DECEMBER 2 – DECEMBER 8
WEEKEND
A film by Andrew Haigh
Starring Tom Cullen and Chris New 96 min, blu-ray Friday, December 02
6:30 pm 8:45 pm Saturday, December 03 4:15 pm 6:30 pm Sunday, December 04 3:00 pm Tuesday, December 06 7:00 pm Wednesday, December 07 9:00 pm Thursday, December 08 6:45pm 9:00pm |
Winner of Audience Awards at both SXSW and Outfest 2011 and the opening night selection of Brooklyn’s acclaimed BAMcinemafest, WEEKEND is a startlingly authentic love story, featuring the talents of two incredible new actors and the unique work of a fresh new voice in filmmaking, Andrew Haigh.
After meeting one lonely Friday night at a bar, Russell (Tom Cullen) and Glen (Chris New) find themselves caught up in an lost weekend full of sex, drugs, and intimate conversation. Although they have conflicting ideas of what it is they want from life and certainly how to get it, they form a startling emotional connection that will resonate throughout their lives. |
WITHIN OUR GATES (1920)
FREE FOR EVERYONE!
Directed by Oscar Micheaux
Starring Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements and James D. Ruffin 77 min, digital file Saturday, December 03
9:00 pm Sunday, December 04 5:15 pm Tuesday, December 06 9:15 pm Wednesday, December 07 7:00 pm |
This film is one of the earliest surviving films made by an African American filmmaker. Sylvia Landry is engaged to a soldier, but her rival Alma Pritchard arranges for him to catch Sylvia in an innocent but compromising situation. No longer engaged, she moves to the South to work as a teacher. When the school has financial problems, she returns to Boston to raise money for it. There, she is befriended by a doctor, Dr. Vivian, who falls in love with her. In a flashback, her rival tells the doctor how Sylvia lost her family. Sylvia’s father was unjustly accused of murder, and her parents were lynched. The only surviving print of WITHIN OUR GATES was found in an archive in Spain, and the titles had been rewritten in Spanish. |
Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3 @ 11 pm
Late Night Movies at Bijou Cinema!
BELLFLOWER
A film by Evan Glodell
Starring Evan Glodell, Jessie Wiseman and Tyler Dawson 107 min, 35 mm Friday, December 02
11:00 pm Saturday, December 03 11:00 pm |
Best friends Woodrow and Aiden spend all of their free time building MAD MAX-inspired flamethrowers and muscle cars in preparation for a global apocalypse. But when Woodrow meets a charismatic young woman and falls hard in love, he and Aiden quickly integrate into a new group of friends, setting off on a journey of love and hate, betrayal, infidelity, and extreme violence more devastating and fiery than any of their apocalyptic fantasies.
Win a free copy of the film via a raffle of attendee ticket stubs! |
Saturday, December 10 @ Midnight
CAB and Bijou Cinema present Midnight Movie Series at the Englert!
WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971)
Directed by Mel Stuart
Starring Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson and Peter Ostrum 100 min Saturday, December 10
11:59 pm |
The world is astounded when Willy Wonka, for years a recluse in his factory, announces that five lucky people will be given a tour of the factory, shown all the secrets of his amazing candy, and one will win a lifetime supply of Wonka chocolate. Nobody wants the prize more than young Charlie, but as his family is so poor that buying even one bar of chocolate is a treat, buying enough bars to find one of the five golden tickets is unlikely in the extreme. But in movieland, magic can happen. Charlie, along with four somewhat odious other children, get the chance of a lifetime and a tour of the factory. Along the way, mild disasters befall each of the odious children, but can Charlie beat the odds and grab the brass ring?
Free for UI students (w/ID) and $3 for community |
PAST FILMS
October 29 – November 10
Global Lens 2011 Film Series sponsored by The Global Film Initiative
Global Lens 2011 premieres at the Museum of Modern Art in January and is then presented in over twenty-five cities across the United States and Canada throughout the year. This series includes nine award-winning narrative feature films from Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, China, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, India, Iran and Uruguay, as well as last year’s Chairman’s Choice, OPERA JAWA, from Indonesia.
