Screen/Society Screening Schedule
| Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Previous Semesters
"Fall 2009 At-A-Glance Schedule"
{last updated 11-5-2009}
Screen/Society's Fall 2009 program features several film series, including Accented Cinemas of the Middle East, AMES Presents: Documentary Films, Cine-East: East Asian Cinema, French Film Series, Human Rights Film Series, Israeli Filmmakers at Duke, Latin American Film Festival, Picasso Film Series, The Politics of Food, Soccer Politics Film Series, and Special Events (combining film screenings with lectures, performances, or panel discussions).
Unless otherwise noted, films will be
screened
in
the Griffith Film Theater
in the Bryan Center on Duke's West Campus,
the Nasher Museum Auditorium,
or the Richard White Lecture Hall on East Campus,
and are free and open to the general public.
All Screen/Society events are organized and coordinated by the
Program in the Arts of the Moving Image
Screen/Society Fall'09 At-A-Glance
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about Screen/Society screenings,
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M Aug 31 Griffith (8pm) | French Film Series {download flyer}
The Class
(Laurent Cantet, 2008, 128 min, France, in French with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
The winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes was Laurent Cantet’s unsparing, unsentimental film about a teacher and his students at a diverse Parisian junior high school. In an unusual example of art imitating life, the film was based on the best-selling book by real-life teacher François Bégaudeau, who also wrote the screenplay and stars in the movie as himself. Working with a cast of non-professional actors, Cantet filmed his “class” for over a year; the result is a hybrid documentary/narrative work that is wholly convincing. The Class is alive with spirited performances; viewers are also treated to a privileged perspective on discussions between teachers and parents, as well as among the teachers in their private meetings and amongst themselves.
The Class raises deep, disturbing questions about the motives and prospects of its characters. As François attempts to teach the French language to his multi-ethnic students, many of whom hail from former colonized countries, he offers both the opportunity and the threat of modern cultural assimilation. No one is above reproach in this difficult and important new film, which is sure to spark spirited and thoughtful debate among viewers in post-film discussions.
Nominated for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film!
Sponsored by the Center for French & Francophone Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image
M Sept 7 Griffith (8pm) | French Film Series {download flyer}
The Romance of Astrea and Celadon
(Eric Rohmer, 2007, 109 min, France, in French with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Each remarkable new film by legendary auteur director Eric Rohmer, now approaching his 90th birthday, breaks new cinematic ground, and his newest film is as exciting and innovative as any of his earlier work during the French New Wave. This time, his movie is based on Honoré d'Urfé's 17th-century novel, a romance set among the charming young shepherds and shepardesses--as well as the nymphs, fairies, and druids that dwell among them on the Forez plain in 5th-century Gaul. With a circling and enchanting plot reminiscent of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and Juliet", The Romance of Astrea and Celadon is an exquisite, enthralling, thoroughly cinematic exploration of love, freedom, and honor set in idyllic French pastures, where romance grows like roses on a vine.
Sponsored by the Center for French & Francophone Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
Tu Sept 8 Griffith (8pm) | Soccer Politics Series
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
(Douglas Gordon & Philippe Parreno, 2006, 90 min, France, in French with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parenno exquisitely train 17 different 35mm cameras on one the greatest soccer players of the modern era, Zinedine Zidane, for a full 90-minute match between Real Madrid and Villareal. The film presents a subjective portrait of Zidane that seamlessly integrates his physicality, his internal world of memories and sensory perceptions, and his relative place in the media landscape.
"To see everything boiled down to one man’s stillness and movement is a transcendentalist high, a concentrated dose of poetry in motion." -- David Fear, Time Out New York
Sponsored by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Franklin Humanities Institute, Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation, Center for French and Francophone Studies, Athletics Department, Center for International Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Center for Documentary Studies, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
W Sept 9 White (7pm) | AMES Presents Documentaries / Cine-East
China/Taiwan Double Feature:
- Meishi Street (Ou Ning, 2006, 85 min, China, Mandarin with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
- The Gangsters' God (Ho Chao-ti, 2006, 49 min, Taiwan, Mandarin with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Meishi Street:
Meishi Street focuses on a Beijing restaurant owner's efforts to prevent the process of demolition that threatens to destroy not only his business but also his entire neighborhood.
The Gangsters' God:
Every Lantern Festival in Taidong, a group of men strips bare above the waist, and wearing nothing but red shorts, stands on a sacred palanquin, allowing people to pound their bodies with bottle rockets, singeing their skin. Believed to be human incarnations of the god Handan, those who take part in the ritual are rumored to be members of the gangster underworld. The Gangsters' God enters the heart of these men’s universe, recording their dramatic lives.
-- Q&A to follow with Profs. Carlos Rojas and Guo-Juin Hong from the Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES)!
Sponsored by the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Center for Documentary Studies, Center for International Studies, Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and Program in Women's Studies.
Th Sept 10 Nasher (7pm) | Picasso Film Series
Picasso: The Man & His Work (parts 1 & 2)
(Edward Quinn, 1976, 90 min. total, in English, Color, DVD)
This Cannes Film Festival selection takes a comprehensive and fascinating look at the life and art of the legendary Pablo Picasso. During the last 22 years of Picasso's life, film maker Edward Quinn had complete access to the artist. Through a combination of exclusive home movies and intimate photos, as well as over 600 of the artist's works (many never seen in public), a living, breathing scrapbook of Picasso is realized. The film follows the parallel development of the artist's life and work, giving insight into his creative processes. Among other highlights are some of the last pictures ever taken of him.
