MARCH 22 24 FRI 7 P.M., SUN 2:30 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM – PIFF LATE ARRIVAL
THE NEW COUNTRY
SWEDEN 2001
DIRECTOR: GEIR HANSTEEN JORGENSEN Winner of the Best Film and Best Screenplay
awards at the Nordic Film Awards, Jorgensen’s raucous comedy explores the
status of immigrants and refugees in a relatively homogenous country. Massoud,
a 40-year-old Iranian, and Ali, a lonely teenage Somalian, meet at a shelter for
refugees. About to be deported, the unlikely pair of would-be Swedes take off
in a dilapidated old car on a cross-country road trip that steers them into the
hands of a xenophobic motorcycle gang, exploitative farmers and the shapely Louise,
a “former Miss Sweden,” with whom both fall in love. In classic road
movie fashion, the two discover friendship, loyalty and love while experiencing
the hypocrisies and harsh social realities of being unwelcome outsiders. (137
mins.)
MARCH 22 23 24 FRI 7 & 8:30 P.M., SAT 7 & 8:30 P.M. , SUN 1 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE – piff highlight
SECRET KNOWLEDGE
BRITAIN 2001
DIRECTOR: RANDALL WRIGHT Randall Wright’s intriguing documentary explores
artist David Hockney’s controversial and long-debated assertion that the
grand masters of painting, from early Renaissance until the invention of photography
in the 19th Century, had a little secret in creating their expertly realistic
canvases. In Hockney’s view, optical lenses and mirrors that created projectable,
traceable images, and not drafting skill alone, allowed such virtuosity. But beyond
the issue of whether artists relied on such tools are the debatable questions
of what the impact was. What does it matter if artists did? Why was it kept a
secret? How did it change Western art? Should it change our appreciation of their
extraordinary accomplishments? Whether one ultimately agrees with Hockney, he
is a provocative, knowledgeable and entertaining observer. (72 mins.)
MARCH 29 30 31 FRI 7 P.M., SAT 7 & 9 P.M., SUN 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
WIDE BLUE ROAD
ITALY 1957
DIRECTOR: GILLO PONTECORVO Although he has made only five films (including the
classic BATTLE OF ALGIERS, 1966, and the Marlon Brando cult film BURN!, 1970),
Gillo Pontecorvo ranks as one of the cinema’s most important leftist directors,
with a gift for combining dramatic power and political commitment that has influenced
such filmmakers as Costa Gravas and Oliver Stone. Pontecorvo’s first feature,
rediscovered by Jonathan Demme in1999 has been painstakingly restored and is enjoying
its first American release. An inspired blend of Italian neorealism and glossy
color melodrama set under azure skies on an island off the Dalmatian coast, the
film stars Yves Montand as Squari, a struggling fisherman who resorts to illegal
fishing techniques to survive. Part working-class hero, part macho cowboy, part
50s sex symbol at sea, Montand gives one of the performances that made him a star.
“A great movie, enormously gripping and entertaining, as well as being early
undeniable proof of Pontecorvo’s and Montand’s (what a hunk) greatness.”-Jonathan
Demme. (99 mins.)
APRIL 16 TUE 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
2002 STUDENT
ACADEMY AWARDS JURYING
Tonight the Film Center hosts the regional finals of the 29th Annual Student Academy
Awards, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Cheer and
jeer (politely, of course) alongside the jurors as they view the top entries from
film schools in western states—Cal Arts, UCLA, USC , San Francisco Art Institute
and Stanford among others—selecting the best animated, documentary, dramatic
and alternative films to be forwaded to the final national competition in May.
FREE ADMISSION.
APRIL 5 6 FRI 7 & 9 P.M., SAT 7 & 9 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE – piff highlight
MUCH ADO ABOUT
ABOUT SOMETHING
AUSTRALIA 2001
DIRECTOR: MICHAEL RUBBO For 200 years, rumor and mystery have swirled around the
name Shakespeare. Was he educated and prolific enough to have written the masterpieces
that carry his name? Could one man have had a vocabulary of 25,000 words—three
times that of Milton? Many impressive minds have said no, but no one has been
able to deliver the knockout blow to the Bard. Shakespeare stays shakily on his
pedestal, and the mystery remains. But the body of evidence for alternative candidates
continues to grow, the prime challenger being the brilliant Christopher Marlowe:
spy, atheist and great poet, and born in the same year as Shakespeare. But wasn’t
Marlowe murdered at 29, well before many of the major works were written? Michael
Rubbo’s witty, inventive film, playfully mixing interviews and readings with
wonderful film and performance clips, investigates a literary mystery as fascinating
as any work of fiction. (98 mins.)
APRIL 18 THU 7 P.M.
guild theatre
THE MUSIC OF TEREZIN
BRITAIN 1993
DIRECTOR: SIMON BROUGHTON The Jewish ghetto town of Terezin in Czechoslovakia
was, perversely, the freest place for artistic expression in occupied Europe during
World War II. While "dancing under the gallows," the captives were permitted
to create and attend theater, cabaret, concerts and opera. Broughton’s award-winning
film, shot on location in Terezin, features performances and survivors’ accounts
of extraordinary music, finally recognizing the incomparable talents of composers
Viktor Ullmann, Hans Krasa, Pavel Haas and Gideon Klein, 50 years after they were
sent to their deaths. (70 mins.) Presented in conjunction with the Oregon Symphony’s
April 20 & 21 presentation of “The Defiant Requiem,” a concert/drama
honoring the brave performances of Verdi’s Requiem at the Terezin concentration
camp during the War.
