January/February 1999

REEL MUSIC

Now you can really party like it's 1999. Our 16th annual series of new and classic musical discoveries is just the way to get 1999 off to a lively start. From Basie, Bechet and Bernstein to Smith, Satie and Salgado, we hope you find the perfect tonic to the winter musical blues. As always, our special thanks go to WILLAMETTE WEEK, MUSIC MILLENNIUM, KINK FM 102 and MCMENAMIN'S THEATERS AND PUBS for helping it all happen. Enjoy.

JAN 9 10
SAT 9 7 P.M., SUN 10 4 P.M.
AN EVENING WITH CURTIS SALGADO:
MY FAVORITE THINGS
U.S. 1950-1970
DIRECTORS: VARIOUS
Portland blues and soul master Curtis Salgado presents a special program of musical rarities and inspirations drawn from his personal video archive. Like all collectors, Curtis has his favorites and in addition to sharing his clips he promises to tell you why. Among the highlights, drawn mostly from the 1950s-70s, are performances by Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Muddy Waters, Magic Sam, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Albert Collins, Albert King, early Robert Cray (c. 1975), Sly Stone, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, J.B. Lenoir, Willie Dixon, Otis Span, a few Gospel and Rockabilly favorites, and much, much more. (100 mins.)

SEPARATE ADMISSION
SAT 9 9:15 P.M.,  SUN 10 7:30 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
STOREFRONT HITCHCOCK
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: JONATHAN DEMME
"Psychedelic-folk-rocker." "Lewis Carroll meets Monty Python via Dali." There have been many attempts to describe and/or categorize British cult-rocker Robyn Hitchcock. Director Jonathan Demme (STOP MAKING SENSE, SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA) doesn’t even try. He just captures Hitchcock performing in a lower Manhattan storefront, letting the songs, and his twisted between-song vignettes, land where they will. Accompanying himself on guitar and joined on several songs by frequent collaborators Deni Bonet and Tim Keegan, Hitchcock delivers a tour-de-force rock ’n roll show. Think of the Beatles’ playful surrealism fused with the spaced-out fantasies of Mr. Hitchcock’s idol, Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, spruced up with the historical imagination of Al Stewart at his most fanciful, and you have some idea of his arty folk-rock ruminations. (81 mins.)
WITH
PORTLAND PREMIERES
ELLIOTT SMITH: STRANGE PARALLEL
LUCKY THREE
Steve Hanft’s STRANGE PARALLEL (1998) journeys through Elliott Smith’s musical life as if it were a series of strange surreal daydreams connected by nothing more than his beautiful songs. Shot in various haunts in Portland and New York City—bars, studios and hotels on the road—Elliott searches for the key to his music as we are introduced to characters from the past and future, fans and friends, Gus Van Sant among them. (30 mins.) Jem Cohen’s LUCKY THREE (1997) , filmed in Portland in 1996 (pre-GOODWILL HUNTING) captures Smith performing "Thirteen," "Angeles" and "Between the Bars" and, of course, standing in the rain. (11 mins.)

JAN 11
MON 7 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
THE LEGEND OF BOP CITY
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: CAROL CHAMBERLAND
From 1950 to 1965, Jimbo’s Bop City, in San Francisco’s Fillmore District, was the after-hours jazz club— where anyone who was anybody played. The nightclub served up not only the best local players, but was also a West Coast home to Bebop culture. Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, Billy Eckstein, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, comedian Lenny Bruce and dozens of other touring stars made up the regular clientele. Run by the creative Jimbo Edwards, the club was a social as well as musical center. Carol Chamberland’s affectionate documentary puts the scene into the context of post-war San Francisco, the thriving Black community and the dawning of the Civil Rights Movement. (60 mins.)
WITH
ERNIE ANDREWS: BLUES FOR CENTRAL AVENUE
U.S. 1986
DIRECTOR: LOIS SHELTON
"The record shows I stood the blows" says blues singer Ernie Andrews in Lois Shelton’s gritty portrait of Central Avenue, the place where jazz and blues sizzled in the Los Angeles of the 1930s and 40s. Andrews, whose personal story provides the focus, and others reminisce about big bands (he sang with Andy Kirk and Benny Carter’s), after-hours clubs (Club Alabam, Brothers, and the Gayety Jungle), gambling, bathtub gin and the segregation that was a fact of life. The ‘good life’ was not always good and as Andrews sings the blues today, there is no doubt he lived them. (50 mins.)
COSPONSORED BY KMHD 89.1 FM.

JAN 13
WED 6 & 8:30 P.M.
AT THE MISSION THEATER
THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
U.S. 1980
DIRECTOR: PENELOPE SPHEERIS
Penelope Spheeris’ adrenalized, close-up look at the Los Angeles punk scene remains one of the best made rock films ever—intelligent, illuminating and technically superb. If your taste runs to X, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Germ and, of course, memories of late-night LA, this is unadulterated fun. If it's the sociology of punk-rock nihilism, it's the prerequisite for DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION III, the scene twenty years after, which shows on January 20. (100 mins.)
LOCATION: 1624 N.W. Glisan.

JAN 15 16
FRI  15 7 P.M., SAT 16 3 P.M.
 LOU REED: ROCK AND ROLL HEART
U.S. 1997
DIRECTOR: TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS
Simply put, Lou Reed—musician, poet, composer—brought rock and roll into the avant garde. From the beginning, Reed’s music has influenced generation after generation of musicians, including David Bowie, Patti Smith, U2, REM and Sonic Youth. As Brian Eno once commented, "The Velvet Underground didn’t sell a lot of records, but everyone who bought one started a band." In 1965 Reed co-founded the Velvets, whose landmark collaboration with Andy Warhol opened whole new vistas for the content and context for rock. In his subsequent solo career, Reed has continued to expand his range, still managing to be a relevant creative force if not direct precursor. Photographer and filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders surveys a diverse range of critics, artists and musicians along with fascinating archival film to probe deeply into the ideas and impact of Reed’s work, emerging with a exceptional film about one of  rock’s seminal masters. (76 mins.)
ADMISSION CONTRIBUTION REQUESTED.

