Spring 2008
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World Cinema Meeting People is EasyGrant Gee’s 1998 documentary on the musical group Radiohead offers a fragmentary view of the band on a world tour for their record OK Computer. Meeting People is Easy, through concert footage, interviews and expressionistic montage, depicts a group negotiating with the claustrophobia brought on by their increasing popularity and the absurdities inherent within the machinations of a commerce-driven recording industry. (Grant Gee, UK, 95 min., 35mm, 1998) |
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World Cinema HeimaThis documentary observes the musical group Sigur Rós performing throughout their native Iceland, recorded during the midnight sun during the 2006 summer. Performing unannounced for a wide variety of Icelandic communities, Heima depicts Sigur Rós playing mostly acoustic versions of their haunting, ethereal songs within deserted fish factories, outsider art fairs, far-flung community halls, sylvan fields, darkened caves and majestic canyons. (Dean Deblois, Iceland, 90 min., video, 2007) |
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World Cinema Into Great SilenceNestled deep in the postcard-perfect French Alps, the Grande Chartreuse is considered one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries. Filmmaker Philip Gröning, without a 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 the border 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. (Philip Gröning , Germany, in French w/ Eng. st., 162 min., 35mm, 2006) |
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Experimental Tuesdays Shoot Shoot Shoot - part oneThe first of a two-part program of short British avant-garde films from the 1960s and 70s; decades in which independent filmmakers challenged cinematic convention. In England, much of the innovation took place at the London Film-Makers' Co-operative, an artist-led organization that enabled filmmakers to control every aspect of the creative process. LFMC members conducted an investigation of celluloid that echoed contemporary developments in painting and sculpture. The physical production of a film (its printing and processing) became integral to its form and content as Malcolm Le Grice, Lis Rhodes, Peter Gidal and others explored the material and mechanics of cinema, making radical new works that contributed to a new visual language.
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Documentary Frontiers Sans SoleilTwenty years after his apocalyptically futurist La Jetée (1962), filmmaker Chris Marker focused his attention again on memory, history and distance rendered mythical in San Soleil (Sunless) (1983), an essay film exploring the cultural and economic practices of ordinary people in Japan, Iceland and Cape Verde, as told through a series of fictive letters sent to the narrator. We eavesdrop on ruminations of extraordinary poetic clarity, which, conjoined with the imagery, complete a deeply complex and almost dream-like document of place. While the locations and the people are beautifully photographed, the camera is nevertheless critically implicated in persistent doubts (expressed through the narration) on the nature of reality as it is mediated through photography. In the 25 years since its creation, Sans Soleil has been extremely influential on documentary filmmaking practices that have followed, continuing to resonate to the present day. (Chris Marker, France, 100 min., 35mm, 1983)
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Share the Earth Environmental Film Series The 11th HourWith contributions from over 50 of the world's most prominent thinkers and activists, including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, and journalist Paul Hawken, The 11th Hour documents the grave problems facing the planet's life systems. Narrated and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, this film offers hope and potential solutions for the problems facing the planet, calling for a radically new and different future in which it is not humanity’s intent to dominate the planet’s life systems, but to mimic and coexist with them. (Leonardo DiCaprio, USA, 95 min., 35mm, 2007) |
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3rd Annual African American Film Festival |
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Friday, February 1 – 7pm The Healing Passage: Voices from the WaterHow do we heal from the residuals of the Middle Passage? In The Healing Passage, cultural artists look at present day behavior that is connected to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The film reflects ways in which the residual impact of the African Holocaust still reverberates through personal and community consciousness. (S. Pearl Sharp, USA, 90 minutes, 2005) |
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Friday, February 1 – 9pm Leimert Park: The Story of a Village in South Central LAIn the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, an extraordinary group of artists and musicians create an underground arts movement and transform a community. Intimate and compelling, Leimert Park is a universal tale of the struggles and triumphs of artists everywhere and of the power and importance of art and music in our lives. (Jeannette Lindsay, USA, 88 minutes, 2006)
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Saturday, February 2 - 7:00pm July '64The night of Friday, July 24, 1964 started off normally enough in Rochester, New York, stiflingly hot and humid; but by the next morning no one would look at race relations in the North the same again. July ’64 takes a penetrating look at the underlying causes of the riots or urban insurrections that swept through Black communities like wildfires that summer and in years since. (Carvin Eison, USA, 54 minutes, 2006)
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Saturday, February 2 - 8:15pm Autumn's EyesAutumn’s Eyes is a documentary about a 3-year-old girl who tries to navigate through the harsh reality of severe poverty, her teenage mother's incarceration and looming foster care. Unable to fully comprehend the severity of her environment, Autumn represents hope to a family of women caught in the cyclical web of abuse, incarceration and poverty. (Gabriel Noble and Paola Mendoza, USA, 59 minutes, 2006)
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Saturday, February 2 - 9:30pm Goin' to ChicagoGoin' to Chicago chronicles one of the most momentous yet least heralded sagas of American history—the great migration of African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North and West after World War II. Four million black people created a dynamic urban culture outside the South, changing America forever. Sponsored by UWM Union Sociocultural Programming and the Community Media Project. For more information, contact Union Sociocultural, 414-229-3894 or visit www.sociocultural.uwm.edu. (George King, USA, 71 minutes, 1994)
