always looking for feedback on their projects. This evening provides a mix of reality TV and friendly advice as three projects present ten-minute clips from projects currently in production. A panel of local critics, well-known filmmakers and film lovers will offer feedback on their works in progress. Imbibe some of our house drink specialties while you see the filmmaking process in action!
Wings
At the Paramount Theatre
Feb 13
(William A. Wellman, 1927, USA, 35mm, 139 min)
Wings is a 1927 silent film about World War I fighter pilots, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman. Wings was the first film, and the only silent film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Jack Powell (Rogers) and David Armstrong (Arlen) are rivals in the same small American town, both vying for the attentions of pretty Sylvia Lewis (Ralston). Jack fails to realize that "the girl next door", Mary Preston (Bow), is desperately in love with him.
Where is the Friend's House?
Feb 14
(Abbas Kiarostami, 1987, Iran, 35mm, 87 min)
A country schoolboy's determination to prevent a pal's expulsion for not having done his homework becomes a major geographical, moral and poetic odyssey, testing his ingenuity, nerve and resolve even as it teaches him about the cruelty and compromises of the adult world. A landmark in Kiarostami's career, this funny, frightening and poignant gem secured his international profile.
And Life Goes On...
Feb 15
(Abbas Kiarostami, 1991, Iran, 35mm, 91 min)
Shortly after a massive earthquake in Iran, Kiarostami returned to the mountain region that had been the setting for Where is the Friend's House?A year later, he made a film inspired by that trip, about a filmmaker traveling with his son in search of two young actors who may have died. The result is an amazingly fruitful exploration of the relationship of life and death, despair and determination, reality and art.
Happy Hour Saloon
Enjoy drink specials from 5-6:30!
Nov 17 - Feb 16
Film lovers and film makers: Come out to the Saloon -- make new acquaintance and mingle with old friends! As always, our hand-selected wines and beers are $1 off (which makes beer $3, house wine $4 and wine specials $6).
Through The Olive Trees
Feb 16
(Abbas Kiarostami, 1994, Iran/France, 35mm, 103 min)
The final Koker film, this time with Kiarostami recreating the (real-life? fictional?) romantic problems arising between two cast members during the filming of And Life Goes On... It is fascinating both as a warm-but-wry tale of life, love and the cinema, and as a multi-layered interweaving of related narratives. At one point we even see two actors playing Kiarostami surrogates and talking to one another!
Andrew Bird: Fever Year
Director In Attendance
Followed by an opening night party!
Feb 17
(Xan Aranda, 2011, USA, HD, 81 min
Filmed in the final months of Andrew Bird’s grueling 165-date tour, Andrew Bird: Fever Year emerges as a concert documentary as much about Bird’s creative process as the performances shown. Featuring inside looks into Bird’s studio barn and electronic looping process, rehearsals and revision, the film delicately portrays how Bird makes music.
Free Land
Director in attendance!
Co-presented by Longhouse Media
Feb 18
(Minda Martin, 2010, USA, 62 min)
Beginning with her own childhood experience of relocation, filmmaker Minda Martin traces itinerancy throughout her family history, beginning with the forced Cherokee relocation of the 1800s. With found footage, historical documents and personal interviews, Free Landbinds together questions of ancestry, home, land, culture and identity. Lauded for its powerful sound design, this memoir documentary not only tells a heart-wrenching story, but tells it with profound craftsmanship.
The Dish and the Spoon
Director in attendance!
Feb 19
(Alison Bagnall, 2011, USA, Blu-ray, 92 min)
Directed and co-written by Alison Bagnall, best known as a co-writer of Buffalo 66, The Dish and the Spoon tells the story of two unlikely friends. Fleeing in her pajamas after finding out her husband is cheating on her, protagonist Rose, played by Greta Gerwig, meets a teenage boy in a winter beach town. With nowhere else and no one else to turn to, the pair forms a friendship.
