PROGRAM NOTES
AUGUST - SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2007
AUGUST 10 - 16 (ONE WEEK)
KILLER OF SHEEP (4:30, 6:15, 8:00)
Dir. Charles Burnett - 1977 - 80m
KILLER OF SHEEP examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse. Frustrated by money problems, he finds respite in moments of simple beauty: the warmth of a teacup against his cheek, slow dancing with his wife, holding his daughter. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life — sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humor. The film was shot in roughly a year of weekends on a budget of less than $10,000, paid for partially by a Louis B. Mayer grant of $3,000, and also out of the pocket of Burnett himself, who at the time was working at a small, boutique casting agency by the name of Chasin, Park & Citron. Shot on location with a mostly amateur cast, much handheld camera work, and an episodic narrative with gritty documentary-style cinematography, Killer of Sheep has been compared by film critics and scholars to Italian neorealist films like Vittorio De Sica’s BICYCLE THIEVES and Roberto Rossellini’s PAISAN. Burnett cites Basil Wright’s SONGS OF CEYLON and NIGHT MAIL and Jean Renoir’s THE SOUTHERNER as his main influences. Burnett would later go on to such masterpieces as TO SLEEP WITH ANGER and MY BROTHER’S WEDDING.
KILLER OF SHEEP played at a handful of colleges and festivals in before receiving the Critics’ Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1981. In 1990, the Library of Congress declared the film a national treasure and placed it among the first 50 films entered in the National Film Registry for its historical significance. In 2002, the National Society of Film Critics selected the film as one of the 100 essential films of all time. Despite these accolades, KILLER OF SHEEP never saw widespread commercial distribution due to the expense of the clearing of the music rights to the songs featured on the film’s soundtrack. In its rare viewings at festivals and museums it was shown on ragged 16mm prints. Now, thirty years later, the sparkling 35mm restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive is ready for its long-awaited theatrical release.
AUGUST 17 - 20 (FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY)
TEN CANOES (4:00, 6:30, 8:30)
Dir. Rolf De Heer - 2007 - 90m
In Mandalpingu and other Aboriginal Languages with English Subtitles
“Once upon a time, in a land far far away…” Our narrator, David Gulpilil (WALKABOUT, THE LAST WAVE), begins the film with these words, then bursts out laughing. We’re in Arnhem Land, in Australian’s Northern Territory. Minygululu (Peter Minygululu) is leading a group of men upriver for a goose-egg hunt in the crocodile-infested Arafura Wetlands. Minygululu has noticed that the youngest of the party, Dayindi (Gulpilil) has his eye on the third of Minygululu’s wives. As this is a potential breach of tribal law, Minygululu tells Dayindi a story of his own ancestors, a cautionary tale of a young man, Yeeralparil (Jamie Gulpilil) who desires one of the wives of his older brother Ridjimiraril (Crusoe Kurddal). TEN CANOES is a unique film, told entirely from the Aboriginals’ perspective, telling stories within stories, shot through with moments of drama and an infectious earthy humor.
Director De Heer collaborated closely with the Ramingining people in generating the script, and most of the cast are first-time actors. This unusual film takes as its starting point archival photographs taken by anthropologist-photographer Donald Thomson in the late 1930s in Arnhem Land. The construction of a feature film from still photographs raises important questions: Does its inspiration in archival photographs make the film more authoritative as a document of history or of scientific evidence? Does the feature film bring the photographs to life, or rather does it conflate important differences of visual image production and consumption between Thomson’s time and now?
AUGUST 21 - 23 (TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY)
STRANGE CULTURE (4:30, 6:30, 8:30)
Dir. Lynn Hershman-Leeson - 2007 - 75m - video
The surreal nightmare of internationally-acclaimed artist andprofessor Steve Kurtz began when his wife, Hope, died in her sleep of heart failure. Medics arrived, became suspicious of Kurtz’s art, and called the FBI. Within hours the artist was detained as a suspected “bioterrorist”, as dozens of agents in Hazmat suits sifted through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, cat, and even his wife’s body. Today Kurtz and his long-time collaborator Dr. Robert Ferrell, former Chair of the Genetics Department at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, await a trial date. Lynn Hersman-Leeson has crafted a unique part-documentary/part-narrative look at the cruel side of the post-September-11 climate of fear, featuring Tilda Swinton, Thomas Jay Ryan and Josh Kornbluth, as well as Steve Kurtz, himself.
