The 2007-8 Video Gallery schedule available here. Currently on view is Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates.
Archive for August, 2007
Kin Flicks: The 20th Virginia Film Festival November 1-4, 2007
For its 20th annual event, scheduled from Nov. 1-4, 2007, the Virginia Film Festival is planning a special family gathering. The 2007 theme will be KIN FLICKS, with more than a hundred speakers and films addressing popular and alternative images of family life. {More}
Tick Tock Lullaby (2007)
Whilst most straight couples procreate spontaneously, motherhood becomes a cerebral act of planning and negotiation for lesbian couple Sasha and Maya. Cartoonist Sasha interweaves her own maneuverings for impregnation with her cartoon creations’ private lives in this gentle, wry comedy of conception. Tick Tock Lullaby is the second movie by independent British film-maker Lisa Gornick, voted Best New Director at the Seattle International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 2003. Her first movie Do I Love You was the first full-length lesbian feature film to be made in the UK for over twenty years.
The Last Jews of Libya (2007)
with director Vivienne Roumanni-Denn
Vivienne Roumani-Denn’s film documents the final decades of a centuries-old Sephardic Jewish community through the lives of the remarkable Roumani family. Based on the recently discovered memoirs of the family’s matriarch, Elise Roumani, as well as interviews with several generations of the Roumani family and a trove of rare archival film and photographs, it is an unforgettable tale. Narrated by Isabella Rosselini, The Last Jews of Libya is the story of an ancient community transformed by modern European culture, buffeted by Fascism and Arab nationalism, and ultimately saved through the strength of its Jewish tradition and faith.
Miss Universe 1929
with guest speaker Patricia Zimmermann
Hungarian filmmaker Peter Forgacs’ latest production is made entirely out of archival and home movie footage. Marci Tenczer, secretly in love with his cousin, Lisl Goldarbeiter, started to make films of her, her family and Vienna shortly after his arrival. In 1929, without telling anybody, he submitted her application to the Miss Austria beauty contest. This act would change the life of the modest Goldarbeiter family forever. “In the past twenty years, I have found out that old amateur films are the unconscious diaries of life, of history. These film diaries tell us something about what we can no longer touch or feel, and also show us the other side of the official history” (Péter Forgács).
Mommie Dearest (1981)
This infamous bio-pic of Joan Crawford depicts the Hollywood actress as an evil doppelganger of Mildred Pierce. At the center of the movie is a no-holds-barred performance by Faye Dunaway as the monstrous mother who expects nothing less than perfection from her adopted children. Director Frank Perry steers the film erratically from melodrama to pastiche in a series of lurid set-pieces. The movie was critically savaged upon release and subsequently disowned by Dunaway. Predictably, Mommie Dearest is now revered as a high camp classic and is here presented with a narration by the Pope of Trash, John Waters.
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Mildred Pierce is a devoted mother and model wife. Abandoned by her husband, she provides for her daughters by reinventing herself as a single mother and successful business woman. Success is not without its price however, and Mildred finds herself in conflict with the daughter to whom she’s devoted her life. Joan Crawford was not the original choice for the role, but gives an Oscar-winning performance as a mother driven to desperation for the sake of her family – in retrospect, a part which must have resonated with the actress. Come afterwards for our free midnight screening of Mommie Dearest at the Gravity Lounge!
Strange Culture
with Steve Kurtz of Critical Art Ensemble, Siva Vaidhyanathan, and Johanna Drucker
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s documentary tells the story of artist and college professor Steve Kurtz, who faces up to 20 years in prison for suspected bio-terrorism after medics became suspicious of his art materials when responding to an emergency call in his home in May of 2004. Soon after, a Hazmat team from Quantico arrested Kurtz, placing his work under investigation and holding him as a suspected terrorist. Hershman Leeson skillfully weaves dramatic reenactment (with actors Tilda Swinton and Peter Coyote), news footage, animation, testimonials, and footage of Kurtz himself to develop this unconventional examination of the power of post 9/11 paranoia and its ability to influence both art and justice.