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World Cinema SouthIn July 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton left Britain for Antarctica in his ship ‘The Endurance’. Before reaching land the ship became trapped in pack ice. Two years later, after trekking across ice-floes and undertaking an 800-mile sea journey in a rowboat, Shackleton finally came across a remote whaling station and saved his entire crew. Photographed by Frank Hurley, this 1919 film is both a unique historical document, and a tribute to the indomitable courage of a small party of men who set out on a voyage of discovery that turned into an epic struggle for survival. (Frank Hurley, UK, silent, B/W, 90 min., 35mm on video, 1919) with an original score performed live by Jon Mueller Jon Mueller has been an active drummer and percussionist since the mid-80s. Whether utilizing bombastic minimalism, dense interplay, or electroacoustic practices, his approach focuses on a physical dialog between situation and material. He has been featured on numerous recordings and has performed throughout the U.S., Japan, and Europe. http://www.jonmueller.net/
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Experimental Tuesdays Shoot Shoot Shoot -part twoThe second of a two-part program of short British avant-garde
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Wednesday, February 6 –7 pm -Free Screening Shape of the Moon (Stand van de Maan)Shape of the Moon, the second in a trilogy of documentaries set in modern Indonesia by Leonard Retel Helmrich, observes a family over the course of one year as they face poverty within social and political instability and an increasingly fundamentalist Islam. Patient, painstaking, and hugely humanistic, Shape of the Moon emerges as a portrait of the rhythms of life in one teeming--if too-little observed--corner of the world. (Leonard Retel Helmrich, Netherlands/Indonesia, in Indonesian w/ English st., 92 min., video, 2005) |
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February 8 – 17 2008 Festival of Films in FrenchMilwaukee’s annual festival of French cinema presents another exciting and diverse selection of contemporary and classic films from the Francophone countries of the world. Selections this year include: Patrice Chéreau’s Gabrielle, one of the most fascinating stories of the stormy breakup of a loveless marriage, based on the novel The Return by Joseph Conrad; Bamako, a story of personal and national sadness as exemplified by Africa’s national debt; Alain Resnais’ film Private Fears in Public Places (Coeurs), about relationships in a snow-laden Paris; Poison Friends (Les Amitiés Maléfiques), a tale of ambition, romance and deceit; Jean Luc Godard’s classic 1965 film Pierrot le Fou which looks at the inevitable conflicts that arise from intimacy between men and women, and others. For more schedule information, please call 414.229.4070 or see www.uniontheatre.uwm.edu
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Friday, February 8, 7 PM Maurice Richard –The Rocket
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Friday, February 8, 9:30 PM Coeurs (Private Fears in Public Places)
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Saturday, February 9, 5 PM Belle de jour
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Saturday, February 9, 7 PM Belle ToujoursA sequel to the classic Belle de jour as well as a self-proclaimed homage to its creators Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carriére, this is a typically playful effort from the indomitable 98-year-old filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira. 38 years after the original story, Michel Piccoli reprises his role as the devilish Henri Husson. He finds Severine again (played by Bulle Ogier) and, over an elegant dinner, tantalizing her with the secret of her past, takes a slow and ironic revenge. TALKBACK FOLLOWS Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France, 35 mm, 68 min., 2006 |
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Sunday, February 10, 1 PM Deux frères (Two Brothers)
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Sunday, February 10, 3:00 PM Quand tu descendras du ciel
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Monday, February 11, 7 PM Wesh Wesh, qu’est-ce qui se passe?
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Monday, February 11, 9 PM Samia
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Tuesday, February 12, 7 PM Corpora Luminum:
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Wednesday, February 13, 7 PM Pierrot le fou
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Thursday, February 14, 7 PM Friday, February 15, 9 PM Gabrielle
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Friday, February 15, 7 PM Les Amitiés maléfiques (Poison Friends)
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Saturday, February 16, 5 PM Zim and Co.
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Saturday, February 16, 7 PM BamakoOver the course of a few days, a trial pitting African civil society against such international financial institutions as the World Bank and the IMF has set a stage in the courtyard of a home in Bamako, Mali. As numerous trial witnesses (schoolteachers, farmers, writers, etc…) air bracing indictments against the multinational economic machinery that haunts them, life in the courtyard presses forward. Filled with warm colors and inspirational music, Bamako voices Africa’s grievances in an original and profoundly moving way: educating, and at the same time, entertaining the audience. Best Francophone Prize, Lumière Awards (2007). Presented as part of The Tournées Festival. *FREE - TALKBACK FOLLOWS
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Saturday, February 16, 9:30 PM Indigènes (Days of Glory)
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Sunday, February 17, 7:30 PM Voisins, voisines
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World Cinema Seachd: The Inaccessible PinnacleThe first Scottish Gaelic feature film; Seachd tells the story of a young man and his boyhood quest for the truth behind the death of his parents. His journey leads him to one of Scotland's most treacherous mountains, The Inaccessible Pinnacle on the Isle of Skye, and the truth behind his Grandfather's ancient, incredible, fearful stories; tales culled from the whole swathe of Gaelic history of poisoned lovers, bloody revenge, water-horses and Spanish gold. Co-Presented by the UWM Center for Celtic Studies. (Simon Miller, UK, in English and Scottish Gaelic w/ English st., 100 min., 35mm, 2007)
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Experimental Tuesdays Actual or Pretend: An evening with artist Althea ThaubergerCanadian artist Althea Thauberger shares her video work, collaborative projects with young people, mostly, that involve the structure of melodrama and, sometimes, song to invite reflection on self-definition, alienation, community, and coercion within 'natural' worlds, and actual or pretend social/political structures. Thauberger, who also works in film, photography, and performance, has shown her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions in North America, Europe and Asia, and recently screened as part of Inova’s group show “Place of the Transcommon.”