AUGUST 24 - 30 (ONE WEEK)
10 QUESTIONS FOR THE DALAI LAMA (FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00 / MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY: 4:30, 6:30, 8:30)
Dir. Rick Ray - 2007 - 85m - video
Why do the poor often seem happier than the rich? Must a society lose its traditions in order to move into the future? How do you reconcile a commitment to non-violence when faced with violence? These are some of the questions posed to His Holiness the Dalai Lama by filmmaker and explorer Rick Ray. Ray examines some of the fundamental questions of our time by weaving together observations from his own journeys throughout India and the Middle East, and the wisdom of an extraordinary spiritual leader. In an era when many religious and political leaders are viewed with suspicion, and when cynical agendas rule both government and clergy, the Dalai Lama is undeniably authentic. Along with Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Jesus, this great leader inspires millions and has influenced the world in so many ways. This is his story, as told and filmed by Rick Ray during a private visit to his monastery in Dharamsala, India over the course of several months. Also included is rare historical footage as well as footage supplied by individuals who at great personal risk, filmed with hidden cameras within Tibet. Part biography, part philosophy, part adventure and part politics, 10 QUESTIONS FOR THE DALAI LAMA conveys more than history and more than answers - it opens a window into the heart of a great man.
AUGUST 24 & 25 (FRIDAY AND SATURDAY)
Alibi Midnight Movie Madness Presents - From Takashi Miike:
ZEBRAMAN (10:45 PM - NOTE CORRECTED START TIME)
Dir. Takashi Miike - 2004 - 115m - In Japanese with English Subtitles
Being a failure as a teacher and a familyman, Shinichi tries to escape everyday live by dressing up as "Zebraman", the superhero. Although the TV series whas canceled after only 6 episodes, this cannot stop him from acting out his escape fantasy in a self made zebra-suit. He get's more then he could ever wish for, when his black-and-white dressed alter-ego seems to be the only thing to stand between absolute (green) evil and a happy ending.
AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 6 (ONE WEEK)
LA VIE EN ROSE (FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: 1:30, 4:15, 7:00 / MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY: 2:30, 5:15, 8:00)
Dir. Olivier Dahan - 2006 - 140m - In French with English Subtitles
A swirling, impressionistic portrait of an artist who regretted nothing, writer-director Olivier Dahan’s LA VIE EN ROSE stars 2005 Cesar Award-winner Marion Cotillard (A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, A GOOD YEAR) in a blazing performance as the legendary French icon Edith Piaf. Perhaps finding her nearest American analogues in figures such as Judy Garland and Billie Holiday, the tragic story of the world-famous chanteuse is worthy of a 19th Century novel by Zola or Balzac. Born into abject poverty, surrounded by street performers, hookers, and pimps, Piaf’s magical voice made her a star on both sides of the Atlantic. From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York’s most famous concert halls, Piaf’s life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. LA VIE EN ROSE co-stars Gerard Depardieu, Emmanuelle Seigner, and Jean Paul Rouve.
AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 2 (FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY)
WORLD PREMIERE!
Alibi Midnight Movie Madness Presents
NECROVILLE (FRIDAY/SATURDAY: 10:00 PM, Midnight / SUNDAY: 10:00 PM)
Dirs. Billy Garberina & Richard Griffin - 2007 - 90m
This is the story of a town in New Mexico inexpicably overrun with horrors of the night. But despite the pervasive infestation of Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, Chupacabra and others, life goes on. Necroville is not a story about the fall of civilization or even a post apocalyptic society, rather, a comedy that takes it a look at how even the worst of horrors can be an everyday commonplace nuisance. Shot entirely on location in and around Albuquerque, New Mexico, this epic slacker-horror comedy took roughly seventeen days to complete production in April 2005. Indie film veteran Richard Griffin (Director of Feeding The Masses, Raving Maniacs and the upcoming Seepage) teamed up with Billy Garberina (Co-Director of Collecting Rooftops) to co-direct Necroville. Newcomer Adam Jarmon Brown and Billy Garberina throw down to co-write and co-star with all horror SFX created by the legendary Scott Phillips (Director of The Stink Of Flesh).
