Page 15 - the NOISE March 2014

FROM LEFT: Edward Abbey is the subject of the locally-produced film, Wrenched, at the Sedona Film Fest; Rising from the Ashes, about the Olympic cycling team from Rwanda, shows at the Orpheum March 13.
Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore and Charles Bracy. This black and white film captures 1970s African American life in the Watts district of Los Angeles. Burnett’s poetic documentary shooting style brings the audience face to face with a time and a place in American history. These actors and non-actors are extraordi- nary. Unlike any film you’ve ever seen before, guaranteed!
The NAU International Film Series returns in March with two spectacular films from the Director Michael Glowagger. The theme of “globalization and migration” rings powerfully in these two brutal films about working people in a changing world. The showings are Wednesday evenings at 7PM in the Liberal Arts Building, room 120 and are free! Scholars and film enthusiasts from NAU introduce the films and stay around for a discussion after.
Here’s what Jude Costello, the curator and facilitator of the International Film Series, had to say about Austrian filmmaker Michael Glawogger: “Glowogger has created a convincing and beautiful portrait of workers at work across the globe in what has become his ‘globalization trilogy.’ From his frenetic
1998 breakthrough —
“Megacities shot in Moscow, Mumbai, New York and Mexico
City; to 2005’s riveting and repulsive Workingman’s Death, a grotesque tour of arduous toil through the sulfur pits of In- donesia, a steelworks in China, a ship salvage in Pakistan, the cola fields of the Ukraine and a slaughterhouse in Nigeria; to 2011’s poignant yet pathos-free Whore’s Glory, an entirely non-judgmental look at prostitution in Thailand, Bangladesh and Mexico that implicates the viewer as voyeur —
“His films engage and enrage without preaching. More peo- ple live and work like the people in Glawogger’s films than live like those who will see the films.”
We are lucky to be able to witness two of Glawogger’s re- nowned trilogy!
3/5/13 – Whore’s Glory – Directed by Michael Glowagger, (2011) NR, 109 minutes, from Austria/Germany. Looking at completely different cultures, like Thailand, Mexico and Ban- gladesh, Glowagger studies global prostitution and how it effects politics and sexuality, and the effects of religion and capital on men and women from around the world. This bril- liant expose of the world’s oldest exploitation shows a side of the issue we’ve never considered before.
3/26/14 – Workingman’s Death – Directed by Michael Glow- agger, (2005) NR, 122 minutes from Austria. As the title indicates, Glowagger examines the harsh realities of modern manual la- borers in a global workforce. The film shows workers no longer appreciated, but discarded and easily replaceable. Death is all they have to look forward to in this neo liberal world.
The Prescott Film Festival has their big fundraiser on March 2nd at Yavapai College of Performing Arts Center when they stream the Academy Awards live. Helen Stephenson and Andrew Johnson-Schmidt host the 86th annual Acad- emy Awards with the lively theme of “glitz and glamour.” They will roll out the red-carpet for their pre-Oscar party, with live music, food and drinks and a great party atmosphere. This is their big fundraiser for their up-coming film festival and everyone in the northland should consider spending “Oscar Night” with the Prescott cinephiles! Also look at Prescott- filmfestival.com to find out more about month of films and events!
The Orpheum Theater in Flagstaff hosts a one night screening of Rising From Ashes, one of the most talked about documentaries at the Sedona Film Festival! T.C. Johnstone produced and directed this moving documentary about the bike team in Rwanda that rose out of the ashes of the 1994 genocide to place a man in the Olympics! Forrest Whitaker narrates the tale of a team of bike riders, who come out of nowhere to make their country proud.
“A bike can make a difference,” says Whitaker, and it even saved lives when over a million Hutu’s were executed by the Tutsi minority in 1994. One person was executed every ten sec- onds for 100 days; killing over a million people in three months. Traveling all over the world racing dirt bikes and road bikes,
“Team Rwanda” unified into a group riding for national unity. “Jock” Boyer and Tom Ritchey lead this band of misfits in their growth from mere biking enthusiasts to professional
racers, in an extraordinary tale of courage and love for a coun- try and people who were almost ethnically cleaned out of ex- istence. Watch this moving tribute to the human spirit and it’s not a bad bike film either!
As Jock tells us during his own story of growth: “The mind power of suffering can transform humans.” The opening epi- gram really says it all: “You can run from what is chasing you, but you can’t run from what is inside of you.”
Many stories of transformation happen within this award- winning film, as each character finds what’s inside of them. Don’t miss your chance to see this powerful film, 7PM Thurs- day March 13 — one night only!
| Bob Reynolds is known to rub elbows & chew the cud at film festivals nationwide. bob@thenoise.us
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