CRUCIAL VIEWING
Lisandro Alonso's LOS MUERTOS (Argentinean Revival)
Block Cinema (Northwestern University) – Friday, 7pm (Free Admission)
A mesmerizing experience, in which every stray gesture or sound suggests an epiphany just out of reach. LOS MUERTOS, the second feature by Argentina's Lisandro Alonso (LA LIBERTAD [2001] and LIVERPOOL [2008] are the first and third), proceeds with patient intensity, letting most actions run at a mellifluous slowness far removed from the pace of modern life. Which seems to be the point. The film follows an older man on his return to his indigenous village after many years in a rural prison equally as isolated. Seemingly untouched by the Industrial Age, Argentino Vargas (who shares a name with the non-actor who plays him) is taciturn with people but blunt in his actions, several of which jolt the movie out of its hypnotic vibe with sudden violence. Is this man a psychopath or a force of nature? As in his other films, Alonso withholds explanatory information until LOS MUERTOS has cast a unique audio-visual spell—or, in keeping with the centrality of nature to Alonso's art, until the film's atmosphere begins to thrive like a living organism. The privileging of mood over narrative can make for frustrating viewing (It's hard to tell, in fact, whether certain scenes take place in reality or dreams), but Alonso is a cannier storyteller than he first lets on. The details observed along Vargas' upriver journey accumulate in revelations of character as shocking as any of the film's brutality. Alonso in person. (2004, 78 min, 35mm) BS
Lois Weber's THE BLOT (Silent American Revival)
Gene Siskel Film Center - Saturday, 3:30pm and Monday, 6pm
A family of hard-working white folks feels their membership in the middle class slipping away. Will they be able to afford the mortgage this month? Will their daughter enjoy the same privileges they had? The immigrant family next door is doing better—suspiciously better—but still lets their kids play in the mud. Elites suckle glass-encased mushrooms and sneer at regular folks. Kittens sneak into garbage pails across the fence. A heart-tugging campaign ad for Donald Trump or, perhaps, a treacly op-ed lamenting how the latte-sipping coastal denizens don't understand the economic anxiety roiling the Oxycontin belt? It all sounds so familiar and contemporary, but this is actually a description of Lois Weber's independently-produced feature THE BLOT, released in 1921. I hesitate to call any film 'timeless,' but Weber's acute sociological diagnosis in THE BLOT identifies strains of American anxiety that remain stubbornly unresolved and periodically combustible. And yet this is an astonishingly gentle film, a domestic drama that never leans on the emotional urgency or moral tribulation that we would recognize as melodrama. Every plot synopsis I've read overstates the centrality of THE BLOT's romantic rivalries, which are handled in the most chivalrous and incidental manner imaginable. For viewers more familiar with Weber's features from the previous decade such as SHOES or HYPOCRITES or WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN, THE BLOT marks a major shift: this effort is much more naturalistic than evangelistic, tilted so far in that direction that Weber's subtle formal strategies become nearly subliminal. The subplots and digressions are handled so deftly that it's easy to miss the deliberate compactness of the storytelling—and how many incidents are occurring simultaneously—on a first viewing. Produced after Weber had been sidelined from an increasingly programmatic and sexist film industry, THE BLOT also develops a quietly contrarian film grammar. Despite an abundance of photogenic young people, close-ups are mostly reserved for details of deprivation: the cracking leather of a chair, the fraying rug, the lid of a garbage pail. It's a deliberately unglamorous film, accurately described by Kevin Brownlow as a document through which we can see "what living spaces were really like, not what art directors imposed on them—and what people really wore, not what fashion designers invented for them." All told, the regular folks acquit themselves just fine. (1921, 93 min, DCP Digital) KAW
The Gertie Project: Animating Liveness (Animation/Vaudeville Revival)
The Chicago Film Seminar at DePaul’s Loop Campus in the Daley Building (14 E. Jackson Blvd., Room LL 102, using the State St. entrance located at 247 S. State.) (Free Admission) - Thursday, 7:30pm