SEPTEMBER 7 - 13 (ONE WEEK) - BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
INTO GREAT SILENCE (FRIDAY & SATURDAY: MATINEE ONLY! 3:30 / SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY: 1:00, 4:15, 7:30)
(Die Große Stille) Dir. Philip Groning - 2006 - 162m - France/Germany/Switzerland - in minimal French with English subtitles
Nestled deep in the postcard-perfect French Alps, the Grande Chartreuse is considered one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries. In 1984, German filmmaker Philip Groning wrote to the Carthusian order for permission to make a documentary about them. They said they would get back to him. Sixteen years later, they were ready. Groning, sans crew or artificial lighting, lived in the monks’ quarters for six months—filming their daily prayers, tasks, rituals and rare outdoor excursions. This transcendent, closely observed film seeks to embody a monastery, rather than simply depict one—it has no score, no voiceover and no archival footage. What remains is stunningly elemental: time, space and light. One of the most mesmerizing and poetic chronicles of spirituality ever created, INTO GREAT SILENCE dissolves theborder between screen and audience with a total immersion into the hush of monastic life. More meditation than documentary, it’s a rare, transformative theatrical experience for all.
“The idea of removing yourself entirely from the world is a radical one, and Mr. Groning approaches it with fascination and a measure of awe. You surrender to INTO GREAT SILENCE as you would to a piece of music, noting the repetitions and variations, encountering surprises just when you think you’ve figured out the pattern. By the end, what you have learned is impossible to sum up, but your sense of the world is nonetheless perceptibly altered.”
- A.O. Scott, The New York Times
SEPTEMBER 7 & 8 (FRIDAY & SATURDAY)
ALBUQUERQUE PREMIERE - DIRECTOR JIM FINN IN PERSON FOR FRIDAY SHOWS!
LA TRINCHERA LUMINOSA DEL PRESIDENTE GONZALO (THE SHINING TRENCH OF CHAIRMAN GONZALO) (7:00, 8:45)
Dir. Jim Finn - 2007 - 60m - video
La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo is a recreation of one day at the Canto Grande prison in Peru, following women guerrillas from the Maoist Shining Path movement in their morning marches to their bedtime chants. Kept isolated in their own cellblocks, the guerrillas refused to acknowledge that were imprisoned. Their cellblocks were another front in the People’s War: “shining trenches of combat”. This film shows the intense indoctrination and belief system of the brutal Latin American insurgency.
When members of the Peruvian Maoist revolutionary-terrorist group the Shining Path were captured and imprisoned, the authorities isolated them in their own cellblocks. The guerrillas thought of government prisons as just another front in the People’s War calling them “shining trenches of combat”. The prisoners organized propaganda, literature, and military classes as well as marches, criticism sessions, and dances. The Shining Path was known to recruit heavily among highland Indians and women. It had the highest proportion of women commanders in Latin American guerrilla history. One of the key roles for women, for example, was to perform the coup-de-grace on a wounded victim.
Structured roughly along the pace and schedule of a Catholic mass, the film is filled with the esoteric rituals and dogmatic political theology creating by their leader, the former philosophy professor Chairman Gonzalo. “La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo” was shot in Hi-8 analog as if it were an amateur video made perhaps by the prisoners themselves in the late 80s. The location for the film was the New Mexico State Fairgrounds’ 4H Youth Dormitory in the middle of Albuquerque. We painted it with Maoist murals and cast actors in New Mexico who could speak Spanish or Navajo (Dine’). Navajo is used because so much of the recruitment for the Shining Path was done in among the Quechua, Ayamara and other Indian groups. Though the film is heavily researched and even uses sections of interviews and poems from guerrillas, it is a fictional film. In this fictionalized Shining Path world, Navajo is spoken in prison. The Navajo actors translated scenes from Macbeth into tape recorders and played it back to better the translation and memorize the dialogue. They helped create the performance as well as the sets for the Revolutionary Theater piece within the film. The rehearsals and choreography for the film were worked out with the help of Working Classroom, an Albuquerque theater group for artists from marginalized communities. Many of the actors were trained there and the collaboration with the organization helped create a real sense of community on the set.