BELVEDERE
Directed by Ahmed Imamovic
Bosnian w/English subtitles, Bosnia & Herzegovina 90 min, 35 mm |
Ruveyda is like most residents of the Belvedere refugee camp: a widow yearning to forget the tragedy of war, fifteen years after the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia and Herzegovina. But unlike those around her, she spends most of her days in a bittersweet routine of caring for her extended family, and searching for the remains of her husband and son—both of which offer a precarious hope that is one day tested when her nephew is selected to participate in a reality show in a former enemy enclave. An emotionally rich portrait of war’s troubled aftermath, director Ahmed Imamovic’s film paints an uncommon image of patience, faith, love, and above all, forgiveness. |
Trailer: http://catalogue.globalfilm.org/global-lens-collection/global-lens-2011/belvedere.html
OPERA JAWA
Directed by Garin Nugroho
Indonesian w/English subtitles, Indonesia 120 min, 35 mm |
Setyo and Siti live a peaceful life as husband and wife, selling earthenware in their village. But when Setyo is called away on business, a flirtatious butcher, Ludiro, takes advantage of Siti’s loneliness to seduce her. Tempted by song and dance, Siti initially refuses his advances but acquiesces in a moment of weakness, setting the stage for an epic battle between the two men. Located in lush forests and on pristine beaches of Java, director Garin Nugroho bases his deeply imagistic and dazzling visual narrative on the The Abduction of Sita, from the Hindu epic, The Ramayana. |
THE LIGHT THIEF (Svet-Ake)
Dir. Aktan Arym Kubat
Kyrgyz w/English subtitles, Kyrgyzstan 80 min, 35 mm |
In this colorful modern-day parable of good and evil, a humble village electrician devotes his compassion and ingenuity to destitute neighbors in a wind-swept valley of Kyrgyzstan. Played with wry humanity by writer-director Aktan Arym Kubat, the trusting Mr. Light strikes a suspect bargain with a rich developer running for local office, as unemployment threatens the survival of the community. Stoking a dream to supply wind-generated electricity to the whole valley, the modest visionary comes up against an increasingly dark cloud of corruption in this affecting tale of solidarity and ordinary decency amid the injustices and hardships of a changing world. |
Soul of Sand (Pairon Talle)
Dir. Sidharth Srinivasan
Hindi w/English subtitles, India 98 min |
A watchman and his wife living at an abandoned mine find themselves trapped in the brutal schemes of their tyrannical landlord in this suspenseful, visually striking drama set on the urban outskirts of Delhi. When the landlord offers his daughter to a wealthy potential buyer of the mine, she and her lower-caste lover run away. The watchman reluctantly helps them, but a sinister masked killer dispatched to hunt down the runaways endangers them all. A searing take on the politics of caste and money in a rapidly developing economy, Sidharth Srinivasan’s eccentric thriller delves into the dark interstices between Indian modernity and tradition. |
THE TENANTS (Os Inquilinos)
Dir. Sérgio Bianchi
Portuguese w/English subtitles, Brazil 103 min |
Despite a recent wave of violent crime in the city, manual laborer and night student Valter lives a relatively content life with his family in working-class São Paulo. But when three young criminals move in next door, a bunker mentality sets in and Valter soon discovers he is not the only one perversely affected by the mounting chaos of a city under siege, or the unsettling presence of his new neighbors. Building tension throughout with stylish sequences that blend reality and fevered imagination, Sérgio Bianchi’s gripping domestic thriller offers a shrewd portrait of the social and psychological impact of urban violence, depicting a community beset yet also aroused by a permeating atmosphere of destruction. |
THE WHITE MEADOWS (Keshtzar Haye Sepid)
Dir. Mohammad Rasoulof
Farsi w/English subtitles, Iran 93 min |
In this dreamlike yet earthbound film, Rahmat the boatman navigates the increasingly brackish waters of a coastal land, collecting the heartaches and tears of its inhabitants. But he remains powerless against their misguided attempts to appease the gods and make the land green again, whether by offering a bride to the sea or forcibly “treating” the eyes of a painter who sees in different colors. Drawing firsthand on the challenges faced by Iranian artists of today, writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof’s deeply atmospheric and poetical film is a gorgeous allegory of intolerance, brutality and mystified routine that resonates far beyond any one state’s borders. |
