Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Guy Maddin
Starring: Gretchen Krich | Jake Morgan-Scharhon | Maya Lawson | Sullivan Brown | Todd Moore
Beth says: “Guy Maddin. His latest, a semi-autobiographical silent film, with a live musical accompaniment, a narrator and a foley effects crew. Pretty much unmissable, really, even if I don’t always get Maddin – I love silent films shown with
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Isidore Rosmarin
Bruce says: “As the camera pans over acts of violence, serene countrysides or samples of everyday life in Israel, a written paragraph prefaces each BLOOD AND TEARS chapter. Covering the battle between Israelis and Palestinians, starting with the Turkish and
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Markie Hancock
Chris says: “Markie Hancock’s middle-class childhood in Altoona, PA was typical in every way except for one: she was raised as a Fundamentalist Christian. Later, as an adult, she came out as a lesbian and renounced her faith. This documentary
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Francisco J. Lombardi
Starring: Magdyal Ugaz | Melania Urbina | Montserrat Carulla
Bruce says: “Having seen STATE OF FEAR and THE FALL OF FUJIMORI, the political background of BLACK BUTTERFLY was infinitely more understandable than it might otherwise have been. Those films chronicled the Fujimori presidency and its gradual phasing into a
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Masanobu Andô | Ryuhei Matsuda | Shunsuke Kubozuka
Jason says: “Takashi Miike showed down a bit a couple years ago to take a stab at doing a big-budget family movie, but since then he’s gotten back to what passes for normal where he’s concerned: Churning out movies at
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Laura Muscardin
Starring: Carmen De Santos | Marco Bonini | Paolo Gasparini | Susy Laude | Thierno Thiam
Bruce says: “Billo (Thierno Thiam), a young man from Senegal, has wanted to be a fashion designer since he was a small child put to work in his uncle’s garment business. He and his mother have always been the black
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Starring: Claire-Hope Ashley | Dominique Horwitz | Hugh Dancy | John Hurt | Nicola Walker
Bruce says: “‘The films you care about are the ones you make with a lot of love and not much money,’ claims director Michael Caton-Jones. BEYOND THE GATES was made in six months for $3 million Euros. The film has
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Manoel de Oliveira
Starring: Bulle Ogier | Júlia Buisel | Leonor Baldaque | Michel Piccoli | Ricardo Trêpa
Bruce says: “In a film career that has spanned eight decades de Oliviera has made forty two films. He has completed at least one film every year since 1990 when he was only 82. The 98 year old director of
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Venutra Pons
Starring: Jordi Bosch | Josep Maria Pou | María Botto | Núria Espert | Pablo Derqui | Rosa María Sardà
Bruce says: “Ventura Pons (BELOVED/FRIEND, FOOD OF LOVE) is noted for his melodramatic, comic films which often have gay themes. BARCELONA (A MAP), a venture into more traditional heterosexual dramatic content, is a slight departure although it is stylistically consistent
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Albert Finney | Brian F. O’Byrne | Ethan Hawke | Marisa Tomei | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Rosemary Harris
Bruce says: “A few weeks ago the producer of BELLA, an independent film that opened at the same time as BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD, sent out an email chain letter that was a rant against Lumet’s film, a
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