I often find myself wondering how bread was “invented,” if one could even refer to it like that. Who thought to combine the ingredients and apply heat in such a way that it would rise and become the foodstuff we know and love? A cursory Internet search provides an axiomatic explanation that only illuminates how much I take the process for granted, a realization that likewise occurred to me while researching Winsor McCay’s GERTIE THE DINOSAUR (1914) and “The Gertie Project.” Hosted by the Chicago Film Seminar, this presentation won’t just explain how the metaphorical bread was made—the bread in question being an early animated film, seemingly unsophisticated to my Pixar-deluged eye—it will show what it might have actually looked like when man first thought to purposefully combine ostensibly disparate ingredients and serve it to the unenlightened public. An esteemed cartoonist best known at the time for his Little Nemo in Slumberland comic strip, McCay transitioned to moving images after animating Nemo characters for his vaudeville act. He subsequently followed this with his first original animation, THE STORY OF A MOSQUITO. Soon thereafter he announced that he’d be tackling a bigger—and decidedly more extinct—subject. “‘Wouldn’t a man with a trained dinosaurus be a riot in vaudeville?’” a friend supposedly asked McCay as they observed reproductions of the prehistoric beasts at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Indeed it would be—and I imagine it will be when University of Notre Dame professor emeritus Donald Crafton and his research partners “reconstruct McCay’s vaudeville act to simulate its live performance environment,” including a thought-to-be-lost Curtain Call sequence, after “reanimating the film using the original camera footage and the surviving original drawings.” Often and mistakenly referred to as the first animated film, GERTIE’s true merit lies in the lovability of its title character. In his paper on the subject, Crafton proclaims that she “holds the distinction of being the first fully fleshed-out animated character created specifically for film.” McCay integrated the film into his act by being Gertie’s “trainer,” giving commands and even “disappearing” into it and riding Gertie as part of the finale. (One recalls the scene in Steven Spielberg’s JURASSIC PARK where Richard Attenborough interacts with animated DNA and then a replica of himself as part of an attraction at his eponymous theme park.) Similarly impressive is his “split system” technique, now referred to as the McCay Split System, which is a rather ingenious animation method that involves splitting the beginning and end of an illustrated movement so as to more seamlessly animate the “motion" that occurs in between. Though Crafton and his partners have debunked McCay’s claim that he made 10,000 drawings for it, GERTIE is nonetheless pure artistry and innovation, a deceptively simple looking film whose unassuming brilliance is due in large part to that very differentiation. Behind every animated work, from the most ubiquitous Disney classics to anything you might see at Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation or the Conversations at the Edge experimental screening series, is an oft-forgotten history of artists who saw endless possibilities among the hodgepodge, making sense of that which most never even think to question. The respondent to Crafton’s talk and presentation will be University of Chicago professor W.J.T. Mitchell. KS
Sally Lawton’s THE HARD EARTH (New Experimental Documentary/Oppositional Viewing)
The Nightingale (1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.) – Saturday, 7pm
Local filmmaker Sally Lawton’s THE HARD EARTH is a complex and affecting experimental documentary which eloquently describes the Ukrainian revolution and conflict through the eyes of Ukrainian young adults. In a slowly unraveling experience, Lawton introduces us to a journalist, a nun, a political activist, an artist, and a soldier; as well as her Ukrainian-American travel companion, Maya Demianczuk, and Lawton herself. Filmed in the summer of 2015 (little over a year after the Euromaidan protests which preceded the 2014 Ukrainian revolution), Lawton composes scenes of cities, rural areas, orphanages, family homes, festivals, and even the square from which Euromaidan gets its name. An uncanny tension exists throughout the film, creating a landscape of stillness and calm juxtaposed against the violence we very well know is in the distance, but which we never see. Lawton's handprint unabashedly persists throughout the film, giving the viewer a strong sense of her own culture shock, while subtly yet effectively speaking to the similarities of these Ukrainian stories, and the current political climate in the United States. Blending tropes of the video diary, traditional documentary, and experimental film, Lawton utilizes an intricate editing structure as she weaves together a travelogue as well as a political and personal narrative. With a kind heart, Lawton presents to us her travels in Ukraine while sincerely and sensitively sharing the experiences of these young Ukrainians, who's stories are somehow both lost in time and extraordinarily current. Preceded by Ian Curry’s short 2014 film THE 51ST STAR (9 min, 16mm). Lawton in person. (2017, 62 min, Digital Projection) EE
ALSO RECOMMENDED
Claudia Llosa’s MADEINUSA (Peruvian Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) – Sunday, 7pm