JAN 15
FRI 9 P.M.
SONIC OUTLAWS
U.S. 1995
DIRECTOR: CRAIG BALDWIN
SONIC OUTLAWS begins as a freewheeling portrait of the Oakland-based noise band Negativeland, which was sued by Island Records for releasing an album which Island claimed infringed on the identity of one of their star artists, the band U2. Craig Baldwin’s unorthodox documentary then rockets through the whole world of copyright infringement, ‘fair use,’ and sound and image sampling—from its roots in the dada and cubist movements to Andy Warhol soup cans, from Silly Putty to satellite downlinks, from billboard "improvement," to do-it-yourself Barbie surgery—laying out the foundation of a new electronic folk culture. Baldwin’s brilliantly-collaged media barrage included everything from monster movies to TV evangelists, Pixelvision, Daffy Duck, "jackalope" postcards and Casey Kasem (caught off guard) cursing like a truck driver. By turns deeply thought provoking and laugh-out-loud funny, Baldwin’s meditation is an exhilarating experience. (87 mins.)

JAN 16 17
PORTLAND PREMIERE
SAT 16 1 P.M.  SUN 17 4 P.M.
THE WAR SYMPHONIES: SHOSTAKOVICH AGAINST STALIN
CANADA 1997
DIRECTOR: LARRY WEINSTEIN
Shot on location in St. Petersburg and Moscow, THE WAR SYMPHONIES delves into the harrowing subject of Stalin’s bloody purges of Russia and Dimitri Shostakovich’s (1906-1975) musical counter-attack. His symphonies Four through Nine, written between 1936 and 1945, were his weapon against terror, or as he called them, his "tombstones." Weaving rare film clips with contemporary interpretations by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic under the direction of Valery Gergiev, and the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater, director Larry Weinstein (SEPTEMBER SONGS: THE MUSIC OF KURT WEILL) fashions the story of one artist unafraid to tackle the forces of evil. Jury Award, INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FILMS ON ART.(82 mins.)

JAN 16
SAT 5 & 7 P. M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
ZAKIR AND HIS FRIENDS
U.S./GERMANY 1997
DIRECTOR: LUTZ LEONARD
In a mode that brings to mind KOYAANISQATSI and LATCHO DROM, Lutz Leonard’s purely aural travelogue presents a poetic montage of percussionists from around the globe as they connect to life’s deepest rhythms. Rightly subtitled "a rhythm experience," Indian tablas virtuoso Zakir Hussain takes us to Japan, Indonesia, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Trinidad and elsewhere to collaborate with native musicians and absorb the sights and sounds that so clearly inform his musical vision. Shots of passing landscapes are interspersed with the sound of trains, cars rattling manhole covers, fingers popping, skin slapping, machetes ringing, drums beating and heads bobbing. In Leonard’s world there is a global groove and you’ll soon be irresistibly drawn into it.(90 mins.)

SEPARATE ADMISSION
SAT 9 P.M.
MY FIRST NAME IS MACEO
GERMANY 1996
DIRECTOR: MARKUS GRUBER
When Cologne director Markus Gruber made this portrait of soul/funk saxophonist Maceo Parker, Parker was best known as a legendary sideman for James Brown, George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. It was not until the late 1980’s (when Brown went to prison) that Parker formed a band, distilling his brand of sound/jazz/funk into his own irresistible groove. Following the band on the road and in rehearsal, Gruber has emerged with a warm portrait of Parker and his band members, the evolution of their music and some of the best recorded concert footage imaginable. If you’ve missed Parker’s annual swings through Portland, this film will insure that you won’t miss the next one. (85 mins.)

JAN 18
MON 7 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
SIDNEY BECHET—TREAT IT GENTLE
GREAT BRITAIN 1998
DIRECTOR: ALAN LEWEN
When Woody Allen used Sidney Bechet’s (1897-1959) music in the score for his film STARDUST MEMORIES, a whole new generation rediscovered one of the founding geniuses of jazz. The first jazz saxophonist, Bechet composed and recorded with such great peer artists as Clarence Williams, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, but perhaps by temperament and because he moved to France, his celebrity in American never reached the heroic heights it did in Europe, where 3,000 mourners attended his funeral in Juan Les Pins. Alan Lewen’s film traces Bechet’s journey from his birth in New Orleans to early fame, to near obscurity and finally international stardom. Packed with clips and tracks of his famous recordings, such as "Petit Fleur," "Indian Summer," "Summertime," "Really the Blues" and "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams," and interviews ranging from Woody Allen to Wynton Marsalis and Michael White, TREAT IT GENTLE reveals the story of one of jazz’s most intense and enigmatic forces (60 mins.)
WITH
WILD MAN BLUES
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: BARBARA KOPPLE
For the last twenty five years Woody Allen has performed on clarinet with his New Orleans-style jazz band almost every Monday night (currently at the Carlyle Hotel), playing the music created by musicians like his heroes: clarinetist-soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, pianist Jelly Roll Morton, clarinetist Johnny Dodds and trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Bunk Johnson. When Allen and band member Eddy Davis put together a 18-city European tour in 1997, Allen’s producers hired Barbara Kopple (HARLAN COUNTY, AMERICAN DREAM) to document the trip. Because she was granted remarkable behind-the-scenes access, what emerges is both a record of the band’s energetic and passionate performances and a rare, and often hilarious glimpse into the idiosyncratic life of Allen. (104 mins.)
CATCH DIRECTOR BARBARA KOPPLE AT PORTLAND ARTS & LECTURES ON JANUARY 6.

JAN 22 23
FRI 22 7 P.M. & 9 P.M., SAT 23 4:30 P.M.
LAND OF LOOK BEHIND
U.S. 1982
DIRECTOR: ALAN GREENBERG
Alan Greenberg’s film, along with THE HARDER THEY COME, remains one of the most interesting cinematic examinations of Rastafarian culture. Neither a standard travelogue nor a strict musical performance film, the film is an impressionistic treatment of Jamaican folk culture which Greenberg, once a Werner Herzog associate, overlays with a lyrical gaze of Herzogian mysticism. Lushly visual wanderings through city and country, Bob Marley’s funeral, and wall-to-wall stoned Rasta jive are punctuated by performances by Gregory Isaacs, Mutaburuka and Lui Lepki, and the music and spirit of Bob Marley. "Greenberg lifts the veil on Jamaica’s more secret soul in an inspired and sometimes amazing glimpse into reggae’s spiritual and cultural roots."— LA WEEKLY.(90 mins.)