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Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe City FilmsThe first of a nine part series held on various Wednesdays throughout this spring at the Union Theatre in conjunction with the Milwaukee Art Museum’s exhibition FOTO: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945. The series is presented by MAM film and organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. City Films presents several rare Hungarian, Czechoslovakian, German and Polish 16mm and 35mm films, including work by László Moholy-Nagy, Alexandr Hackenschmied, Svatopluk Innemann, Otakar Vávra, István Somkúti and Shaul and Yitzhak Goskind. |
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Share the Earth Environmental Film Series The UnforeseenProduced by Robert Redford and Terrence Mallick and directed by Laura Dunn, The Unforeseen chronicles the struggle between preserving our environment and protecting the rights of individuals to pursue their dreams. Although Dunn focuses on a particular situation as it has unfolded in Austin, Texas, the film is universal, working as a microcosmic model of similar struggles taking place all over the country. Featuring interviews with Robert Redford, Texan lobbyist Dick Brown, and one of the last interviews with Texas Governor Ann Richards, The Unforeseen urges viewers to consider the ramifications of allowing unchecked pursuit of the American Dream to eclipse the preservation of our world's (Laura Dunn, USA, 88 min., video, 2007)
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World Cinema The Color of PomegranatesSergei Paradjanov’s baroque masterpiece is a hallucinatory epic account of the life of the 18th century Armenian national poet Sayat Nova. Conceived as an extraordinarily complex series of painterly tableaux that recall Byzantine mosaics, the film is a dreamlike icon come-to-life of astonishing beauty and rigor. This film was considered dangerous enough to Soviet "realism" that it was not shown outside the Soviet Union until the late 1970s. (Sergei Paradjanov,USSR, in Armenian w/ English st., 79 min., 35mm, 1969) |
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World Cinema Shadows of Forgotten AncestorsNew 35mm print! Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is the tragic tale of star-crossed lovers separated by a family feud. The first major work of Soviet-Armenian filmmaker Sergei Paradjanov, the tale is a storybook odyssey that feels like ancient myth or folklore -- innocent, elemental, lovely. Paradjanov's extraordinary merging of myth, history, poetry, ethnography, dance, and ritual remains one of the supreme works of the Soviet sound cinema. (Sergei Paradjanov,USSR, in Ukranian w/ English st., 97 min., 35mm, 1964) |
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Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe Faithless Marjika (Marjika nevernice)Set in Subcarpathian Ruthenia, Faithless Marjika recounts a simple story of infidelity, through which the larger context of the region’s social isolation is explored. Secondary characters (played by nonprofessional locals) illustrate the complex social and ethnic relationships characteristic of the region. (Vladislav Vancura, Czechoslovakia, in Ruthenian, Slovak, Yiddish and Czech w English st., 76 min, 35mm) screening with Kujawiak (Kuyaviak)(from Polish Dance Series) (Eugeniusz Cękalski, Poland, in English, 7 min., 35mm) and The Song of Ruthenia (Pisen o Podkarpatske Rusi)This short film’s lyrical images depict the challenging lives of woodworkers in Subcarpathian Ruthenia, as voice-over narration exerts social critique on the living conditions of the region’s inhabitants. (Jiri Weiss, Czechoslovakia, in Czech w/ translation., 11 min, 35mm)
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Documentary Frontiers Homeland Insecurity: the films of Bill BrownBill Brown in person!
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World Cinema Double-Bind: Three Films by Satoshi KonSatoshi Kon is at the forefront of a new and energetic movement in Japanese animation, one which portrays the complexity of our contemporary world with adult clarity through the pictorially fantastical and convoluted medium of animé. Beginning with his debut feature Perfect Blue (1998,) Kon has developed a body of work that explores the dissonance between dreams and reality as well as highlighting the impact technology has had upon our collective imagination. His most recent film Paprika "buzzes with a sense of unease about the rapidly changing relationship between our physical selves and our machines"(Manohla Dargis- NY Times). |
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Friday, February 29 – 7 pm PaprikaPaprika is set in the near future where a female psychotherapist, Dr.Chiba, is employing a new prototype device that allows doctors to enter their patients' subconscious minds and record their dreams from the inside. When the device is stolen, Dr.Chiba enlists her "dream detective" alter-ego Paprika to solve the crime. (Satoshi Kon, Japan, in Japanese w/ English st., 90 min, 35mm, 2007) |
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Friday, February 29 – 9 pm Millennium Actress (Sennen Joy )In this unique epic adventure, the lines between the past and the present, and truth and fiction, are blurred when a documentary filmmaker fulfills his quest to find the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara and learn why she mysteriously vanished at the height of her brilliant career. When Chiyoko grants the filmmaker’s request for an interview, he, in turn, presents her with a token—a key she had lost and thought was gone forever. The filmmaker could not have imagined that the key would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko’s life but also his own. (Satoshi Kon, Japan, in Japanese w/ English st., 87 min, 35mm, 2002) |
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Saturday, March 1- 7pm Tokyo GodfathersIn modern-day Tokyo, three homeless people's lives are changed forever when they discover a baby girl at a garbage dump on Christmas Eve. As the New Year fast approaches, these three forgotten members of society band together to solve the mystery of the abandoned child and the fate of her parents. Along the way, encounters with seemingly unrelated events and people force them to confront their own haunted pasts as they learn to face their future together. (Satoshi Kon, Japan, in Japanese w/ English st., 92 min, 35mm, 2004) |