SEPTEMBER 14 - 17 (FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY)
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES (4:30, 6:30, 8:30)
Dir. Jennifer Baichwal - 2006 - 90m
Winner of Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris. The film follows him through China as he shoots the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution. With breathtaking sequences, such as the opening tracking shot through an almost endless factory, the filmmakers also extend the narratives of Burtynsky’s photographs, allowing us to meditate on our impact on the planet and witness both the epicenters of industrial endeavor and the dumping grounds of its waste. As a result, MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES powerfully shifts our consciousness about the world and the way we live in it, without simplistic judgments or reductive resolutions. It is a superlative piece of documentary filmmaking, calling to mind other similarly evocative artist portraits such as RIVERS AND TIDES and TOUCH THE SOUND.
ENCORE SCREENING
SEPTEMBER 14 (FRIDAY)
GIMME SKELTER (10:30 PM ONLY)
All Seats $7
Dir. Scott Phillips - 2007
Another chance to see the latest splatter-horror epic from Albuquerque's own Scott Phillips and company. GIMME SKELTER is about a group of characters in a small, sleepy New Mexico town, particularly Todd Aherne and his girlfriend Jonda. Through a terrible mistake, Todd puts his relationship with Jonda in jeopardy. And when the town is besieged by a group of would-be serial killers led by a man who may very well be the son of Charles Manson, Todd must suffer trials he never imagined in order to save Jonda -- and himself. Co-stars Gunnar Hansen, best known as "Leatherface" from THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and cult movie icon Trent Haaga (Troma Films' CITIZEN TOXIE and screenwriter of the upcoming POOR THINGS starring Shirley MacLaine).
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
SEPTEMBER 15 & 16 (SATURDAY & SUNDAY)
PLAGUES & PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA (2:30 PM)
All Seats $5
Dirs. Chris Metzler & Jeff Springer - 2006 - 73m - video
A festival hit, the unconventional and often humorous PLAGUES AND PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA is one of the most beguiling and entertaining documentaries around. Once known as the “California Riviera”, the Salton Sea is also one of America’s worst ecological disasters: a fetid, stagnant, salty lake, coughing up dead fish and birds by the thousands. Yet, a few hardy eccentrics hang on to hope, including a man building a religious mountain out of mud and paint, beer-loving Hungarian Revolutionary Hunky Daddy, and the real-estate “Ronald McDonald” known simply as The Landman. Through their perceptions and misperceptions, the strange history and unexpected beauty of the Salton Sea is revealed. “Accidentally” created by an engineering error in 1905, reworked in the 1950’s as a world class vacation destination for the rich and famous, and then suddenly abandoned after a series of hurricanes, floods, and fish die-offs, the Salton Sea has a bittersweet past. Now amongst the ruins of this man-made mistake, these few remaining people struggle to keep a remodelled version of the dream alive. While PLAGUES & PLEASURES covers the historical, economic, political, and environmental issues that face the sea, it more importantly offers up an offbeat portrait of the eccentric and individualistic people who populate its shores.
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
SEPTEMBER 17 - 23 (MONDAY THROUGH SUNDAY)
LA VIE EN ROSE (ONE DAILY MATINEE ONLY: 1:45)
Dir. Olivier Dahan - 2006 - 140m - In French with English Subtitles
A swirling, impressionistic portrait of an artist who regretted nothing, writer-director Olivier Dahan’s LA VIE EN ROSE stars 2005 Cesar Award-winner Marion Cotillard (A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, A GOOD YEAR) in a blazing performance as the legendary French icon Edith Piaf. Perhaps finding her nearest American analogues in figures such as Judy Garland and Billie Holiday, the tragic story of the world-famous chanteuse is worthy of a 19th Century novel by Zola or Balzac. Born into abject poverty, surrounded by street performers, hookers, and pimps, Piaf’s magical voice made her a star on both sides of the Atlantic. From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York’s most famous concert halls, Piaf’s life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. LA VIE EN ROSE co-stars Gerard Depardieu, Emmanuelle Seigner, and Jean Paul Rouve.