Crocodile Dreaming and Yellow Fella
with Darlene Johnson and Margo Smith
Crocodile Dreaming is a modern day supernatural myth about two estranged brothers, played by indigenous Australian actors David Gulpilil and Tom Lewis. Separated at birth, they have different fathers and therefore must assume different roles within the tribe. The film examines the relationship between the two brothers when a tragedy calls on one of them to placate the crocodile spirit that now threatens all their lives. Yellow Fella documents the journey of iconic actor Tom Lewis as he attempts to find the resting place of his father, a Welsh stockman who he never really knew, and finally confront the truth about his inner feelings of love and identity. Co-sponsored with the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection.
Grey Gardens (1975)
Edith Beale and her daughter Edie, neglected scions of the Bouvier clan, live a life of impoverished solitude in the remains of their once-great house Grey Gardens. Bed-ridden Edith is at once demanding and coquettish, recalling a life of privilege and high-society. Her daughter Edie’s presence in the house is ambiguous and the two’s voluble interaction uncovers a web of mutual dependence, affection and resentment. The Maysles Brothers’ influential documentary has spawned two sequels, a Broadway musical and a current Hollywood remake with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. It remains today a landmark of documentary film-making and a fascinating study of family interdependence.
Brent Green: Animated Films and Live Music
with Brent Green, Howe Gelb and Brendan Canty
An animated-film maker, Brent Green uses the beauty of detritus and the hand-made to create dystopic worlds inspired by his own family history. Reminiscent of early Walt Disney or work by the Brothers Quay, Green’s films progress anxiously from one scene to the next with a melancholy that is brought forth from fantasy and human pathos. Kate Strassman writes: “With his lunatic preacher voice, Green prefers to narrate his films live with [his] band and instruments like the saw and banjo. Green is inventing his own form of live performance animation. This new breed of folk tales that hover between life and death, melancholy and joy, mesmerize the audience.” (Kate Strassman, Whitehot Magazine).
For the Bible Tells Me So (2007)
Dan Karslake’s provocative documentary reconciles homosexuality and Biblical scripture, revealing that Church-sanctioned anti-gay bias results almost solely from a significant (and often malicious) misinterpretation of the Bible. Through the experiences of five normal, Christian, American families — including that of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt — we discover both enlightened and destructive ways that people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child. Informed by such respected voices as Bishop Desmond Tutu and Episcopalian bishop Gene Robinson, For The Bible Tells Me So offers clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity.
Sandra (1965)
with Walter Korte
Though it won several awards, including the top prize at the Venice film festival, and is considered one of Visconti’s supreme achievements, Sandra is still very little known. In the decrepit splendor of an Etruscan city, an aristocratic family reunites to dedicate a garden to the memory of their patriarch. Convinced that their mother denounced their Jewish father to the Nazis and was responsible for his deportation to Auschwitz, Sandra (Claudia Cardinale) and her brother (Jean Sorel) are forced to confront several guilty family secrets. Visconti masterfully interweaves themes of memory and myth in this “complex, beautiful, baroque film about guilt and incest, a modern version of the Elektra legend” (National Film Theatre).
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Noir thriller, coming-of-age story, black comedy — Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock’s personal favorite among his films, is all these things. Directing Thornton Wilder’s (Our Town) script, Hitchcock crafts a masterly tale of a suave fugitive (Joseph Cotten) arriving in a small town to visit his sister’s family. “Young Charlie” (Teresa Wright) harbors a deep admiration for the man after whom she was named, but those feelings are tested as she begins to suspect that her beloved Uncle Charlie may be The Merry Widow Killer being sought by the police.