Claudia Llosa is one of many talented female filmmakers to emerge from South America in the 21st century (You can see the work of numerous others when the Chicago Latino Film Festival begins later this month) and also one of the most internationally prominent. She received an Oscar nomination for her second feature, THE MILK OF SORROW (2009), and made her English-language debut with the underrated ALOFT (2014), starring Jennifer Connelly and Cillian Murphy. All of Llosa’s films fall under the category of magical realism, though they lack the preciousness one usually encounters in this subgenre—her work is tough, mysterious, and frequently disarming. MADEINUSA, her feature debut, takes place in “the isolated, fictional province of Manayaycuna, [where the] sacred period between Christ’s death and resurrection has come to be celebrated as el tiempo santo, a perverted ‘Holy Time’ when God is dead and cannot see the transgressions of the world, and so people are free to act on their basest of impulses without guilt or consequence,” explained Acquarello at her website Strictly Film School. “However, for young Madeinusa, the upcoming festival is also a rite of passage where a ceremonial Virgin Mary is selected in a pageant competition from among the town’s most beautiful, virginal young women to lead a procession and accompany the statue of a blindfolded Christ taken down from the cross to his place of burial, thus ushering the bacchanalia of ‘Holy Time.’ Abandoned by her mother for the lure of big city Lima years earlier, Madeinusa has been living an increasingly intolerable life with her drunken, abusive father and callous sister Chale... until the arrival of an affable stranger from Lima appropriately named Salvador... provides her with a glimpse of the world outside her insular village.” Acquarello praised “Llosa’s surreal and nightmarish vision of piety, ignorance, and collective hysteria,” noting how it reflects Peru’s “shared national histories of colonialism and mass-scale religious conversion that have resulted in a paradoxical—and often untenable—union of illumination and ignorance.” The heroine’s growing sexual and moral awakening provides MADEINUSA with its dramatic arc, while Llosa’s supple mise-en-scene incorporates much of the colorful clothing and decor of Peruvian village life. It all feels naturalistic in spite of the outrageous premise, which adds to the film’s value as a provocation. (2006, 103 min, 35mm) BS
MCA SCREEN: Jesse Malmed’s Untitled (Just Kidding) (Experimental & Performance)
Museum of Contemporary Art (220 E Chicago Ave.) – Tuesday, 6pm (Free with museum admission; Tuesdays are free admission for Illinois residents)
Even in title, Jesse Malmed's event Untitled (Just Kidding) prompts us to unravel an inside joke that exists simultaneously between viewer and the work, the artist and the work, and the work and the space. Combining video screening and live performance, the show presents seven works made from 2012 onward, including one brand new performance titled LIGHT PLAY (JOGGING MY MEMORY, RUNNING MY MOUTH) made specifically for the event. On the surface, language, in a very open ended sense, is what ties this show (and most of Malmed's other works) together. We are compelled to follow each bit of text, both on screen and spoken: word-play breadcrumbs with which we believe we might be able to decipher some code, a secret meaning that only the artist understands. Malmed's work is simultaneously slapstick comedy and introspective drama, compelling us with strong simplistic moves, begging questions but not expecting or wanting any specific answer. Is the artist simply playing us—or giving us insight to a higher truth? Through much of this work, a kind of witchcraft perpetuates, hypnotizing the viewer, creating a communal understanding of what we all think we know. This divination mirrors the concept of the television, listening and repeating, defining "real" and "fake" images, telling us what we need. WREADING gives us a strong grasp on this constructed world Malmed has created for us. Opening in a montage of clouds, the landscape slowly shifts, removing us from reality more and more with each shot. The video leads us to other fictional TV spaces, watermarked classrooms and realms of static. We are shown a similar "fake" landscape, this time just with color in RAINBOW SONNET, which is all at once a playful one-liner joke, a formalist painting, and a poem. The spell is broken when the work becomes more self reflective, showing the mark of the artist within the work. SELF-TITLED (ROUGH-CUT) is a perfect vessel for which to view the artist’s introspection. Changing slightly with each presentation, this video is a kind of Sisyphean performance by the artist, never finished and leading to no particular end. There is no way to experience the work in Untitled (Just Kidding) passively. Malmed throws us into the experience of his "cinema" and challenges us to think alongside him, watching for patterns and riddles that point us to something we either know well or haven't yet thought of. EE
Jeff Garlin's HANDSOME: A NETFLIX MYSTERY MOVIE (New American)
Music Box Theatre – Thursday 7pm