Part 1 (1881-1937):
Starting in 1896, when he was only 15, we trace Picasso's artistic development, exploring his work as a youth, from the Blue period to the Pink period and his first steps into Cubism in 1906. Then we discover the Chrysteline period where he went from analytical to synthetic Cubism until entering his Neoclassical period in 1918. Part 1 culminates with the painting of his masterpiece "Guernica" in 1937.
Part 2 (1938-1973):
Through the war years and life on the French Riviera, Picasso's work moves on to include ceramics, sculpture, pottery and graphics. The period from 1946 to 1973 is made up primarily of home movies, showing his relationships with his children and the women in his life, and emphasizing the enormous amount of work accomplished by Picasso during his last 20 years. We observe Picasso, 90 years old, working on a copper plate engraving as we follow the progress and changes made through 6 different stages.
Sponsored by the Nasher Museum of Art and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
M Sept 14 Griffith (7pm) | Israeli Filmmakers at Duke
Khirbet Khizeh
(Ram Loevy, 1977, 48 min, Israel, in Hebrew with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Presented by director Ram Loevy, in person! (Q&A to follow)
One of Ram Loevy's most important films is the television drama Khirbet Khizeh. Based on S. Yizhar's 1949 novella of the same name, the film portrays the expulsion of Palestinian villagers by the Israeli army during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. The drama created a public uproar when it was scheduled to be shown on Israeli television just months after the Likud Party formed the ruling coalition, for the first time in Israeli history. The government tried to block the broadcast, and the film was aired only after a public uproar, only to be shelved immediately afterwards for some 15 years and bring about the temporary closure of the drama department at the State run Israeli television. The drama marks an important milestone in the emergence of critique within Israel of the role played by Israel in the conflict with Palestinians.
The screening will be preceded by a presentation by Mr. Loevy, who will frame the film within his lifelong engagement with bringing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the television screen; the director will also be available to answer questions following the screening.
Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, Franklin Humanities Institute, Center for Documentary Studies, Department of Cultural Anthropology. Additional support from Brit Tzedek and Triangle Tikkun.
Tu Sept 15 Griffith (8pm) | Soccer Politics Series
The Other Final
(Johan Kramer, 2003, 78 min, Netherlands, in English, Color, DVD)
The Other Final immortalizes preparations leading to the "alternative" 2002 World Cup soccer match, in which soccer-mad ad agency director Johan Kramer brought together the two lowest-ranked teams on Earth, the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan and the Caribbean island of Montserrat (ranked at Nos. 202 and 203 in the official FIFA soccer listing). The media soon gather as both countries try to pinpoint each other on the map, and prepare for their biggest sporting day ever!
This Infectiously entertaining documentary has been racking up praise and prizes wherever it's shown, and is an exquisite antidote to the bluster and power-mongering of the big guys on the world stage. No prior familiarity with or interest in soccer is needed to enjoy this smartly lensed ode to sportsmanship and cross-cultural camaraderie.
-- Best First Documentary Award, Hot Docs; Best Film, Avignon Film Festival; Special Jury Award, Bermuda Film Festival.
Sponsored by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Franklin Humanities Institute, Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation, Center for French and Francophone Studies, Athletics Department, Center for International Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Center for Documentary Studies, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
W Sept 16 Griffith (8:30pm) | Accented Cinemas of the Middle East
Monsieur Ibrahim
(François Dupeyron, 2003, 95 min, France, in French with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
There is a dreamy and fairy-tale like quality to this wonderful film that makes it quite enchanting. Egyptian screen legend Omar Sharif gives the performance of his long career as the title character in this beautifully realized coming-of-age drama, set in Paris in the early 1960s. The 71-year-old actor plays a Muslim grocer who befriends a poor Jewish teenaged boy Moses, nicknamed Momo, (Pierre Boulanger) living across the street. Both are lonely in their own way. The philosophical Ibrahim, who quotes constantly from the Koran, appears to have no family, insisting that his wife returned to Turkey years ago. Momo lives with a depressed father who is struggling after being abandoned by Momo's mother and older brother years earlier. Together they embark on a long journey to Ibrahim's homeland - a journey that will have a profound effect on both their lives. Newcomer Pierre Boulanger has the appealing cockiness of Jean-Pierre Leaud in The 400 Blows. It's a daunting task to share the screen with the radiant Sharif, but Boulanger is more than up to it.
Sponsored by the Duke Islamic Studies Center, Franklin Humanities Institute, the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, and the Program in Literature.
M Sept 21 Griffith (7pm) | Israeli Filmmakers at Duke / AMES Presents Documentaries
Z32
(Avi Mograbi, 2008, 81 min, Israel, in Hebrew with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
{Read the Independent Weekly's film review}
-- Director Avi Mograbi presents his challenging new film, in person!
(Q&A to follow)
In what he calls a "musical-documentary-tragedy," Avi Mograbi features an Israeli ex-soldier who participated in a revenge operation where several Palestinian policemen were murdered. The soldier now seeks forgiveness for what he has done, but his girlfriend does not think it is that simple, and raises issues he is not ready to address. Mograbi alternates interviews with the soldier and his girlfriend with scenes in which the director uses songs cabaret-style to comment on his own film and most conspicuously, about the ways in which documentary films both reveal and conceal their subject matter: the soldier willingly testifies for camera as long as his identity is not exposed. While the filmmaker keeps looking for the proper solution for concealing the soldier's identity he questions his own political and artistic conduct.