SEPTEMBER 18 - 20 (TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY)
¡GLOBALQUERQUE! AT THE GUILD
For the second year in a row, Albuquerque’s own music and culture fest, ¡Globalquerque!, comes to the Guild with a cinematic companion to their music programming. This year we present a 2-for-1 double feature of two local premieres. See full Globalquerque schedule at www.globalquerque.com
BREAKING THE SILENCE: MUSIC IN AFGHANISTAN (5:40, 8:40)
The story of the return of music to Kabul, filmed just a few weeks after the fall of the Taliban. Their strict interpretation of Islamic law represented an unprecedented attack on music - instruments were banned, broken and burned, TV was forbidden and women singers outlawed. Through powerful personal stories, this documentary looks at why music was banned and what the effect was on musicians and ordinary people as we see the life and the soul of this devastated country beginning to return. Directed by Simon Broughton. (60m)
LOS ZAFIROS: MUSIC FROM THE EDGE OF TIME (7:00)
To those whose lives they briefly touched, Los Zafiros (The Sapphires) are legends. A musical phenomenon molded by their time and place, The Sapphires caused a sensation in Havana and beyond throughout the 1960’s and into the early ’70’s. Though they enjoyed international acclaim, touring widely throughout Eastern & Western Europe, the group has remained in relative obscurity outside of Cuba. This new documentary explores the memories of Manuel Galban and Miguel Cancio, the two surviving members of Los Zafiros, as they are reunited in Havana. The film also features the perspectives of numerous Zafiros family members in Miami and Havana, international musicologists, and musical colleagues of the group. Directed by Lorenzo Destefano. (79m) Co-Presented with the U.S.-Cuba Cultural Exchange and NHCC.
SEPTEMBER 21 - 24 (FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY)
TORTILLA HEAVEN (4:30, 6:30, 8:30)
Dir. Judy Hecht Dumontet - 2007 - 94m
A locally made story of God, Greed, and the American Dream. Welcome to Falfúrrias, New Mexico... population 73: a tightly-knit community revolving around church, family, and fresh Mexican food – and not necessarily in that order. Across the plaza from the church is the town’s only restaurant, called Tortilla Heaven. Its owner and proprietor, Isidor Navarro, makes the very best food in all of New Mexico. But no one knows about it — except for the 72 other people who live in the town. Why? Because Falfúrrias is 3 miles from the highway, and the only thing linking them to the rest of humanity is, as they call it, a pinche dirt road. One Sunday, while the rest of town prays the Lord’s Mass, Isidor makes tortillas for the lunchtime crowd. But today he’s having trouble with the dough. He rolls it, slaps it, slams it; yet time and again one tortilla comes out wrong. And when he tosses it on the grill, a particularly holy apparition appears on its face. It is undoubtedly a miracle in the most unlikely of places... and, of course, you can’t keep a miracle secret.
SEPTEMBER 21 & 22 (FRIDAY & SATURDAY)
Alibi Midnight Movie Madness Presents
BLACK SHEEP (10:30 PM)
ALL SEATS $7
Dir. Jonathan King - 2007 - 87m - New Zealand
Terrified of sheep and dosed up on therapy, Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister) returns to his family's farm to sell out to his older brother Angus (Peter Feeney), unaware that something baaaad is going on: Angus' reckless genetic engineering program. When a pair of inept environmental activists release a mutant lamb from Angus' laboratory onto the farm, thousands of sheep are turned into bloodthirsty predators. Along with farmhand Tucker (Tammy Davis) and greenie girl Experience (Danielle Mason), Henry finds himself stranded deep on the farm as his worst nightmare comes to life. Battling their way to safety the intrepid trio discover there's worse to come: one bite from an infected sheep seems to have alarming effect on those bitten. With Angus acting suspiciously sheepish, a delegation of international investors gathering at the homestead and a ravenous flock descending from the hills, Henry must find the farmer within to wrest control of the farm from his monstrous brother, defeat an ovine invasion and save New Zealand's pastures green.
SEPTEMBER 25 - 27 (TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY)
ABEL RAISES CAIN (4:30, 6:30, 8:30)
PLUS: A SPECIAL PEEK AT LEGENDARY “ABSURD IMPOSTERS” COYLE & SHARPE
Dir. Jenny Abel - 2005 - 82m - video
A hilarious documentary profiling “The World’s Greatest Hoaxer” as only a daughter could tell it. As far back as she can remember, Jenny Abel has seen her father appear on television under a variety of aliases, fooling news reporters and talk show hosts. He was continually plotting new ways to infiltrate the media with one of his seemingly absurd causes. Throughout the years, people have accused him of being a scam artist or an impostor. But to Jenny, he was always just a father with a unique profession. Alan Abel, by trade, is a professional prankster. His hoaxing career began in the late 1950s with a campaign to clothe all animals for the sake of decency. Even though it was a satirical commentary on censorship, his slogan, “A nude horse is a rude horse,” was plastered on the front page of newspapers all over the country. Fueled by the overwhelming response he received from this simple yet silly idea, Abel continued concocting a myriad of elaborate hoaxes and schemes, all designed to provoke and amuse. Permeating the airwaves with such stunts as Euthanasia Cruises and the KKK Symphony Orchestra, he has never been afraid to go to ridiculous lengths in order to expose what he believes to be an injustice. ABEL RAISES CAIN attempts to explain the true motives behind Alan’s hoaxes and, in the process, allows for a different perspective on how the media operates. The film echoes Abel’s ultimate message — that you can't believe everything you see, read or hear.