To visit Los Angeles today is to stumble upon an unusual, developing crime scene: the massive theft of the apparatus of distribution—and, increasingly, production—by Northern California and Pacific Northwest streaming services Netflix and Amazon, each with multibillion-dollar valuations currently vastly exceeding those of traditional studios; and the subtitle of Jeff Garlin's HANDSOME: A NETFLIX MYSTERY MOVIE—a stand-alone feature-length comedy—marks explicitly the emergence of a new generation of narrative experimentation sponsored by the swelling profits of these tech-industry brigands. In the "inverted" detective tradition of Columbo (in which the identity of the criminal is revealed at the outset), HANDSOME follows Garlin's Falk-ish detective (who would be the proverbial "day from retirement" if he bothered to submit the forms) through an extremely laid-back investigation of a grisly beheading case, discovered on the estate of a narcissistic actor (Steven Weber). Recalling Robert Altman and Elliott Gould's twist on Chandler in THE LONG GOODBYE, the film is deeply embedded in an everyday northern Los Angeles in which the frankly hilarious descendants of Ashkenazi Holocaust survivors must perpetually pass alienated through a world of hula-hooping, new-age space cadets, Christian burger-slinging teens, and broke-ass Nevadan babysitters stalking B-list parties in the hills for luxury cosmetics samples. As Garlin's lascivious and vaguely-unethical detective partner, an unrestrained Natasha Lyonne utterly steals every scene she appears in, and should probably have her own show. This screening is a special fundraiser for the non-profit Ryan Banks Academy, a new boarding school for low-income youth in Chicago; Jeff Garlin will appear in person for a Q&A after the film. (2017, DCP, 120min) MC
Robert Bresson's UNE FEMME DOUCE (French Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) – Wednesday, 7 and 9pm
In UNE FEMME DOUCE, his first color film, Robert Bresson's formalist rigor belies a loose, searching quality that reflects his initial contentions not only with color but a new world, post-Paris '68. His first urban film since PICKPOCKET is keenly attuned to the pulsing of city lights, the thrill of car screeches, and above all, the luminous skin of Dominique Sanda, who seems to embody the seething energy of a new generation. She's the hapless wife of a controlling pawnbroker (Guy Frangin) whose penny-pinching and numb cycles through museums and evening shows allow Bresson to blow raspberries at the petty bourgeois. However, Bresson's exacting direction of Sanda suggests a shared possessiveness between the two men; his stifling treatment triggers in Sanda electric impulses of resistance, eyes always fighting back, validating the "Bressonian model" approach like no other performance (while ironically yielding the only Bresson model to become a star professional). For the last time, Bresson employs voiceover flashback techniques that were his mainstay in the 50s, but this time no redemptive epiphany awaits. Bresson's early works may be more structurally satisfying in their self-contained perfection, but there's a ton of excitement in watching a 68 year-old modernist come to terms with the unresolved present tense of postmodern life. (1969, 88 min, DCP Digital) KBL
Abderrahmane Sissako's TIMBUKTU (New Mauritanian/Oppositional Viewing)
Black World Cinema (at the Studio Movie Grill Chatham, 210 W. 87th St.) – Check Venue website for showtimes
Out of all the quality movies I saw in 2014, none felt quite as contemporary as Abderrahmane Sissako's TIMBUKTU. The Mauritanian filmmaker belatedly follows up BAMAKO, his great 2006 indictment of the World Bank and western-style capitalism, with this equally damning indictment of third-world religious extremism. The new film, a lightning-in-a-bottle masterpiece based on real events that occurred in 2012 but that seem even more prescient following the rise of ISIS, concerns the occupation of the title city in Mali by militant Islamist rebels. Sissako's eye-opening film intertwines several narrative threads, all of which dramatize the clash between the foreign jihadists and the more moderate Muslim natives, most prominent among them the story of a cattle farmer (Ibrahim Ahmed) whose wife is coveted by the region's new extremist ruler. Like Jia Zhang-ke's otherwise very different A TOUCH OF SIN, this vital movie offers a keyhole through which western viewers can peer into an authentic dramatization of pressing global issues that go way beyond mere news headlines; this includes a vain of absurdist humor that rings bizarrely true, as in a scene where a group of jihadists debate the relative merits of their favorite soccer stars. What really makes TIMBUKTU crucial viewing, however, is the way Sissako brings to his story the point of view of visual poetry, which is nowhere better exemplified than in a stunningly composed scene of conflict between the cattle farmer and a fisherman, and an exquisitely lovely montage sequence involving a soccer match defiantly played without a ball (after the sport has been locally banned). Sissako's feel for the desert landscapes of Africa here is as evocative as John Ford's was of the American southwest in his great late westerns. It is this effortless combination of docudrama and lyricism that ultimately elevates TIMBUKTU to the status of the transcendent. (2014, 97 min, Digital Projection) MGS