"This movie turns the current moment into one of the most significant in the history of Israeli cinema” —Uri Klein, Haaretz
Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, DUMESC, Franklin Humanities Institute, Center for Documentary Studies, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and Program in Women's Studies.
Tu Sept 22 Griffith (7pm) | Israeli Filmmakers at Duke
Workshop with filmmaker Avi Mograbi
Presentation of clips and discussion of Mograbi's career
and filmmaking practice.
About the filmmaker:
Avi Mograbi is one of Israel’s leading documentary filmmakers. His films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, at the Venice Film Festival and at the Berlin Film Festival, and have won numerous prizes. In films and video pieces, Mr. Mograbi explores the ways in which the violence that is at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has come to shape Israeli life in general and filmmaking, including his own, in particular. His films thus weave documentary sequences with hilariously dramatized fictitious scenes, in which he comments not only on what is seen in the documentary sequences, but also on the very process of making the film and the ways in which he himself, as a director, is implicated in the very same violence.
Filmography:
- 1997 How I Learned to Overcome My Fear and Love Arik Sharon
The film, which follows Sharon, the politician most detested by the Israeli left, during the 1998 election campaign. - 1999 Happy Birthday, Mr. Mograbi
The film follows the Israeli preparation for Israel’s 50th Day of Independence—a day marking also the anniversary of the Palestinian—which falls on the director’s birthday. - 2002 August: A Moment Before the Eruption
A portrait of the hottest month of the year in Israel. - 2005 Avenge But One of My Two Eyes
The film compares between the founding Israeli myths of Massada and Samson, which celebrates suicide as an act of patriotic sacrifice, with current Palestinian resistance to Israeli rule. - 2008 Z32
Interviews with an Israeli soldier who committed a war crime during his military service and his girl friend who tries to makes sense of the story.
Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, DUMESC, Franklin Humanities Institute, Center for Documentary Studies, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and Program in Women's Studies.
W Sept 23 White (7pm) | Israeli Filmmakers at Duke / AMES Presents Documentaries
Panel on Israeli Cinema:
"Israeli documentaries and their politics of representation"
Participating Israeli Filmmakers:
Ram Loevy (distinguished television filmmaker)
Avi Mograbi (leading documentary filmmaker)
Igal Bursztyn (filmmaker and scholar, Tel Aviv University)
Moderated by:
Prof. Shai Ginsburg (AMES, Duke)
Respondents:
Prof. Yaron Shemer (Asian Studies, UNC)
Prof. Rebecca Stein (Cultural Anthropology, Duke)
Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, DUMESC, Franklin Humanities Institute, Center for Documentary Studies, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and Program in Women's Studies.
Th Sept 24 Nasher (7pm) | Picasso Film Series
Blood of a Poet (Jean Cocteau, 1930, 55 min, France, in French with English subtitles, Black & White, DVD)
Jean Cocteau makes his first foray into cinema with the haunting collage-like film Blood of a Poet. Borrowing the sexual undertones and dreamlike structure of his plays, novels and paintings, Cocteau presents a sequence of seemingly unrelated events, all depicting the philosophical and metaphysical struggles of the artist.
Shown with:
Picasso and Dance {excerpts} (Didier Baussy and Yvon Gérault, 2005, France, in French with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Pablo Picasso was involved in designing and creating the sets and costumes for nine ballets during the years 1917 and 1962. In Picasso and Dance, the Paris Opera Ballet performs two of them: 'Le Train Bleu' and 'Le Tricorne'.
Sponsored by the Nasher Museum of Art and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
Su Sept 27 White (7pm) | The Politics of Food
Food, Inc.
(Robert Kenner, 2008, 94 min, USA, in English, Color, DVD)
In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farm's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising -- and often shocking truths -- about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
-- Discussion to follow in the Pink Parlor, East Duke Building!
Sponsored by the Program in Women’s Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
M Sept 28 Griffith (8pm) | French Film Series {download flyer}
The Secret of the Grain {view trailer}
(Abdel Kechiche, 2007, 151 min, France, in French with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
Though it is seldom discussed (or acknowledged) in the West, modern-day France incorporates a substantial number of immigrant communities, with many indigenes from North Africa populating the bucolic regions of southern Gaul. Abdel Kechiche's The Secret of the Grain hones in on one such community, located on the ocean, which exudes a laid-back, unforced rhythm and a slower pace of life for all of its residents
Inspired by director Kechiche's own family remembrances, The Secret of the Grain is a warm and sharply observed portrait of the immigrant generation contending with its French-born offspring and the dominant culture in a time when they are no longer the freshest émigrés off the boat.
Sponsored by the Center for French & Francophone Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
Tu Sept 29 Rare Book Room, Perkins Library (7pm) | Human Rights Film Series
"Rights! Camera! Action!"
Human Rights Film Series
This new film series features human rights related documentaries
preserved in the Full Frame Archive of Duke University Libraries.
Each screening will be accompanied by a panel discussion.
TONIGHT:
At the Death House Door {view trailer}
(Peter Gilbert & Steve James, 2008, 98 min, USA, in English, Color, DVD)
From award-winning directors Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and Peter Gilbert (Vietnam: Long Time Coming), At the Death House Door is a personal intimate look at the death penalty in the state of Texas through the eyes of Pastor Carroll Pickett, who served 15 years as the death house chaplain to the infamous "Walls" prison unit in Huntsville. During Pickett's remarkable career journey, he presided over 95 executions, including the world's first lethal injection. After each execution, Pickett recorded an audiotape account of his trip to the death chamber. The film also focuses on the story of Carlos De Luna, a convict Pickett counseled and whose execution troubled Pickett more than any other. He firmly believed De Luna was innocent, and the film tracks the investigative efforts of a team of Chicago Tribune reporters who have turned up evidence that strongly suggests he was.