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Experimental Tuesdays Site Specific: the cinema of Olivo BarbieriItalian photographer Olivo Barbieri has been questioning the representation of urban landscapes for the past thirty years. In 2003 he began working on the “Site Specific” project, an ongoing collection of aerial photographs of European, Asian, and North American cities. The photographs are taken from a helicopter using an optical bench that allows for the manipulation of the plane of focus. The resulting photographs (exhibited worldwide as large panoramic prints) and 35mm films are characterized by odd distortions of scale and peculiar blurring effects. When confronted with these uncanny images, the spectator is often disconcerted, unsure of what one sees. Barbieri‘s images portray the city as an avatar of itself; “resembling miniature sets that evoke archaeological reconstructions of bypassed eras or fantastic urban projects destined to an undetermined future” (Mark McElhatten, NYFF). (Olivo Barbieri, Italy, approx 70 mins, 35mm film and video, 2004-2007)
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Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe Homeland, Homeland: My Country - program three The Hungarian Village (A magyar falu)Intended for tourism and marketing among foreign audiences, this documentary short uses idealized images of rural Hungary and staged scenes of Hungarian folk life. (László Kandó, Hungary, in Hungarian w English intertitles, 15 min, 35mm, 1935) screening with HortobágyThrough a loosely fictionalized narrative, the film depicts the Hortobágy region of the Great Hungarian Plain, a mythified region central to Hungarian national identity. Directed by Austrian filmmaker Georg Höllering, the film address societal progress through three generations of herdsmen, all playing themselves. (Georg Höllering, Hungary, in Hungarian w/ English st., 82 min, 35mm,1936)
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Share the Earth Environmental Film Series Back to the Land…AgainBack to the Land…Again presents the state of the art of organic agriculture today by highlighting the work and dedication of a collection of Wisconsin farmers. With their beautiful farms as its canvas, and their sustainable practices as its palette, this film explores the emergence of the organic industry and its rising market share. The film will be followed by a facilitated discussion, organized by the Sierra Student Coalition. (Gretta Wing Miller, US [Wisconsin], 57 min., video, 2006) |
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World Cinema MafiosoNew 35mm print! Starring the great Alberto Sordi, Mafioso is a serious comedy from the classic age of Italian film that hasn't been seen in this country since its initial limited release more than 40 years ago. Sordi brings his remarkable ability to simultaneously play both drama and comedy to Mafioso, which deals not only with questions of loyalty, honor and tradition, but also the cultural clash between “industrious” northern Italy (Milan) and the “slothful” south (Sicily). (Alberto Lattuada, Italy, in Italian w/ English st., 99 min., 35mm, 1962)
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March 8-9 Italian Film FestivalThe Italian Film Festival of Milwaukee will screen the local premiere of five recent, critically and publicly acclaimed Italian films including Mio Miglior Nemico (My Best Enemy) and Manuale d'amore (Manual of Love). Films will be shown in Italian with English subtitles. The festival is free and open to the general public. For further information, see www.italianfilmfests.org . The festival is co-presented by the Italian Program in the UWM Department of French, Italian, and Comparative Literature. |
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Documentary Frontiers Excellent Cadavers (In un altro Paese)Based on the book by Italian-American author Alexander Stille and featuring the photos of Sicilian photojournalist Letizia Battaglia, Excellent Cadavers chronicles the recent history of the Mafia and its integral—and seemingly ineradicable—relationship to postwar Italian politics. Excellent Cadavers focuses on the efforts of two courageous prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, whose efforts in the mid-Eighties led to the Maxi-Trials in Palermo, where, in a heavily-protected underground bunker the size of a football field, hundreds of Mafia defendants were tried and convicted. (Marco Turco, Italy / France, In English & Italian with English Subtitles , 92 min, video, 2005)
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March 11-15 Women Without BordersIn celebration of Women’s History Month, the fourth annual WWB film series will feature work by and about women who cross, erase and/or question borders of every kind. This year’s series will feature exciting experimental pieces and award-winning documentaries from recent festivals. The majority of the films screened come from Women Make Movies (www.wmm.com) a media arts organization which facilitates, promotes and distributes independent films and videos by and about women. All screenings are FREE and open to the public. Sponsored by: UWM Department of Film, Women’s Resource Center, Union Programming, Sociocultural Programming, Union Theatre. For further information please contact Annie Melchior, 414-229-6015 or melchior@uwm.edu. |
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Documentary Frontiers Workingman’s DeathMichael Glawogger's epic-scale documentaries pull together grand, global themes in unexpected ways. In this, his newest film, he deconstructs contemporary conceptions of work by showcasing six of the most grueling and dangerous professions he could find. At once a rejoinder to those predicting the death of manual labor and a ground-level lesson on globalization, the film makes the efforts of these impoverished men something heroic, all captured in Glawogger's characteristic stunning compositions, with an eye for the harsh grandeur of elemental and industrial environments. (Michael Glawogger, Austria/Germany, in Pashtu, Yoruba, German, English, Ibo, Indonesian, Mandarin and Russian w/ English st., 122 min., 35mm, 2006) |
