Ellen Page Rounds Out Filmmaker Magazine’s Annual List! ()

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Ellen PageThe Summer 2005 issue of Filmmaker Magazine features its 8th edition of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” Each year the magazine spotlights a group of writers, actors, and directors who they predict will be making the great indie films of the future. I love checking out this article to lock some names to watch out for in my head, and also to see if there’s anyone on it that we may have heard of. What a delightful surprise to see Chlotrudis Award recipient Ellen Page (photo courtesy of Henny Garfunkle) anchoring the list at #25!

Ellen talks about how she caught the acting bug during a moving scene with Molly Parker in MARION BRIDGE. She’d been working in films for several years, but at age 15 during the climactic “are you my mother” scene, she made a real connection with her co-star Parker. “I remember losing my breath, and I thought that was cool,” Page relates.

Ellen’s got two movies in the works, starting with the much-anticipated HARD CANDY by David Slade due out later this year. By now Chlotrudis members have all heard about the film in which Ellen plays a young girl who violently turns the tables on an Internet predator. She will follow that with Alison Murray’s MOUTH TO MOUTH in which she plays a teenager who runs away from home and joins a cult, only to have her mother track her down and join the cult as well.

Since HARD CANDY’S success at Sundance, scripts have been rolling in, with Hollywood Blockbusters mixed among the indies. Didn’t we, at the 11th Annual Chlotrudis Awards Ceremony in the Spring of 2005 tell Ellen that she was going to be the next big thing? Regarding those Hollywood blockbusters, we have only this to say: “Scarlett Johansson in THE ISLAND.”

Congratulations, Ellen! We wish you all the best!

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Screenwriter’s Salon Returns to the Coolidge Corner Theatre ()

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Central Productions and Grub Street Writers presents The Screenwriters’ Salon- an informal reading series designed to help screenwriters in the process of crafting a great screenplay by offering a forum that brings the page to life through actors and an engaging discussion with the audience. Enjoy another entertaining reading and discussion on Thursday, July 28, 7:30 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

This week features a live, staged workshop reading of the script for “The Trouble With Uncle Max” by local filmmaker Rufus Chaffee.

It all seemed so simple to Joe – help Sonya kill her Uncle and then disappear forever with the money. But Joe’s assessment was wrong. The first problem is that her Uncle simply refuses to die, the second problem is what what to do with the body… if they get through these two problems than they will have solved THE TROUBLE WITH UNCLE MAX.

The Screenwriters’ Salon is held the last Thursday of each month at the Coolidge Corner Theater.

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Local Cinema Explores Union Option ()

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Boston-area film fans should take note of the Kendall Square Cinema staff’s attempt to unionize this month. On July 30, the floor staff of the cinema will vote to become part of UFCW Local 791. If successful, this will be the first unionized theatre staff in the Landmark Theatre chain and possibly, in the country.

The decision to petition for union representation came as a result of recent management changes, a wage freeze and general lack of benefits for employees. Landmark does not offer full time status to most of its regular local employees, some of whom work, on average, between thirty-five and forty hours per week. The starting wage has remained at $7.25 per hour since the fall of 2002 at the Kendall Square location. Since that time, merit raises and reviews have been sporadic at best. Many of these employees work multiple jobs to make ends meet and rely on state-funded healthcare programs.’

‘People work at this theatre because they support independent films. It is disturbing that complaints about recent operational changes by not only the staff, but loyal patrons, have been met with apathy, bordering on contempt by upper management,’ explains former, longtime assistant manager Nancy Campbell. ‘There is a growing disparity between the original mission statement of the company and the behavior it currently exhibits.’ ‘

Since its inception in 1974, Los Angeles-based Landmark Theatre Corporation has been the nation’s largest chain specializing in the exhibition of independent and foreign films. It has prided itself on exhibiting controversial fare such as FAHRENHEIT 9/11, THE CORPORATION, ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, and HAPPINESS. Landmark was acquired by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner’s 2929 Entertainment in 2003. 2929 Entertainment also owns Rysher Pictures and Magnolia Pictures Distribution and holds interests in Lion’s Gate Films, HDNet and HDNet Films.’

UFCW Local 791 is one of 900 affiliates of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, representing over 1.4 million members worldwide. Local 791 represents 6700 supermarket and warehouse workers in Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island.

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Chlotrudis Short Film Festival Call for Entries Reminder! ()

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CALL FOR ENTRIES!

Short filmmakers take notice. The 6th Annual Short Film Festival is in the middle of its call for entries of short films for their October 3 festival at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA. Filmmakers from all over the world with works of 20 minutes or less are encouraged to submit. All genres are encouraged, including documentary, narrative, animation and musical. Please visit our Short Film Festival page for details, or contact our programmer at filmfestival@chlotrudis.org.

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Chlotrudis Friends Exhibit “Girls on Film!” ()

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Chlotrudis Friends Exhibit “Girls on Film!”

Opening at the Harvard University Art Museums this month is Girls on Film, an installation by artists Julie Buck and Karin Segal of 70 photographs depicting female film-studio workers who posed for what are known as color-timing control strips. Buck and Segal retrieved these beguiling images from discarded film leaders-usually blank film attached to the ends of a print to protect it from damage when it is threaded through a projector. They created the photographic prints in the installation by restoring, editing, and enlarging selected frames.

On view through September 18, 2005, at Harvard’s Sert Gallery in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Girls on Film presents the artists’ interpretation of this provocative imagery in a panoramic display that forms a continuous work of art. A tension develops between the found images and the formal and material effects the artists achieve with their edited and enlarged prints.

