|
Upcoming Film Discussions
Introducing our Film Discussions program, designed to bring the Cinema Revolution community together. The discussions will function like a book club, where everyone watches the film beforehand on their own time and then gets together here in the CR library to discuss it. We are pursuing two distinct themed discussions - politically/socially conscious documentaries on Monday nights, hosted by CR volunteer Jasper Carter, and films made from a GLBT perspective on Thursday nights, hosted by Victoria Nohl. Members may stop by anytime before the discussions and pick up a free loaner copy of the movie to preview. Beverages will be served and all are welcome.
 |
Mon. 4/21:
The Corporation (2003)
(Directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott)
In the mid-1800s, corporations began to be recognized as individuals by U.S. courts, granting them unprecedented rights. The Corporation, a documentary by filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott and author Joel Bakan, delves into that legal standard, essentially asking: if corporations were people, what kind of people would they be? Applying psychiatric principles and FBI forensic techniques, and through a series of case studies, the film determines that this entity, the corporation, which has an increasing power over the day-to-day existence of nearly every living creature on earth, would be a psychopath. The case studies include a story about how two reporters were fired from Fox News for refusing to soft-pedal a story about the dangers of a Monsanto product given to dairy cows, and another about Bolivian workers who banded together to defend their rights to their own water supply. The pervasiveness of corporate influence on our lives is explored through an examination of efforts to influence behavior, including that of children. The filmmakers interview leftist figures like Michael Moore, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, and Noam Chomsky, and give representatives from companies Burson Marsteller, Disney, Pfizer, and Initiative Media a chance to relay their own points-of-view. The Corporation won the Best Documentary World Cinema Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. |
 |
Thurs. 4/24:
All About My Mother (1999)
(Directed by Pedro Almodóvar)
Pedro Almodóvar directed this story of a woman and her circle of friends who find themselves suffering a variety of emotional crises. Manuela (Cecilia Roth) is a single mother who has raised her son, Esteban (Eloy Azorín), to adulthood on her own and has come to emotionally depend on him. One night, Manuela and Esteban take in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire; after the show, Esteban is struck and killed by a passing motorist as he dashes into the street to get an autograph from Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), who played Blanche. Emotionally devastated, Manuela relocates to Barcelona in hopes of finding her ex-husband (and Esteban's father), who is now working as a female impersonator. Manuela becomes reacquainted with old friend La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), a transsexual, and is introduced to Sister Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a good-hearted nun who has to contend with her considerably more cynical mother (Rosa María Sardà). While looking for work, Manuela becomes acquainted with Huma Rojo. Huma, on the other hand, has troubles of her own, most involving her drug-addicted significant other, Nina (Candela Peña). Displaying Almodóvar's trademark visual style and a unusually strong sense of character-driven drama, Todo Sobre Mi Madre/All About My Mother received a highly anticipated theatrical run in Spain before winning the Best Director award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival; in 2000, Almodóvar would receive the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. |
 |
Mon. 4/28:
Dark Days (2000)
(Directed by Marc Singer)
Novice filmmaker Marc Singer lived in the bowels of a midtown Manhattan railway station for two years to shoot this harrowing account of the day-to-day existence of the homeless. Shot in noirish black and white, Singer shows how society's discarded and disenfranchised fashion a community of sorts in the sunless labyrinth of the station's transit tunnels. Though told without narration, a dozen or so individual stories emerge. Dee (the sole woman depicted in the film) lost all her children in a house fire while she was high on crack; Ralph remains inconsolable after his five-year old's rape and mutilation during a stint in prison. In the final reel, Amtrak sends in armed police to clean out the tunnels, citing health concerns. However, the subterranean tenets happen upon a stroke of luck, as an NYC social worker discovers a cache of previously unclaimed public housing. Featuring a sparse soundtrack by DJ Shadow, Dark Days won the Grand Jury prize for cinematography, the Freedom of Expression award, and an audience award at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. |
 |
Thurs. 5/1:
Fox and His Friends (1975)
(Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