JAN 23 24
SAT 23 7 P.M., SUN 24 4:30 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERES
JIM HALL: A LIFE IN PROGRESS
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: BRUCE RICKER
"Within the first few frames of Bruce Ricker’s exemplary new film, the prodigious guitarist Pat Metheny affectionately describes Jim Hall as being the father of modern jazz guitar. The filmmaker himself, Bruce Ricker, who previously gave us THE LAST OF THE BLUE DEVILS and THELONIOUS MONK: STRAIGHT NO CHASER, sees him as the Henry Ford of jazz musicians, with a career marked by stellar association with such greats as Ella Fitzgerald, Chico Hamilton, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans and Sonny Stitt. Filmed during recording sessions for a new album of jazz ballads, By Arrangement, Jim Hall talks revealingly about his selection of material and instrumentation (lots of darkly-voiced violas and cellos), his choice of musicians and their interaction (the brilliant Tom Harrell on flugelhorn; Joe Lovano on reeds), his punctilious orchestration and the shape and texture of performance. The resulting magic is simply wonderful." —David Meeker, LONDON FILM FESTIVAL. (60 mins.)
WITH
TALMAGE FARLOW
U.S. 1981
DIRECTOR: LORENZO DE STEFANO
Guitarist Tal Farlow, who died this past year, was a legendary figure in the jazz world. In 1958 he essentially gave up a career highlighted by rich associations with the likes of Red Norvo, Artie Shaw and Charles Mingus to resume work as a sign painter, an occupation which he said gave him just as much pleasure as his virtuoso musical talents. Lorenzo De Stefano’s portrait, nominated for an Academy Award, is more than just a musical profile—it explores a singular artist’s philosophy of life and the essence of his creative spirit. (58 mins.)
 
JAN 23
SAT 9 P.M.
ELVIS COSTELLO X TWO
A CASE FOR SONG: ELVIS COSTELLO LIVE
U.S. 1995
DIRECTOR: MARK COOPER
Made to coincide with the release of his album, "All This Useless Beauty," this concert performance spans Costello’s entire career, featuring new songs along side such classics as "Accidents Will Happen" and "Watching the Detectives." Accompanied by the Attractions, the White City Jazz Septet and The Brodsky Quartet, Mark Cooper captures this always innovative artist at the height of his restless, inspired creativity. (60 mins.)
WITH
THE JULIET LETTERS
GREAT BRITAIN 1993
DIRECTOR: PHILIP KING
Inspired by Shakespeare’s ROMEO AND JULIET, Elvis Costello says his musical collaboration with the Brodsky String Quartet is "no more my stab at ‘classical music’ than it is the Brodsky Quartet’s first rock and roll album...we just wanted to explore the under-used combination of voice and string quartet." Philip King combines interviews and 12 pieces of music to capture this unique collaboration. (50 mins.)

JAN 24 25
SUN 24 1 P.M. , MON 25  7 P.M.
LEONARD BERNSTEIN'S NEW YORK
GREAT BRITAIN 1997
DIRECTOR: HART PERRY
Among Leonard Bernstein’s many talents were his special gifts for show music, symphonic dances and other forms blending popularity with theatricality. His love was, of course, New York, which provided the settings, sounds and rhythms for three of his five musicals—ON THE TOWN, WEST SIDE STORY and WONDERFUL TOWN and the background for his score for ON THE WATERFRONT. Hart Perry’s salute to a great romantic’s Gotham features six stellar cabaret singers—Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy, Dawn Upshaw, Judy Blazer and Richard Muenz—and the orchestra of St. Luke’s, in staged reenactments of his most famous numbers filmed in the very locations celebrated in the songs—Coney Island, Central Park and Times Square. Part MGM, part MTV, an altogether winning tribute to a legend’s music. (60 mins.)
WITH
SUN 24 2 P.M., MON 25 8 P.M.
LEONARD BERNSTEIN: REACH FOR THE NOTE
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: SUSAN LACY
One night in 1943, twenty-five-year-old Leonard Bernstein stepped in to guest conduct for the New York Philharmonic’s ailing Bruno Walter one night in 1943 and became an overnight sensation. Thus began his extraordinary career as one of the century’s great composers, conductors and educators. Told largely in Bernstein’s own words from diary entries, Susan Lacy’s film charts his life from his birth to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in 1918 to his early days as the "Orson Welles of the music world," and from his great tenures in New York and Vienna to his monumental musicals and stirring performance at the Berlin Wall in 1989. Rich in personal remembrances, home movies, performance clips and interviews with his close friends and associates, this engrossing portrait is a true celebration of the creative spirit. (117 mins.)
COSPONSORED BY KBPS CLASSICAL 89.9 FM

JAN 27
WED 6 & 8:30 P.M.
AT THE MISSION THEATER
DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION III
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: PENELOPE SPHEERIS
In her third installment of the history of punk Penelope Spheeris observes four thrash bands in action, but places more of her emphasis on the observation of their audience of mostly homeless LA punks. Recalling her first DECLINE film, made at a time when  punk culture enjoyed a certain media fascination, we find that twenty years later things are not quite so romantic. The reality: abusive families; rampant drug and alcoholism addiction and terminal fatalism. A fascinating portrait (with musical accompaniment) of American culture as viewed from the marginalized. Winner of the Freedom of Expression Award at the SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. (90 mins.)
Location: 1624 N.W. Glisan.

JAN 30
SAT 3 & 9 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
SONGS OF EXPERIENCE: WOODY GUTHRIE
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: KIM HOPKINS
Woody Guthrie has inspired generations of songwriters and activists from Bob Dylan and Robert Kennedy to Bruce Springsteen and Beck. For many years it was rumored there was a treasure-trove of hundreds of manuscripts of unrecorded Guthrie lyrics. British songwriter Billy Bragg approached Guthrie’s wife Nora, who, trusting Bragg’s instincts, opened the archive and invited Bragg to compose music for the lyrics he found compelling. Kim Hopkin’s SONGS OF EXPERIENCE follows Bragg, guided by Nora, as he sets out to evoke Woody Guthrie as we have never seen him, traveling to those places that Woody called home and recording new "old songs" in collaboration with the American alternative/country band Wilco. (90 mins.)