The installation foregrounds a technical process in film that is normally hidden from public view. “Through their compelling retrieval of these formerly discarded and anonymous images, Julie Buck and Karin Segal offer insight into a little-known aspect of film production,” said Thomas W. Lentz, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums. “In the process, they introduce a type of image that should offer a new point of entry into discussions of both the cinema and its representations of women.”

Julie Buck (left) and Karin Segal - photo courtesy of Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News OfficeColor timing is a fundamental tool the film industry used from the 1920s to the 1990s to establish visual continuity between shots that may have been filmed over several months, under different lighting conditions, and even on different film stocks. Color-timing strips-or “China Girls,” as they came to be known-were film frames of variously posed women that technicians in the processing lab used to achieve consistent color balance and tonal density throughout a film. Women’s skin was thought to offer a particularly nuanced tonal gauge. Some of the women posing for these shots were lab secretaries or technicians; others were models or actresses hired for the job.

Although these shots had a utilitarian purpose, the way the women were posed, lit, and filmed often mimicked the representational codes of commercial cinema. As the artists note, “If it were just about a [color] standard, no more than 20 prototypes would have been necessary. Obviously, the format offered an opportunity to play out poses that were a lot more than functional.” Perhaps as a result, these color-timing control strips took on a life of their own, sometimes reappearing as “pin-ups” in projection booths, for example. According to a lab technician familiar with the genre, says Buck, some of the most appealing of these strips were reproduced more than even the most successful Hollywood films.

Both artists conceive of their practice as rescuing these women from the margins of cinema, recasting them as movie stars in their own right. It was the creative exploitation of the format and the obsolescence of the functional device, however, that initially attracted Buck and Segal to these images. “As with so many processes, color timing is now accomplished digitally,” said Segal. “It is ironic, therefore, that the very digital technology that allowed us to recover and rework these images-elevating them to the status of icons or portraits-has also made them all but disappear from the film industry.”

About the Artists

Julie Buck and Karin Segal have worked in the film and art fields for the last 10 years. Girls on Film, their latest project, premiered at the Courthouse Gallery at the Anthology Film Archive in New York City in February 2005 before traveling to Harvard. Both Julie and Karin have supported the Chlotrudis Society in a variety of ways. We offer congratulations to them both!

JULIE BUCK, born in 1974 in Walnut Creek, California, is the head of conservation at the Harvard Film Archive. She has a degree in film history from Brigham Young University and a certificate in film preservation from George Eastman House. Buck has taught film at several Boston institutions and has curated film series throughout the Northeast. Buck is also a collage artist. She currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

KARIN RYWKIND SEGAL, born in 1973 in Tel Aviv, holds a degree in fine arts from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and has exhibited her art in Boston, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv while curating film and video series in Boston. She is the assistant conservator and publicist at the Harvard Film Archive and resides in Boston.

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GOWANUS gets the Feature Film Treatment ()

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GOWANUS gets the Feature Film Treatment

indieWIRE reports that Ryan Fleck’s award-winning short film, GOWANUS, BROOKLYN, will be expanded into a feature length film. GOWANUS, which played at both the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, was a favorite of Chris & Diane’s when it screened at the 2004 Independent Film Festival of Boston. The film is about “Drey, a 12-year-old Brooklyn girl who discovers her teacher smoking crack after school and is compelled to investigate further.”

The feature would be called HALF NELSON, and already attached are Ryan Gosling and Anthony Mackie. It is hoped that Shareeka Epps, who starred in the short as Drey, might reprise her role in the feature. Fleck co-wrote the scipt with Anna Boden, who is producing along with Traction Media, the company behind the much-anticipated HARD CANDY.

Speaking of HARD CANDY, starring Chlotrudis Awards-winner Ellen Page, Lion’s Gate Films has recently announced a release date of December 23 for this controversial film. It’s later than I expected, but perhaps this means we’ll get to see it in Toronto!

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Chlotrudis Monday Night at the Movies & Indie Film Round-Up, July 1 – 7 ()

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Chlotrudis Monday Night at the Movies & Indie Film Round-Up, July 1 – 7

Hey there Everyone!

So the Chlotrudis Monday Night at the Movies hasn’t be doing so well this summer. We’re looking at the 4th of July as our next potential movie date, and that just seems like a bad idea logistically. Of course, you know, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be out there seeing lots of movies! Did anyone catch THE HEIGHTS last week? I’d love a little review for the website. This week, on no particular day, there are many choices for you to see, and I am going to dispense with my usual selection of a single film for the week and give you a couple of suggestions.

Here’s a film you don’t want to miss, and you’ve only got a few more chances. OR (MY TREASURE) is part of the Boston Jewish Film Festival’s Encores and More program finishing up its run at the Museum of Fine Arts. During its final weekend, this series focuses on the talents of Israeli actress Ronit Elkabetz, whose work as an actress and director reach powerful levels. OR (MY TREASURE) is not a feel good movie; it’s one of those bleak foreign films that I live for. Or is a high school girl who works hard, is popular with the boys and takes care of her mother, Ruthie… who works as a prostitute. Or does everything she can to get her mother to change careers while struggling to make ends meet for the household. Elkabetz’ Ruthie is frustrating and sympathetic. OR (MY TREASURE) plays the Museum of Fine Arts Friday – Sunday. Do try to catch it.