APRIL 19 20 21 22 23 24
FRI 7 & 9 p.m., SAT 5, 7 & 9 P.M., SUN 7 P.M.,
MON–WED, 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
RAM DASS: FIERCE GRACE
US 2001
DIRECTOR: MICKEY LEMLE “In the 1960s Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary were
to spiritual awareness what the Beatles and the Stones were to rock ‘n’
roll. As Harvard faculty members, they began experimenting with LSD, and in 1963,
were famously, expelled by the university. While Leary continued to tune in, turn
on and drop out, Alpert morphed into Ram Dass, a serious and much loved spiritual
leader, author and lecturer. His 1971 best-seller “Be Here Now” has
been followed up recently by “Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying.”
Filmmaker Mickey Lemle, who has known his subject for 25 years, balances fascinating,
often hilariously funny footage from the hippie era, with contemporary material
on Ram Dass, as he remakes his life since suffering a stroke five years ago.”–Film
Forum. (93 mins.)
APRIL 26 27 28
FRI, 7 & 9 P.M., SAT 7 & 9 P.M., SUN 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
MAELSTROM
CANADA 2000
DIRECTOR: DENIS VILLENEUVE The winner of five Canadian Genie Awards including
Best Film, Director and Actress, and the Best Canadian Film Award at both the
Montreal and Toronto Film Festivals, MAELSTROM is intriguingly narrated by a fish—a
prehistoric one at that. This fish story is a modern, urban folktale about material
worth, personal loss, and the possibility of redemption. The spoiled and wealthy
Bibiane runs a chain of high-fashion boutiques in Montreal. After a series of
personal and business setbacks she drives home drunk one night and and fatally
injures an old Norwegian fisherman. Her life degenerates into chaos as she desperately
tries to come to terms with her guilt and, ultimately, finds the possibility for
a second chance. Beautifully shot and darkly comic, Villeneuve’s sexy meditation
on life’s capricious nature is, in his words, “ a poem about accidents
and the beauty that comes out of that.”
(88 mins.)
MAY 11 12 SAT 7:30 P.M., Sun 4:30 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM – VISITING ARTISTS
DAUGHTER FROM DANANG
US 2001
DIRECTOR: GAIL DOLGIN, VINCENT FRANCO Winner of the Documentary Grand Jury prize
at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, DAUGHTER FROM DANANGl is a wrenching
story about the legacy of war and cultural chasms too wide to cross. In 1975,
as the Vietnam war was ending, thousands of Orphans and Amerasian children were
brought to “safety” in the United States as part of operation Babylift.
Dolgin and Franco’s emotional film tells the dramatic story of one of these
children, Heidi Bub, aka Mai Thi Hiep, sent to Tennessee at age seven, and her
Vietnamese mother, Mai Thi Kim, who endures a 22-year wait to learn of her daughter’s
fate. But Heidi’s return to Vietnam, “101 percent Americanized”
but in need of connecting with her real mother, is not the usual reunion tale
with a happy ending. For despite the bonds of family love, the complexities of
personal identity, painful misunderstanding and expectation means that sometimes
there can be no going back. (80 mins.)
MAY 19 SUN 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
OPEN SCREENING
Regional film and video makers are invited to present recent work at our Spring
Open Screening. Admission is free and there is no charge to show work. Program
time may not accommodate late submission, so to confirm a place on the program
please call the Film Center office, (503) 276-4259, as early as possible.
MAY 31-JUNE 6 FRI – THUR, 7 & 9:15 P.M.;
SAT, SUN 3, 5, 7 &9 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
piff highlight/visiting artist
THE BUSINESS OF
FANCY DANCING
US 2002
DIRECTOR: SHERMAN ALEXIE “Seymour Polatkin lives a dream life sharing his
colonized Indian ironies with the world through poetry. He’s a rich, famous,
gay and Native American-facets that make a diamond sparkle, unless you haven’t
been home in almost 10 years. Renowned author and poet Sherman Alexie (SMOKE SIGNALS)
taps into the Indian psyche in his directorial debut. This rich and textured narrative
from the Northwest is a story of conflict about what it means to be an Indian
in a modern world. Does it lie in maintaining the status quo of imposed structures
that have become tradition, or in breaking free of the predetermined despair that
has become the marker of indigenous identity in America? A wonderful cast led
by Evan Adam and Michelle St. John takes the viewer from different places in history
to a home some have loved, others have hated, and where many have never been.”—John
Cooper, Sundance Film Festival. “I’m trying to think about, and edit,
the film as a poem. It’s about really smart Indians falling apart in really
stupid ways.”—Sherman Alexie. (86 mins.)
sherman alexie will introduce the film may 31
JUNE 7 8 FRI 7:30 P.M., sat. 7:30
GUILD THEATRE - visiting artists
BEST OF THE NORTHWEST
This year’s Best of the Northwest Film and Video Festival is packed, gassed
up, and ready for its road-trip touring venues across the Northwest and beyond,
showcasing 12 stellar shorts from the Festival. Highlights include the hilarious
"Autographhss.com,” Chel White’s"Passage" which paints
dreamy underwater portraits in spectacular hues. and our Judge's choice for "Best
of the Fest,” "Populi,” a thrill-ride of exquisite mind-boggling
images, and our bonus selection: "Richart,” the charming story of an
obsessive and eccentric artist in Centralia, Washington.
JUNE 14 15
FRI 7:30 P.M, SAT 7:30 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
THE 40th ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL TOUR
The Film Center is pleased to present the best of the 40th ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL,
one of the oldest and most respected festivals celebrating American independent
film. From animation to the avant-garde, this showcase features new works by established
artists and emerging filmmakers alike, providing a unique annual snapshot of the
state of independent filmmaking. This year’s program of winners will be announced
in early April and will be posted on the Festival’s and Film Center’s
Web sites: www.aafilmfest.org and nwfilm.org.
