Cinema Series Blog
May | NYC | Broadway Danny Rose
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
Synopsis: A hapless talent manager named Danny Rose, by helping a client, gets dragged into a love triangle involving the mob. His story is told in flashback, an anecdote shared amongst a group of comedians over lunch at New York's Carnegie Deli.
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Allen, Forte, and especially Farrow all do strong work with characters that could have easily become stereotypes, and the film has a lighter, warmer touch than the Allen films that preceded it (Stardust Memories and Zelig). ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
Archived 2011 Film List
Please feel free to use this list of films as a great resource when making your selections.
Email: Meaghan@iamny.org with questions.
This list has been curated by the IAM staff with contributions from Adam Tyson, Jeffrey Leiser, and Chelsea Miller.
2011
January: Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman)
February: Get Low (Aaron Schneider)
March: Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy) Download the Discussion Guide
April: Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)
May: Vivre Sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard)
June: The Cool School (Morgan Neville) Download the Discussion Guide
Summer Break
September: The Visitor ( Thomas McCarthy)
October: Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
November: Le Quattro Volte (Michelangelo Frammartino)
December: It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra)
The Manga of Miyazaki
Coming to our Cinema Series on October 28th to see Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away?"
Check out this article found on MetaFilter,The Manga of Miyazaki, that talks about Miyazaki's unknown work in manga and illustrated story books.
September | NYC | Blade Runner
Blade Runner (1983)
Deckard, a blade runner, has to track down and terminate 4 replicants who hijacked a ship in space and have returned to earth seeking their maker.
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
"As a display terminal for the wizardry of Designers Lawrence G. Paull, Douglas Trumbull and Syd Mead, the movie delivers." --Time
"The film still represents the cutting edge of dark science fiction." -- Colin Covert
February | NYC | Paris, Texas
Paris, Texas (1983)
Synopsis: A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his wife and son four years before. As his memory returns, he makes contact with various people from his past.
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Paris, Texas is that rare thing: a movie of intelligence and beauty and poetry, but also based on emotionally believable characters and a forward-moving, narrative thrust. -Combustible Celluloid
One of the few films that has captured the beauty of the American southwest in all its rolling desert glory. -DVDTown.com
January | NYC | Solaris
Solaris (1976)
Synopsis: This film probes man's thoughts and conscience, as it follows a psychologist who is sent to a space station situated over the mysterious Solaris Ocean. The two other scientists there tell the psychologist of strange occurrences in the station, and the Ocean's eerie ability to materialize their thoughts. After being in the station for a while, the psychologist finds himself becoming very attached to its alternate reality...
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
A visionary science-fiction film that takes us on a profound voyage into both outer and inner space. - Chicago Tribune
This complex and sometimes very beautiful film is about humanity but hardly at all about politics. -New York Times
Andrei Tarkovsky spins a strange, slow but absorbing parable on life and love in the guise of a sci-fi theme. - Variety
December | NYC | It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Synopsis: An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have been like if he never existed.
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Combine the characters, the story, the message, and the acting, and it's easy to see why It's a Wonderful Life isn't just a holiday favorite, but a great movie by almost any standards. -ReelViews
A genuine American classic. - Guardian (UK)
What is remarkable about It's a Wonderful Life is how well it holds up over the years; it's one of those ageless movies... - Chicago Sun-Times
November | NYC | Le Quattro Volte
Le Quattro Volte (2011)
Synopsis: A beautiful combination of an old man's struggle to continue his goathearding life; the birth of a baby goats; a tree which becomes charcoal; and the lives of the simple people in the hills of Calabria. We see the stages of life through beautiful imagery at times dramatic and at times comical.
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
The film's apparent simplicity is, in large measure, its charm and its universal appeal. - Austin Chronicle
It is an essay, a cinematic poem, a spiritual exploration of time and space, and it's designed to make us think and feel about the world around us and our place in it. - Guardian (UK)
Beautifully shot and featuring some highly impressive animal wrangling, Le Quattro Volte is a bizarre arthouse film that's thought-provoking, surprisingly moving and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. - ViewLondon
October | NYC | Spirited Away
Spirited Away (2001)
Synopsis: Director Hayao Miyazaki creates a fantasy adventure with a ten year-old girl, which starts in everyday Japan but goes somewhere very different. A tunnel and haunted town lead to a mysterious land. Finding friends and allies, Chihiro (or Sen, as she's now called) finds inner strengths and establishes an identity in this strange world. But can she win back her name and return home?
IGVP Responds to "Get Low"
IGVP is a guild of visual communicators devoted to peacemaking and breaking down stereotypes by displaying the beauty and dignity of various cultures around the world.
"The International Guild of Visual Peacemakers (IGVP) was created to build bridges of peace across ethnic, cultural, and religious lines through visual communication that is both accountable to an ethical standard and created by those who authentically care about people.
IGVP founders and volunteers support these visual communicators by promoting their work, providing a synergistic community, providing an ethical standard with accountability, and other types of practical support.
They encourage respectful discussion about hard topics among people who disagree yet work together for the good of our world. To promote diversity, authenticity, and accountability, we urge members to explore their peacemaking motives and to openly share their convictions with respect and humility.
IGVP is a collaborative peacemaking movement owned by every contributing member as well as the photographic subjects themselves, ultimately producing mutual respect and peace in contexts of endless diversity."
Interested in hosting an IAM film night in your city, contact meaghan@iamny.org.
One Theme, Many Stories
In documentary storytelling we are often first compelled by a certain theme we want to explore. When approaching Visual Peacemaking specifically, we draw some boundaries around which themes will lead to effective stories and which ones won't. Some themes lead to excellent stories but have no relevance to Visual Peacemaking--defined as breaking down stereotypes (or myths) about the "other" by displaying hope and shared humanity, and by telling stories that offer alternative perspectives.
I recently viewed a fiction film layered with themes. But one in particular stood out to me. This one theme could be explored time and time again, from multiple angles, in multiple contexts, and give birth to Visual Peacemaking stories.
The film, which I highly recommend, is Get Low (by Aaron Schneider). The protagonist, Old Man Bush, has made himself a recluse as a sort of penance for past actions which he cannot "fix." By choosing this life in the woods, the surrounding townspeople develop negative myths and stories about him. When Bush seeks to throw a funeral party while still alive, seemingly to set some things straight, he and Buddy Robinson, his funeral coordinator, have a conversation that reveals the theme I am referring to.
Buddy says to the long-bearded hermit, "I also think people are so scared about what they don't know, they make things up to feel better about it." (approx 19:05)
The unknown leads to myths, which lead to fear, which lead to worse fear-mongering myths. It all begins with the unknown. And it can all change when the truth is revealed, which Old Man Bush seeks to accomplish in his own stubborn, manipulative, and vacilating way as he pursues throwing a massive funeral party for himself. But when we learn about his past, the complexity of the circumstances, and depth of his sorrow, we and the townspeople empathize. And from there new beginnings and healing are possible.