Chantal Akerman's NO HOME MOVIE (New Belgian/Documentary)
Block Cinema (Northwestern University) – Thursday, 7pm
Chantal Akerman's NO HOME MOVIE—her last film before her untimely death in late 2015—is a synthesis of the Belgian artist's most personal work. A quasi-documentary about Akerman's mother in the months leading up to her death—they talk, they laugh, they suppress—it's formally reminiscent of JEANNE DIELMAN, which Akerman said was "a love film for [her] mother,” as it “gives recognition to that kind of woman.” The likeness is perhaps most obvious in the scenes that take place in the green-tiled kitchen, bringing to mind Delphine Seyrig as she cooked, cleaned, and silently contemplated. At one point Akerman's mother says to her other daughter, “She's never really talked to me,” referring to the filmmaker and recalling her gently pleading letters in NEWS FROM HOME. Near the end, Akerman explains to a housekeeper how her mother fled Poland during the war only to be captured by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. Examining topics both mundane and meaningful, Akerman uses her avant-garde sensibility to meditate on a relationship and a lifetime in just under two hours. Much of her work imitates life in all its glorious banality, but NO HOME MOVIE considers life at its most honest and sublime. Preceded by Akerman’s 1968 short SAUTE MA VILLE (13 min, DCP Digital). (2015, 115 min, DCP Digital) KS
Julia Ducournau’s RAW (New French Drama/Horror)
Music Box Theatre – Check Venue website for showtimes
In Julia Ducournau’s RAW, sixteen year old Justine (Garance Marillier) is the last of her vegetarian family of four to enroll in veterinarian school. This particular school has a rite of passage wherein the older students (including Justine’s sister, Alexia) haze the incoming students by dumping buckets of blood on them and forcing them to consume a raw rabbit kidney while taking a shot of liquor. This latter rite awakens a deep and primal hunger within Justine that not only acts as a catalyst in her coming of age but also triggers more predatory instincts. RAW is as visceral as they come. It takes bold chances with its script and subject matter that pay dividends to the viewer, but be warned this is not a film for those with a weak constitution. Much of the action centers on the sisterhood of Justine and Alexia. Their dynamic plays out as rebellious thanks to their implied strict upbringing, and the two share increasingly shocking moments as the film progresses. Ducournau draws influence from older body-focused horror films such as EYES WITHOUT A FACE as well as more modern stylized features including the works of Nicolas Winding Refn and Jeremy Saulnier. The driving, Europop score adds a frantic layer that attempts to simultaneously sharpen the horror and dull the viewer’s empathy. Haunting and unforgettable, RAW provokes strong reactions, mental, and for some, physical. Like a pack of lions on the prowl, it strikes at the most vulnerable of our senses. (2016, 99 min, DCP Digital) KC
Ceyda Torun’s KEDI (New Turkish Documentary)
Music Box Theatre - Check Venue website for showtimes
In Istanbul, Turkey, feral cats can be found everywhere; however, unlike the rats of our fair Chicago, these animals experience a peaceful co-habitation with the populace that, for some, borders on the reverential. KEDI packages Istanbul’s admiration for its felines in several vignettes and is meant for cat lovers and non-cat lovers alike. The stories told are uplifting. For some of the interviewees, these cats represent a tangential relationship between themselves and their beliefs in religious omnipotence. The cinematography found in KEDI is superb and beautiful. At times providing a cat’s eye view of the city, the camerawork bounces from rooftop to rooftop, scurries up trees, and dives down pathways that only the nimble footed could traverse. Combined with the staccato score, KEDI has succinct and upbeat tempo. The film follows seven cats’ lives and the nuances of their individual personalities are allowed to flourish on screen. Ceyda Torun explores the circumstances of how these animals came to become so prevalent in Istanbul and to paint a portrait of why their existence is a joyous thing for everyone. KEDI is the kind of film that gives essence to mankind’s love for cats and showcases all of the natural and urban beauty that can be found in Istanbul. (2016, 80 min, DCP Digital) KC
MORE OPPOSITIONAL VIEWING
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum (800 S. Halsted St.) screens Ana DuVernay’s 2016 documentary 13TH (100 min, Video Projection – Unconfirmed Format) on Wednesday at 6pm. The screening will be followed by small group discussions hosted by Radical Public Health and facilitated by representatives from local activist organizations. Free admission.