Panel discussion to follow:
- Mary Ann Tally, The Center for Death Penalty Litigation
- James Coleman,
Duke University Law School
- Moderator: Robin Kirk, Duke Human Rights Center
Sponsored by the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Human Rights Center, Duke University Libraries-Special Collections, and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
W Sept 30 Griffith (8pm) | Cine-East
Rouge
(Stanley Kwan, 1987, 96 min, Hong Kong, in Cantonese with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Winner of 6 Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Picture, Director, and Actress!
In 1930s Hong Kong, the courtesan Fleur (Anita Mui) and son of a wealthy family, Master Chen (Leslie Cheung), fall in love but are forbidden to go through with a marriage by Chen’s family. In order to be together for all eternity, the two form a suicide pact and agree to meet in another life. After waiting for Chan in hell for 50 years, Fleur returns to the world of the living to look for him, wondering why he has not emerged. A spirit now, she searches for her lover in a Hong Kong she no longer recognizes. With its Romeo & Juliet-esque storyline combined with a truly Chinese atmosphere, Rouge is a touching piece of cinema with a quietness that adds to the enchantment of director Kwan’s supernatural romance.
"A story about the convergence of two very different eras in the history of Hong Kong and their contrasting outlooks on love and life, Rouge is refined and gratifyingly genuine and this, coupled with its exquisite technical artistry, makes it one of the best films of the 1980s." -- John Charles
Sponsored by the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, and the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.
{ Fall Break = October 2nd-6th }
W Oct 7 White (7pm) | AMES Presents Documentaries
Ford Transit
(Hany Abu-Assad, 2002, 80 min, Palestine/Israel, in Arabic with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Ford Transit shows us how the driver of a makeshift West Bank bus - the bright, charismatic Rajai Khatib - negotiates the treacherous border while lending an ear to the Palestinian passengers' points of view along the way. This “Han Solo” of the West Bank, who drives Palestinians from checkpoint to checkpoint as they cross from the West Bank to Israel and back again, is worth the price of admission by himself.
-- Followed by a discussion with Prof. miriam cooke (Duke-AMES) and Prof. Nadia Yaqub (UNC-Asian Studies)!
Sponsored by the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Center for Documentary Studies, Center for International Studies, Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and Program in Women's Studies.
Su Oct 11 White (8pm) | Cine-East
Spring in My Hometown
(Lee Kwangmo, 1998, 120 min, S. Korea, Korean with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Set in a country village toward the conclusion of the Korean War (1950-1953), Spring in My Hometown is an autobiographical account of director Lee Kwang-mo’s own childhood. Rigorously filmed only through long and medium-long takes, Spring tells the story of a boy’s wartime experience without ever directly editorializing on the tragedy and destruction wrought by the fratricidal conflict. The war only appears through silent-film-like intertitles informing its progress, and its echo-like aftereffects on the relationships among the characters. The Korean characters’ deeply ambivalent engagement with the American presence is represented, among others, by a cigarette lighter that becomes Chang-hee’s talisman, only to be transfigured into a tool for his tragic vengeance.
"Quietly moving, superbly acted and photographed, and exquisitely reproducing the ironically peaceful communal life in the midst of a bloody war, Spring in My Hometown is perhaps the greatest film ever made on the Korean War and one of the true classics of postwar Korean cinema." -- Kyu Hyun Kim, SF Korean American Film Festival
- FIPRESCI Prize of Special Mention at the 1998 Pusan International Film Festival
- Best Feature Film at the 1998 Hawaii International Film Festival
Sponsored by the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, and the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.
M Oct 12 White (7pm) | Israeli Filmmakers at Duke
Workshop with filmmaker Ram Loevy
Presentation of clips and discussion of Loevy’s career and filmmaking practice.
About the filmmaker:
Ram Loevi is arguably Israel's most distinguished television filmmaker. He has worked for the Israeli First Channel from its inception in the late 1960s, and has made over 50 documentaries, dramas and mini-series. Mr. Loevy’s films broke ground by introducing themes and subjects that until then were considered tabu, such as the Israeli Palestinian conflict, the plight of Palestinians under Israeli rule, poverty, the social gap and ethnic tensions. In addition to making films, Mr. Loevy is also on the faculty of the Arts at Tel Aviv University and at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School. In 1993 Mr. Levi was honored with the Israel Prize, Israel's top honor. -- Ram Loevy is at Duke University from August through October, 2009, and is teaching a class on Israeli cinema with Duke professor Shai Ginsburg.
Mr. Loevy’s most notable films include:
- 1968 I Ahmad (documentary)
The very first film to depict the life of Palestinians under Israeli rule. - 1978 Khirbet Khizeh (drama)
The story of the expulsion of Palestinian villagers from their homes by the Israeli army during the 1948 Israeli-Arab War. - 1981 Indian in the Sun (drama)
Through the story of an Ashkenazi soldier who leads an Indian Jewish soldier to prison, the film explores ethnic tensions in Israel. - 1986 Bread (drama)
The family of a bakery-worker in a small town in the Israeli desert struggles to survive economically and emotionally. This film won the Prix Italia. - 1994 The Film That Wasn’t (documentary)
The film brings to light testimonies of Palestinians who were tortured by the Israeli security services - 2006 Sakhnin, My Life (documentary)
The story of the Palestinian-Israeli soccer team which won the 2004 State Cup.
Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, Franklin Humanities Institute, Center for Documentary Studies, Department of Cultural Anthropology.
Tu Oct 13 Griffith (8pm) | Soccer Politics Series
Maradona by Kusturica {view trailer}
(Emir Kusturica, 2008, 90 min, Spain/France, in English, Color, 35mm)
Catch a rare 35 mm screening of this film, which is not distributed in the U.S.!
Iconoclastic Serbian director Emir Kustarica delivers a high-octane paen to controversial Argentinian soccer star Diego Maradona in this documentary, featuring music by composer Manu Chao and the Sex Pistols. Maradona has a reputation as the people's champion, an athlete who rose from humble beginnings to achieve worldwide fame, and who has overcome incredible adversity to become a living legend. As the director and his subject grow increasingly intimate, Maradona reveals details about his life that have never come to light in the public eye. A tour of the places that mean the most to Maradona offer a unique look at the way the soccer star was shaped by his surroundings, and conversations with the people closest to him offer a unique glimpse into his colorful personality.
Sponsored by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Franklin Humanities Institute, Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation, Center for French and Francophone Studies, Athletics Department, Center for International Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Center for Documentary Studies, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
M Oct 19 Griffith (8pm) | French Film Series {download flyer}
The Beaches of Agnès {view trailer}
(Agnès Varda, 2008, 110 min, France, in French with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
To mark her 80th birthday, filmmaker Agnès Varda reminisces about her life and her films. Her path leads us down the sandy banks of the North Sea in Belgium, where she spent her childhood, then to the beaches of Pointe Courte, near Sète where her family stayed during the war, and finally to the beaches of California, where she lived with her husband, the late director Jacques Demy.
She identifies the moments, the meetings and the events that forged her existence. "If you could open people up," she says, "You would find landscapes. Me, if someone opened me up, you would find beaches."
- Winner of the 2009 César Award (French Academy Award) for Best Documentary
- Winner of the 2009 Étoile d'Or Award for Best Documentary
Sponsored by the Center for French & Francophone Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
W Oct 21 White (7pm) | AMES Presents Documentaries / Cine-East
Dear Pyongyang {view trailer}
(Yang Yong-hi, 2005, 107 min, Japan, in Korean and Japanese with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Dear Pyongyang is a fascinating, poignant exploration by a Japanese-born ethnic Korean of her father's fierce loyalty, and her own resistance, to the North Korean cause.
As a teenager, the filmmaker's father, Mr. Yang, emigrated from South Korea to Japan. His experiences of Japanese occupation, Korea's subsequent division, and the Korean War molded him into a Marxist and self-proclaimed North Korean. Like many Zainichi (Koreans residing in Japan), he dedicated himself to the vision of a unified, Communist Korea, leading a movement that championed Kim Il Sung. Thirty years later, Yang Yong-hi , his youngest child, raised with the privileges of modern Japan, lovingly probes her father about his radical choices. She films multiple trips to Pyongyang, offering unprecedented access to North Korean daily life and the painful realities of familial separation.
-- Followed by a Q&A with Prof. Nayoung Aimee Kwon (Duke) and Prof. Eika Tai (NCSU)!
- Winner of the Special Jury Prize for World Cinema--Documentary at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
Sponsored by the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Center for Documentary Studies, Center for International Studies, Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and Program in Women's Studies.
Su Oct 25 White (7pm) | The Politics of Food
Flow: For Love of Water {view trailer}
(Irena Salina, 2008, 93 min, USA, in English, Color, DVD)
Irena Salina’s cautionary documentary is determined to stir things up. Water, the quintessence of life, sustains every creature on Earth. The time has come when we can no longer take this precious resource for granted. Flow: For Love of Water is an inspired, yet disturbingly provocative, wake-up call. The future of our planet is drying up rapidly. Focusing on pollution, human rights, politics, and corruption, filmmaker Salina constructs an exceptionally articulate profile of the precarious relationship uniting human beings and water. While each community’s challenges are unique, the message is universal – the time to turn the tide is now.
- Winner for Best Documentary at the 2008 Vail Film Festival
Sponsored by the Program in Women’s Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
M Oct 26 Griffith (8pm) | French Film Series {download flyer}
Roman de Gare {view trailer}
(Claude Lelouch, 2007, 103 min, France, in French with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
True to its title, Roman de Gare (aka Crossed Tracks) finds famed French director Claude Lelouch jumping between time and loyalties in this suspenseful mystery about fate and fatal secrets. As the film opens, popular crime novelist Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardant) finds herself at the receiving end of a police interrogation for two murders. We then learn about the escape of an actual serial killer known as “The Magician,” who may already be lurking on the roads leading out of Paris.
Taking advantage of a superb cast and gorgeous French locations, Lelouch's veteran touch deftly manages Roman de Gare’s multiple layers of mystery and romance. The result is a pleasingly chic thriller grounded in a very human belief in the surprising possibilities that come from love.
