Page 16 - the NOISE October 2012

Each October the major film event in Northern Arizona is the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival. We see documen- tary films with a social conscience transform people from a place of complacency to one of activism. It’s hard to watch some of these films without feeling a need to get up and do something afterward. Q&A’s follow many of the screenings with filmmakers. We’re lucky to have a diverse world come to our door- step each October.
Check out FlagstaffMountainFilmFesti- val.org for specific times and films, but here’s a couple worth viewing.
We get a sneak preview of “sequences” of the documentary Wrenched about Edward Abbey and his band of cohorts who wanted to change the world through revolutionary action. Credited with inspiring “Earth First” thinking —“sometimes a little progress in- volves a little destruction” — The Monkey Wrench Gang embodies an anarchistic feel- ing that grew out of the 1960s and we’re in sore need of now. It will be fascinating to hear Ed’s contemporaries vilify our nanny state.
We Are Wisconsin, a documentary about the parallel movement in Wisconsin that mirrored the Arab Spring in the Middle East, stands out for its powerful portrayal of the human spirit in conflict with anti-human forces. For a brief moment, we were united workers of the world striving for justice against the banking establishment on sev- eral continents.
Kristi Frazier, producer of Wrenched and one of the festival’s coordinators believes
“this year’s festival will have an anarchist tone.” This generous festival shares many of its green films with local school children, offer- ing bus rides directly to downtown, and the festival’s venues: the Orpheum, Flagstaff Bicycle Revolution, and the Flagstaff Pho- tography Center.
Great documentaries change the world and we’re living in a world that needs dras- tic changes. Come see some of the visions being offered to help with that change; not election “hope and change” but real solu- tions to real world problems.
The College of Arts & Letters Classic Film Series has a full month with its free Tuesday night screenings in the Cline Library at 7PM. These are thought-provoking films as they continue their theme of “families; the dysfunctional type.”
10/2/12 – A Thousand Clowns, directed by Fred Coe, 1965, 118 minutes, TV-13 with car- toon, starring Jason Robarbs, Barbara Harris.
10/9/12 – Westside Story, directed by Rob- ert Wise and Jerome Robbins, 1961, 152 min- utes, Unrated, Starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, George Chakiris and Rita Moreno. Star-crossed lovers of the Romeo and Juliet type fight it out for the turf in New York in a musical that won 10 Academy Awards.
10/16/12 – Hannah and Her Sisters, di- rected by Woody Allen, 1986, 103 minutes, PG-13 with cartoon, starring Mia Farrow, Michael Caine and Dianne Weist. One of the best scripts Woody ever delivered about a family and their intertwining relationships. It doesn’t get any more real or funny than this.
10/23/12 – Running on Empty, directed by Sydney Lument, 1988, 116 minutes, PG-13 with cartoon, Judd Hirsch, River Phoenix and Christine Lahti. The late, great Lument’s dra- ma about a family on the run for their past sins in the crazy 1960s. And one sons need to break free from the cycle of running.
10/30/12 – Don’t Look Now, directed by Nicholas Roeg, 1973, 110 minutes, PG-13 with cartoon, starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. One of the underrated gems of scary lore. This is a story of a fam- ily grieving the death of their daughter in Venice, as warnings from beyond the grave, stoke their fear!
The International Film Series continues at NAU on Wednesday evenings in room 120 of the Liberal Arts Building for free! Dream- ing big is the theme and they have some incredible world cinema to help expand our ways of seeing story.
10/3/12 – Beyond Silence, directed by Caro- line Link, 1988, Germany, 109 minutes, un- rated. Lara, an eight year old girl with deaf parents, must choose between her own as- pirations, attending a music conservatory, or her dependent parents.
10/17/12 – Biutiful, directed by Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, 2010, Mexico, 147 minutes, unrated. A love story between a father and his children as they struggle to make it in a compromised Barcelona underground econ- omy of crime and guilt. A tale of loss and re- demption.
10/24/12 – Thirst, directed by Park Chan- wook, 2009, South Korea, 133 minutes, un- rated. A devoted priest from a small town volunteers for an experiment that fails and turns him into a vampire. The psychological changes are frightening as he clings to his humanity while falling deeper in depravity and despair. Chan-wook will blow your mind!
10/30/12 – The Kite Runner, directed by Marc Foster, 2007, USA, 122 minutes, un- rated. Amir leaves California to return to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble in this epic tale of fathers and sons.
The Native American Film Series contin- ues on Wednesday nights in the Cline Library at 7PM for free.
10/10/12 – The Rocket Boy, directed by Do- navan Sechillie and the short film, Games of the North by director Jonathan Stanton.
10/24/12 – Water Flowing Together, direct- ed by Gwendolan Cates.
Don’t miss the Manhattan Shorts Film Festival that plays in over 300 countries to over 100,000 film lovers within one week and the world votes on their favorite short. This year the festival is playing in Flagstaff at the Cline Library for free on 10/4 at 7PM; in Sedona at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on 10/2
– 10/5 (check times at website below) and in Prescott at the Yavapai College Performing Arts Center on 10/3 at 6:30PM.
Prescott Film Festival continues its film series at the Yavapai College Performing Arts Center at 6:30PM with many eclectic selec- tions. Check PrescottFilmFestival.com
10/10/12 – Must Come Down. A dramedy about a man who returns to his home to break in for nostalgic reasons! Plays with the short, Should’ve Been An Engineer about a writer with severe writer’s block. The actual
screenwriter of this short, Keenan Murray, will be present to answer questions.
10/17/12 – Ed Wood. The classic film about a filmmaker with Johnny Depp.
10/24/12 – Shadow of the Vampire
10/25/12 – RiffTrax Live – “Birdemic” MST3K skewer another really bad film.
10/31/12 – Phantom of the Opera. The clas- sic silent Halloween film with live music ac- companying the film by Jonathan Best!
Sedona International Film Festival runs its films at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre in Se- dona. Check SedonaFilmFestival.com for updates on October’s events. Here’s what we know now.
Films:
10/3-5/12 – Bringing Up Bobby. An all star
cast brings us a new drama.
10/9-12/12 – Samsara
10/17-19/12 – Hello, I Must Be Going 10/17-19/12 – Beauty is Embarrassing 10/24-26/12 – And If We All Lived Together Special Shows:
10/1/12 – Andre Rieu Concert
10/2/12 – LIVE from NY’s 92nd Street Y with Thomas Friedman
10/3/12 – LIVE from NY’s 92nd Street Y with Joseph Stiglitz
10/8/12 – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (National Theatre from Lon- don)
10/12/12 – The Globe Theatre Series: All’s Well That Ends Well
10/15/12 – Giselle Ballet
10/22/12 – Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake Ballet
10/23/12 – The Globe Theatre Series: Much Ado About Nothing
Off Site Events:
10/16/12 – Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde: Silent
film with LIVE Orchestra at Sedona Perform- ing Arts Center
10/25/12 – The Amazing Kreskin LIVE SHOW at Sedona Performing Arts Center
| Bob Reynolds multi-tasks screenwriting, teaching,
and researching from his “beanified” office in Flag. bob699669@hotmail.com
CW from top left: Wrenched at Flagstaff Mountain Film Fest; Ed Wood at Prescott Film Fest’s series at Yavapai College; We Are Wisconsin at FMFF; Biutiful at NAU’s International Film Series.
16 • OCTOBER 2012 • the NOISE arts & news magazine • thenoise.us