Film
Friday, November 6, 2009
Posted
by Ed M. Koziarski
on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 9:59 AM

A staged celebration of the Hiroshima bombing and a seasonal camp of RV drivers share the Arizona landscape in British filmmaker Stephen Connolly's 2007 short film Great American Desert, invoking, Connolly says, "an examination of ‘social liberty’ in the West in relation to war, spectacle, the environment and consumerism."
Great American Desert screens in "Occasional Pieces," a selection of Connolly's short films and videos Saturday 11/7 at the Nightingale
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Tags: Nightingale, Stephen Connolly, Hiroshima, British, British Museum, Arizona, Havana, Cuba, National School of ballet, Istanbul, 9/11, Occasional Pieces, Great American Desert, Postcards from Istanbul, The Whale, Más Se Perdió (We Lost More), Film for Tom, Reading Room
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Thursday, November 5, 2009
Posted
by Sam Adams
on Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Tonight from 7 to 9 PM, Loyola University's Mundelein Auditorium (1020 W. Sheridan) hosts a free screening of
Food, Inc., a 2008 documentary on the not-so-appetizing underbelly of America's corporate/government controlled food industry.
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Tags: Food Inc, free screening, Loyola
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Posted
by Ed M. Koziarski
on Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 11:33 AM

- "Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love"
Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love plays a discounted screening courtesy of Black World Cinema, a day ahead of a weeklong run.
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's tribute to the iconic Senegalese singer and activist screens Thursday 11/4 at Chatham 14.
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Tags: Youssou N'Dour, Senegal, World Music, Islam, I Bring What I Love, Chatham 14, Black World Cinema, Africa, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
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Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Posted
by Ed M. Koziarski
on Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 10:01 AM

- George Clooney in "The Men Who Stare at Goats"
The Men Who Stare at Goats officially opens in a midnight screening Thursday 11/5, but if you can't wait that long, Gen Art hosts a preview screening and after-party with hosted drinks, Wednesday 11/4.
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Tags: Men Who Stare at Goats, Jon Ronson, psychic, Gen Art, Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Grant Heslov, Good Night and Good Luck, Kevin Spacey, Cuvee, River East
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Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Posted
by Peter Margasak
on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 2:51 PM
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Tags: Hans Koch, Umbrella Music Festival, Bond Chapel, Chicago Cultural Center, Martin Schutz, Fredy Studer, Peter Liechti, Intakt Records, Drag City Records, Hardcore Chambermusic—A Club for 30 Days, Kick That Habit, Voice Crack, Signer’s Suitcase: On the Road With Roman Signer
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Posted
by Ed M. Koziarski
on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 9:41 AM

Before the ubiquity of reality TV, Chris Smith and Sarah Price set the standard for tragicomic portraits of quixotic dreamers with American Movie, their 1999 documentary about would-be horror auteur and fellow Wisconsinite Mark Borchardt.
The film's cult status launched Borchardt's acting career. But even after winning a 2007 Sundance Special Jury Prize, Smith struggled to find distribution for The Pool, his wry and touching fiction debut about a poor Indian teen who takes a pool cleaning job to spy on the rich girl he pines for, and maintains a veneer of optimism for his younger friend despite their abject circumstances.
The Pool screens Tuesday 11/3 in the Midwest Independent FIlm Festival.
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Tags: Chris Smith, The Pool, India, Sundance, Slumdog Millionaire, Wisconsin, American Movie, reality TV, Yes Men, Mark Borchardt, economic meltdown, From the Wilderness, Michael Ruppert, Midwest Independent Film Festival, Landmark's Century Centre
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Monday, November 2, 2009
Posted
by Robyn Chang
on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 1:27 PM
Tonight at 6:30 PM,
Sonotheque presents a free screening of Toshio Matsumoto's experimental 1968 film
Funeral Parade of Roses (Bara no Soretsu), a very loose adaptation of
Oedipus Rex set in 1960's Tokyo that tells the story of a young transvestite actor.
Tags: Sonotheque, free movies, Funeral Parade of Roses, Toshio Matsumoto
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Posted
by Ed M. Koziarski
on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 11:44 AM

"We're sinking all this money into the war and into pork barrel projects, it's unbelievable to me that we don't invest in our education system," local filmmaker Tod Lending told me in a 2008 interview, during production on his documentary The Principal Story. "That's where the culture grows out of."
The principals Lending and co-director David Mrazek follow in the film face problems originating far beyond their school walls, in the poverty, malnutrition, crime and family dysfunction of their surrounding communities. But their passion and commitment have allowed them to make progress in turning around struggling schools on the west side and in Springfield.
The Principal Story screens for free Tuesday 11/3 at No Exit Café.
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Tags: Tod Lending, The Principal Story, POV, education, Oscar, Omar and Pete, Rosevelt's America, Aimee's Crossing, documentary, juvenile justice, prison, public house, Legacy, David Mrazek, Heather Steans, Reavis Elementary, Michael Johnson, Westinghouse College Prep, Dr. Gregory Jones
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Thursday, October 29, 2009
Posted
by Sam Adams
on Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 8:25 PM
The Italian Film Festival at Casa Italia in Stone Park culminates Friday at 7 PM with a free screening of Salvatore Maira's Valzer (The Waltz), a film released earlier this year that tells the story of an older man who believes he will meet his daughter after twenty years of absence and instead finds an unknown woman who has taken her identity.
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Tags: Valzer, The Waltz, Italian Film Festival, Casa Italia
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Posted
by Ed M. Koziarski
on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 4:40 PM

- "The Yes Men Fix the World"
Clean-cut pranksters The Yes Men, who last week falsely announced on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that the chamber had reversed its opposition to pollution controls, have made a career of impersonating corporate suits to shine a light on the excesses of globalization.
Lumpen magazine hosts a workshop with the Yes Men Thursday 10/29 to plan an action that will follow the Chicago premiere of their film The Yes Men Fix the World Friday 10/30 at the Music Box Theater.
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Tags: Yes Men, Dow, Bhopal, Chamber of Commerce, Global Warming, Yes Men Fix the World, India, Union Carbine, pollution, corporate, responsibility, free market, Music Box Theater, Lumpen, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno
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