YesSally Potter’s latest films YES has been garnering a lot of attention latetly, delighting some viewers and confounding others. YES is not an easy film, but it’s bold and sometimes succesful. Joan Allen stars as a succesful scientist who enters into an affair with a chef at a restaurant where she is attending a special dinner event. Curiously, the film is spoken entirely in verse (with some actors handling this task better than others). What superficially appears to be a film about male/female relationships is actually a comment on our global relationships in this
post 9/11 world. Definitely worth the price of a movie ticket, go out and see for yourself if YES gets a “yes” or a “no.”

Finally, an alert for Caitlin! The Harvard Film Archive is playing Carlos Saura’s CRIA CUERVOS on Wednesday night as part of its Directors series. CRIA CUERVOS ranked #66 on the Chlotrudis Society’s Top 100 Foreign-Language Films list, largely due to the campaigning of one member who holds it as one of her favorites. Here’s a rare opportunity to see the film on the big screen!

That’s it for this week. Enjoy your holiday weekend, and don’t forget the movies!

Playing this week, July 1 – 7.

Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Celebrating James Dean!
Giant (Fri. – Sun.)
East of Eden (Fri. – Sun.)
Rebel Without a Cause (Fri. – Sun.)
New 35 mm Print!
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Mon. & Tue.)
Special Screening! In Celebration of the Dalai Lama’s Birthday! Presented in association with The Tibet Society of Boston!
Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
Free Preview Screening! Producer Keith Schieron Will Introduce!
We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
Free Preview Screening!
Punk: Attitude

Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
March of the Penguins
Howl’s Moving Castle
Mad Hot Ballroom
Shake Hands with the Devil
Anya in and out of Focus
Midnite Madness
Bruce “Don’t Call Me Ash” Campbell’s Man with the Screaming Brain (Fri. & Sat.)
A Don Henley (?) rock opera with DIRTY PROJECTORS and WIND-UP BIRD in Concert! (Fri.)
Deep Throat (Sat.)
Brookline Booksmith presents
Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig Book Reading and our favorite episodes (Wed.)

FEI Theatres Capitol Theatres, Arlington
Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

FEI Theatres Somerville Theatres, Somerville
Layer Cake
Kung Fu Hustle (ineligible) (Sun. – Wed.)

Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
Directors: King Video
Our Daily Bread (Fri. & Sun.)
Cynara (Fri. & Sun.)
Directors: Ren’lair
‘nous la libert’i> (Sat. & Mon.)
Under the Roofs of Paris (Sat. & Mon.)
Directors: Grigori Chukhrai
Ballad of a Soldier (Tue.)
The Forty-First (Tue.)
Directors: Carlos Saura
Cria Cuervos (Wed.)
The Hunt (Wed.)
Directors: Jacques Tourneur
Nightfall (Thu.)
Great Day in the Morning (Thu.)

Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
My Summer of Love
Howl’s Moving Castle
Mad Hot Ballroom

Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Yes
The Heights
Mysterious Skin
Apr’Vous
The Man Who Copied
My Summer of Love
Rize
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Howl’s Moving Castle
Happily Ever After

Embassy Cinema, Waltham
The Heights
Howl’s Moving Castle
Happily Ever After
Mad Hot Ballroom
March of the Penguins

Loew’s Harvard Square,

Cambridge
Saving Face
Crash (ineligible)
Mad Hot Ballroom

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Boston Jewish Film Festival: Encores and More
Or (My Treasure) (Fri. – Sun.)
Late Marriage (Sat.)
The Ninth Day (Fri. – Sun. & Thu.)
Alila (Sun.)
Scandalous Author on Film
Writer of O (Fri., Sat., & Thu.)
Art on Film
Goya in Bordeaux
The 10th Annual Boston French Film Festival
36 Quai des Orf’es (Thu.)

The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
House of D

West Newton Cinema, West Newton
Apr’Vous
My Summer of Love
Crash (ineligible)
Ladies in Lavender
Paper Clips
Walk on Water
Paper Clips

COMING SOON!

July Events from The Boston Jewish Film Festival

The Boston Jewish Film Festival: Encore and More continues at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with a tribute to beautiful and accomplished Israeli actress/director Ronit Elkabetz

Details follow below.’

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ENCORE AND MORE:’TRIBUTE TO ISRAELI ACTRESS/DIRECTOR RONIT ELKABETZ

The Boston Jewish Film Festival is pleased to begin a four-film tribute to powerhouse Israeli actress/director Ronit Elkabetz this week, as part of our ‘The Boston Jewish Film Festival:’ENCORES AND MORE’ series at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA).

Born in Haifa to religious Moroccan immigrants in a home where Arabic, Hebrew, and French were spoken, Elkabetz began acting by chance.’Now, at forty, she has a body of work behind her that reflects independent choices and a wide range of parts.’Last year decidedly belonged to Elkabetz, as OR (MY TREASURE), in which she stars, won the coveted Camera d’Or given to a film by a new filmmaker (Keren Yedaya), and as she, herself became a director, co-directing TO TAKE A WIFE with her brother, Shlomi.

This tribute includes three Boston Premieres:’the Cannes-winner OR, ALILA by Amos Gitai, and TO TAKE A WIFE, co-directed by Ronit.’We also include a return engagement ofDover Kosashvili’s 2001 hit LATE MARRIAGE, starring WALK ON WATER’S Lior Ashkenazi

Tickets: $9 general admission; $8 seniors, students, members of the MFA and Boston Jewish Film Festival. To purchase tickets in advance with a credit card, call 617.369.3306 or visit www.mfa.org/film. No phone orders for same-day screenings.