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Friday, March 28 – Sunday March, 30 Filmic Measures: Landscapes in Time from filmmaker James Benning Friday, March 28: Saturday, March 29: Sunday, March 30: 7pm each night; all films on 16mm, free admission Filmmaker and former Milwaukeean James Benning -- “the foremost filmmaker of the American landscape” per critic Scott MacDonald -- returns to the Union Theatre to unfurl his most recent, and most prodigious, visual and temporal mappings. Elegantly unveiling place and history through the experience of time, Benning structures his 16mm films in deliberately uniform durational units, specific temporal platforms from which to consider the immaculately composed vistas, all shot with a tripod-mounted, stationary camera. This insistent and minimalist approach proves most generous, facilitating the richest kind of excursions of seeing and knowing. Only appropriate as Benning’s genuinely and helpfully countercultural hope is to coax audiences into perceiving differently, into paying greater attention to their worlds. The landscapes explored this weekend include his home town of Milwaukee, with similar views shot 27 years apart (One Way Boogie Woogie / 27 Years Later, 122 min., 1977/2007; screening Friday, March 28); different American landscapes as traversed by trains, with the length of the shots determined by the time it takes the train on view to pass in front of the camera (RR, 112 min., 2008; Saturday, March 29); and the changing appearances of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (casting a glance, 80 min., 2007; Sunday, March 30). Presented by the UWM Film Dept and Experimental Tuesdays at the Union Theatre |
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The Community Media Project presents Africa Beyond film series:Culture & ConfrontationThis spring The Community Media Project will continue its inquisition of For more information call 229-2931 or visit www.communitymediaproject.blogspot.com. |
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Monday, March 31 – 7pm – Free Screening Daughters in the DustSet in the legendary sea islands of the South at the turn of the century, Daughters in the Dust follows a Gullah family on the eve of its migration to me North. Led by a remarkable group of African American women, who are carriers of ancient African traditions and beliefs, the extended family readies itself to leave behind friends, loved ones and an entire insulated way of life. Can these women hold fast to their ancient religious beliefs, or will they be swept away into the race toward an era of science and industry? This richly costumed drama, structured in tableaux to mirror the art and icons of its ancient African past, is a testimony to the secret celebrations and packed-away sorrows of African American women. (Julie Dash, US, 110min., 35mm, 1991) |
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Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe Avant-garde ShortsCurator Sonja Simonyi in person Sonja Simonyi of the National Gallery of Art, Washington and the curator of the Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe series, will present a lecture following this program at 8p.m. entitled "An Exotic Film for America: Pál Fejős' Spring Shower". 9 pm – Free Screening Homeland, Homeland: My Country – program five Spring Shower (Tavaszi zápor)A co-production between France and Hungary, Spring Shower is a melodramatic story built on loosely interpreted folkloristic motifs. The Hungarian countryside provides a rich visual backdrop. The stylized narrative and imagery convey Fejős’ affinity with Hollywood, where he spent time before and after completing this film. (Pál Fejős, Hungary, Hungarian with English st., 66 min., 35mm, 1932) |
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Thursday, April 3, 7 pm –free screening Zoopraxia: the films of Karl KelsKarl Kels in person! Karl Kels is a German experimental filmmaker who has sometimes taken the controlled environment of zoos as the site for his cinematic exploration as in Elephants (2000), Hippopotamuses (1993), and Rhinoceros (1987). Out of this endeavor a number of extraordinarily poignant portraits of the captive animals has emerged. Using carefully chosen camera angles and 35mm black and white film stock, he accrues his material slowly over periods of years. A great subtlety of nuance forms in the apparent endurance of the captive animals as it is mirrored within the shape of the film itself. As the elephant patiently waits, so, too, does the filmmaker. The result is a strikingly unsentimental observation of considerable emotional depth. In other films he has used numerical based editing strategies which elicit the most surprising sensuality over the duration of the pieces. Kels will present these as well as his new film, shot in the Tribeca area of downtown Manhattan, NY in an in-person presentation. Presented by the UWM Film Dept and Experimental Tuesdays at the Union Theatre |  |
| April 4-12, 2008 Latin American Film SeriesThe 30th Annual Latin American Film Series highlights the best of recent feature length and documentary film. Watch for the complete schedule at CLACS. Sponsored by Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Union Programming, Union Theatre, and the Dept. of Film. For more information, contact Julie Kline, 414-229-5986. Free Admission All films will be shown in their original language with English subtitles. (Films are not rated; many include adult content.) The series is co-sponsored by UWM Union Sociocultural Programming, the Center for International Education, the Center for Women's Studies, the Cultures and Communities Program, the Women’s Resource Center, the Departments of Africology, Anthropology, Art History, English as a Second Language, Honors College, MAFLL, Spanish and Portuguese, the Urban Studies Program, the Multicultural Student Center, and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Certificate Program. Special thanks to Anya Grahn and Lacey Severson for their assistance in programming the series. In collaboration with the Chicago Latino Film Festival. |
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Friday, April 4 - 7pm
Alex is a 15-year-old teenager with a secret. Soon after her birth her parents decide to leave Buenos Aires to make a home out of an isolated wooden cabin tucked away in the dunes of the Uruguayan shoreline. Unknown to many, some babies are born with a condition known as genital ambiguity. XXY is the story of the difficult and transforming moment when a teenager comes to term with her identity. View Trailer |