STREET DAYS (Quchis Djeebi)
Dir. Levan Koguashvili
Georgian w/English subtitles, Georgia 86 min, 35 mm |
A middle-aged, unemployed heroin-addict, Checkie, loiters on the Tbilisi street outside his son’s school, where he himself was once a promising student. His wife, meanwhile, struggles to pay the tuition and understand her husband’s lack of interest in the family’s survival—even as the bank repossesses their furniture. But when a group of policemen blackmails Checkie into entrapping the son of his wealthy friend, husband and wife are unified by the uncertainty of their deepening moral dilemma, and a series of worsening foul-ups, in Levan Koguashvili’s lightly humorous yet realistic drama about the fate of a generation left behind in Georgia’s post-Soviet era. |
THE INVISIBLE EYE (La Mirada Invisible)
Dir. Diego Lerman
Spanish w/English subtitles, Argentina 95 min, 35 mm |
Set against the backdrop of Argentina’s military regime of the 1980s, Diego Lerman’s engrossing and beautifully acted exploration of the totalitarian urge opens with a portrait of María Teresa, a lonely and deeply repressed assistant teacher at an elite Buenos Aires private school. Obedient and willing, she accepts unquestioningly the school’s rigid code of conduct and proud identification with the nation state. But her head professor’s words about the “cancer of subversion” and need for total surveillance soon feed an unhealthy obsession with one of her students, leading to an ensuing spiral of degradation and breakdown in discipline that parallels a popular rebellion beyond the school’s ivy-covered walls. |
A USEFUL LIFE (La Vida Útil)
Dir. Federico Veiroj
This film is preceded by a 13 minute short film (also by Veiroj) entitled AS FOLLOWS Spanish w/English subtitles, Uruguay 76 min (both films included) |
After twenty-five years, Cinemateca Uruguaya’s most devoted employee, Jorge (real-life Uruguayan critic Jorge Jellinek), still finds his inspiration in caring for the films and audiences that grace the seats and screen of his beloved arthouse cinema. But when dwindling attendance and diminishing support force the theater to close its doors, Jorge is sent into a world he knows only through the lens of art—and suddenly forced to discover a new passion that transcends his once-celluloid reality. Stylishly framed in black-and-white with brilliantly understated performances, Federico Veiroj’s sly and loving homage to the soul of cinema is a universally appealing gem and knowing charmer about life after the movies. |
DOOMAN RIVER
Dir. Zhang Lu
Korean and Mandarin w/English subtitles, China 89 min, 35 mm |
Writer-director Zhang Lu’s fascinating window into a rarely seen corner of rural China revolves around 12-year-old Chang-ho, living with his grandfather and mute sister along the frozen river-border with North Korea. Although fraught with unemployment and other tensions, his community seems sympathetic toward the Korean refugees fleeing famine and misery; Chang-ho even bonds over soccer with one young border-crosser who comes scavenging food for a sibling. But he soon turns on his new friend as suspicions mount against the illegal immigrants and his sister reels from unexpected aggression, provoking a quandary over his loyalties in an exquisitely detailed story of compassion and strife across an uneasy geopolitical border. |
Trailer: http://catalogue.globalfilm.org/global-lens-collection/global-lens-2011/dooman-river.html
Friday, November 4 @ 7pm – FREE FOR EVERYONE
7th Annual Japan Foundation Film Series: Young Starlets of Japanese Cinemas
Presented by the Center for Asian Pacific Studies, the Institute of Cinema and Culture, UI International Programs and the Japan Foundation
KAMIKAZE GIRLS
Directed by Nakashima Tetsuya
Starring Kyôko Fukada, Anna Tsuchiya and Hiroyuki Miyasako Japanese w/English subtitles 103 min, 35 mm |
Momoko (pop idol Kyoko Fukada, pictured above) yearns to live in 18-century Versailles than in her back-country hometown of Shimotsuma, heartland of the yakuza. To escape, she loses herself in the dreamy, doll-like fashions of the “Lolita” scene. Her idol is Akinori Isobe, chief designer of Baby, the Stars Shine Bright—her favorite Lolita design hose. She travels all the way to Tokyo to shop at their store. |
One languid summer, to help fund her expensive hobby, Momoko runs a classified ad of brand-name knock-off clothes (produced by her dad) for sale.She encounters a buyer named Ichiko (the real name is Ichigo), who happens to live in her neighborhood.