JAN 30 31
SAT 30 7 P.M., SUN 31 5 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
BLACK TEARS
NETHERLANDS 1997
DIRECTOR: SONJA HERMAN DOLZ
"Is sugar really the sweetest Cuban export? Or is it the rumba, the guaracha or the cha-cha-cha? Cuban popular music, or son,  has aficionados worldwide, and this warm film by Sonja Herman Dolz shows why. It’s part road movie about a group of five veteran (ages 62-84) musicians—La Vieja Trova Santiaguera—and part slice-of-life back home as these working class philosophers talk about life, love and Carlos Marx. Their infectious music is distilled from "black tears" (lagrimas negras), the music of Blacks and mulattos, descendants of Cuba’s former slaves and colonists. Seamlessly blending Spanish danzon melody with African rhythm and chant, these performers of the son  are on a mission of enlightenment to a capitalist world littered with neon billboards and golden arches. Somebody’s got the embargo thing all wrong. It may be illegal to sell medicine to Cuba—yet they are sending medicine to us."—Miguel Pendas, SAN FRANCISCO FILM FESTIVAL.  (75 mins.)

JAN 31/FEB 1
SUN 31 7 P.M.,  MON 1 7 P.M.
THE LAST OF THE BLUE DEVILS
U.S. 1980
DIRECTOR: BRUCE RICKER
In the 1930s and 40s Kansas City was the home of some of jazz’s great figures: Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Benny Moten, Joe Turner, Jay McShann, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, to name but a few, and a style of music whose relentless swing became the backbone of rhythm & blues and rock & roll. Bruce Ricker’s loving tribute centers on a late 70s reunion of some of the era’s greatest players who gathered together to reminisce and play. Ricker has added to this a wealth of vintage clips and interviews to recapture the music and personalities of an era. For anyone who lived it, or is just discovering this rich music, "This beautiful film is about life and jazz and how they interact."—NEWSWEEK. (90 mins.)
DOUBLE FEATURE
ROBERT ALTMAN'S JAZZ '34:
REMEMBRANCES OF KANSAS CITY SWING
U.S. 1997
DIRECTOR: ROBERT ALTMAN
The set piece for Robert Altman’s film KANSAS CITY was his evocative recreation of the Hey Hey Club, located at the heart of "18th & Vine," once the neighborhood with the greatest concentrations of jazz night (and day) clubs in America. Narrated only occasionally by Harry Belafonte and various off-screen voices, JAZZ 34 features the extended versions of superbly filmed and richly recorded musical interludes made for the film. Altman’s all-star tribute to the likes of Basie, Hawkins, Young, and Moten features the infectious jamming of 21 contemporary players. It's a stellar who’s who that includes Don Byron, Ron Carter, Christian McBride, Nicholas Payton, James Carter, Joshua Redman, Craig Handy, David ‘Fathead’ Newman, Cyrus Chestnut and Mark Whitfield, for all of whom the freshness, beauty and swing of music made more than sixty years ago remains eternal. (75 mins.)
COSPONSORED BY KMHD 89.1 FM.

FEB 5  6
FRI 5 7 P.M.,  SAT 6 3 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
GENGHIS BLUES
U.S. 1998
DIRECTORS; ADRIAN AND ROKO BELIC
Paul Pena, a blind bluesman living in San Francisco, turned a chance encounter with an obscure vocal technique into the journey of a lifetime. A one-time sideman for Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King and others, Pena is one of the first foreign masters of Tuvan harmonic throat singing, an esoteric art from Siberia that allows the singer to produce multiple octaves simultaneously. In 1995, Pena flew to the lost Central Asian Republic of Tuva, where he participated in a rigorous throat-singing competition. Filmmakers Adrian and Roko Belic documented this voyage, capturing the friendship that grew between Pena and Tuvan master Kongar-ol Ondar—the ultimate odd couple. This inspiring tale reflects the story of a man whose struggle in life is defined not by conformity and rules but by an unquenchable curiosity and love of music. (89 mins.)

SEPARATE ADMISSION
FEB 5  7
FRI  5 9 P.M.,  SUN 7 2 P.M.
THINGS SEEN TO THE LEFT AND RIGHT: ERIK SATIE
FRANCE 1972
DIRECTOR: CHRISTOPHER HALE
A disconcerting, secretive person, French composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) was the first major composer to free musical language, largely in reaction to Wagner and Franck, from its traditions of complexity and heaviness. Satie’s work was provocative, the product of a caustic sense of humor, an unconventional spirit and a circle of friends that included Cocteau, Picasso and other modern thinkers. By exalting the virtues of simplicity and by incorporating the music of cabarets and fairgrounds into his repertoire, he exercised a profound influence on modern musical history, even though he was never particularly popular or well-known during his lifetime. Christopher Hale delves into the mystery of Satie’s life, drawing on his writings, letters and artwork, and conversations with modern composers, to explore the lasting impact of his music. (75 mins.)
COSPONSORED BY OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING.

FEB 6
SAT 8 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
LIVE MUSIC + FILM
THE BILLY NAYER SHOW
U.S. 1998
WITH: CORY MCABEE, BOB LURIE & MATT COWEN
Dean Martin sober; Frank Sinatra on acid, Garrison Keillor on amphetamines...it's hard to convey the magic of THE BILLY NAYER SHOW and its front man Cory McAbee. Part crooner, part raconteur and part performance artist, McAbee, with Bob Lurie on drums and Matt Cowen on clarinet, sax and flute, doesn't need drugs to draw you into his dark and witty parables on love, insects, bunnies and even Saint Nick. Tonight's totally acoustic show marks the welcome return of the group which has achieved cult status in the Bay Area. And if seeing him live isn't enough, Billy Nayer appears in two mind bending works: the pixel-vision MAN ON THE MOON and the animated BILLY NAYER which uses house paint and a song to tell its brief tale. "He's not gay and he's not Italian. Cory McAbee is still the closest thing to Leonardo da Vinci that we've got. He is indeed a post-modern Renaissance guy."—SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN.
SPECIAL ADMISSION: $8 GENERAL/$7 MEMBERS. NO COUPONS, PASSES OR COMP TICKETS ACCEPTED FOR THIS PERFORMANCE.