Bombay Beach
Feb 20
(Alma Har’el, 2011, USA, Blu-ray, 80 min)
Part documentary, part dance-fiction, Israeli-born Alma Har’el’s debut feature Bombay Beach paints a rich and emotional portrait of the lives of some of California’s absolute poorest. Har’el spent months living at the Salton Sea, capturing the surreal beauty and desolation —without financial backing. Perhaps best known for her work directing music videos for Beirut, the film is graced with original music by Zach Condon.
A Little Closer
Feb 21
(Matthew Petock, 2010, USA, Blu-ray, 72 min)
In this no-budget debut feature from Virginia’s Matthew Petock, a lonely woman treks into single motherhood with the grace of a veteran. Visually striking, Petock’s handheld camera intimately captures both the Virginia landscape and strong performances from the cast.
Bad Posture
Feb 22
(Malcolm Murray, 2011, USA, Blu-ray, 93 min)
Equal-parts neo-realist exercise, classic Western, Joycean hometown tribute and Trailer Park Boys-style illicit comedy, Malcolm Murray’s nonchalant debut feature has been glowingly reviewed by the likes of the New York Times and Filmmaker Magazine. Murray says he was inspired by how “directors use Western landscapes to free their characters from having to explain anything about themselves.”
The Color Wheel
Feb 23
(Alex Ross Perry, 2011, USA, Blu-ray, 83 min)
The Color Wheel is a two-person show, a black-and-white comedic symphony of disappointment and forgiveness. Co-writer Carlen Altman and director Alex Ross Perry star as mutually detesting siblings on a road trip.
My Reincarnation
Sponsored by 8 Limbs Yoga Centers and TheSunBreak.com
Feb 24 - Mar 01
(Jennifer Fox, USA, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, DigiBeta, 102 min)
My Reincarnation is an epic father-son drama, spanning two decades and three generations, about spirituality, cultural survival, identity, inheritance, family, growing old, growing up, faith, meditation, religion, magic, dreaming, Buddhism, Dzogchen—and past and future lives. The film follows the renowned reincarnate Tibetan spiritual master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, as he struggles to save his spiritual tradition, and his Italian born son, Yeshi, who stubbornly refuses to follow in his father’s footsteps.
TLC Presents: Off The Rez
Co-presented by Longhouse Media
Feb 25
(Jonathan Hock, 2011, USA, DigiBeta, 86 min)
The story of a family that leaves the Umatilla Indian Reservation in pursuit of the American dream. Shoni is one of the best high school basketball players in the country and Ceci is her mother and coach. Together they struggle to break their people’s cycle of unfulfilled promise.
Okie Noodling II
Director in attendance!
Feb 26
(Bradley Beesley, USA, Blu-ray, 68 min)
A documentary sequel? You read correctly! Bradley Beesley follows up his beloved portrait of "noodling," the world’s wildest sport, returning home to Oklahoma to see how the sport has evolved over the last decade. The film explores the legal issues and commercialization of this once backwoods practice. Beesley revisits the colorful original cast and meets some new and eccentric fishermen en route to the largest noodling tournament in the nation.
The Extraordinary Voyage
Feb 28
(Serge Bromberg, Eric Lange, 2011, France, Blu-ray, 60 min)
In Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon, the first science fiction movie ever made, six academics undertake an expedition that will take them to the Moon. They leave Earth in a rocket fired from a giant cannon. When they arrive on the Moon, they discover earthshine and the Selenites. The six escape from the Selenites' king and return to Earth.
The documentary The Extraordinary Journey charts Bromberg’s discovery of a tinted nitrate copy of the film in Barcelona and the ensuing challenges posed by one of the most complex film restorations in cinema history. With Costa Gavras, Michel Gondry, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Michel Hazanavicius and Martin Scorsese, whose recent film Hugo owes a great debt to Méliès. Screens with A Trip to the Moon with a new soundtrack by the French band Air.