SEPTEMBER 28 - OCTOBER 4 (ONE WEEK)
CLOSET CINEMA PRESENTS:
SOUTHWEST GAY & LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2007
Fri, Sep 28
7:00 PM: Bubble, The (115 min.)
9:45: Four Letter Word, A (87 min.)
12:00 Midnight: You Belong to Me (82 min.)
Sat, Sep 29
1:00 PM: In Sickness and in Health (70 min.)
3:00 PM: Another Woman (106 min.)
5:15 PM: Four Letter Word, A (87 min.)
7:15 PM Triple X Selects: The Best of Lezsploitation (47 min.)
9:30 PM: DarkBlueAlmostBlack (105 min.)
12:00 Midnight: Xanadu (93 min.)
Sun, Sep. 30
1:00 PM: Youth Shorts (78 min.)
2:45 PM: Foreign Bodies (75 min.)
4:45 PM: Bears (80 min.)
6:45 PM: Two Sides of the Bed (108 min.)
9:00 PM: Holding Trevor (88 min.)
Mon, Oct 1
5:00 PM: Vivere (97 min.)
7:00 PM: Where the Boys Are (108 min.)
9:15 PM: Witnesses, The (115 min.)
Tue, Oct 2
5:00 PM: Women of the World (106 min.)
7:15 PM: Girls Shorts (86 min.)
9:15 PM: Nina's Heavenly Delights (94 min.)
Wed, Oct 3
5:00 PM: Tick Tock Lullaby (73 min.)
6:45 PM: Picture of Dorian Gray, The (97 min.)
9:00 PM: DarkBlueAlmostBlack (105 min.)
Thu, Oct 4
5:00 PM: Spider Lillies (94 min.)
7:30 PM: Shelter (90 min.)
See www.closetcinema.org for complete details or call 243-1870. Advance tickets available at Self Serve.
BACK AGAIN BY POPULAR DEMAND!
OCTOBER 1 - 4 (MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY)
LA VIE EN ROSE (ONE DAILY MATINEE ONLY: 1:45)
Dir. Olivier Dahan - 2006 - 140m - In French with English Subtitles
A swirling, impressionistic portrait of an artist who regretted nothing, writer-director Olivier Dahan’s LA VIE EN ROSE stars 2005 Cesar Award-winner Marion Cotillard (A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, A GOOD YEAR) in a blazing performance as the legendary French icon Edith Piaf. Perhaps finding her nearest American analogues in figures such as Judy Garland and Billie Holiday, the tragic story of the world-famous chanteuse is worthy of a 19th Century novel by Zola or Balzac. Born into abject poverty, surrounded by street performers, hookers, and pimps, Piaf’s magical voice made her a star on both sides of the Atlantic. From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York’s most famous concert halls, Piaf’s life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. LA VIE EN ROSE co-stars Gerard Depardieu, Emmanuelle Seigner, and Jean Paul Rouve.
OCTOBER 5 - 11 (ONE WEEK)
LADY CHATTERLEY (4:15, 7:30) - PLEASE NOTE: THESE ARE THE CORRECTED SHOWTIMES
Dir. Pascale Ferran - 2006 - 168m - France/Belgium - In French with English Subtitles
A sensuous, erotically-charged adaptation of Lady Chatterley et l'homme des bois, the second of three Lady Chatterley novels by D.H.Lawrence, from Cannes award-winning director Pascale Ferran, which went on to win six Cesar awards in 2006. Constance Reid was 23 years old when she married Cambridge graduate, lieutenant, and mine owner Clifford Chatterley in 1917. After a short-lived honeymoon, Clifford was drafted to fight on the Flanders battlefront, from which he returned badly wounded and fated to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. This film version begins in the year 1921, after the young couple moves to Wragby, one of the Chatterley family properties. Constance looks back longingly to the years before her marriage, when she spent her time with artists and students of her own age, also enjoying long trips abroad. Now she feels lonely and isolated in a rural environment that bores her. And yet, it is her taciturn gamekeeper Oliver Parkin, a man whose life and background is so diametrically opposed to her own, who awakens in Lady Chatterley a desire she has never felt before. At first, Parkin is mistrustful of his mistress. He cannot understand what a Lady would want from a simple man such as himself. But as Parkin's body re-awakens both Constance's flesh and spirit, her child-like ability to take pleasure in their relationship infuses hope and energy into his numbing solitude. LADY CHATTERLEY tells the story of a passion that is both innocent and subversive - one that transcends, without ever ignoring, class and social conventions. As Constance and Parkin nourish their mutual love, both enter into a radical realm where nature, sex and romance merge into one powerful experience.