5th ANNUAL PORTLAND JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL

This year's PORTLAND JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL explores themes of spirituality and Jewish identity throughout all parts of the world, especially how American Jews perceive themselves in a larger social context. Many of the works premiering are informed by the experience of the Holocasut, an event that has shaped the lives of generations this century. The films, in their abundance, touch on tragedy, embrace humor and recount the emotional and tangible gains and losses of a people. Two programs in particular focus on contemporary Judaism and its links to other religions, particularly Buddhism. The political and social life of Israel is seen through the eyes of people of the younger generation and the magic of the late composer Leonard Bernstein, whose lifelong affinity with Israel never faltered, is captured in two new works.  THE PORTLAND JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL is cosponsored by The Institute for Judaic Studies, Mittleman Jewish Community Center and THE JEWISH REVIEW. Special thanks to our many supporters including The Aspen-Mitzvah Fund of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, The Jordan & Mina Schnitzer Foundation and numerous individual donors.

JAN 6  10
WED 6 7:30 P.M., SUN 10 2 P.M.
OPENING NIGHT   PORTLAND PREMIERE
MENDEL
NORWAY, 1997
DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER ROSLER
Norway, 1954. Nine-year-old Mendel Trotzig and his displaced family are one of a few post-war German families who have been granted citizenship in Norway. Welcomed by Christian missionaries, they are about to experience a world as strange as they must appear to their hosts. Into this land of Santa Claus and Jesus, Mendel's parents carry the pain of the concentration camps and the hard truths they try to shield Mendel from. In this bittersweet coming-of-age story, Mendel must first grapple with the unknown, inventing his own twisted mythology of World War II, until finally, through information gleaned from photographs, other refugees and books, the reality of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism take their dark shape. With an excellent performance by Thomas Jorgen Sorensen as the young boy, Dachau-born Rosler has crafted a delicately textured look at children of survivors and the legacy they must carry. "Rosler's first, loosely autobiographical feature is an evocative exploration of the humor, melancholy and strange growing pains of the average German-Jewish-Norwegian childhood."—THE VILLAGE VOICE (95 mins.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY CHARLES SCHIFFMAN ON JANUARY 6.

JAN 13 14 17
TUES 13 7:30 P.M.WED 14 7:30 P.M., SUN 17 2 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
THE JEW IN THE LOTUS
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: LAUREL CHITIN
"I'd come to Dharamsala as a skeptic. A cultural Jew, a Jew by birth. But my religion? Nervous was my religion....They say if you lie down in a deep well, even in daylight you can see the stars. I was in a deep well, looking up. And I saw something absolutely brilliant."—Rodger Kamenetz
In 1990, the Dalai Lama invited a group of American rabbis to the Himalayan foothills to share the Jewish "secret of spiritual survival in exile." Writer Rodger Kamenetz was invited on the trip by his best friend, organizer Mark Lieberman, to observe and perhaps write about his experience. Little did Kamenetz know the personal odyssey on which he was about to embark. Award-winning documentarian Laurel Chiten (TWITCH AND SHOUT) followed the writer on his intense personal journey back to his Jewish roots, combining remarkable images of the Tibetan people and the expanding links between Tibetan Buddhists and American Jews this congress brought about. Among those featured in the film are some of the most progressive Jewish thinkers in North America—Blu Greenberg, Reb Zalman Shachter-Shlomi, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg and Rabbi Jonathan Omer Man—and the Dalai Lama himself. "Chiten's fascinating film becomes a universal lesson about human validation as much as a poetic record of East-West understanding and Tibetan-Jewish dialogue."—THE JEWISH ADVOCATE  (60 MINS.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY RABBI ARYEH HIRSCHFIELD ON JANUARY 13.

JAN 19
TUES 7:30 P.M.
THE GREAT DICTATOR
U.S. 1940
DIRECTOR: CHARLES CHAPLIN
Humor has the power to both heal and expose, transforming the unspeakable into the understood. As Roberto Benigni's LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL most recently taught us, even the emotional realities of the Holocaust can be given powerful and poignant definition through the use of humor without diminishing its horrors. In 1940, Chaplin's devastating caricature of Hitler created a sensation with audiences as one of the few pre-war films to attack fascism. As David Robinson in "Chaplin: His Life and Art" noted: "The greatest clown and best-loved personality of his age directly challenged the man who had instigated more evil and human misery than any other in modern history." Chaplin plays two roles in the film: Adenoid Hynkle (Der Fooer) and a meek Jewish barber who is later mistaken for the leader.  Even though it was made before Hitler unleashed the full dimension of his insanity upon Europe, THE GREAT DICTATOR remains a classic satire, full of Chaplin's visual wit and compassion for the little man. Marking the last appearance of Chaplin's famous tramp, one should see the film again just to listen to Chaplin's magnificent six-minute closing monologue which echoes sentiments perhaps even more cogent today. (128 mins.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY RABBI DANIEL ISAAK.

JAN 24 25
SUN 24 1 P.M. , MON 25  7 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
LEONARD BERNSTEIN'S NEW YORK
GREAT BRITAIN 1997
DIRECTOR: HART PERRY
Among Leonard Bernstein’s many talents were his special gifts for show music, symphonic dances and other forms blending popularity with theatricality. His love was, of course, New York, which provided the settings, sounds and rhythms for three of his five musicals—ON THE TOWN, WEST SIDE STORY and WONDERFUL TOWN— and the background for his score for ON THE WATERFRONT. Hart Perry’s salute to a great romantic’s Gotham features six stellar cabaret singers—Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy, Dawn Upshaw, Judy Blazer and Richard Muenz—and the orchestra of St. Luke’s, in staged reenactments of his most famous numbers filmed in the very locations celebrated in the songs—Coney Island, Central Park and Times Square. Part MGM, part MTV, an altogether winning tribute to a legend’s music. (60 mins.)
WITH
SUN 24 2 P.M., MON 25 8 P.M.
LEONARD BERNSTEIN: REACH FOR THE NOTE
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: SUSAN LACY
One night in 1943, twenty-five-year-old Leonard Bernstein stepped in to guest conduct for the New York Philharmonic’s ailing Bruno Walter one night in 1943 and became an overnight sensation. Thus began an extraordinary career as one of the century’s great composers, conductors and educators. Told largely in Bernstein’s own words via diary entries, Susan Lacy’s film charts his life from his birth to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in 1918 to early days as the "Orson Welles of the music world," and from his great tenures in New York and Vienna to his monumental musicals and stirring performance at the Berlin Wall in 1989. Rich in personal remembrances, home movies, performance clips and interviews with his close friends and associates, this engrossing portrait is a true celebration of the creative spirit. (117 mins.)