OR (MY TREASURE) .’As Ruthie, a prostitute and mother of a teenage girl, Elkabetz shares the screen with Dana Ivgy as Or, who struggles against the odds to take care of them both.
Fri, Jul 1, 4:45 pm
Sat, Jul 2, 10:30 am
Sun, Jul 3, 3:30 pm

ALILA.’Here, Elkabetz does a comic turn as a Sephardic policewoman, living in a crazy Tel Aviv apartment complex under serious renovation.’This film also offers Boston audiences a good look at Hanna Laslo, winner of this year’s Best Actress Award at Cannes for her performance in another film by Amos Gitai.
Sun, Jul 3, 1 pm

LATE MARRIAGE’A strong, sexy performance by Elkabetz as the divorced woman that bachelor Zaza (WALK ON WATER’s Lior Askenazi) cannot find the courage to marry against his Georgian Jewish parents’ wishes.
Sat, Jul 2, 12:30 pm

For full film descriptions and other films in the Encore and More series, please see http://www.bjff.org/events/?id=298

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Chlotrudis Award Winning Short Film, TUNANOODA, screens on Martha’s Vineyard

Sunday, July 3, 7:30pm

THE BAR MITZVAH BOY
preceded by the animated short TUNANOODA

Screenings take place at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center on Center Street in Vineyard Haven. Doors open at 6:45. Admission is $10. For more information, please check online at www.mvhc.us/summer_institute.htm or call (508) 693-0745.

Next up in this series:
Sunday, July 3 at 7:30pm
THE BAR MITZVAH BOY
preceded by the animated short TUNANOODA

For details, see http://www.bjff.org/events/?id= 303

Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President

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Chlotrudis Monday Night at the Movies & Indie Film Round-Up, June 24 – 30 ()

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Chlotrudis Monday Night at the Movies & Indie Film Round-Up, June 24 – 30

Hey there Everyone!

It’s my third and final Monday in June that I will be unable to attend the Chlotrudis Monday Night Movie of the Week (I’ll be at a Conference in Chicago!) There are several new movies opening that you should try to catch. For Monday night, for those interested, I recommend THE HEIGHTS, winner of the Audience Award feature film at last week’s Provincetown International Film Festival. This Merchant/Ivory production stars Glenn Close, James Marsden and Elizabeth Banks. Chlotrudis members can meet for the 7:00 p.m. screening at the Kendall Square Cinema.

Isabel (Elizabeth Banks), a New York photographer, is having second thoughts about her upcoming marriage to Jonathan (James Marsden). Isabel’s mother Diana (Glenn Close) learns that her husband has a new lover, and begins to rethink her life choices and open marriage. When Diana’s and Isabel’s paths cross with Alec (Jesse Bradford) and Peter (John Light), the connections between the characters are revealed, and all must choose what kind of lives they want before the sun comes up the next day. Produced by Ismail Merchant and James Ivory.

Director: Chris Terrio

Cast: Chandler Williams, Bess Wohl, Glenn Close, Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden, Jesse Bradford, Daniel Neiden, Tom Lennon, Matt Davis, John Light, Isabella Rossellini, Susan Malick, Rachel Siegel, Katie Kreisler, Phil Tabor

Another exciting opportunity for Chlotrudis members takes place on Friday or Saturday evening at the Kendall Square Cinema. Don’t miss Greg Araki’s new film MYSTERIOUS SKIN. Scott Heim, author of the novel upon which the film was based, has told us that he will be present at the 7:25 screenings on Friday and Saturday. He will introduce the film and be on hand afterward for a Q&A. He’s a very friendly guy who we met in Provincetown. If you attend either of the screenings for this disturbing yet beautiful film, please say hello afterwards and tell him you’re a Chlotrudis member. He would love to meet you.

Mysterious Skin

Plagued by endless nightmares, 18-year-old Brian (Brady Corbet, THIRTEEN) believes he may have been the victim of an alien abduction. Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Manic) is the ultimate beautiful outsider and uses his sexual charm as a teenage hustler. Neil’s pursuit of love leads him to New York City, while Brian’s voyage of self discovery leads him to Neil’and together they help each other unlock the dark secrets of their pasts. Co-starring Elisabeth Shue (LEAVING LAS VEGAS). Written and directed by Gregg Araki (THE DOOM GENERATION, THE LIVING END), based on the acclaimed novel by Scott Heim.

Director: Gregg Araki

Cast: Brady Corbet, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elisabeth Shue, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Michelle Trachtenberg, Jeffrey Licon, Lisa Long, Bill Sage, George Webster, Chase Ellison, Richard Riehle, Billy Drago, Kelly Kruger

There are some really top notch films playing this week at the Museum of Fine Arts this week as part of the Boston Jewish Film Festival’s Encores & More series. Don’t miss THE RASHEVSKI’S TANGO and OR (MY TREASURE) both featured as part of this special BJFF presentation. Other new films opening at the Kendall include APR’ VOUS, starring Chlotrudis favorite Daniel Auteuil, and the magnificentlo shot DEEP BLUE. Another film worth catching is MY SUMMER OF LOVE which several Chlotrudis members caught a couple of weeks ago at a Sneak Preview at the MFA.

See you at the movies (when I finally get back on track in July!

Playing this week, June 10 – 16.

Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Celebrating James Dean!
East of Eden
Rebel Without a Cause

Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Howl’s Moving Castle
Mad Hot Ballroom
Stolen Childhood
Born into Brothels
The A/V Geeks
Blackboard Bungle (Fri.)
Kids & Kritters (Sat.)
Midnite Madness
Deep Throat (Fri. & Sat.)
Work-in-Progress screening/fundraiser
“Some Kind Of Funny Porto Rican?”: A Cape Verdean American Story (Sun.)
Summertime Blues Movies with live music!
Miles Electric: a Different Kind of Blue (Mon.)

FEI Theatres Capitol Theatres, Arlington
Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Millions

FEI Theatres Somerville Theatres, Somerville
Layer Cake
Kung Fu Hustle (ineligible) (Sun. – Wed.)
Bombay Cinema Presents
Bunti Aur Babli (Fri. – Sun.)
Parineeta (Fri. – Sun.)

Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
Kafka Goes to the Movies
Franz Kafka, The Hunger Artist, and Kafka Goes to the Movies (Fri. & Sun.)
The Trial (Fri. & Sun.)
The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa and Metamorphosis (Sat. & Mon.)
K (Sat. & Mon.)
Class Relations (Tue. & Wed.)
Labyrinth (Tue. & Wed.)
Wings of Desire (Wed.)
Faraway So Close (Wed.)

Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Howl’s Moving Castle
Mad Hot Ballroom

Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
The Heights
Mysterious Skin
Apr’Vous
The Man Who Copied
My Summer of Love
Deep Blue
Howl’s Moving Castle
Happily Ever After

Embassy Cinema, Waltham
The Heights
Howl’s Moving Castle
Happily Ever After
Mad Hot Ballroom
Ladies in Lavender

Loew’s Harvard Square, Cambridge
Saving Face
Crash (ineligible)
Mad Hot Ballroom

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Boston Jewish Film Festival: Encores and More
The Rashevski’s Tango (Fri. & Sat.)
Or (My Treasure) (Fri. – Sun.)
Alila (Sun.)
To Take a Wife (Sun. & Thu.)
Late Marriage (Thu.)
The Ninth Day (Thu.)
Buddhist Cinema
Travellers & Magicians (Sat.)
Scandalous Author on Film
Writer of O (Thu.)

The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
Winter Solstice

West Newton Cinema, West Newton
Apr’Vous
The Deal
Crash (ineligible)
Saving Face
The Holy Girl
Turtles Can Fly
Walk on Water
Paper Clips

COMING SOON!

June Events from The Boston Jewish Film Festival

The Boston Jewish Film Festival: Encore and More continues at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with three more chances to see THE RASHEVSKI’S TANGO this weekend, and a tribute to beautiful and accomplished Israeli actress/director Ronit Elkabetz beginning Thursday

The 2004 Boston Jewish Film Festival Audience Award Winner for Best Documentary, Yaron Zilberman’s WATERMARKS, screens at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center Sunday, June 26, with special guest swimmer Greta Stanton

KAFKA GOES TO THE MOVIES this weekend at the Harvard Film Archive, including Valerie Fokin’s METAMORPHOSIS, a hit in the 2003 Boston Jewish Film Festival.

Details follow below.

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ENCORE AND MORE: THE RASHEVSKI’S TANGO

Three screenings remain of THE RASHEVSKI’S TANGO, which recently received a 3 star review from the BOSTON GLOBE’s Wesley Morris (see
http://www.bjff.org/events/?id=298 for a full film description):

Thu, Jun 23, 2:20 pm
Fri, Jun 24, 6 pm
Sat, Jun 25, 1:15 pm

All screenings are at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

—————————
ENCORE AND MORE: TRIBUTE TO ISRAELI ACTRESS/DIRECTOR RONIT ELKABETZ

The Boston Jewish Film Festival is pleased to begin a four-film tribute to powerhouse Israeli actress/director Ronit Elkabetz this week, as part of our ‘The Boston Jewish Film Festival: ENCORES AND MORE’ series at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA).

Born in Haifa to religious Moroccan immigrants in a home where Arabic, Hebrew, and French were spoken, Elkabetz began acting by chance. Now, at forty, she has a body of work behind her that reflects independent choices and a wide range of parts. Last year decidedly belonged to Elkabetz, as OR (MY TREASURE), in which she stars, won the coveted Camera d’Or given to a film by a new filmmaker (Keren Yedaya), and as she, herself became a director, co-directing TO TAKE A WIFE with her brother, Shlomi.

This tribute includes three Boston Premieres: the Cannes-winner OR, ALILA by Amos Gitai, and TO TAKE A WIFE, co-directed by Ronit. We also include a return engagement ofDover Kosashvili’s 2001 hit LATE MARRIAGE, starring WALK ON WATER’S Lior Ashkenazi

Tickets: $9 general admission; $8 seniors, students, members of the MFA and Boston Jewish Film Festival. To purchase tickets in advance with a credit card, call 617.369.3306 or visit www.mfa.org/film. No phone orders for same-day screenings.

