CYCLO [XICH LO]
January 31 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by Tran Anh Hung (Vietnam, 1995, 123 minutes, color, in Vietnamese with English subtitles)
Starring Le Van Loc, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Tran Nu Yên-Khê

The first Vietnamese film to be nominated for an Oscar, and the winner of two top prizes at the Venice Film Festival, CYCLO tells the tale of a bicycle-taxi driver in Ho Chi Minh City who becomes entangled in a world of drugs and crime. The Chicago Reader’s Jonathan Rosenbaum called it, “a visionary piece of work, shot through with passion and poetry.”

Directed by Milos Forman (United States, 1981, 155 minutes, color)
Starring Howard E. Rollins Jr., Elizabeth McGovern, James Cagney, Norman Mailer

RAGTIME is based on E. L. Doctorow’s best-selling novel of sprawling plot lines, and fictional characters and historical figures whose lives intersect in New York City during the early 1900s. For the film version director Milos Forman chose to focus on the story of Coalhouse Walker, Jr., a black piano player who seeks justice for an incident involving a group of racists. The film was nominated for eight Oscars and seven Golden Globe awards.

Note: E. L. Doctorow will appear at the Writers Institute on February 27 (see Visiting Writers Series listing).

Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Food, Crime, and Justice Film Series

Directed by Jason Reitman (United States, 2009, 109 minutes, color)
Starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick

George Clooney portrays a corporate downsizing expert who travels around the globe restructuring companies and firing people in this acclaimed adaptation of the 2001 novel by Walter Kirn. The film received over 70 award nominations, winning Golden Globe awards for Best Screenplay and Best Actor for George Clooney, and the American Film Institute’s Movie of the Year.

Note: Walter Kirn will appear at the Writers Institute on March 25 (see Visiting Writers Series listing).

Directed by John Ford (United States, 1952, 129 minutes, color)
Starring John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Victor McLaglen

Director John Ford called upon his friend and favorite actor, John Wayne, to play a former prizefighter who retires to the Irish village of his birth. Unexpectedly, he falls in love with a fiery red-head (Maureen O’Hara), but must negotiate his way around her disapproving brother (Victor McLaglen). Though cast against type, Wayne turns in what some believe to be his greatest performance.

Directed by Satyajit Ray (India, 1963, 122 minutes, b/w, in Bengali with English subtitles, and English)
Starring Anil Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Jaya Bhaduri

In Calcutta during the 1960s, a young housewife takes a job as a salesperson to help support her family. That decision puts her in conflict with her children, her in-laws, and eventually her husband. Famed Indian director Satyajit Ray won the Best Director Award at the 1964 Berlin International Film Festival for this celebrated landmark of world cinema.

Directed by Valeria Golino (Italy, 2013, 96 minutes, color, in Italian with English subtitles)
Starring Jasmine Trinca, Carlo Cecchi, Libero De Rienzo

An official selection at Cannes, HONEY is the story of Irene, an “assisted suicide activist” who performs illegalservices to assist the terminally ill. She faces a painful dilemma when a healthy man requests her help inending his life.

Note: Francesca Marciano will read from her
new story collection in the afternoon on April 11
(see Visiting Writers Series listing).

Directed by Rob and Lisa Fruchtman (Rwanda and United States, 2012, 84 minutes, color, in Kinyarwanda with English subtitles)

SWEET DREAMS is a documentary that follows the remarkable story of a group of Rwandan women who, in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, form the country’s first all-female drumming troupe, and open the country’s first ice cream parlor, with the help of the Brooklyn-based Blue Marble Ice Cream Company. Sibling producer-directors Lisa and Rob Fruchtman have created a nuanced film that explores complex issues of human rights, reconciliation, and nation-building.

Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Food, Crime, and Justice Film Series

Jennifer Dundas, notable film and stage actress, and socially conscious ice cream entrepreneur, will offer commentary and answer questions following the screening of the documentary, SWEET DREAMS (2012).

Seminar with Rob Fruchtman has been concelled.

Directed by John Krokidas (United States, 2013, 104 minutes, color)

Austin Bunn co-wrote the screenplay of the hit film KILL YOUR DARLINGS (2013) with his college roommate John Krokidas, the film’s director. Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, the film stars Dane DeHaan as Lucien Carr and Daniel Radcliffe as poet Allen Ginsberg in a true story of murder and gay awakening set in New York City amid the nascent Beat poetry scene. Former author of the “Machine Age” technology column for the Village Voice, Bunn has published nonfiction and fiction in the New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and Wired. He also coauthored A Killer Life (2006), the autobiography of film producer Christine Vachon (Killer Films). He teaches filmmaking at Cornell University.

Seminar: Austin Bunn will hold an informal seminar on screenwriting at 4:15 p.m. in the Science Library, Room 340, on the UAlbany uptown campus.