JAN 26 27
TUES 26 7:30 P.M., WED 27 7:30 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERES
ANDRE'S LIVES
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: BRAD LICHTENSTEIN
"If you save the life of one, you have saved the world entire."—Jewish proverb
A Czechosolokian Jew whose heroics were instrumental in saving the lives of over seven thousand Slovak Jews, Andre Steiner was dubbed "the Jewish Schindler" (though even as a Jew in Europe he was able to save more than six times more people than Schindler). Now at 89-years-old, the retired Bauhaus architect returns to Europe for the first time since the war with his two sons for what turns out to be a pilgrimage of the heart. In Brad Lichtenstein's stirring verité account of their journey, Steiner reveals how he bribed Nazis and designed work camps to keep Jews safe from deportation. The last surviving member of "The Working Group," underground resistance fighters, Steiner also testified before the war-crimes tribunal. But since immigrating to America, Steiner had put the war behind him and disassociated himself from the past. This journey, one wrought with emotional revelations, explores for him and the viewer the meaning of  "zachor" or remembrance and the tension between the collective obligation to remember and the personal need to forget. (55 mins.)
WITH
VISAS AND VIRTUE
U.S. 1997
DIRECTOR: CHRIS TASHIMA
Chris Tashima's Academy Award-winning short also pays homage to a man who took part in a conspiracy of humanity. At the beginning of World War II, Consul General Chiune Sugihara and his wife were stationed in Lithuania. With hundreds of Jewish refugees outside their gates, they faced a most difficult decision: provide life-saving transit visas to the refugees against the orders of Japan or turn their backs on humanity. Their answer to this moral dilemma forms the basis of this moving portrait which will surprise and hearten. (30 mins.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY SYLVIA FRANKEL ON JANUARY 26.

FEB 2 3
TUES 2, 7:30 P.M., WED 3, 7:30 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERES
JEWISH SOUL, AMERICAN BEAT
U.S. 1997
DIRECTOR: BARBARA PFEFFER
Is assimilation leading to the disappearance of the Jewish community in the United States or are we in the midst of a Jewish renaissance? With equal parts humor and insight, Barbara Pfeffer (ART AND REMEMBRANCE: THE LEGACY OF FELIX NUSSBAUM) canvasses the American Jewish landscape, meeting with both the prognosticators and proponents of a new Jewish vitality. Pfeffer gathers perspectives from many in the arts, among them musicians and composers John Zorn, Steve Reich and Elizabeth Swados, authors Tony Kushner, Cynthia Ozick and Arthur Hertzberg, and other Jewish intellectual and spiritual scholars. She also investigates the new Jewish everyman—those in intermarriages, new converts, Jews across the racial spectrum and others as she visits a standing room only synagogue, a Yiddish cabaret, a feminist seder and follows a Russian immigrant family now free to practice their religion. Taken in total, JEWISH SOUL, AMERICAN BEAT offers a vibrant tapestry of modern Jewish life. (60 mins.)
WITH
THE FIRST SEVEN YEARS
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: RACHEL SALTZ & KRYSSA SCHEMMERLING
Based on a short story from THE MAGIC BARREL by Bernard Malamud, a writer who eloquently captured the Jewish experience in America, THE FIRST SEVEN YEARS deftly explores issues of social class and upward mobility as a shoemaker hopes to marry off his daughter to a man with potential. But love lurks elsewhere and patience just might be the road for the virtuous. Starring Carol Kane (HESTER STREET), Daniel London (PATCH ADAMS), Ned Eisenberg (PRIMARY COLORS) and Israel Horowitz, THE FIRST SEVEN YEARS was shot on location in true Malamud country, the Lower East Side of Manhattan. (24 mins.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY RABBI JOSHUA STAMPFER ON FEBRUARY 2.
 
FEB 7
SUN 4 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERES
JENNY & JENNY
ISRAEL 1997
DIRECTOR: MICHAL AVIAD
Jenny and Jenny, first cousins who are both 17-years-old, meet, speak and even exchange letters on a daily basis. These third generation Jewish immigrants from North Africa have settled with their parents in Bat Yam, a working class suburb south of Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast. Director Michal Aviad (EVER SHOT ANYONE?, 95 PJFF) observes one summer in the life of the two Jennies, tracking their wanderings between childhood and womanhood. Passionately, innocently, the two move in the twilight zone between their heart's desire and the stark reality that must mold it in the end. How is the world deciphered? What do they love and what causes them suffering? What is their version of Israeli culture? How do they reconcile the mid-eastern traditions in which they were brought up with the western ways of Tel Aviv? Can they negotiate the opposing claims of religious fundamentalism and permissive secularism? Aviad captures a pivotal chapter in their lives, revealing a vitality and passion that echoes a generation.(60 mins.)
WITH
LOVE STORY
GREAT BRITAIN 1997
DIRECTOR: CATRINE CLAY
Love's mysterious power can be transcend the most difficult and tragic of circumstances.  In 1942, Lily Wurst, the wife of a low ranking Nazi official, was the model Aryan with a German motherhood medal for bearing the Fuhrer four sons. But then she met 21-year-old Felice Schrader, a Jew with false identification papers who was part of the Jewish underground. Now 82, Lily tells their remarkable story in Clay's elegiac and heart-rending documentary which draws upon surviving love letters, photographs, poems, archival footage and the remembrances of other women who were part of the Resistance Movement. "But nothing equals the powerful sight of Lily talking about the love of her life."—THE BOSTON PHOENIX (60 mins.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY BARBARA SCHWARTZ.

FRAMES OF MIND

Our 13th annual FRAMES OF MIND series continues to explore the creative intersection between cinema and the psyche as it premieres six new films and reprises three remarkable works of the recent past. Touching on such issues as the healing power of art and metaphor, overcoming post-traumatic stress disorder, the fragile dynamics of family and marriage, the links between genius and madness and the nature of loss, each of the films in this year's program will be followed by a discussion led by a distinguished member of Portland's mental health community. Cosponsored by Providence Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Services, The Oregon Psychoanalytic Foundation and OUR TOWN.