The Language Conservancy presents a screening of Lawrence Hott and Diane Garey’s 2015 documentary RISING VOICES [Hótȟaŋiŋpi] (57 min, Video Projection – Unconfirmed Format) at the Hampton Inn & Suites - Chicago North Shore (5201 Old Orchard Rd, Skokie) on Saturday at 7pm. Followed by a discussion with Nacole Walker (Hunkpapa), a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and linguist specializing in Lakota. Ticket info at www.facebook.com/events/749455841881011.
Black Cinema House (at the Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave.) presents Eric Kabera’s 2014 Rwandan documentary INTORE (76 min, Video Projection – Unconfirmed Format), which “offers a rare and powerful look at how Rwanda survived a tragic past by regaining its identity through music, dance, and the resilience of a new generation,” on Friday at 7pm. Free admission.
At the Gene Siskel Film Center this week: Asghar Farhadi’s 2016 Iranian/French film THE SALESMAN (125 min, DCP Digital) and Fred Peabody’s 2016 documentary on independent journalism, ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: TRUTH, DECEPTION, AND THE SPIRIT OF I.F. STONE (91 min, DCP Digital), both play for a week.
MORE SCREENINGS AND EVENTS
The Conversations at the Edge series at the Gene Siskel Film Center presents Egyptian artist Wael Shawky’s “Cabaret Crusades” trilogy on Thursday. The first two parts, CABARET CRUSADES: THE HORROR SHOW FILES (2010) and CABARET CRUSADES: THE PATH TO CAIRO (2012) (approx. 90 min total, Digital Projection), are at 6pm and part three, CABARET CRUSADES: THE SECRETS OF KARBALA (2015) (120 min, Digital Projection) is at 8:15pm. Shawky in person at both screenings. Shawky also gives an Artist Talk, presented by SAIC’s Visiting Artists Program, on Wednesday (visit www.saic.edu/vap for details).
Filmfront (1740 W. 18th St.) presents Tsui Hark’s 1995 Hong Kong film THE BLADE (105 min, Digital Projection) on Saturday at 7pm.
Comfort Film at Comfort Station Logan Square (2579 N. Milwaukee Ave.) screens Brock Riebe's 2014 horror film INCALL (140 min, Digital Projection) on Friday at 8pm. Riebe and select crew in person; and Sinema Obscura presents: Animation Compilation is on Wednesday at 8pm, with work by local makers including Gretchen Hasse, Bob Fisher, Tucker Dryden, Vince Tasso, Curtis Randolf, and more. Free admission.
Instituto Cervantes (31 W. Ohio St.) screens León Siminiani’s 2012 Spanish film MAP (85 min, DVD Projection) on Tuesday at 6pm. Free admission.
The Park Ridge Classic Film Series screens Lloyd Bacon’s 1938 film BOY MEETS GIRL (86 min, Unconfirmed Format) on Thursday at 7pm at the Park Ridge Public Library (20 S. Prospect Ave., Park Ridge). Free admission.
The Northbrook Public Library (1201 Cedar Lane, Northbrook) screens Damien Chazelle’s 2016 film LA LA LAND (128 min, DCP Digital) on Saturday at 2 and 7:30pm (free admission, but ticketed event; ticket pickup begins at Noon at the Library's east entrance); and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s 2014 Russian film LEVIATHAN (140 min, DCP Digital) on Wednesday at 1 and 7:30pm. Free admission.
