THE CENTER FOR THE LITERARY ARTS IN NEW YORK STATE
Fall 2015 Classic Film Series
Events are free and open to the public and located at Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, on UAlbany’s Downtown Campus,
unless otherwise noted.
| EL NORTE
September 18 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m. Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Gregory Nava (United States, 1984, 141 minutes, color, in Spanish, Maya, and English)
Starring Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez, David Villalpando, Ernesto Gómez Cruz
In this epic story about the hardships of undocumented workers, a brother and sister escape political violence in Guatemala and make their way north in hope of finding a better life in the United States. Roger Ebert said “From the very first moments of EL NORTE, we know that we are in the hands of a great movie.”
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DETROPIA
September 25 (Friday)
Film screening and discussion with director Rachel Grady — 7:00 p.m. [note early start time],
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (United States, 2012, 90 minutes, color)
Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and winner of the Editing Award, DETROPIA is a visually stunning exploration of the disintegration of Detroit. The New Yorker’s David Denby called it “the most moving documentary I’ve seen in years….an ardent love letter to past vitality….a beautiful film.”
Rachel Grady and collaborator Heidi Ewing shared a 2007 Best Documentary Oscar nomination for JESUS CAMP, about children attending an evangelical Christian summer program. Other films by Grady and Ewing include 12TH & DELAWARE (2010), winner of a prestigious Peabody Award, and THE BOYS OF BARAKA (2005), winner of the Gold Hugo for Best Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival, and an NAACP Image Award.
Cosponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Crime, Justice, and Social Structure Film Series
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THE TOLL OF THE SEA
October 2 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Chester M. Franklin (United States, 1922, 54 minutes, color)
Starring Anna May Wong, Kenneth Harlan, Beatrice Bentley
SILENT with live musical accompaniment by Mike Schiffer
The first film to use two-strip Technicolor, this technical classic stars pioneering Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong as a Chinese woman who rescues and falls in love with a shipwrecked American seaman. Writer Frances Marion adapted her own short story, loosely based on Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly, for the big screen.
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4 LITTLE GIRLS
October 9 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Spike Lee (United States, 1997, 102 minutes, color)
Nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar, Spike Lee’s masterpiece of nonfiction filmmaking chronicles an American tragedy and turning point of the Civil Rights Movement: the 1967 bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama. The LA Times said “Lee has made some of the most hard-edged and unsettling American films on racism and its effects. Yet none has been as moving as this.”
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OXYANA
October 16 (Friday)
Film screening and discussion with director Sean Dunne — 7:00 p.m. [note early start time],
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Sean Dunne (United States, 2013, 78 minutes, color)
OXYANA is a harrowing profile of Oceana, West Virginia—a once-thriving coal town that has become the “capital” of the Oxycontin drug abuse epidemic. Featuring candid interviews with members of the shattered community, the film won two major awards at the Tribeca Film Festival: Best New Documentary Director, and Best Documentary Feature–Special Jury Mention.
Sean Dunne, a native of Peekskill, is known for films that focus on socially marginalized individuals, and for his ability to get his subjects to “open up” and share their stories. A former writer and producer for The History Channel, Dunne received an Emmy nomination for his short film, THE ARCHIVE.
Cosponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Crime, Justice, and Social Structure Film Series
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KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS
October 23 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Robert Hamer (United Kingdom, 1949, 106 minutes, b/w)
Starring Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson
An impoverished cousin of the Duke of D’Ascoyne is determined to acquire his title by murdering the eight heirs who precede him in the line of succession. Alec Guinness plays all eight heirs in this beloved Ealing Studios comedy, ranked as one of Time magazine’s “100 Best Movies of All Time” (2005).
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HOUSE [HAUSU]
October 30 (Friday):
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (Japan, 1977, 88 minutes, color, in Japanese with English subtitles)
Starring Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Ohba
The story of seven Japanese schoolgirls and the demonically-possessed house that tries to eat them, HOUSE is a cult and critical favorite—as well as one of the wackiest horror movies ever made. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times said in 2010 “Delirious, deranged, gonzo or just gone, baby, gone....The yelps you’ll hear, and possibly emit.…will be of surprise and delight, not terror.”
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PUBLIC MORALS
November 6 (Friday)
Film screening and discussion with actor/director Edward Burns — 7:00 p.m., [Note early start time]
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Written and Directed by Edward Burns (United States, 2015 - , TNT TV series)
Starring Edward Burns, Michael Rapaport, Elizabeth Masucci, Brian Dennehy
PUBLIC MORALS is set in the early 1960s in New York City's Public Morals Division, where cops walk the line between morality and criminality as the temptations that come from dealing with all kinds of vice can get the better of them. Newsday describes the series as “raw, interesting, intelligent, … and unlike anything on TV at the moment.” The Los Angeles Times calls it “a picaresque, briskly written and quickly captivating series that is neither afraid nor ashamed of entertaining its audience.
Reading — 4:15 p.m., Lecture Center 5, Academic Podium
Edward Burns is an award-winning filmmaker, actor, screenwriter, and former UAlbany student. His many films include THE BROTHER'S MCMULLEN(1995), winner of “Best Dramatic Film” at Sundance, and SHE'S THE ONE (1996), which helped launch the careers of Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston, and Amanda Peet. In 1998, Burns starred in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning war epic, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. His new memoir, Independent Ed (2015), provides a candid chronicle of the ups and downs of his career. Today’s Matt Lauer said “Every young, hungry, creative person should view this as a textbook.... It’s a how-to.”
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ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
November 13 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Miloš Forman (United States, 1975, 133 minutes, color)
Starring Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman
In this landmark film of the 1970s, adapted from Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, a newly-admitted patient in a mental institution attempts to organize a rebellion against the iron-fisted head nurse. The film received five Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.
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THINGS TO COME
November 20 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by William Cameron Menzies (United Kingdom, 1936, 100 minutes, b/w)
Starring Raymond Massey, Edward Chapman, Ralph Richardson
The human race blunders into a future of pointless world war and rampant plague—but hope endures in this 1936 epic adapted for the screen by sci-fi master H. G. Wells from his 1933 novel. The film is directed by William Cameron Menzies, one of Hollywood’s greatest art directors and production designers, responsible for GONE WITH THE WIND and other classics.
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| TIMBUKTU
December 4 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako (Mauritania, 2014, 97 minutes, color, in French, Arabic, Bambara and Songhay with English subtitles)
Starring Ibrahim Ahmed, Abel Jafri, Toulou Kiki
Seeking a life of simple pleasures on the outskirts of Timbuktu in the Sahara Desert, a family of cattle herders must contend with extremists and jihadists who refuse to tolerate their way of life. The film earned nominations for both the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Best Foreign Film Oscar.
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CONTACT INFORMATION:
Science Library, SL 320, University
at Albany, NY 12222 | Phone 518-442-5620, Fax 518-442-5621, email [email protected]
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