JAN 7 8 9
THUR 7 7:30 P.M.
FRI 8 7 & 9:15 P.M.
SAT 9 2 P.M.
OPENING NIGHT      PORTLAND PREMIERE
VIETNAM: LONG TIME COMING
U.S. 1998
DIRECTORS: JERRY BLUMENTHAL, PETER GILBERT & GORDON QUINN
The new film from the makers of the acclaimed HOOP DREAMS, VIETNAM: LONG TIME COMING adds a hopeful new dimension to the healing of the emotional scars caused by war. On New Year's Day, 1998, nearly 25 years after the last American officials were airlifted from Saigon, a group of American and Vietnamese veterans took part in an arduous, 16-day, 1,200 mile bicycle expedition from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, The Vietnam Challenge. Joining the physically-abled were disabled and blinded vets using hand bicycles and tandem bikes. Their journey, marked by a return to the same locations where battles took place, unearthed indelible memories as they ventured into uncharted emotional territory. Just as moments of post-traumatic stress syndrome exhibited themselves, so did a healing process as veterans forged new friendships with their former enemies and scasnned the beautiful landscape of the country which yielded its own rewards. As former marine Bob Maras says, "Thirty years ago, I left part of myself here in war. Today, I leave a part of myself here in peace." VIETNAM: LONG TIME COMING gives us access to a very brave world, where men and women of our armed forces allow us to take part in their healing. (120 mins.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY MAGNUS LAKOVICS, M.D. ON JANUARY 7.

JAN 17
SUN 7 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
OUR BOY
GREAT BRITAIN 1997
DIRECTOR: DAVID EVANS
The death of a child is tragedy enough, but the aftermath can take its own monumental toll. David Evans explores the profound impact of the loss of a child in OUR BOY, one of the most riveting films to cross the Atlantic in over a decade. It's Guy Fawkes night in West Ham, a London suburb, and Woody (Ray Winstone, NIL BY MOUTH; LADYBIRD, LADYBIRD) goes to pick up his son, Lee, from soccer practice. Not finding him at his usual corner, Woody heads to the pub to join his mates. Soon the boy's body is discovered in a garage. Coping with the reality of Lee's death is one thing; having to deal with police proves quite another. Anger is taken over by ennui, grief turns to lethargy. Actors Ray Winstone and Pamela Quirke (Sonja), each of whom finds different ways to cope with their loss, inhabit their roles with heartbreaking authenticity. "Evans places not only the couple's marriage under his microscope, but also the father's pain. Where he takes this story and where we end up is never predictable, for Evans is as good a storyteller as he is a psychologist... David Evans has made a film of great integrity that will leave no one unmoved."—TORONTO FESTIVAL OF FESTIVALS. (90 MINS.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY DAVID TURNER, M.D.

JAN 20
WED 7 P.M.
THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE
U.S. 1995
DIRECTORS: RICHARD GORDON & CARMA HINTON
For three electrifying days in June 1989, Chinese student activists and a broad-based group of supporters intent on democratic reforms galvanized the world with their bold occupation of Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing. The government's bloody crackdown, the often valiant  resistance by rebellious students and the subsequent detention of thousands of political prisoners that followed in the wake of the demonstrations all drew a sharp response from human rights activists. Yet few in the West knew about the complex dynamics that surrounded this landmark event. Ethnographic filmmakers Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton (ABODE OF ILLUSION, SMALL HAPPINESS) have gathered extraordinary footage and conducted extensive interviews with key figures in the democratic movement to detail the activities before, during and after the failed rebellion, including the bungling and miscalculations on both sides. In the process, they have created a epic account of the events and avoided the "democracy movement good, government bad" analysis that has tarnished some other documentaries about the topic. Rather, Gordon and Hinton make a forceful argument for moderation, harshly judging radicals and reactionaries alike in a manner that echoes the fallacies of the New Left stateside during the '60s. The film delivers a profound message that resonates in a world increasingly caught in the throes of divisive political and cultural affairs.—San Francisco International Film Festival (190 mins.)
COSPONSORED BY FRIENDS OF HISTORY. CO-DIRECTOR CARMA HINTON PRESENTS A FREE PUBLIC LECTURE ON JANUARY 21 AT 7:30 P.M. AT PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY. FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL THE PSU HISTORY DEPARTMENT AT 725-3917.

JAN 21
THUR 7:30 P.M.
PI
U.S. 1997
DIRECTOR: DARREN ARONOFSKY
Winner of the Best Director Award at the 1998 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL, Darren Aronofsky's debut feature is a mind-bending descent into the world of genius, paranoia, and the Jewish mysticism of the Kaballah. Maximillian Cohen is a tortured soul, often incapacitated by migraines. His mathematical prowess, his singular obsession, leads him on a search for the numerical code that will unlock not only the secrets of the universe, but also patterns allowing him to capitalize on the movement of the stock market. Living in a one-room flat cluttered with computer equipment, his only outings are for food and visits to his old professor, a mathematical genius in his own right. On one of his brief outings, he meets a Jewish scholar who informs him the name of God has 216 digits, the exact number causing his computer to crash during his vast calculations. Shot in stark black and white reminiscent of David Lynch's ERASERHEAD, Aronofsky's enigmatic film—part thriller, part study in madness—finds in a man in search of something that just might destroy him. (85 mins.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY CARLA DORSEY, M.D.

JAN 24
SUN 7 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
REGENERATION
GREAT BRITAIN/CANADA 1997
DIRECTOR: GILLIES MACKINNON
Gillies MacKinnon's (SMALL FACES, A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE) haunting drama, adapted from Pat Barker's novel, is set in 1917 at Craiglockart Hospital in Edinburgh, a mental institution treating shell shocked soldiers pulled from the trenches of World War I. Dr. William Rivers (Jonathan Pryce, EVITA, BRAZIL), a pioneering psychiatrist, has been asked by the authorities to "regenerate" these broken soldiers so they are able to return to the front. It is a moral dilemma made even harder as he witnesses fellow doctors use electro-shock as a quick fix—readying soldiers for what is essentially a cure that will lead men to their death. One of Rivers' patients is the poet Siegfried Sassoon (James Wilby, MAURICE) whose anti-war messages inspire fellow patient Wildred Owen, the author of the now famous "Dulce et Decorum est" and "Anthem for Doomed Youth." Another soldier, Billy Prior (Jonny Lee Miller, TRAINSPOTTING), has been left mute by the war and it is only the tenderness of a local factory girl which aids in his healing. Unlike SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, the battle scenes here are stylized, more in the shape of the patients' nightmares. Nominated for 10 Genie Awards this year, the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars, REGENERATION is as much about the need for psychiatrists to be renewed as it is about the treatment of those in great distress. (95 mins.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY H. ROBERTS BAGWELL, M.D.