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Saturday, April 5 - 7pm Co-presented with the UWM Women’s Resource Center and in collaboration with the Chicago Latino Film Festival Esperanza, an adventurous Spanish tourist, and Tristeza, a cynical Ecuadorian student, meet when a bus strike leaves them stranded somewhere in Ecuador. Director Hermida writes that as an "independent filmmaker I aspire to develop projects that propose new views on my country and culture, films that escape the conventions of so called Third World Cinema by surpassing the limits of clichéd folklore tales, picturesque postcard anecdotes, or fantastic poverty stories." View Trailer |
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Sunday, April 6 - 4:30pm
At age 43, Helene’s desire to be a mother takes her from Paris to the most remote part of Argentina, searching for a child to adopt. There she discovers the Nordeste, a wild region where the astonishing beauty of the countryside violently contrasts with the social injustice that prevails there. Aware that she could benefit from the local poverty, Helene encounters the corruption that makes illegal adoption and child trafficking possible. As she meets people and gets closer to them, Helene must question her own doubts and desires. View Trailer |
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Sunday, April 6 - 7pm Obdulio is an illiterate 11-year-old Afro-Uruguayan street boy who lives with his grandmother and sells newspapers for a living. He is not interested in going to school until he finds out that the newspaper's night watchman is a charismatic, magical "Maestro" who not only introduces him to the world of literacy, but also teaches him about life during the mythical nights of the irreverent and provocative Uruguayan carnival. View Trailer |
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Monday, April 7 - 7pm Social commentary and broad comedy define Who Killed the White Llama?, a huge box office hit in its native Bolivia. Jacinto and Domitila are happily married and wanted criminals, hired to transport fifty kilos of cocaine to the Brazilian border. Their journey encounters corruption, poverty, and the many harsh realities of Bolivian daily life. View Trailer |
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Tuesday, April 8 - 7pm In collaboration with the Chicago Latino Film Festival Set in the Sierra Tarahumara of northwest Mexico, Cochochi tells of a traditional indigenous culture surviving in a rapidly changing world. Evaristo and Tony have just graduated from elementary school. Though Evaristo is the one enjoying school, it is his brother Tony who receives a scholarship to continue his studies. Instead, Tony prefers to return to work on the family ranch. Sent by their grandfather to deliver medicine to another village, the boys borrow his horse without permission. They lose the horse and each other en route, leading to separate adventures. View Trailer |
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Tuesday, April 8 - 9pm Pedro Manrique Figueroa, a pioneer of collage in Colombia, has never had a biographer for a very simple reason: his life is like an adventure novel that is both incomplete and contradictory. Taking Manrique Figueroa’s life and work as a pretext, this film takes the viewer on a journey through history from the year 1934 up until 1981, when the artist mysteriously disappeared. A Paper Tiger is itself a collage, where art and politics rub shoulders, where truth and lies are placed side by side, where documentary and fiction intermingle. View Trailer |
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Wednesday, April 9 - 7pm Co-presented with the UWM Women’s Resource Center and in collaboration with the Chicago Latino Film Festival Eréndira Ikikunari is a beautifully shot action film that recreates the sixteenth century legend of Eréndira, a young Purépecha woman who became an icon of bravery during the destruction of indigenous Mexico by the Spanish conquistadors. In the face of the invasion, Eréndira steals and learns to ride a horse against the Spanish, winning the respect of her tribal leaders. Along her amazing journey, she becomes a symbol of strength and resistance within her culture. View Trailer |
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Wednesday, April 9 - 9pm Co-presented with the Latin American & Caribbean Studies Certificate Program In the Dominican Republic, tourists flock to pristine beaches unaware that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians toil under armed-guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, much of which ends up in U.S. kitchens. They work grueling hours and frequently lack decent housing, clean water, electricity, education or healthcare. Narrated by Paul Newman, The Price of Sugar follows Father Christopher Hartley, a charismatic Spanish priest, as he organizes some of this hemisphere's poorest people to fight for their basic human rights. This film raises key questions about where the products we consume originate and at what human cost they are produced. View Trailer |
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Thursday, April 10 - 7pm Mariposa Negra (Black Butterfly)Peru, 2006, 118 min
Directed by Francisco J. Lombardi Gabriela, a teacher, is on a field trip with her students when she learns of the murder of her fiancé, a well-respected judge. When a tabloid publishes a trashy story about the murder, Gabriela finds and confronts the muckraking journalist, Angela. They form an unlikely alliance to investigate, as Gabriela suspects political motivations behind her fiance's murder. The pair's journey into Peru's political heart leads Gabriela to the realization that she's capable of anything in her quest for revenge. Based upon a novel by Peruvian writer Alonso Cueto. View Trailer |
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Friday, April 11 - 7pm A Casa de Alice (Alice’s House)Brazil, 2007, 100 min Directed by Chico Teixeira Alice is in her forties and works as a manicurist in a beauty salon. She lives in São Paulo, sharing an apartment with her mother, her husband Lindomar, and their three sons. After twenty years of marriage, neither Lindomar nor Alice expects much from each other. The taxi-driver saves his sexual impulses for his affairs, and Alice pretends not to acknowledge her husband's infidelities. Enter Nilson, Alice’s old boyfriend from adolescence. Alice sees in him the possibility to realize her romantic dreams, changing the course of her love life and finances. View Trailer |