OCTOBER 6 (SATURDAY)
FREE ADMISSION!
ILLUMINATED FRAMES: EXPERIMENTAL MEDIA BY NINA FONOROFF (2:30 PM)
Co-Presented with BASEMENT FILMS
Albuquerque artist Nina Fonoroff has been making experimental films for thirty years. Her award-winning work has been exhibited at museums and showcases thoughtout the U.S. and Europe. In 1998 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship for her work in film, and is among this year's awardees for the New Visions/New Mexico contract award program. She is an Associate Professor at UNM's Cinematic Arts Department.
"HALF-MASK" (2004), 40 min.
Inspired by nineteenth-century"decadent" literature, this film is a foray into the perverse inner lives of a couple of aesthetes who seek to unmask each other in a ghostly rendezvous. A world-weary young man seeks to break with the mundanity of practical life and live exclusively for his fantasy: an idealized form of beauty. In this way, he becomes increasingly dependent upon a fantasmatic relationship with a photograph of a woman who he has never met, and whom he believes to be dead or vanished. In alternating scenes, the woman--quite alive--appears in an austere costume, wearing a mask that covers half of her face, which she is resigned to wear in perpetuity. She moves somewhat as a sleepwalker through a series of natural locales. The two characters inhabit separate worlds that eventually emerge in relation to one another: the woman finally goes to the young man's room, apparently in the hopes of reclaiming a long-buried aspect of her humanity. Both are bitterly disappointed as examples of the idealized figure that each has constructed from imagination. The final section of the film features a resplendent figure who inherits the story of the other two, embodying the sensibilities of both characters. Among a cache of treasures that have washed up on the beach, she finds a mysterious mask of unknown origin: when she wears it, she is awash in the sensory impressions of the woman who wore it first. Vibrant layers of inks and dyes appear intermittently throughout the film, suggesting a dense feverishness.
Excerpt from "DISENCHANTED" (a work-in-progress, 5 min.)
Fonoroff will present a brief excerpt from a longer work-in-progress that examines her experience of returning to New Mexico after a twenty-year absence. In this section news clippings, photographs, advertising imagery, and bits of popular music redolent of the popular culture of the 1970s are piled in layers, suggesting an obsessive attachment to a moment of the cultural and personal past: a moment that is rife with richly-textured trivia. These artifacts make up a tapestry of insistent memory.
OCTOBER 5 & 6 (FRIDAY & SATURDAY)
Alibi Midnight Movie Madness Presents
FIDO (10:45 PM)
ALL SEATS $7
Dir. Andrew Currie - 2006 - 91m - Canada
Timmy Robinson's best friend in the whole wide world is a six-foot tall rotting zombie named Fido. But when FIDO eats the next-door neighbor, Mom and Dad hit the roof, and Timmy has to go to the ends of the earth to keep Fido a part of the family. A boy-and-his-dog movie for grown ups, FIDO will rip your heart out.
OCTOBER 7 (SUNDAY)
All Seats $4
WAR FROM SPACE? VOICES OF THE GLOBAL NETWORK AGAINST WEAPONS & NUCLEAR POWER IN SPACE (11:30 AM)
2006 - 59m
This is a report produced by the Global Network on presentations to the World Peace Forum in Vancouver, BC, June 2006. Bill Hartung leads the video with a talk on the current developments by the military industrial complex's plans for militarization of space and making war in and from space. Reports on local activities are from members worldwide, including Bruce Gagnon, Loring Wirbel, Bill Sulzman, and New Mexico's Bob Anderson.
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