Super-rebel Ichiko (model and J-rock icon Anna Tsuchiya, pictured below), is a “Yankee”-style member of the Ponytails motorbike gang, one of Ibaraki’s “Wild speed tribes,” whose teeth-rattling customized bikes are decked out with fiberglass shields and bannered backrests.
Somewhat against Momoko’s will, she and Ichigo slowly develop a strong friendship as they share their feelings on the odd goings-ons around them.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbFEPS8PPic&feature=related
Saturday, November 5 @ Midnight
CAB and Bijou Cinema present Midnight Movie Series at the Englert!
DONNIE DARKO (2001)
Directed by Richard Kelly
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone and Mary McDonnell 113 min |
A quintessential midnight movie if there ever was one, DONNIE DARKO is a spooky mix of psychological slow-burn and sci-fi head-scratch, with a dash of 80s nostalgia thrown in to keep things from getting too heavy. Jake Gyllenhaal does well as Donnie, an apparently troubled teen, and the eclectic cast of supporters features a few familiar faces, with Jena Malone as Gretchen, his potential love interest, and the late, great Patrick Swayze as a motivational speaker with a secret. Set in the fall of 1988, the film begins with Donnie narrowly avoiding a grisly death in a bizarre accident. He survives only through the intervention of a mysterious messenger, Frank, who then informs him that the world will end in a matter of weeks. As Donnie goes about his teenaged life dealing with family, teachers, therapists, pals, girls, and bullies, he tries to make sense of what Frank tells him about time travel, and to figure out what his role in the scheme of things might be. With a killer soundtrack and an eerie atmosphere that defies comparison to any other movie, missing this one by sitting at home in your room would be simply disastrous. |
Free for UI students (w/ID) and $3 for community
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wqVHjK2bQs
Thursday, November 10 @ 10pm – FREE FOR EVERYONE
STUDENT SHOWCASE
Approximately 120 min
|
A film showcase for undergraduate UI students to present their work. The top three films win prizes! |
NOVEMBER 11 – NOVEMBER 17
THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE, 1967-1975
A film by Göran Hugo Olsson
92 min, blu-ray |
THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the US drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement—Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them—the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews. Thirty years later, this lush collection was found languishing in the basement of Swedish Television. Director Göran Olsson and co-producer Danny Glover bring this footage to light in a mosaic of images, music and narration chronicling the evolution one of our nation’s most indelible turning points, the Black Power movement. Music by Questlove and Om’Mas Keith, and commentary from prominent African- American artists and activists who were influenced by the struggle — including Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli, and Melvin Van Peebles — give the historical footage a fresh, contemporary resonance and makes the film an exhilarating, unprecedented account of an American revolution.
Trailer: http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/the-black-power-mixtape |
ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (1959)
FREE FOR EVERYONE!