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Saturday, April 12 - 4pm El BennyCuba, 2006, 132 min Directed by Jorge Luis Sánchez Benny Moré grew up poor in central Cuba and never had any formal musical training, yet he became a legend of Cuban music. Set during the 1940s and 1950s, Moré’s fame builds as a singer and bandleader, as do his struggles with drinking, eventually leading to his untimely death at the age of 43. The soundtrack was performed by several contemporary musicians including Chucho Valdes, Juan Formell, Haila and Orishas. El Benny was Cuba’s entry for the 2006 Academy Awards Best Foreign Film category, and winner of Best Film, Cartagena Film Festival. View Trailer |
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Co-presented with the Milwaukee International Film Festival Saturday, April 12 - 7pm El Camino de San Diego (The Road to San Diego)Argentina, 2006, 94 min Directed by Carlos Sorín Tati is poor, unemployed, and perhaps the biggest fan of soccer star, Diego Maradona, in all of Argentina. One day, Tati finds a tree root that looks just like his idol (though not everyone can see the resemblance). When Maradona falls ill, Tati heads for Buenos Aires, to deliver the root. As the nation prays for Diego, Tati travels and makes friends along the way, as if touched by the grace of his mission. Sorín (Director of Intimate Stories and Bombón el Perro) builds his film around many non-professional actors, resulting in a simple road movie about a man following his dream. View Trailer |
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The Community Media Project presents Tongues UntiedMarlon Riggs' 1989 semi-documentary film seeks, in its author's words, to "...shatter the nation's brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference." The film blends documentary footage with personal account and fiction in an attempt to depict the specificity of black gay identity. The "silence" referred to throughout the film is that of black gay men who are unable to express themselves because of the prejudices of white and black heterosexual society. (Marlon Riggs, US, 55min., video, 1990) Shown with: Looking for LangstonA meditation on Langston Hughes and other poets of the Harlem Renaissance, Isaac Julien combines archival footage with reenactments of the 1920s and poetry from various authors to present a film that privileges Black gay identity within a historical and contemporary context. The film features poetry by Hughes, Essex Hemphill and Bruce Nugent. (Isaac Julien, UK, 42min.,16mm, 1989) |
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Experimental Tuesdays Mock Up on MuCraig Baldwin in attendance! (Craig Baldwin, video, 120 minutes, 2008) |
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Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe The Most Important Art In the Shadow of the Machine (Im Schatten der Maschine)In the Shadow of the Machine is a propaganda short based on Soviet montage technique and incorporates segments of preexisting footage by the eminent Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov. (Albrecht Viktor Blum, Germany, silent, German intertitles with translation, 20 min., 35 mm, 1928) screening with Children Must Laugh (Mir Kumen On)Financed by the Jewish Labor movement and banned by Polish authorities upon its release, the film was produced as a fund-raiser to improve the living conditions of Jewish children. (Aleksander Ford, Poland, English narration and Yiddish spoken with subtitles, 56 min.,16 mm, 1935) |
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Documentary Frontiers TaigaTaiga is Ulrike Ottinger's rarely seen, legendary epic documentary shot within Mongolia. Focusing on the daily lives of the Darchad nomads and the Tuvan people of the North, Ottinger observes their shamanic rituals, celebrations, hunting expeditions, real Mongolian barbecues and other aspects of their nomadic existence amidst spellbinding landscapes. Taiga mirrors the slow, unhurried pace of Mongolian life. "Ulrike Ottinger's Taiga comes as cool relief and a stark reminder of how 'civilization' has shifted focus from community to individual. Ottinger's staggeringly patient ethnographic project — recording the way they live now — is a labor of exemplary attention and reticence." -Georgia Brown, The Village Voice. Co-Presented by the UWM Film Dept . (Ulrike Ottinger, Germany/Mongolia, in German and Mongolian w/ English st., 501min., 35mm, 1993) |
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Monday, April 21 – 7pm – Free Screening She’s Gotta Have ItNola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) is a young, attractive, sexually independent Brooklynite who juggles three suitors: the polite and well-meaning Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks); the self-obsessed model Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell); and the immature, motor-mouthed bicycle messenger Mars Blackmon (Lee). Nola is attracted to the best in each of them, but refuses to commit to any of them, cherishing her personal freedom instead, even though each man wants her for himself. (Spike Lee, USA, 86min., 35mm, 1986) |  |
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Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe Celluloid Myths and Celluloid Dreams Waxworks (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett)Continuing the rich visual traditions of expressionism in German cinema, Waxworks represents an explosion of the characteristic themes defining the genre. A fairground serves as the setting for explorations of the psyche, as wax figures come to life in the oneiric visions of the main character. (Paul Leni, Germany, silent, English intertitles, 70 min., 16mm, 1924) screening with The Magic Eye (Divotvorné oko)The Magic Eye combines documentary and experimental form as it demonstrates the camera’s ability to penetrate a world inaccessible to the naked eye. The theme of Freudian dreams is exposed through the exploration of everyday objects in novel forms. (Jiří Lehovec, Czechoslovakia, Czech with English st., 10min., 35mm, 1939) |  |
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Share the Earth Environmental Film Series Environmental Shorts by UWM StudentsThe final screening in the Share the Earth Environmental Film Series in spring 2008 will be a program of environmental short films. Included in the evening will be the winners of a contest sponsored by Union Programming and open to UWM students for short films (under 40 minutes) related to the environment. Come see how UWM student filmmakers are reflecting on environmental issues.