OR (MY TREASURE) . As Ruthie, a prostitute and mother of a teenage girl, Elkabetz shares the screen with Dana Ivgy as Or, who struggles against the odds to take care of them both.
Thu, Jun 23, 8:10 pm
Fri, Jun 24, 8, pm
Sat, Jun 25, 3:30 pm
Sun, Jun 26, 1:30 pm
Fri, Jul 1, 4:45 pm
Sat, Jul 2, 10:30 am
Sun, Jul 3, 3:30 pm

ALILA. Here, Elkabetz does a comic turn as a Sephardic policewoman, living in a crazy Tel Aviv apartment complex under serious renovation. This film also offers Boston audiences a good look at Hanna Laslo, winner of this year’s Best Actress Award at Cannes for her performance in another film by Amos Gitai.
Sun, Jun 26, 11 am
Sun, Jul 3, 1 pm

TO TAKE A WIFE Elkabetz shares her first directing credit with her brother Shlomi (this is also his first film); in a story inspired by their parents’ marriage.
Sun, Jun 26, 3:45 pm
Thu, Jun 30, 6:15 pm

LATE MARRIAGE A strong, sexy performance by Elkabetz as the divorced woman that bachelor Zaza (WALK ON WATER’s Lior Askenazi) cannot find the courage to marry against his Georgian Jewish parents’ wishes.
Thu, Jun 30, 4:15 pm
Sat, Jul 2, 12:30 pm

For full film descriptions and other films in the Encore and More series, please see http://www.bjff.org/events/?id=298

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2004 Audience Award Winning Documentary, WATERMARKS, screens on Martha’s Vineyard

Sunday, June 26, 7:30pm

WATERMARKS
By Yaron Zilberman
Guest Speaker: Greta Stanton, one of the champion swimmers featured in the film

The story of seven remarkable Jewish women athletes: Austrian national swimming champions and members of the legendary Jewish sports club, Hakoah Vienna. Founded in 1909 in response to the Aryan Paragraph banning Jewish athletes from Austrian sports clubs, Hakoah quickly grew into one of Europe’s largest athletic clubs. In the 1930s, its women’s swimming team dominated the Austrian national competitions. The members fled the country when Hitler annexed Austria in 1938 and Nazis shut down the club. Today the women are in their 80s and scattered around the world.

Screenings take place at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center on Center Street in Vineyard Haven. Doors open at 6:45. Admission is $10. For more information, please check online at www.mvhc.us/summer_institute.htm or call (508) 693-0745.

Next up in this series:
Sunday, July 3 at 7:30pm
THE BAR MITZVAH BOY
preceded by the animated short TUNANOODA

For details, see http://www.bjff.org/events/?id= 303

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KAFKA GOES TO THE MOVIES ‘ series begins Thursday June 24 ‘ 29 Harvard Film Archive

Films include:
June 24 (Friday) 7 pm and June 26 (Sunday) 9:15 pm FRANZ KAFKA Directed by Piotr DumPoland 1992, 16mm, b/w, 15 min.
THE HUNGER ARTIST Directed by Tom Gibbons, US 2002, 16mm, color, 16 min.
KAFKA GOES TO THE MOVIES Directed by Hanns Zischler, France/Germany 2002, video, 54 min.

June 24 (Friday) 9 pm and June 26 (Sunday) 7 pm THE TRIAL Directed by Orson Welles, France/ Italy/ West Germany 1962,
35 mm, b/w, 118 min.

June 25 (Saturday) 7 pm and June 27 (Monday) 7 pm THE METAMORPHOSIS OF MR. SAMSA Directed by Caroline Leaf, Canada 1977, video, color, 10 min.
METAMORPHOSIS Directed by Valeri Fokin, Russia 2002, 35mm, color, 90 min. (Screened in BJFF 2003)

June 28 (Tuesday) 7 pm and June 29 (Wednesday) 9 pm CLASS RELATIONS (AKA AMERIKA) Directed by Jean-Marie Straub, Dani’ Huillet, France/ West Germany, 1984, 35 mm, b/w, 126 min.

June 28 (Tuesday) 7 pm and June 29 (Wednesday) 9:15 pm LABYRINTH Directed by Jaromil Jires, Czechoslovakia 1991, 35mm, color, 90 min.

This program is presented in collaboration with the American Repertory Theatre. The A.R.T. presents AMERIKA, a production based on the novel by Franz Kafka, which runs June 18-July 10, 2005.

Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President

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Chlotrudis Monday Night at the Movies & Indie Film Round-Up, June 10 – 16 ()

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Chlotrudis Monday Night at the Movies & Indie Film Round-Up, June 10 – 16

Hey there Everyone!

Several of the regular Monday Night Movie crowd are out-of-town next week, so I’m not going to select a specific film to go and see. I will however suggest people head out to see one of the many new films opening this week! If anyone wants to organize a Monday night outing, feel free to send a message out to chlotrudisboston@yahoogroups.com. Don’t fall behind, go see a movie!

Stop by the Coolidge Corner Theatre this week to catch the release of the long-awaited new anime film HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE. Academy Award-winning Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki (SPIRITED AWAY, PRINCESS MONONOKE) presents his latest animated adventure. Brimming with a blend of imagination, humor, action, and romance, HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE is based on the best selling children’s book by Diana Wynne Jones. The story starts when a young hat maker named Sophie finds herself literally swept off her feet by the handsome wizard Howl. Unfortunately, his attention angers the Wicked Witch of the Waste, who has her own designs on Howl, and jealously turns our heroine into a 90-year-old woman. Now Sophie must embark on an incredible quest to lift the curse. As a special treat, the Coolidge will be showing the Japanese language, subtitled version at the late show each night. HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE is also opening at the Kendall this week.

The Coolidge Corner Theatre also presents a very special series beginning on Friday: The 3D Film Festival! Pick up your 3D glasses at the box office and enjoy a collection of terrific films in 3D! HOUSE OF WAX, DIAL M FOR MURDER and KISS ME KATE are just some of the thrilling 3D films playing at the Coolidge this week.