Sponsored by the Center for French & Francophone Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
Tu Oct 27 Griffith (8pm) | Cine-East <-- Canceled! This film will not be shown
Rikidozan (Hae-Sung Song, 2004, 139 min, South Korea, in Korean with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
W Oct 28 Griffith (8pm) | Accented Cinemas of the Middle East
Absurdistan {view trailer}
(Veit Helmer, 2008, 88 min, Germany, in Russian with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
Veit Helmer’s inventive, allegorical comedy introduces us to Absurdistan, a once beautiful, now utterly desolate, land. In a water-starved village, two childhood sweethearts, Aya and Temelko, await the date (foretold by Aya’s grandmother) that a perfect celestial alignment will bless their first night of love. An intrepid inventor, Temelko plans to repair the aging water pipe, but the apathetic older men scoff at his designs. The women, fed up with the men’s inaction, take matters into their own hands and declare a strike. No water, no sex. The gender lines are drawn, reinforced with barbed wire, and our young lovers find themselves on opposite sides of a fast-escalating feud.
Brilliantly satirical (here are villagers who build an elaborate aqueduct, and then collectively forget how it works), ever witty, and dipping self-reflexively into a myriad of cinematic styles, it’s a philosophic parable that glides weightlessly along (no doubt suspended by pulleys and ropes hooked to a donkey).
Sponsored by the Duke Islamic Studies Center, Franklin Humanities Institute, the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, and the Program in Literature.
Th Oct 29–F Oct 30 Griffith (7pm & 9:30pm) | Cine-East
Departures {view trailer}
(Yôjirô Takita, 2008, 130 min, Japan, in Japanese with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
Departures is a delightful journey into the heartland of Japan as well an astonishingly beautiful look at a sacred part of Japan's cultural heritage. The film follows Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and who is suddenly left without a job. He answers a classified ad entitled “Departures” thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life
Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of “Nokanshi,” acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living. – 2 shows each night, at 7pm & 9:30pm!
Sponsored by the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, and the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Co-presented with Freewater Presentations (DUU).
M Nov 2 Griffith (7pm) | Special Events
Hunger {view trailer}
(Steve McQueen, 2008, 96 min, UK/Ireland, in English, Color, 35mm)
Hunger is one of the more exciting directorial debuts of recent memory. Renowned English video artist Steve McQueen's feature film debut is a cinematic punch to the gut. McQueen brings a visceral intensity to his retelling of the hunger strike instigated by Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) and several other detained Irish Republican Army members in the early 1980s, who were determined to live in a Northern Ireland free from British rule. It's impossible not to make a political film out of this furiously political material, but McQueen chooses to concentrate on the more visceral, tactile elements of the story to drive his point home.
-- Winner of many international awards including the Camera d'Or (Steve McQueen) at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, European Discovery of the Year (Steve McQueen) at the 2008 European Film Awards, and Best Actor (Michael Fassbender) at the 2008 British Independent Film Awards, The Chicago International Film Festival, and the Irish Film and Television Awards!
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-- Panel Discussion to follow, featuring Prof. Fred Moten (Dept. of English), Prof. Jody McAuliffe (Dept. of Theater Studies), and Prof. Richard Powell (Dept. of Art, Art History & Visual Studies)!
Prelude to Prof. David Lloyd's visit to Duke University -- leading scholar of colonialism, nationalism, and Irish literature and culture.
Sponsored by the 2009-10 Franklin Humanities Institute Annual Seminar, Innovating Forms,
and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
Tu Nov 3 Rare Book Room, Perkins Library (7pm) | Human Rights Film Series
"Rights! Camera! Action!"
Human Rights Film Series
This new film series features human rights related documentaries
preserved in the Full Frame Archive of Duke University Libraries.
Each screening will be accompanied by a panel discussion.
TONIGHT:
No Umbrella {view trailer} (Laura Paglin, 2006, 23 min, USA, in English, Color, DVD)
Prepare to witness Fannie Lewis in action on November 2, 2004 as she struggles to manage a polling station in a predominantly African American precinct in Cleveland, Ohio. Facing record numbers at the polls, Ms. Lewis spends her day on a cell phone begging for the machines and the technical support Ward 7 needs to handle the throngs of frustrated voters. It sharpens its satiric edge by emphasizing Fannie Lewis’s steadfast sassiness in the face of the day’s frustratingly repetitive rituals, transforming the proceedings into a dark comedy that at times approaches the absurdity of Samuel Beckett’s most twisted plays.
shown with:
Please Vote For Me {view trailer} (Weijun Chen, 2007, 58 min, China, in Mandarin with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
What happens when people who have never lived in a democracy suddenly have the right to vote and, better yet, run for office? Please Vote For Me explores this scenario, by chronicling the first open elections for school monitor in a third-grade class in central China. A pair of boys and one girl vie for the office, indulging in classic political moves, including low blows, spin-doctoring, character assassination, and gestures of goodwill, adjusting their tactics as they gauge their standing with voters. The result: a witty, engaging micro-lens view of human nature, China's one-child policy, and the democratic electoral process.
-- Panel discussion to follow with Prof. Kerry L. Haynie (Political Science) and Prof. Ralph Litzinger (Cultural Anthropology). Moderated by Patrick Stawski, Duke Archive for Human Rights.
Sponsored by the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Human Rights Center, Duke University Libraries-Special Collections, and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
W Nov 4 Griffith (7pm) | AMES Presents Documentaries
Born Into Brothels {view trailer}
(Zana Briski & Ross Kaufman, 2004, 85 min, USA, in English, Color, 35mm)
"Born Into Brothels, 2005's Oscar winner for best documentary, is a beautifully made essay on a filmmaker's efforts to teach the children of Calcutta's prostitutes the fine art of photography. Photographer/director/on-camera narrator Zana Briski wants to save these kids from the cycle of poverty, violence and exploitation that trapped their mothers. She and co-director Ross Kauffman film lives and intervene in them in an effort to publicize the children and give them a chance to rise above their circumstances. It's a noble cause, lovingly and artfully captured in this film about Briski and her eight students, most around 10 years of age, and most facing almost immediate sale into the sexual slavery that has ensnared their mothers." -- Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
Sponsored by the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Center for Documentary Studies, Center for International Studies, Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and Program in Women's Studies.
