Dir. John Woo, 1997, 141 min.
Face/Off is the classic, elegant 1997 film directed by John Woo, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in perhaps their strongest performance. The two both play an FBI agent and a terrorist, sworn enemies who assume the physical appearance of one another. Face/Off also possibly introduced the world to John Woo's influential Hong Kong film style.
Screening followed by audience Chess Tournament "Face/Off"
Dir. Franco Rosso, 1980, 91 min.
"Criminally Underrated!"
Babylon is set in South London at the start of the ’80s, a time when reggae music was at its peak, along with a distinctively British brand of xenophobia and racism that saw American boxer Marvin Hagler pelted with bottles at Wembley after beating Alan ‘I’ll never lose to a black man’ Minter. The plot concerns Blue, lead chanter for Ital Lion Sound (played by Aswad singer and former Double Decker Brinsley Forde), in the run-up to a competition with a rival crew led by Jah Shaka (who appears as himself). Over the course of the film Blue socialises with his friends and clashes with his family, employer, and a local clan of racists, before going on a spiritual and physical journey through small hours London where he encounters a series of trials and temptations that set up the film’s violent climax. -Angus Taylor
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0nhcK_bylU
Babylon Website: http://www.uncarved.org/babylon/?p=59
Audio with Director [kicks in after a long musical intro]: http://www.uncarved.org/mp3/rosso.mp3
Glowing review of Babylon: http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/your-favourite-british-films/14274-babylon-1980-franco-rossos-cult-classic.html
Off to War: The Story of Arkansas National Guard's Journey to Iraq
Brent and Craig Renaud, 2004, 90 min.
In April 2004, 57 citizen soldiers from Clarksville, Arkansas left their jobs and their families to serve in Iraq as members of the 239th Infantry of the Arkansas National Guard. Embedded with them is the brother filmmaking team of Brent and Craig Renaud who tell their story.
Brent and Craig Renaud, 2004, 90 min.
In April 2004, 57 citizen soldiers from Clarksville, Arkansas left their jobs and their families to serve in Iraq as members of the 239th Infantry of the Arkansas National Guard. Embedded with them is the brother filmmaking team of Brent and Craig Renaud who tell their story.
Panel Discussion:
Dir. Craig and Brent Renaud
Sgt. 1st Class Curtis Rohrscheib, Off to War
Shannon Rohrscheib, Off to War
(80 Blocks From Tiffany & Shotgun)
80 Blocks From Tiffany, Dir. Gary Wiess (1979) 67 min.
Shotgun, Dir. Steven Goodman (1982) 25 min.
Egotrip and the Maysles Institute have partnered to present Egotrip’s favourite documentaries. 80 Blocks from Tiffany is a rich film where filmmaker Gary Wiess and cinematographer Joan Churchill hang out with the South Bronx gang, the Savage Skulls. In Shotgun, this party atmosphere turns tragic. Steven Goodman, who has gone on to lead the field of video education with EVC, provides a portrait of Shotgun, an eighteen-year-old gang member living in the South Bronx, facing serious criminal charges.
Both directors will be present as well as Ponce Laspina who is a former 5th Division President of the notorious Savage Skulls as well as Robert Werner a police officer featured in 80 Blocks from Tiffany.
Dir. Meg McLagan & Daria Sommers, 2008, 90 min.
Lioness tells the story of a group of female Army support soldiers who were part of the first program in American history to send women into direct ground combat. Without the same training as their male counterparts but with a commitment to serve as needed, these young women fought in some of the bloodiest counterinsurgency battles of the Iraq war and returned home as part of this country’s first generation of female combat veterans. Lioness makes public, for the first time, their hidden history.
Panel Discussion:
Dir. Meg McLagan & Daria Sommers
Michelle Wilmot (Lioness and Program Director at the Veteran's Homestead Northeast Veteran Training and Rehabilitation Facility in Gardner, MA)
Anuradha Bhagwati (Marine and Executive Director of the Service Women Action Network)
Dir. Nina Rosenblum, 2009, 77 min.