To Catch A Dollar
Feb 29
(Gayle Ferraro, 2011, USA, 35mm, 85 min)
This inspiring documentary by Gayle Ferraro follows Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Yunus as he brings his unique and revolutionary microfinance program to the US. Witness the birth of Grameen America and the compelling story of the first women borrowers, from the challenges they face to the successes they achieve as they learn to sustainably rise from poverty by starting and growing their own businesses with the education, support and non-collateral microloans they receive.
Sex+Money: A National Search For Human Worth
Mar 01
(Joel Angyall, 2011, USA, DVD, 92 min)
This is a documentary about domestic sex trafficking of minors and the modern-day abolitionist movement fighting to stop it. Since September 2009, the filmmakers have traveled to over 30 states and conducted more than 75 interviews with federal agents, victims, politicians, activists, psychologists and porn-stars, among others.
Windfall
Seattle premiere!
Mar 02 - Mar 08
(Laura Israel, 2010, USA, 35mm, 81 min)
The realities of modern rural life, energy production and the environmental movement clash in unexpected ways. This new documentary chronicles the upheaval visited on Meredith, New York, when an industrial wind farm takes up residence. Filmmaker Laura Israel, a part-time Meredith resident, interviewed locals on both sides of the divided community: those who have turned their land over to the 400-foot-high turbines to offset falling agricultural profits, and those for whom the noise and aesthetic blight outweigh any positive impact on the local economy. Turns out it’s not easy being green.
California Company Town
Director in attendance!
Mar 02
(Lee Anne Schmitt, 2008, 16mm, 76 min)
Over the past 125 years, dozens of corporations such as Occidental Petroleum, Sierra Pacific and Borax Energy have bought huge parcels of land to establish their private operations, which included stores, schools and homes for their workers. In doing so, the companies superseded their roles as employers to become the towns' landlords, merchants and educators as a way to control and placate their employees. However, when the profits stopped rolling in the companies sold out or abandoned the properties, leaving detritus: industrial warehouses, dilapidated homes and businesses, clear-cut, sterile land—and the occasional tourist trap. The bleached tone of the footage, meditative shots of wrecked landscapes and the deadpan narration add to the film's solemnity.
Short Films of Lee Anne Schmitt: Program 1
Director in attendance!
Mar 03
Program includes: The Wash (Lee Lynch and Lee Anne Schmitt, 2005, Super 8, 20min); Three Stories (Lee Anne Schmitt, 2011, 16mm, 14 min); Bower's Cave (Lee Anne Schmitt, 2010, 16mm, 20 min); Las Vegas (Lee Anne Schmitt, 2000, DigiBeta, 7 min).
Short Films of Lee Anne Schmitt: Program 2
Director in attendance!
Mar 03
Program includes: Awake And Sing (Lee Anne Schmitt, 2003, 16mm, 42 min); Nightingale (Lee Anne Schmitt, 2002, 16 mm, 14 min).
The Last Buffalo Hunt
Seattle Premiere!
Director in attendance!
Mar 04
(Lee Anne Schmitt, 2011, USA, Blu-ray, 78 min)
After a decade working together on evocative pieces such as Bower's Caveand The Wash, Lee Lynch and Schmit have released The Last Buffalo Hunt. This documentary is the result of a five-year observation of the last wild buffalo herds in the south of Utah. Schmitt and Lynch follow the trail of a hunter who is in charge of selecting and controlling the number of this species. The impressive landscape of the Henry Mountains stands in contrast with the town of Hanksville, with its one gas station, casino and motels. Through its images of America’s West, The Last Buffalo Hunt questions the authenticity of its myths and the basis of its ideologies.
Have You Ever Had A Beard?
Sponsored by Easy Street Records
Post-screening performance by Calvin Johnson!
Directors in attendance!