Th Nov 5 Nasher (7pm) | Picasso Film Series
Life Begins Tomorrow
(Nicole Védrès, 1949, 86 min, France, in French with English subtitles, Black & White, DVD)
Special screening of Nicole Védrès's rarely shown semi-fictional
meditation
on the future of mankind after the advent of Atomic Energy!
Many prominent French artists and intellects contribute to the narration: Jean-Pierre Aumont plays "The Man of Today," Andre Labarthe is the "Man of Tomorrow," and Jean-Paul Sartre, Daniel Agache, Jean Rostand, Le Corbusier, Pablo Picasso and Andre Gide are respectively seen as "The Existentialist," "The Psychiatrist," "The Biologist," "The Architect," "The Artist" and "The Author". Film clips of hospitals, schoolrooms, scientific laboratories, and even nightclubs are woven into Védrès's fascinating tapestry.
Sponsored by the Nasher Museum of Art and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
M Nov 9 Griffith (7pm) | Latin American Film Festival
Chevolution {view trailer}
(Luis Lopez & Trisha Ziff, 2008, 86 min, Mexico, in Spanish with English subtitles, Color/Black & White, DVD)
-- Introduced by Tom Whiteside, film historian, filmmaker, and audio visual technician (Duke University)!
--Discussion to follow with Miguel Rojas-Sotelo, Director of the 2009 NC Latin American Film Festival!
In 1960, Cuban photographer Alberto "Korda" Díaz captured a photo of Ernesto "Che" Guevara during a mass funeral for the victims of an explosion in Havana harbor - a watershed moment in the emerging new Cuba. The photograph was only published once in the first year after it was taken. In fact, for the subsequent seven years, it existed as a simple cropped print, pinned on Korda's studio wall, seen only by those who visited his studio. But history conspired to enable this dynamic portrait to explode on the world scene in 1968 throughout Europe and Latin America, when it became the symbolic of protest and dissent. Almost 50 years later, the image remains one of the most dominant icons of the twentieth century. In the last decade, with the establishment of the Internet, the image has once again traveled the globe in many forms. From protest to commerce, it is constantly transformed and reinvented. Worn by millions, in various incarnations throughout the globe, the image resonates beyond the memory of the man and has come to signify a more general notion of rebellion for those who think outside the mainstream. From radical chic to radical politics, Korda's Che image is saint, guerrilla and fashion statement. It is considered to be the most reproduced image in the history of photography. Why and how did this photograph become so important? Chevolution is a film about a photograph. It explores how the Che image traveled from Korda's studio in Havana to the streets of Europe and beyond. We investigate how this portrait with its enigmatic gaze became a symbol for countless visions for change. Today many people learn about Che Guevara from first knowing the image on the t-shirt - the iconic image preceding the man and his vision.
Sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
W Nov 11
– Introduced by Prof. Eric Meyers, Director of Duke's Center for Jewish Studies. Followed by a Q&A with Executive Producer Steven Channing, director Lue Simopoulos, and writer Leonard Rogoff!
This new documentary, Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina, provides a unique view of Jewish emigration to, and life in
For more than three centuries Jews have helped transform the culture and economy of
Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, the Jewish Heritage Foundation of NC, and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
Sa Nov 14 White (7pm) | Latin American Film Festival
Video Art/Short Films: Latino Portrait Project presents works by Andres Tapia-Urzua
-- Introduced by Andres Tapia-Urzua. Q&A to follow!
SPANGLISH (15 min, Color, Stereo, 1993) Spanglish signifies a concept of America requiring a new and closer continental identity in the light of cultural and artistic continental unity, a bridge across our divided cultures. The film comes directly from the soul of one of the spanglish zone’s inhabitants in an effort to represent its poetic essence.
UP (20 min, Color, Stereo, 1996) The video is an attempt to reconnect my own dislocated sense of history through my bicultural understanding of America. In UP I am building a narrative that represents the hybrid character of my subjectivity.
LOVERDOSIS (15 min, Color, Stereo, 2000) As an encroaching techno-scientific world stretches the schism between body and mind, this artist’s gutsy vision attempts to pull them back together, again.
IRON JOE (2 min, Color, Stereo, 2000) Using an arrangement of matrimonial mannequins, a neon sigh depicting a man ironing plus raw voice over’s IRON JOE is created as a little soap-opera drama about domestic violence and love.
MATADERO KARMA (Slaughter house karma) (45 min, Color, Stereo, 1999) Two realities, Chile and the US (a slaughter house and a bathtub) are constantly interrupted by signs from beyond. A comment on meat procession, subconscious randomness, and alien encounters….
About Andres Tapia-Urzua:
Tapia-Urzua is an electronic media artist who practices in video, music and installation. As co-director and co-editor of “When Video Came,” (a historiography of video in the US) he is also committed to the memory of the arrival of video technology as a medium of artistic expression in the U.S. Born in the US and raised in Chile, his work continually explores the liminality of a cross-cultural, cross-technological identity. His work is a continuous fusing of aesthetic, theoretical, and political issues. Andres Tapia-Urzua is also a professor and event organizer whose motivating ideology developed under a totalitarian military government in Chile where video was by necessity used as a tool of popular dissent and is now apply in his work in the US.