The original German title, Faustrecht der Freiheit, which roughly translates as "Might Makes Right," describes rather bluntly the crux of this compelling drama, one of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's most acclaimed films. Fassbinder takes a rare starring role as Franz--"Fox" to his friends--a gay carny thrown out of work when the cops close a fairground sideshow. Introduced to a group of cultivated homosexuals by an antique and art dealer (Karlheinz Böhm of Peeping Tom fame), he becomes involved with high-class dandy Eugen (Peter Chatel), who finds the naive, uneducated innocent easy prey when he unexpectedly wins 500 thousand marks in the lottery. Eugen alternately flatters and humiliates Fox, ridiculing his working-class manners and tastes while sponging off his fast-disappearing fortune. The story is partially autobiographical, inspired by Fassbinder's own relationship with an illiterate butcher, but the director casts himself as the victim in the cinematic incarnation and turns his tormentor into a veritable vampire. Biographical considerations aside, it remains one of Fassbinder's most affecting, accomplished, and personal films, and he delivers a sweet, wounded performance as the proletariat Fox in a den of cultured, upper-class hounds. His evocation of the affluent gay community is catty and brittle, but ultimately this powerful drama is less about sexual orientation than class, power, and sexual control. |
 |
Mon. 5/5:
Born Rich (2002)
(Directed by Jamie Johnson)
The heir to the Johnson & Johnson company empire, 20-year-old N.Y.U. student Jamie Johnson makes his directorial debut with the documentary Born Rich. Armed with economic power and the celebrity access of his own social privilege, Johnson is able to gather together ten wealthy friends to talk about money. Some of the richest young people in America discuss the realities of growing up with huge financial assets, ideas for what to do with it, and feelings about losing it. The son of a gaming industry giant, Luke Weil reveals his feelings about going to boarding school, while Ivanka Trump talks about her experiences as the daughter of Donald and Ivana. Also features discussions with the young heirs to the Bloomberg, Newhouse, and Whitney fortunes. Before it premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, participant Weil sued Johnson in hopes of stopping the film's release. |
 |
Thurs. 5/8:
Show Me Love (1998)
(Directed by Lukas Moodysson)
Show Me Love (Fucking Åmål) is a coming-of-age comedy set in a sleepy little Swedish town called Åmål -- the most boring place on earth according to adolescent Agnes, who moved there a year and a half ago. Awkward and shy, Agnes is not able to make friends at school. She's in love with Elin, but no one knows about it except her computer. The title comes from Elin's frequent comment about her new home town. For Agnes' birthday, her parents organize a big party, but she is convinced that no one will come. For lack of anything better to do on a Saturday night, 14-year-old Elin and her older sister arrive at Agnes' door, but Agnes is busy crying her eyes out. Left alone in Agnes' bedroom, the mischievous sisters take a look at the computer and what they discover prompts them to play a dirty joke. If Elin can let Agnes kiss her, her sister will pay her 20 krona. The deed is done; Agnes is flabbergasted and soon humiliated when she finds out that she's been had. Rumors spread around the school like wildfire, and Agnes is the talk of the town. But super cool Elin begins to feel guilty; moreover, she has to admit she was not exactly indifferent to the kiss. In his first feature film, Lukas Moodysson shows the pains of growing up, particularly for a lesbian. Fucking Åmål was screened as part of the "Panorama" section of the 49th Berlin International Film Festival in 1999 and received the Teddy Award for Best Gay/Lesbian Film. |
 |
Mon. 5/12:
The Future of Food (2004)
(Directed by Deborah Koons Garcia)
Farming was once one of the most common professions in America, but now the growing of food for America's dinner tables is primarily in the hands of a small number of large agricultural corporations. With deregulations placing less federal scrutiny on how crops are grown, and an increasing number of "agri-business" firms introducing genetically modified vegetables and grains, some experts have begun to question just what we are eating, and how it got that way. At a time when some firms have started seeking patents for new strains of modified seeds and plants, will there come a day when the growing of certain essential foodstuffs will be controlled by private corporations who own a "copyright" on, say, wheat or tomatoes? The Future of Food is a documentary which focuses on growing concerns over how our crops are produced, and how science is altering the foods we eat. |
 |
Thurs. 5/15:
Mysterious Skin (2004)
(Directed by Gregg Araki)
Two young men are haunted by similar events from their past, though the effects manifest themselves in very different ways, in this powerful drama from independent filmmaker Gregg Araki. In the summer of 1981, Brian (George Webster) and Neil (Chase Ellison) are both eight years old and playing on the same little league baseball team in a small Kansas town. One day, after a game, Brian blacks out after getting caught in a rainstorm, and five hours later he finds himself sitting in his basement with his nose bleeding and no memory of what happened to him. Over the years, the event -- particularly the missing five hours -- weigh heavily on his mind, and he becomes convinced that he was kidnapped by space aliens. Teenaged Brian (now played by Brady Corbet) becomes friends with Avalyn Friesen (Mary Lynn Rajskub), a woman who claims to have been abducted by aliens on several occasions, and