Mar 05
(Kathy Wolf and Pat Thomas, 2011, USA, DVD, 35 min)
Like a title weight bout, raucous music writer Chris Estey goes "toe to toe" with cagey music maverick Calvin Johnson about important subjects such as beards and other mysteries of life. Have You Ever Had a Beard? is a study in contrasts, comparing the lyric heavy songwriting of Calvin Johnson against the the ebullient music journalism of Chris Estey. Meeting for the first time, both men perform at the Columbia City Theatre—a Seattle stage that’s played host to everyone from Bessie Smith to Jimi Hendrix since its opening in 1910.
From the Back of the Room
Seattle Premiere!
Sponsored by Easy Street Records
Mar 06 - Mar 08
(Amy Oden, 2011, USA, Blu-ray, 102 min)
Deconstructing myths of the Utopian quality of alternative cultures, From the Back of the Room confronts punk patriarchy. With first hand testimonies from Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna, comic-book artist Cristy Road, Slug and Lettuce zinester Chris Boarts-Larson and Slade from Tribe 8, the film addresses issues of gender, race, class and sexuality within DIY punk. While cataloging the lineage of the femme-punk movement, the film serves as more than a history lesson; it's the beginning of a larger discussion on how these issues manifest today.
How to Make a Book with Steidl
Special Guest Jayme Yen, Graphic Designer for Henry Art Museum, at Friday 7pm show
Seattle Premiere!
Mar 09 - Mar 15
(Gereon Wetzel and Jörg Adolph, 2010, Germany, Blu-ray, 88 min)
For those of us who love the sensuality of a physical book—its heft, the whispered flick of a turned page, the comfortably musty smell of a long-loved library—How to Make a Book with Steidl is a timely celebration of a fading art form. Directors Wetzel and Adolph accompany German art-book publisher Gerhard Steidl on a trip to America to observe his close collaboration with artists such as Jeff Wall, Ed Ruscha, Joel Sternfeld and the usually reclusive Robert Frank. It's a fascinating and privileged look behind the curtains of a rarely seen aspect of the art world.
Dreileben Trilogy
Sponsored by the Goethe-institut and TheSunBreak.com
Mar 09 - Mar 11
(Various directors, 2011, Germany, Blu-ray, 266 min)
Two years after the wonderful British crime series Red Riding Trilogy comes another trilogy of intersecting crime stories from overseas. This time we take you to Germany, under the direction of Berlin filmmakers Christian Petzold (Yella, Jerichow), Dominik Graf (Germany 09) and Christoph Hochhäusler (The City Below, Germany 09). Defined by Hochhäusler as "sibling films rather than a trilogy," these are three separate-but-linked takes on the same manhunt story. Graf’s Don’t Follow Me Around tells the story of a police psychologist who meets old acquaintances while investigating a case. In Petzold’s Beats Being Dead, a young man doing alternative national service experiences a love story without a future. And in Christoph Hochhäusler’s One Minute of Darkness, an indefatigable policeman hunting an escaped prisoner begins to doubt false certainties. Three films, three styles, three exciting approaches, variations and analyses.
Jack Hitt: Making Up the Truth
Mar 15 - Mar 17
In his new solo show, "This American Life" regular, Jack Hitt, tells extravagant, almost unbelievable, true tales from his life experience. Making Up The Truth weaves stories together with the latest findings in contemporary brain science to answer the question, "Why do these things always happen to me?" What Jack discovers is another unbelievable story — this time about all of us and the world of uncanny wonders that lies just beyond our brain's notice. Directed by Jessica Bauman.
Adventures in Plymptoons!
Seattle Premiere!
Mar 16 - Mar 22
(Alexia Anastasio, 2011, USA, DigiBeta, 85 min)
Alexia Anastasio, who’s been making films since she was 11, trains her lens on Bill Plympton, the Oscar-nominated animator (for Your Face) whose frantically hilarious cartoons have been busting guts for over 40 years. Anastasio follows Plympton to various festivals and conventions, and along the way interviews such high-profile Plympton fans as Terry Gilliam, Keith Carradine and Weird Al Yankovic. By liberally larding the documentary bits of her film with excerpts from Plympton’s own work, Anastasio keeps the entertainment level high in this engaging documentary.