More Info: http://www.braintrustdv.com/interviews/uncommon-senses.html#faq
http://planznow.com
Sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
Su Nov 15 White (7pm) | The Politics of Food
Our Daily Bread {view trailer}
(Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2005, 92 min, Germany, in German with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Welcome to the world of industrial food production and high-tech farming! To the rhythm of conveyor belts and immense machines, the film looks without commenting into the places where food is produced in Europe: monumental spaces, surreal landscapes and bizarre sounds - a cool, industrial environment which leaves little space for individualism. People, animals, crops and machines play a supporting role in the logistics of this system which provides our society’s standard of living. Our Daily Bread is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isn’t always easy to digest and in which we all take part—a pure, meticulous, and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas.
Sponsored by the Program in Women’s Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
M Nov 16 Griffith (7pm) | Latin American Film Festival
Sleep Dealer {view trailer}
(Alex Rivera, 2008, 90 min., USA/Mexico, in English/Spanish, Color, 35mm)
-- Q&A to follow with director Alex Rivera!
Sleep Dealer is a science fiction story set in a world, not too unlike our own, in which a global, high speed network ties distant people and places together. The film unfolds largely in Mexico, where private corporations control the nation's water supply. With their employment options literally drying up back home, many rural workers make their way to big cities like Tijuana, where they are fitted with "nodes" that allow them to plug their nervous systems directly into the World Wide Web. Once connected to the Net, they are able to earn some money by working in factories where they build skyscrapers, care for infants and tend to gardens all without crossing the border. Their bodies remain in Mexico as their consciousnesses are downloaded into millions of robots that now perform the majority of America's manual labor.
-- Sleep Dealer won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where festival director Geoffrey Gilmore described it as "a combination of The Matrix, Blade Runner and The Border."
Sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
W Nov 18 White (7pm) | AMES Presents Documentaries / Cine-East
The Game of their Lives {view trailer}
(Daniel Gordon, 2002, 80 min, UK, in English, Color/Black & White, DVD)
A BBC documentary producer is given unprecedented access in North Korea to chronicle the story of the famed 1966 World Cup team from the North that advanced to the quarterfinals. The feature includes interviews with surviving members of the team, English fans and soccer pundits who saw the North Koreans upset Italy, 1-0, and go up 3-0 in an exciting game against Portugal.
Sponsored by the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Center for Documentary Studies, Center for International Studies, Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and Program in Women's Studies.
Th Nov 19 White (7pm) | AMES Presents Documentaries / Cine-East
Morning Sun
Geramie Barmé, Richard Gordon, & Carma Hinton, 2003, 117 min, USA, in English/Mandarin, Color/Black & White, DVD)
Morning Sun attempts in the space of a two-hour documentary film to create an inner history of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (c.1964-1976). It provides a multi-perspective view of a tumultuous period as seen through the eyes—and reflected in the hearts and minds—of members of the high-school generation that was born around the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, and that came of age in the 1960s. Others join them in creating in the film’s conversation about the period and the psycho-emotional topography of high-Maoist China, as well as the enduring legacy of that period.
-- Q&A to follow with director Carma Hinton!
Sponsored by the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Center for Documentary Studies, Center for International Studies, Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, Department of Cultural Anthropology, and Program in Women's Studies.
F Nov 20 White (5pm) | Latin American Film Festival
The Latino Portrait Project presents: Un Hogar Lejano / A Distant Home
(2009 SAF Folklife Documentary Project) -- Discussion to follow with the artists!
Each spring and summer, fields across the US South bloom with abundance and fill with laborers to tend them. What do these workers think about as they hurry along the furrows and under the blazing sun, or when they rest after the long workday? Most farm workers leave families and community behind to come and work in these distant fields; these people and places must often occupy their thoughts as the season wears on. If they are to be far from home for so much of the year, what do migrant workers think about their homes? How do they make a home here in the South, how does it compare to their distant home? This past summer, SAF Interns and farmworkers collaborated to document personal stories and the meaning of home for those workers, both here in the South and in their community of origin. Spanish and English with subtitles
Featuring:
- Manos Sin Identidad, by Laura Valencia. Student at Wooster College in Ohio.
- Harvesting Dreams, by Adriana Sanchez. Student at California State University - Fresno (recipient, First Annual Petrow-Freeman Documentary Award)
- Un Hogar Lejano, by April Leanne Simon (SAF Intern) and Derek Anderson. Photographer and Documentarian
Open forum. In partnership with SAF (Student Action for Farmworkers at CDS)
Sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
RELATED EVENT:
F Nov 20 [Friedl Bldg, rm 225] (9am–5pm) | AMES Presents
Workshop on The Politics of Representation
Filmmaker: Carma Hinton
Guest Speakers:
Prof. Michael Renov (USC, keynote);
Prof. Bruce Cumings (Chicago);
Prof. Zhen Zhang (NYU);
Prof. Hyangjin Lee (Sheffield)
{ Thanksgiving Break = November 24th-29th }
F Dec 4 White (5pm-Midnight) | Special Events
Duke Student Film Showcase
“The best of the current crop of student films produced at Duke this semester.”
-- Complete schedule details forthcoming.
Sponsored by the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, and the Center for Documentary Studies.
Have questions about our schedule? Contact Hank Okazaki at hokazak@duke.edu