she urges him to look to his dreams for patterns that might suggest what happened to him. Meanwhile, during the same summer, Neil developed a powerful crush on their little league coach (Bill Sage), who appeared to have also taken a shine to Neil. Neil's mother (Elisabeth Shue), seeing nothing wrong with their friendship, lets the coach look after Neil while she's off on one of her many dates, and before long Neil begins sexually experimenting with the older man. Neil's introduction to sex inspires him to become a hustler when he grows into his teens, and after burning his bridges in his hometown, Neil (now played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his close friend Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg) move to New York, where he continues to cruise for a living but under significantly more risky circumstances. One day, Neil is contacted by Brian, who after seeing one of their team photos from their days in little league suspects he might have some clues as to what happened to him in 1981. Mysterious Skin was based on the novel by Scott Heim, and marked the first time Gregg Araki made a film that did not originate with one of his own screenplays. |
 |
Mon. 5/19:
American Dream (1990)
(Directed by Barbara Kopple)
Depicting the effects of a mid-1980s strike by the employees of a Hormel meat-packing plant in Austin, Minnesota, Barbara Kopple's Academy Award-winning documentary American Dream observes both the daily struggles of the striking workers and the behind-the-scenes conflicts amongst the union leaders. Upset at a proposed pay cut, the local union chapter begins the strike against the advice of their parent organization, hiring an outside consultant who encourages the workers. This consultant's aggressive, no-compromise approach turns the conflict into national news but also alienates management. Soon, despite the efforts of a seasoned negotiator sent by the parent union, the company has locked out the workers and hired scabs, leading to a series of violent conflicts amongst members of the community. The workers' resolve progressively fades as the battle extends into months and years, and the financial hardships they and their families suffer leads some to doubt the value of their efforts. Kopple, who had previously covered an extended miner's strike in the acclaimed 1977 documentary Harlan County, USA, focuses on the personalities and emotions behind the strike, creating a highly charged portrait of labor that is sympathetic to the workers' distress without ignoring the strike's greater ambiguities. |
 |
Thurs. 5/22:
The Silence (1963)
(Directed by Ingmar Bergman)
The third entry in Ingmar Bergman's trilogy about faith and redemption (with Through A Glass Darkly and Winter Light) is a stark and enigmatic allegory fueled by subtle performances from Ingrid Thulin and Gunnel Lindblom. Thulin plays Ester, a translator and intellectual, who is traveling back to Sweden on a train with her younger sister Anna (Linblom) and Anna's son Johan (Jorgen Lindstrom). They stop in the town of Timuku and check into an old hotel in a foreign land where the language cannot be understood by the three travelers. Ester, who suffers from a terminal lung disease, is very protective towards Anna; but Anna resents being tied down by her sickly sister, and she leaves the hotel room, picking up a waiter (Birger Malmsten in a nearby café. Returning to the hotel room, Anna tells Ester about her sexual encounter with the waiter, and Ester becomes sexually aroused. Anna leaves for another room in the hotel to continue making love with the waiter. Johan helps Ester track Anna down Anna, and Anna and the waiter proceed to make love a third time. This provokes a violent and biter argument between the two sisters. |
|
Mon. 5/26:
(No discussion due to Memorial Day holiday)
|
 |
Thurs. 5/29:
Far From Heaven (2002)
(Directed by Todd Haynes)
Maverick director Todd Haynes embraces the look and feel of classic Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s in this period drama. Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) and her husband, Frank (Dennis Quaid), are a seemingly perfect couple; living in a handsome suburban neighborhood in Hartford, CT, in 1957, Cathy and Frank have a beautiful home and two happy, healthy children, while Frank pursues a successful career in sales and Cathy cares for the home. But Cathy has begun to sense something isn't quite right in her marriage, as Frank begins working late, spending less time with her, and seems cold and distant. One day, Cathy visits Frank's work and discovers something she never expected -- her husband is kissing a man. At Cathy's urging, Frank undergoes psychotherapy, but as she tries to keep up a brave face, the emotional trauma takes a great toll on her, and she finds there are very few people she can talk with. Cathy strikes up a friendship with Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), an African-American gardener who works for the Whitakers, and as she discovers how intelligent and compassionate Raymond is, she finds herself drawn to him. However, Hartford is in many ways still a small town, and when Mona (Celia Weston) sees Cathy and Raymond alone together, it sets off a wave of vicious gossip that threatens to make the Whitakers' many secrets public knowledge. Far from Heaven premiered at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, where Julianne Moore's performance won the prize for Best Actress. |
|
|