What is This Thing Called Lynch?
Mar 19 - Apr 23
Discussing this unique film maker's continuing themes and images through six representative films—Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Dr. —we'll take the Lynch bull by the horns in a spirit of karmic adventure, and hope to reach a few tentative conclusions about this most provocative and engaging of film personalities. Classes consist of discussion with occasional film clips. Participants will be expected to view the films on their own.
The Devil's Cleavage
Co-Presented by The Sprocket Society
Mar 20
(George Kuchar, 1973, USA, 16mm, 122 min)
Partial inspiration for Zippy the Pinhead and eulogized by the NY Times as “a national treasure,” George Kuchar (Aug. 31, 1942–Sept. 6, 2011), with his surviving twin brother, Mike, practically invented the campy, no-budget, anti-professional, tasteless, gender-bending underground style later embraced by John Waters and others. He made over 500 films in his career. Tonight we feature two of his best: The Devil’s Cleavage is a farcical send-up of Douglas Sirk-style melodramas, made “as if Sam Fuller and Sternberg had collaborated in shooting a script by Tennessee Williams and Russ Meyer” (Chuck Kleinhans, Jump Cut).
Screens with
Hold Me While I'm Naked (George Kuchar, 1966, 16mm, 15 min) This classic short was one of the Village Voice's 100 best films of the 20th century. It depicts an exploitation film shoot gone wrong.
The Christening
Seattle Premiere! Sponsored by TheSunBreak.com
Mar 30 - Apr 05
(Marcin Wrona, 2010, Poland, 35mm, 86 min)
Fans of Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Bronson, Pusher Trilogy) will delight in Marcin Wrona’s sophomore feature The Christening. The film is loosely based on the real story of a man from the Polish provinces who, after operating as a criminal in his hometown, finds himself in Warsaw. He hopes to change his luck and to escape from the criminal past he left behind. Unfortunately, there is a mafia sentence against him.
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Seattle premiere!
Apr 06 - Apr 12
(Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011, Turkey, Blu-ray, 150 min)
The plot of this co-winner of the 2011 Cannes Grand Prix is simple: a group of men search for a corpse. But the story is not so straightforward. Set against the haunted and monotonous landscape of the Anatolian steppe, the task of finding the body is cloaked in lies, mystery and a growing unease. The film dips into both the road movie and police genres, but the investigation within the film is purely figurative, unearthing questions of human existence.
Laura
New 35mm Print! Sponsored by TheSunBreak.com
Apr 06 - Apr 12
(Otto Preminger, 1944, USA, 35mm, 88 min)
Otto Preminger’s first acknowledged feature (he disavows everything that came before) is a masterpiece of American movies. Though it shares many of the standard trappings of film noir, Laura transcends the genre on almost every level. The tightly structured, relentless narrative style that would mark most of Preminger’s future work was less common in other noirs, where simplicity was the norm. Don’t miss a rare opportunity to see this great American classic on the big screen.
Visions in Motion: A Memorial Retrospective, 1954-2000
Co-presented by The Sprocket Society
Apr 18
(Robert Breer, Various years, 16mm, 96 min)
The son of an inventor, Robert Breer (Sept. 30, 1926–Aug. 13, 2011) studied engineering at Stanford but soon devoted his life to the visual arts. As a painter, sculptor and pioneering experimental filmmaker, he achieved international acclaim as one of the finest of his generation. His film techniques combined line animation, stop-motion, rotoscoping, home movies and single-frame editing, often with audio collage. This special program features 16 of Breer’s short films, spanning his entire career and including award-winning and rarely-shown gems like A Miracle (1954), Jamestown Baloos (1957), Fuji (1973), Rubber Cement (1975), Bang! (1986) and ATOZ (2000).
Northwest Film Forum Annual Gala
May 04
From Modern Times to Manhattan...
Lumiere...Von Sternberg...Orson Welles...Hitchcock...Truffaut...
What did they have in common?