Tell Them Who You AreThe Brattle Theatre presents the area theatrical premiere of TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE. Ostensibly a film about the legendary cinematographer and filmmaker, Haskell Wexler, this film by his son Mark, himself an award-winning documentarian, begins as a mostly reverent talking-head type biography featuring lots of interviews with movie royalty. While the beginning is fascinating and Wexler’s career serves as almost a definition of liberal filmmaking in the Sixties, by the end, the film has progressed through being an onscreen grudge match between subject and director, with each taking the other to task both in front of and behind the camera, into a moving reconciliation of sorts between this fascinating father and son. Catch this new documentary during its weeklong run at The Brattle. TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE is also opening at the Coolidge.

Happily Ever AfterThe Kendall also has a couple of new films from Europe this week. HAPPILY EVER AFTER is Yvan Attal’s follow-up to the charming MY WIFE IS AN ACTRESS from 2002, also starring Charlotte Gainsbourg. With humor and heart, writer/director Yvan Attal tells the story of three male friends in contemporary Paris. Vincent and Georges are both married and fathers; their friend Fred is still single and seemingly possesses one of the greatest little black books in town. One day Georges and Fred discover that Vincent has been seeing another woman on the side without telling either of them. The news sends shock waves through their little worlds, and both wonder how Vincent’s wife would react if she knew about her husband’s affair. Argentinian film INTIMATE STORIES tells just that, a trio of intimate stories. Thousands of miles south of Buenos Aires, three characters travel the breathtaking yet lonely routes of Southern Patagonia. Don Justo, an 80-year-old retiree looking for his missing dog, hitchhikes while looking for peace of mind before his death. Roberto, a middle-aged salesman, makes the same journey in his old car, with a plan to woo the young widowed woman he is delivering a cake to. Lastly, Maria, a poor young woman, takes public transportation with her baby girl to pick up a TV contest prize.

Finally, opening at the West Newton Cinema and the Harvard Square Loew’s is SAVING FACE, a tale that combines Chinese-American customs and the generational differences with the coming out story of a young woman working as a doctor. Joan Chen stars as a traditional mother dealing with the fact that her daughter is a lesbian, while facing the disapproval of her father for being unwed and pregnant!

See you at the movies!

Playing this week, June 10 – 16.

Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Area Theatrical Premiere!
Tell Them Who You Are
Medium Cool (Sat. & Sun.) Double Feature!

Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Howl’s Moving Castle
Tell Them Who You Are
Born into Brothels (Sat. & Sun., Wed.)
Thrilling 3D Film Festival
House of Wax (Fri. & Tue.)
Dial M for Murder (Sat. & Mon.)
3D Shorts (Sat. & Sun.)
Kiss Me Kate (Sun.)
The Mad Magician (Tue.)
Gorilla at Large (Wed.)
Miss Sadie Thompson (Wed.)
It Came from Outer Space (Thu.)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (Thu.)

FEI Theatres Capitol Theatres, Arlington
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Millions

FEI Theatres Somerville Theatres, Somerville
Bombay Cinema Presents
Bunti Aur Babli
Parineeta

Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
Matters of Life and Death: The Films of Bruno Ganz
The Left-Handed Woman (Fri.)
Nosferatu (Fri.)
In the White City (Sat. & Tue.)
The Inventor (Sat. & Mon.)
The Boys from Brazil (Sun.)
Circle of Deceit (Mon. & Tue.)
Wings of Desire (Wed.)
Faraway So Close (Wed.)

Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Mad Hot Ballroom
Layer Cake

Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Howl’s Moving Castle
Happily Ever After
Intimate Stories
Rock School
Brothers
Layer Cake
The Holy Girl
Kung Fu Hustle (ineligible)
Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room

Embassy Cinema, Waltham
High Tension
Mad Hot Ballroom
Ladies in Lavender
Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room
Layer Cake

Loew’s Harvard Square, Cambridge
Saving Face
Crash (ineligible)
Mad Hot Ballroom

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Birds on Film
Vodka Lemon (Sat.)
Kira Muratova Retrospective
Getting to Know the Big Wide World (Sat.)
Three Stories (Sun.)
Art of Film
Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan (Sun.)
Boston Jewish Film Festival: Encores and More
Paper Snow (Sun.)
The Rashevski’s Tango (Thu.)
Cinema Tropical
La Cienaga (Thu.)

The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
Schultze Gets the Blues

West Newton Cinema, West Newton
Saving Face
The Holy Girl
Turtles Can Fly
Dear Frankie
Look at Me
Walk on Water
Paper Clips

COMING SOON!

June Events from The Boston Jewish Film Festival

June 9 and June 12: The Boston Jewish Film Festival ENCORE AND MORE series continues at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) this week with PAPER SNOW, from Russian-Israeli directing team Lina and Slava Chaplin (A TRUMPET IN THE WADI)

Thu, Jun 9, 8:10 pm
Sun, Jun 12, 4 pm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boston Jewish Film Festival ENCORE AND MORE PAPER SNOW Lina and Slava Chaplin (Israel, 2003, 98 min.).