Directed by Bernard L. Kowalski
Starring Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers and Jan Shepard 63 min, digital file |
In a community near a swamp, a local dweller spots a couple of giant monsters but no one believes him. Later, Dave Walker finds his wife Liz Walker cheating on him with his friend Cal Moulton. He chases the couple through the swamp, and forces them to jump into the water. The leeches attack them, and the shocked Dave is arrested, accused of murder. Two other locals decide to look for the bodies of Liz and Cal to win the prize of $50 per body, and also vanish in the swamp. Finally, game warden Steve Benton organizes a patrol to investigate the caves under the swamp, finding the lethal giant leeches. |
Friday, November 11 and Saturday, November 12 @ 11 pm
Late Night Movies at Bijou Cinema!
TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL
Directed by Eli Craig
Starring Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk 88 min, blu-ray |
TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL is a hilariously gory, good-spirited horror comedy, doing for killer rednecks what Shaun of the Dead did for zombies. Tucker and Dale are two best friends on vacation at their dilapidated mountain house, who are mistaken for murderous backwoods hillbillies by a group of obnoxious, preppy college kids. When one of the students gets separated from her friends, the boys try to lend a hand, but as the misunderstanding grows, so does the body count. TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL has been a hit on the festival circuit, debuting at Sundance, and winning the Midnight Audience Award at SXSW, the Jury Prize for First Feature at Fantasia, the Best Director award at Fantaspoa, and the Best Motion Picture Award at Sitges. |
Wednesday, November 16 @ 7 pm – FREE FOR EVERYONE!
THE LAST MOUNTAIN
A film by Bill Haney
95 min |
In the valleys of Appalachia, a battle is being fought over a mountain. It is a battle with severe consequences that affect every American, regardless of their social status, economic background or where they live. It is a battle that has taken many lives and continues to do so the longer it is waged. It is a battle over protecting our health and environment from the destructive power of Big Coal.
The mining and burning of coal is at the epicenter of America’s struggle to balance its energy needs with environmental concerns. Nowhere is that concern greater than in Coal River Valley, West Virginia, where a small but passionate group of ordinary citizens are trying to stop Big Coal corporations, like Massey Energy, from continuing the devastating practice of Mountain Top Removal. The film will be followed by a Q&A session over Skype with the film’s director, Bill Haney! Sponsored by REACT to FILM. For more information go to www.REACTtoFILM.com |
Trailer: http://thelastmountainmovie.com/
Saturday, November 19 @ Midnight
CAB and Bijou Cinema present Midnight Movie Series at the Englert!
THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)
Directed by Joel Coen
Starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Julianne Moore 117 min |
A movie that began as a box office flop from Joel and Ethan Coen, and has since become a cult behemoth, THE BIG LEBOWSKI tells the shaggy dog tale of Jeff Lebowski, or as he prefers to be known: The Dude (Jeff Bridges). After a case of mistaken identity pulls him into the middle of a complex kidnapping scheme, The Dude somewhat reluctantly embarks on a series of increasingly odd misadventures. Along with his two bowling buddies, the devout Jewish convert and Vietnam veteran Walter (John Goodman), and the hapless and constantly “out of his element” Donny (Steve Buscemi), The Dude does his slacker best to pick apart the tightly woven and complex plan. Featuring signature Coen brothers dialogue with infinitely quotable one-liners, THE BIG LEBOWSKI has resonated with audiences far beyond the fortunate few to have seen it in theaters. A telling indicator of the devotion this movie inspires is the existence of something called Lebowski Fest, a multi-city celebration of all things Dude, from bowling, to white Russians, to bathrobes. Whether you’re a seasoned Lebowski fanatic eager to finally catch this one on the big screen, or you’re a newcomer to the world of The Dude who’d like to see what all the buzz is about, here’s your chance. Free for UI students (w/ID) and $3 for community |