BLACK AND WHITE
Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
New 35mm print!
May 05
(Robert Altman, United States, 1982, 35mm, 109 min)
Robert Altman’s Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean concerns, as the title implies, two Jimmy Deans: the James Dean whose fans flocked to McCarthy, Texas in 1955, where he was filmingGiant; and one fan’s son, Jimmy, who is 20 years old when the fan club reunites in 1975.
Attenberg
Sponsored by TheSunBreak.com
May 05 - May 10
(Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2010, Greece, 35mm, 95 min)
Part of the new wave of Greek cinema that kicked off with last year’s academy award nominee Dogtooth, Attenbergis an offbeat coming-of-age film. Twenty-three-year old Marina is living in a small factory town by the sea where her once-visionary architect father has returned to die. Finding the human species foreign, she keeps her distance, choosing to observe mankind through Sir David Attenborough’s nature documentaries and the songs of Suicide.
Wanda
New 35mm print!
May 06
(Barbara Loden, United States, 1970, 35mm, 102 min)
“Once a woman gains her freedom,” demanded a New York journalist in her review of Wanda, “what can she do with it? The answer…nothing.” Director Barbara Loden, an actress long overshadowed by husband Elia Kazan, dared audiences to confront that question in her depiction of a washed-out single mother in rural Pennsylvania, who takes to the road with an abusive bank robber.
Samuel Beckett’s Film and Waiting for Godot
May 07
(Alan Schneider, United States, 1961/65, DigiBeta/35mm, 140 min)
Seeking a dose and a half of absurdity? You can’t do any better than Samuel Beckett’s Film—his only screenplay, clocking in at 20 minutes long—followed by the television adaptation of Waiting For Godot with Zero Mostel.
The Chalice of Sorrow
New 35mm print!
Live score by Lori Goldston
May 11
(Rex Ingram, United States, 1916, 35mm, 70 min)
In 1916, with only two feature films under his belt, director Rex Ingram moved to Hollywood at the invitation of the budding Universal Film Manufacturing Company—grandfather of Universal Studios—to direct an adaptation of the play that had inspired Puccini’s Tosca. His adaptation, The Chalice of Sorrow, transplants a tragic Roman love triangle to Mexico City, where opera singer Lorelei is pursued by both the city’s ruthless governor and an American artist, her secret fiancé.
Eve's Leaves
New 35mm print!
May 12
(Paul Sloane, United States, 1926, 35mm, 75 min)
Leatrice Joy functions as the heart and soul of this 1926 silent film—one of the first produced by Cecil B. DeMille in his own studio!—though she would slip from the limelight when talking pictures began to take over Hollywood.
The Goose Woman
New 35mm print!
May 13
(Clarence Brown, United States, 1925, 35mm, 85 min
Louise Dresser, who would go on to star in another of our features—the documentary series This Is Your Life—heads the cast of this 1925 film based on a murder case in which the primary witness was an unpredictable “pig lady.” Rather than a pig lady, Dresser plays an elderly “goose woman,” an opera star fallen from glory and mother to a neglected illegitimate son.
The Flower of Doom
New 35mm print!
Live Score by Jason Staczek and Ian Moore
May 14
(Rex Ingram, United States, 1917, 35mm, 70 min)
Though he was given a modest budget for The Flower of Doom, Rex Ingram seized the chance to dig into his favorite setting—the shady urban jungle—which he worked into a Chinatown mystery. Journalist Harvey Pearson is sucked into a den of underground warfare and opium addiction when he sets out to rescue Neva Sacon, a cabaret singer kidnapped by gang lords.
Question One
May 18 - May 24
(James Nubile and Joseph Fox, 2011, USA, Blu-ray, 108 min)
On May 6th, 2009, Maine became the first state in this country to legislatively grant same-sex couples the right to marry. Seven months later, on November 3rd, 2009, Maine reversed that decision, becoming the thirty-first state in this country to say “no” to gay and lesbian marriage. Question One chronicles the fierce and emotional battle that took place in Maine during that time, a battle whose political symbolism is a bellwether for the greater ideological battlefield in American politics, the greater stakes in terms of civil liberties, constitutional safeguards, legal rights and human dignity, but above all, a battle that will form a fulcrum in the 2012 elections. e that took the country by storm, and surprised many.