A film on the first officer in the United States Army to refuse deployment to Iraq on moral grounds. Explores what prompted Lt. Watada to choose the course he did in the service of protesting an immoral and, for him, unconstitutional war.
Q&A with Director Nina Rosenblum and producer Dennis Watlington and hosted by actor Charles Grodin
Dir. Brian Palmer, 2009, 57 min.
Journalist Brian Palmer followed young U.S. Marines on dozens of missions during three embeds in Iraq between 2004 and 2006. Back in the States, he continued to document the war and its human cost. Full Disclosure captures the consistent, sometimes benign, but often tragic miscommunication between U.S. troops and vulnerable Iraqi citizens. Amid the inexorable and destructive momentum of the occupation, the documentary explores the consequences of our inability to speak with and understand those whose country we occupy. It exposes the gap between what we think we’re doing in Iraq and what we’re actually doing. Iraq was the war five years ago when Palmer started Full Disclosure. Afghanistan was “the forgotten war.” The opposite may be true in 2010, but even as Americans turn toward “AfPak” and Yemen, the discord and damage in Iraq remain.
Dir. Lee Wang, 2008, 42 min.
More than 30,000 low-wage workers from Southeast Asia work for American military contractors in Iraq, cleaning toilets, serving food and building barracks. Through the stories of three Filipino workers and their families, Wang's probing documentary investigates the conditions - both domestic and global - which have forced economic migration into the Iraqi war zone, and how they are understood as lived experience.
Q&A with Director Lee Wang
Dir. David Loeb Weiss, 1968, 68 min.
The struggle for racial equality and the anti-Vietnam war movement are paralleled in this documentary.
Includes B-roll and interviews from a large anti-war protest in Harlem in 1968.
Dir. Ivan Sanchez Jr. (2008) 6 min.
Bronx based filmmaker Ivan Sanchez Jr. examines the loss of African-American and Latino male role models to a war waged abroad and its impact on the "war at home" - struggles for survival and development in Black and Brown communities in U.S. cities. Sanchez Jr. brings personal insight to this structural problem as he connects the loss of his 19 year old uncle Ivan in Vietnam in 1968 to his involvement in gangs and drugs as a youth. Sanchez Jr. resolves to compensate for his absent role models by doubling his efforts to guide and love the next generation. This War At Home was produced through NBPC's Black Masculinity Series in 2008.
Discussion with:
--Richard Adams - filmmaker; cameraman for No Vietnamese
--Kazembe Balagun - organizer, writer; Outreach Coordinator of the Brecht Forum
--Matt Peterson - critic and filmmaker; curator of Red Channels
--Ivan Sanchez, Jr. - author of Next Stop (2008); writer of This War at Home
Dir. David Zeiger, 2005, 84 min.
Like the Vietnam War itself, the GI Antiwar Movement started small and within a few years had exploded into a force that altered history. The movement was never characterized by one organization or leader but from the 500,000 GIs who deserted over the course of the war to the untold numbers who wore peace signs, defied military discipline and avoided combat, a counter-culture was created that threatened the entire military culture of the time and changed the course of the war. Sir! No Sir! reflects on this war and this movement.
Dir. David Zeiger, 2010, 20 min.
Preview of upcoming documentary on the Winter Soldier hearings from 2008 on Iraq and Afghanistan. Features testimony from U.S. veterans who served in those wars, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground. In addition, panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists give context to the testimony.
Q&A with Dir. David Zeiger and Carl Dix, Sir! No Sir! subject
Additonal speakers TBA
Dir. Robert Greenwald, 2006, 75 min.
The story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war. One man documentary film studio Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq (Blackwater, Halliburton/KBR, CACI and Titan) and the decision makers who allow them to do so.
Speakers TBA
January 20-27, 30
With Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, the veteran and active duty led inquiry of 2008 and its inspiration—the original Winter Soldier Investigation of 1971 (and the film by the same name) — as bookends, this series explores the soldier’s point of view in these conflicts as well as their role in the genesis of any critique of these wars.
Winter Soldier (Vietnam)
Winterfilm Collective, 1972, 96 min.