The Russian-Israeli directing team known for A TRUMPET IN THE WADI directs this account of the wildly tempestuous affair between the Russian-born actress Hanna Rovina and her younger lover, Alexander Penn, a brilliant, self-destructive poet. Rovina was a founding member of the Russian theater troupe that ultimately became Habimah, Israel’s national theater company. She established herself as Israel’s leading actress, the “Queen of the Jews,” and her image as Leah’le in the Habima production of THE DYBBUK has become a symbol of Jewish and Israeli theater. The Chaplins evoke the feel of bohemian Tel Aviv in the 1930s when actors, novelists, painters, and poets began creating a caf’ociety and struggled to construct a new Hebrew culture of their own. In Hebrew with English subtitles.

Upcoming ENCORE AND MORE screenings:
THE RASHEVSKI’S TANGO, June 16 – 25
OR (MY TREASURE), June 23 ‘ July 3
ALILA, June 26, July 3
TO TAKE A WIFE, June 26, June 30
LATE MARRIAGE, June 30, July 2
THE NINTH DAY,’June 30 -‘July 7
For details, see the BJFF website.
June 19 ‘ August 7: If you’re traveling to Martha’s Vineyard this summer, don’t miss The Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center Presents The Boston Jewish Film Festival,’a Sunday night summer film series beginning June 19.

June 24 ‘ 29: KAFKA GOES TO THE MOVIES. We are pleased to co-present this series of films at the Harvard Film Archive exploring the many attempts to adapt Kafka’s writing for the screen and to chronicle the relationship between the acclaimed writer and film.’The series includes Valerie Fokin’s METAMORPHOSIS, which was a hit in the 2003 Boston Jewish Film Festival.

Films include:

June 24 (Friday) 7 pm and June 26 (Sunday) 9:15 pm FRANZ KAFKA Directed by Piotr DumPoland 1992, 16mm, b/w, 15 min.
THE HUNGER ARTIST Directed by Tom Gibbons, US 2002, 16mm, color, 16 min.
KAFKA GOES TO THE MOVIES Directed by Hanns Zischler, France/Germany 2002, video, 54 min.

June 24 (Friday) 9 pm and June 26 (Sunday) 7 pm THE TRIAL Directed by Orson Welles, France/ Italy/ West Germany 1962,
35 mm, b/w, 118 min.

June 25 (Saturday) 7 pm and June 27 (Monday) 7 pm THE METAMORPHOSIS OF MR. SAMSA Directed by Caroline Leaf, Canada 1977, video, color, 10 min.
METAMORPHOSIS Directed by Valeri Fokin, Russia 2002, 35mm, color, 90 min. (Screened in BJFF 2003)

June 28 (Tuesday) 7 pm and June 29 (Wednesday) 9 pm CLASS RELATIONS (AKA AMERIKA) Directed by Jean-Marie Straub, Dani’ Huillet, France/ West Germany, 1984, 35 mm, b/w, 126 min.

June 28 (Tuesday) 7 pm and June 29 (Wednesday) 9:15 pm LABYRINTH Directed by Jaromil Jires, Czechoslovakia 1991, 35mm, color, 90 min.

This program is presented in collaboration with the American Repertory Theatre. The A.R.T. presentsAMERIKA, a production based on the novel by Franz Kafka, which runs June 18-July 10, 2005.

Details on all events can be found at http://www.bjff.org/events

June 19 ‘ August 7
The Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center Presents The Boston Jewish Film Festival

The Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center (MVHC) Summer Institute once again presents a summer series of films curated by The Boston Jewish Film Festival.’Films screen each Sunday night at 7:30pm.

Sunday, June 19 at 7:30pm
THE RASHEVSKI’S TANGO

Sunday, June 26 at 7:30pm
WATERMARKS
Guest Speaker: Greta Stanton, one of the swimmers featured in WATERMARKS

Sunday, July 3 at 7:30pm
TUNANOODA
BAR MITZVAH BOY

Sunday, July 10 at 7:30pm
ALL I’VE GOT
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

Sunday, July 17 at 7:30pm
BONJOUR MONSIEUR SHLOMI

Sunday, July 24 at 7:30pm
THE DANISH SOLUTION: THE RESCUE OF THE JEWS IN DENMARK BEHIND ENEMY LINES

Sunday, July 31 at 7:30pm
WALK ON WATER

Sunday, August 7 at 7:30pm
PAPER CLIPS
Guest Speakers: Joe Fab, writer and co-director, PAPER CLIPS Linda Hooper, Principal, Whitwell Middle School, who is featured in film

For details, see http://www.bjff.org/events/?id= 303

Michael Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President

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Two Chlotrudis Special Award Recipients Team Up in CAPOTE! ()

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Two Chlotrudis Special Award Recipients Team Up in CAPOTE!

It has been a while since Chlotrudis Hall Of Fame member Philip Seymour Hoffman has appeared on the big screen. That’s soon to change as the much-anticipated film CAPOTE gears up for a fall release. CAPOTE stars not only Hoffman as the author of In Cold Blood), but another early Gertrudis Award winner, Catherine Keener as fellow author Nelle Harper Lee. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in New York and L.A. on September 30, 2005. Here is their synopsis: “While researching his book In Cold Blood, an account of the murder of a Kansas family, Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) develops a close relationship with Perry Smith, one of the killers.”

Other Chlotrudis favorites, Bruce Greenwood, Chris Cooper, and Bob Balaban also appear in the film, a rough cut of which screened in Boston recently for a special audience. Chlotrudis member Amanda Weir-Gertzog was there and she reports on CAPOTE here. Sony Pictures Classics will soon be launching a website for CAPOTE, and you can see stills from the film there now.

It’s funny to think that Hoffman and Keener, both Chlotrudis favorites, have never appeared in a film together. Their pairing in CAPOTE should be very special indeed.

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