The Kid (1921, silent)
Charlie Chaplin was well on his way to becoming the biggest movie star in the world when he made his first feature film, The Kid. Chaplin’s Little Tramp character had already starred in dozens of two-reel comedies before the actor/director made the risky choice of moving to a six-reel feature film. Drawing from the pathos of personal tragedies, including his own harsh upbringing and the recent loss of a child, Chaplin channeled his sorrow into a comedic masterpiece about the joys and travails of sudden fatherhood. The Little Tramp finds an infant boy, abandoned by a mother who believed she was giving him a better life. Forced to raise the child rather than see him fall into unscrupulous hands, years pass and the two become a team, scraping out an existence but always joyous in each other’s company, until authorities find the boy and attempt to return him to his mother. The simple story affords Chaplin ample opportunity to dazzle his audience with brilliant comedic bits and an underlying poignance. Jackie Coogan turns in an astonishing performance as The Kid and soon became an international child star.
Hoop Realities (2007)
with Arthur Agee and Lee Davis
The 1995 documentary Hoop Dreams moved audiences with its unblinking look at poverty, ambition, and the fickle promise of professional athletics. Two young men in urban Chicago pursue their desire to become basketball stars while dealing with the harsh restraints of ghetto life. Ten years later, Arthur Agee, one of the star athletes of that film, serves as producer in this follow up. Now an adult, Agee runs a charitable foundation with prestigious board members such as former President Bill Clinton. Directed by Spike Lee protégé Lee Davis, Hoop Realities follows the efforts of an older and wiser generation help today’s youths achieve their own dreams.
Randy and the Mob (2006)
with Ray McKinnon, Lisa Blount and Walton Goggins
Ray McKinnon’s South is not the gentile, courtly south with belles in hoop dresses, nor is it a hillbilly swamp where grown men are made to sqeal like pigs. Rather, the filmmaker’s (Chrystal, The Accountant) south is a complicated tangle of decent people who sometimes do bad things, and sometimes just get by, in a land of kudzu and truck stops.
Randy is a wheeler-dealer who comes up against loan sharks and must turn to his gay twin brother to help him out (writer and director McKinnon plays both parts). Helping Randy, in her own way, is his chronically depressed wife (Lisa Blount), a baton instructor with carpal tunnel syndrome, and an unlikely ally: the mob enforcer Tino Armani (Walton Goggins). The three main actors are also the producers of the this gentle but aching comedy. Burt Reynolds also stars.
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Douglas Sirk’s drama takes a contemporaneous look at the social mores of success, materialism, and non-conformity in 1950s America. Wealthy widow Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) has no interest in any of the shallow, lecherous, or elderly men in her social circle. Instead, she announces plans to marry her gardener, Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson), a rustic young man who lives outside of town on land that he is turning into a tree-farm. Cary’s friends are shocked, but hardest hit are her college-age children (William Reynolds and Gloria Talbott), who find the match an affront to their socio-economic status and try to convince their mother that getting a television set would be far better. (TV as a substitute for life becomes an important symbol in the film). Ron, who couldn’t care less what other people think, tells Cary ‘nothing matters but us”, but the selfish desires of others intrudes on their romance. The lush Technicolor cinematography of Russell Metty lends color to the story as the auburn hue of Autumn gives way to the harsh landscape of winter. All That Heaven Allows was one of several Sirk films that inspired Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven (2002).
Rocco and His Brothers (Rocco e i suoi fratelli) (1960)
with Walter Korte
Luchino Visconti’s family-centered epic follows the mixed fortunes of the Parondi family as they move from rural southern Italy to the industrial northern city of Milan seeking a better life after the untimely death of the family patriarch. Individual chapters follow each of the five brothers as they face prejudice, poverty, and the ultimate test of familial bonds. Rocco (Alain Delon), the middle of five brothers, battles his older sibling Simone (Renato Salvatori) over a reformed prostitute (Annie Girardot) and their rival prizefighting careers. Ultimately, all the story lines wind inextricably back together as a loving family is torn apart by lust, greed, jealousy, and their desire to rise above their class station. The spare black-and-white photography by Guiseppe Rotunno, as well as the haunting score by Nino Rota, lends power to this classic of Italian Neo-realist cinema that has been the inspiration for directors Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.