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World Cinema Still Life (Sanxia haoren)*Milwaukee premiere! Winner of the Golden Lion award at the 2006 Venice Film Festival (Jia Zhang Ke, China, 108min., 35mm, 2008)
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The Community Media Project presents Boyz in the HoodJohn Singleton's debut film captures three friends growing up together amidst increase in unemployment, drugs and violence in South Central Los Angeles. Tre (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is continually challenged by his father, Furious (Laurence Fishburne) to live a responsible life as he faces the threats of violence and temptations of teenage sexuality. Ricky (Morris Chestnut) sees a football scholarship as an escape out of his circumstances, while his brother Doughboy (Ice Cube) succumbs to a life of crime while both live with their single mother. (John Singleton, US, 112min., 35mm, 1991)
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World Cinema Mitchell & Kenyon in IrelandOver a century ago, filmmakers Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon roamed the British Isles filming the everyday lives of people at work and play. For around 70 years, 800 rolls of this early nitrate film sat in sealed barrels in the basement of a shop in Blackburn. Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland is a unique and vivid record of Ireland at the start of the twentieth century. Presented as 'Local Films for Local People', many street scenes of Dublin, Wexford and Belfast, scenic routes from Cork to Blarney Castle and other quotidian depictions can be seen among these twenty-six films made in Ireland between May 1901 and December 1902. Much of this material has been unseen for over 100 years. Co-Presented by the UWM Center for Celtic Studies With an original score performed live by Scott Tuma and Matthew De Gennaro (Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon, UK/Ireland, silent w/ music, 35mm on video, 1901-1906)
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Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe The Popular – program one Address Unknown (Címzett ismeretlen)The Hollywoodesque Cinderella story set in contemporary Hungary (in a tourist town on Lake Balaton) is an example of the romantic comedy genre prevalent in the Hungarian domestic film production of the 1930s. (Béla Gaál, Hungary, Hungarian and German with st., 83 min., 35mm, 1935) |
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Thursday, May 1 – 7pm – Free Screening Milwaukee Underground Film FestivalOpening night for the annual student-run festival featuring a program of international short films and videos; the festival continues at various Milwaukee venues through Sunday. |
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Documentary Frontiers A Grin Without a Cat: Scenes from the Third World War 1967-1977 The untranslatable French title of this film, Le Fond de l'air est rouge, is a play on words suggesting that revolution was in the air but not on the ground. An informative, sprawling and ultimately melancholic essay examining the worldwide political wars of the 60's and 70's- Vietnam, Bolivia, May '68, Prague, Chile- and the fate of the New Left. From 1967 (the year Marker argues was the real turning point) on, A Grin Without a Cat is a sweeping, global contemplation of a defining ten years' political history. “A Grin Without a Cat is a work of extraordinary journalism, but it is also a work of deft and subtle poetry, visual (in the rhyming of gestures and shapes across images and sequences) as much as verbal. Marker is a great spectator as well as a great filmmaker, able to uncover the hidden meanings and formal correspondences in his own material. ‘You never know what you're filming until later,’ remarks one of the film's narrators, summing up Marker's distinctive way of working both within the moment and out of it.” –Dave Kehr, NY Times (Chris Marker, France, 180min., 35mm, 1977/1993)
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The Community Media Project presents BamboozledSpike Lee's film explores how old, stereotypical images of Black people are projected through new media. Television writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), under pressure by his boss, Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport), to make a hit show, creates a variety show that resurrects degrading images of African-Americans from the minstrel show era. Anticipating protest, the show, to the surprise of many, becomes a hit, yet the success they receive leads to a fatal culmination. (Spike Lee, USA, 138min., video, 2000)
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| Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe The Popular- program two Heave Ho! (Hej rup!)The film merges avant-garde ideas and burlesque comedy crafted by the famous and highly popular Czech theatrical duo Voskovec and Werich (V+W). In Heave Ho!, their signature slapstick comedy style is fused with anti-fascist and anti-capitalist propaganda. (Martin Fri? [Ji?í Voskovec/Jan Werich] Czechoslovakia, in Czech w/ English st.,99 min., 35mm, 1934)
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Locally Grown Locally Groan, You Have Homework To Do! Ta Da!This edition of Locally Grown will be programmed by The Archaeology of the Recent Future Association, a Milwaukee-based organization that strives to create experiences and support work that inspires vision and hope for a better world. They asked local artists to complete one of two assignments: #1. Using only one 100-foot roll of 16mm film, create a film and present it with a live soundtrack. or...#2. Submit 3 minutes of video. Each short clip will be compiled on one tape & each participant will receive a compilation tape with which they will make one new piece. The results will be revealed at a screening that celebrates our community's ingenuity, sweetness, humor, and talent. |
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| Friday, May 9 – 7pm Student Film FestivalA juried showcase of the best short films and videos from the students of the pioneering UWM Film Department. Followed by an exhibit of photography work.
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Saturday, May 10 – 7pm – Free Screening Senior ScreeningA special evening showcasing the films and videos completed by theUWM Department of Film’s graduating seniors.
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