For three days in 1971, 30 Vietnam veterans testified on war crimes in Detroit. This film follows the events and several of the veterans.
Speakers:
Joe Urgo – Organizer, Winter Soldier 1970 - 1972
Co-sponsored by the Service Women's Action Network, National Black Programming Consortium, The Brecht Forum, The International Trauma Studies Program and Red Channels
My Neighbor, My Killer
Anne Aghion, 2009, 80 min.
Could you ever forgive the people who slaughtered your family? In 1994, Rwanda’s Hutu populace was incited to wipe out the country’s Tutsi minority, with 800,000 lives claimed in 100 days. In 1999, the government began the Gacaca (ga-CHA-cha)—open-air hearings with citizen-judges meant to try their neighbors and rebuild the nation. Through their fear and anger, accusations and defenses, blurry truths, inconsolable sadness and hope for life renewed, follow this emotional journey to co-existence. Winner of the Human Rights Watch 2009 Nestor Almendros Prize for courage in filmmaking and an Official Selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
Tagline: When peace comes, how do you make it right again? An epic journey in search of co-existence in Rwanda.
Official Website: http://www.gacacafilms.com/mnmk/
Tuesday, January 12th
7:30 pm, My Neighbor My Killer
Wednesday, January 13th
7:30 pm, My Neighbor My Killer
Thursday, January 14th
7:30 pm, My Neighbor My Killer
Friday, January 15th
7:30 pm, My Neighbor My Killer
Saturday, January 16th
7:30 pm, My Neighbor My Killer
Sunday, January 17th
5:00 pm My Neighbor My Killer
7:30 pm Babylon
Keeling's Caribbean Movie Showcase
Babylon
Dir. Franco Rosso, 1980, 91 min.
"Criminally Underrated!"
Babylon is set in South London at the start of the ’80s, a time when reggae music was at its peak, along with a distinctively British brand of xenophobia and racism that saw American boxer Marvin Hagler pelted with bottles at Wembley after beating Alan ‘I’ll never lose to a black man’ Minter. The plot concerns Blue, lead chanter for Ital Lion Sound (played by Aswad singer and former Double Decker Brinsley Forde), in the run-up to a competition with a rival crew led by Jah Shaka (who appears as himself). Over the course of the film Blue socialises with his friends and clashes with his family, employer, and a local clan of racists, before going on a spiritual and physical journey through small hours London where he encounters a series of trials and temptations that set up the film’s violent climax. -Angus Taylor
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0nhcK_bylU
Babylon Website: http://www.uncarved.org/babylon/?p=59
Audio with Director [kicks in after a long musical intro]: http://www.uncarved.org/mp3/rosso.mp3
Glowing review of Babylon: http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/your-favourite-british-films/14274-babylon-1980-franco-rossos-cult-classic.html
Monday, January 18th
7:30 pm My Neighbor My Killer
Monday, January 11th
DocWatchers
Curated by Hellura Lyle
Battle for the Hearts and Minds
Dir. Shani Peters, 2009, 10 mins.
A video installation depicting a battle of words between historical black legends W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey. Relating elements of their documented 1920’s era conflict to later century hip-hop and hip-hop beef, the ongoing ‘fight” for social justice, and black disunity in general, the ‘event’ is present as a cross between a title fight and a rap battle.
No Ward
Dir. Terence Nance, 2009, 10 mins.
No Ward is a short documentary about the forced migration of New Orleans residents to cities in Texas. The film juxtaposes the migrations that occurred as a result of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Hurricane Gustave in 2008.
Coming Home
Dir. Michele Stephenson, 2009, 39 mins.
In collaboration with the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, The Rada Film Group is co-producing Coming Home, a documentary that tells the story of Sam Jackson, a 52 year old resident of housing projects in the 9th Ward of New Orleans and a survivor of Hurricane Katrina. The film explores how, after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, this somewhat reclusive quiet man becomes a passionate advocate for his community, reaching out to people in his neighborhood, as well as around the nation and the world to support the struggle for the right of his community to move back to their rightful homes.