JAN 28
THUR 7:30 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE
20 DATES
U.S. 1998
DIRECTOR: MYLES BERKOWITZ
(92 MINS.)
"I decided to make a movie that would combine my two biggest failures: my professional life and my personal life." So says genial Myles Berkowitz, a struggling filmmaker and hapless romantic who has come up with a sure-fire plan to solve his problems. He decides to make a movie consisting entirely of his dates, recorded Candid Camera-style in all their embarrassing glory. Myles literally throws himself into the project, bungee jumping on one date to prove his manhood. With supreme self-confidence, the inept Myles fends off his impatient producer while desperately trying to salvage his love life. The audience favorite at this year's SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL, 20 DATES is an infectious cinematic experiment that playfully examines the wide gulf between romance as depicted in 'the movies' and the messy realities of contemporary dating."—HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (92 mins.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY HOWARD ROSENBAUM, M.D.
PRINT COURTESY OF FOX SEARCHLIGHT. 20 DATES PORTLAND THEATRICAL ENGAGEMENT BEGINS IN FEBRUARY.

JAN 29
FRI 7:30 P.M.
FRENCH KISSES   PORTLAND PREMIERE
SEVENTH HEAVEN (LA SEPTIEME CIEL)
FRANCE 1997
DIRECTOR: BENOIT JACQUOT
In this subtle and complex look at the dynamics of a marriage in crisis, director Benoit Jacquot, a protégé of Maguerite Duras and Jacques Rivette, explores the relationship between Mathilde (Sandrine Kiberlain, A SELF-MADE HERO) and her successful husband Nico (Vincent Lindon, BETTY BLUE, LA BELLE HISTOIRE). As the film opens, Mathilde is seen shoplifting and suffering from fainting spells. Though her husband is concerned, he expects a rational approach to her problems. But Mathilde meets a mysterious man who introduces her to hypnotherapy, theories of Jacques Lacan and Feng Shui, the Far East practice of living harmoniously with the energy of the surrounding environment. Canvassing her erotic history, the 29-year-old Mathilde soon experiences a sexual awakening, an event which shifts the power in her marriage. As Mathilde undergoes her personal metamorphosis, her husband begins to question his own staid realities. Jacquot's humane portrait foregoes melodrama, instead drawing its authority from the whirlpool of daily emotions to reveal its truths. "Middle-class marital 'seventh heaven,' it suggests, is a state of functioning imperfection, in which powerful psychological forces reach an equilibrium that is tenuous and unsatisfying at best, but somehow workable."—Stephen Holden, THE NEW YORK TIMES.(91 mins)
COSPONSORED BY ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE.
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY LEE SHERSHOW, M.D.

FEB 4
THUR 7:30 P.M.
ENJO (THE CONFLAGRATION)
JAPAN 1959
DIRECTOR: KON ICHIKAWA
From Kon Ichikawa, the director of such classic Japanese films as THE BURMESE HARP, THE TALE OF GENJI and THE MAKIOKA SISTERS, THE CONFLAGRATION is fashioned around the true story of a young man, Mizoguchi, who commits the most sacrilegious act of torching the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Working from Yukio Mishima's novel, Ichikawa reveals the story in flashback, assisted by noted cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (RASHOMON). "Mizoguchi emerges as if of his own volition, a boy whose family never saw him as an individual with needs and handicaps deserving of greater sympathy and personalized attention than is perhaps common in that supposedly holy sanctuary, the Japanese family. It is almost impossible not to conclude from the film Ichikawa's belief that the source of Mizoguchi's dementia lay in those first family relationships which offered him so little. Not being valued by his parents for himself rendered Mizoguchi victim to a loneliness and self-hatred mocked by the self-sufficient magnificence of the Golden Temple."—Joan Mellen, THE WAVE AT GENJI'S DOOR. (96 MINS.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY RONALD TURCO, M.D.
 
FEB 7
SUN 7 P.M.
PORTLAND PREMIERE   VISITING ARTIST
THE LIVING MUSEUM
U.S. 1999
DIRECTOR: JESSICA YU
In 1996, Jessica Yu received a well-deserved Academy Award for BREATHING LESSONS, a profound portrait of poet-journalist Mark O'Brien, a man who has spent the last four decades in an iron lung. Her new film, THE LIVING MUSEUM, explores a unique art community located at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in New York, the only facility in the United States devoted entirely to the art of the mentally ill. For many artists and writers, channeling their creative talents into art and metaphor allow more destructive methods of coping to subside. In this 40,000 square foot facility, every inch is treated like a canvas. Instead of patients being considered schizophrenics, manic-depressives or psychotics, they are known as artists. Tracing the life and work of seven of the Living Museum's artists, Yu reveals how they have turned there vulnerability into a weapon of healing. THE LIVING MUSEUM is showcased in this year's 1999 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL.(90 mins).
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY DIRECTOR JESSICA YU.

FEB 9
THE ICE STORM
U.S. 1997
DIRECTOR: ANG LEE
It's early winter in New Canaan, Connecticut, circa 1973. The upheaval of the 60s has been replaced by Watergate and wife-swapping has reached the suburbs. Ang Lee (THE WEDDING BANQUET, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY) brings this period of cultural adolescence alive in THE ICE STORM, a keenly observed study of families out of balance. Husbands and fathers, wives and mothers, children and their peers all try to navigate their places in the world and personal connections don't come easy. Reading "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" or "Human Sexual Response" doesn't seem to be help. Yet, even as it moves to its ultimate tragedy, Lee, adapting Rick Moody's provocative novel, is able to infuse the film with a wise and satirical humor aided by a cast that includes Kevin Kline, James Sheridan and Elijah Wood. THE ICE STORM "illicits mournfully fine performances from actresses coming to terms with the film's shaky era. Sigourney Weaver shows hard glamour and desperation in a brittle, striking role. Joan Allen, especially poignant and graceful, conveys the sad dignity of a woman who can't help being well behind her changing times. And the talented Christine Ricci makes Wendy a touchingly real malcontent and a ticking time bomb. This story's legacy rests with her."—Janet Maslin, THE NEW YORK TIMES.(112 mins.)
POST-FILM DISCUSSION LED BY GERALD FOGEL, M.D.
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