Outfest Legacy Project Program
May 18
(Various directors)
Los Angeles’s Outfest Legacy Project, which is dedicated to rescuing and preserving films about LGBTQ culture and its social significance and impact, is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2012! This year, Outfest brings you three newly rescued films, landmarks in the history of LGBTQ community and individual consciousness.
Native Land
New 35mm print!
May 19
(Leo Hurwitz, Paul Strand, United States, 1942, 35mm, 80 min)
Native Land, which sought to expose the injustices perpetrated upon Americans by American capitalism, was released shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor to an unwelcoming public. But the archival footage that the film’s directors compiled 75 years ago—footage of union busters and strikebreakers at war with farmers, sharecroppers, and minorities—deserves to be brought back and viewed in light of its renewed relevance.
Lauren Weedman: Denny's World
*Please note updated performance dates
May 17 - May 19
Writer, performer and comedian Lauren Weedman takes us to the world of Single Room Occupancy; a place of lawn care, electric guitars, the same dinner every night, old horror movies, and sex. An acclaimed monologuist with regular appearances on The Daily Show and Reno 911, Ms. Weedman tells the story of her new life in Seattle after returning from Amsterdam, one fraught with confusion, horror, hilarity and film.
The Forgotten Village
New 35mm print!
May 20
(Herbert Kline, United States, 1941, 35mm, 67 min)
Westernization vs. Mexican village: not the subject matter you may expect from a 1941 documentary. But in directing The Forgotten Village, which has been called a work of “ethnofiction,” Herbert Kline chose perhaps the greatest screenwriter for the job: John Steinbeck. Working with an entirely nonprofessional cast, Kline brought Western audiences a dramatized account of a Mexican hamlet beset with typhoid fever.
Sleep, My Love
New 35mm print!
May 21
(Douglas Sirk, United States, 1948, 35mm, 97 min)
Mary Pickford is most famous as an actress, but also produced nearly 40 films! Among them was Sleep, My Love, which stars Claudette Colbert as a socialite whose husband attempts to slowly drive her insane, in hopes of her committing suicide and leaving him her fortune.
Hallelujah the Hills
Co-presented by The Sprocket Society
May 23
(Adolfas Mekas, 1963, USA, 16mm, 82 min)
Adolfas Mekas (Sept. 30, 1925–May 31, 2011) co-founded, with his brother Jonas, the groundbreaking journal Film Culture, co-founded the film department at Bard College, where he taught for decades and made a handful of films that left their mark on the New American Cinema movement. His debut feature, Hallelujah The Hills, is a lighthearted surreal comedy in which two men vie for the love of Vera, played by two different actresses to capture the suitors’ visions of the ideal woman. Simultaneously an art film and a parody of art films, it is packed with references to silent comedy, the French New Wave and even Kurosawa’s samurai films.
News of the Day and Soundies
New 35mm print!
May 26
(Various directors, 1914-1967, United States, 35mm/16mm)
In addition to countless newspapers, William Randolph Hearst turned out News of the Day, a series of newsreels keeping the public up to date on world affairs, for over 50 years! Come witness a selection of the newsreels that your grandparents might have watched, produced by the infamous creator of sensationalist yellow journalism.
This is Your Life
New 35mm print!
May 27
(Various directors, 1952-61, United States, 35mm, 90 min)
Ever wondered where reality TV got its start? It may have been with Ralph Edwards, the host of This Is Your Life, who every week featured a surprise guest—celebrity or unknown—and told his or her compelling life story. Edwards, who would go on to produce the first true reality court show, revealed a more optimistic and inspirational perspective during the ten years of This Is Your Life.