Saturday, January 9th 7:30PM
In Order Not To Be Here
Dir. Deborah Stratman, 2002, 30 min.
"An uncompromising look at the ways privacy, safety, convenience and surveillance determine our environment. Shot entirely at night, the film confronts the hermetic nature of white-collar communities, dissecting the fear behind contemporary suburban design. An isolation-based fear (protect us from people not like us). A fear of irregularity (eat at McDonalds, you know what to expect). A fear of thought (turn on the television). A fear of self (don’t stop moving)." - Deborah Stratman
Little Flags
Dir. Jem Cohen, 2000, 6 min.
"Cohen shot Little Flags in black and white on the streets of lower Manhattan during an early-'90s military ticker-tape parade and edited the footage years later. The crowd noises fade and Cohen shows the litter flooding the streets as the urban location looks progressively more ghostly and distant from the present. Everyone loves a parade—except for the dead." - Video Data Bank
NYC Weights and Measures
Dir. Jem Cohen, 2005, 5 min.
"My film is a simple gathering of New York City street footage. It was shot with a spring-wound 16mm Bolex on, above, and below the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn and includes footage of the ticker tape parade for astronaut John Glenn.
Peggy and Fred in Hell: The Prologue
Leslie Thornton, 1985, 20 min.
"Peggy And Fred In Hell is one of the strangest cinematic artifacts of the last 20 years, revealing the abuses of history and innocence in the face of catastrophe, as it chronicles two small children journeying through a post-apocalyptic landscape to create their own world. Breaking genre restrictions, Thornton uses improvisation, planted quotes, archival footage and formless timeframes to confront the viewer's preconceptions of cause and effect." - Video Data Bank
Leslie Thornton, Peggy and Fred in Kansas
Leslie Thornton, 1987, 11 min.
"Peggy and Fred, sole inhabitants of post-apocalyptic Earth, weather a prairie twister and scavenge for sense and sustenance amid the ruined devices of a ghosted culture. The improvised and playful dialogue of the children provides a key to understanding the tape; their distracted sense of make-believe floats between realities, between acting their parts and doing what they want—patching together identities that, like fidgeting children, refuse to stand still." - Video Data Bank
Thursday, January 8th 7:30PM
Dir. Sia Nyorkor & Jacob Templin, 2009, 21 min.
With colorful strokes, Franco the Great changed the face of Harlem's most famous street, 125th. Now rezoning threatens to discard his canvas.
Followed by All-Star Harlem stakeholder panel
Thursday, January 7th 7:30PM
Dir. Edward Bland, 1959, 34 min
Esteemed film critic Armond White will present one of his favorite documentary films, The Cry of Jazz, to launch Maysles Cinema’s monthly series, "The People’s Choice". The Cry of Jazz is filmmaker, composer and arranger Edward O. Bland's essay on the politics of music and race. Not only is this one of the earliest documentaries made by an African American, it is arguably the first time an African American director openly challenges assumptions of white supremacy on film. Bland makes an early argument that Jazz is an inherently Black art form, rooted in Black experience, being diluted by White imitators to its own peril. Bland makes the case by grounding Sun Ra’s soundtrack in poignant images of Black urban experience and cultural life compared with the “cool” sound and posture of White jazz performers. This argument has fueled debate and cultural production from the Black Arts movement through the current “post-racial” period.
Followed by discussion with film critic, Armond White.
Mr. White is an iconoclast with un-predictable takes on popular culture. Most recently he has raised a stir with his review of Lee Daniels’ film, Precious, as a modern day Birth of a Nation. In spite of, or perhaps on account of his unorthodox views, Armond White is highly respected in the film world and serves as head of the New York Film Critic’s Circle.
Esteemed critic Armond White will be presenting one of his favorite documentaries, "The Cry of Jazz" this Thursday. He recently raised a stir with this incendiary review of Lee Daniels' film, 'Precious', in which he claimed: "Not since The Birth of a Nation has a mainstream movie demeaned the idea of black American life as much as Precious"
http://www.nypress.com/article-20554-pride-precious.html
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