Also at the Gene Siskel Film Center this week: Roberto Sneider’s 2016 Mexican/Canadian film YOU’RE KILLING ME SUSANA (100 min, DCP Digital) concludes a two-week run; Lucrecia Martel’s 2001 Argentinean film LA CIÉNAGA (103 min, 35mm) is on Friday at 8pm and Tuesday at 6pm, with a lecture by filmmaker and SAIC instructor Melika Bass at the Tuesday show; Randy Moore’s 2013 film ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW (90 min, 35mm) is on Sunday at Noon; and the Asian American Showcase this week includes local filmmaker and musician Tatsu Aoki film in collaboration with Lonora Lee LIGHT, Robin Lung’s documentary FINDING KUKAN, and Justin Chan’s film GOOK.
Also at Doc Films (University of Chicago) this week: Mike Mills’ 2016 film 20TH CENTURY WOMEN (119 min, DCP Digital) is on Friday at 7 and 9:30pm and Sunday at 1:30pm; Theodore Melfi’s 2016 film HIDDEN FIGURES (127 min, DCP Digital) is on Saturday at 7 and 10pm and Sunday at 4pm; Hiroshi Teshigahara’s 1964 Japanese film WOMAN IN THE DUNES (123 min, 35mm) is on Monday at 7pm; Jan Troell’s 1972 Swedish film THE NEW LAND (205 min, Blu-Ray Projection) is on Tuesday at 7pm; Walter Hill’s 1992 film TRESPASS (102 min, 35mm) is on Thursday at 7pm; and John Mackenzie’s 1980 British film THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (114 min, 35mm) is on Thursday at 9:30pm.
At the Music Box Theatre this week: Makoto Shinkai’s 2016 Japanese animated film YOUR NAME. (107 min, Digital Projection; check website for subtitled vs. English-dubbed showtimes) and Roger M. Sherman’s 2016 documentary IN SEARCH OF ISRAELI CUISINE (94 min, DCP Digital) both open; Joe Swanberg’s 2017 film WIN IT ALL (90 min, DCP Digital) is on Saturday at 7pm, with Swanberg and co-writer and actor Jake Johnson in person; William A. Wellman’s 1927 silent film WINGS (144 min, DCP Digital) is on Sunday at 1pm, accompanied by a new score performed live by the Prima Vista Quartet; Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski’s 2017 horror film THE VOID (90 min, DCP Digital) is on Friday and Saturday at Midnight; Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 film THE ROOM (99 min, 35mm) is on Friday at Midnight; and Jim Sharman’s 1975 film THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (100 min, 35mm) is on Saturday at Midnight.
At Facets Cinémathèque this week: Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s 2016 US/German documentary KARL MARX CITY (89 min, Video Projection – Unconfirmed Format) and Leif Tilden’s 2017 film 1 MILE TO YOU (104 min, Video Projection – Unconfirmed Format) both have week-long runs.
The Gorton Community Center in Lake Forest (400 E. Illinois Rd., Lake Forest, IL) screens Phil Alden Robinson’ 1989 film FIELD OF DREAMS (107 min, Digital Projection) on Sunday at 2pm.
ONGOING FILM/VIDEO INSTALLATIONS
The Art Institute of Chicago exhibition Zhang Peili: Record. Repeat is on view through July 9. The artist’s first US exhibition features over 50 channels of video from 1989-2007. It is on view in Modern Wing galleries 186 and 289.
The Art Institute of Chicago exhibition Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium is on view through May 7. The large exhibition of work by the acclaimed Brazilian artist includes several films by him, and some related films. Included are Oiticica’s films BRASIL JORGE (1971), FILMORE EAST (1971), and AGRIPPINA IS ROME-MANHATTAN (1972); two slide-show works: NEYRÓTIKA (1973) and CC6 COKE HEAD’S SOUP (1973, made with Thomas Valentin); and Raimundo Amado’s APOCALIPOPÓTESE (1968) and Andreas Valentin’s ONE NIGHT ON GAY STREET (1975, 16mm).
The Art Institute of Chicago (Modern Wing Galleries) has Dara Birnbaum’s 1979 two-channel video KISS THE GIRLS: MAKE THEM CRY (6 min) currently on view.
CINE-LIST: April 7 - April 13, 2017
MANAGING EDITOR // Patrick Friel
ASSOCIATE EDITORS // Ben Sachs, Kathleen Sachs, Kyle A. Westphal
CONTRIBUTORS // Michael Castelle, Kyle Cubr, Emily Eddy, Kevin B. Lee, Michael G. Smith