Cine-File continues to cover streaming and other online offerings during this time of covidity. We will list/highlight physical screenings at the top of the list for theaters and venues that have reopened, and list streaming/online screenings below. Cine-File takes no position on whether theaters should be reopening, nor on whether individuals should be attending in-person. Check the venues’ websites for information on safety protocols and other procedures put in place.
PHYSICAL SCREENINGS
Garrett Bradley's TIME (New Documentary)
Landmark Century Centre Cinema - Check Venue website for showtimes
My favorite movie of 2020 is Garrett Bradley’s TIME, a documentary about Sibil Fox Richardson, a remarkable woman who spent 21 years fighting for the release of her husband, Rob, from Louisiana State Penitentiary after he received an unjustly harsh 60-year-sentence for a first-offense robbery. One of the rallying cries of the Black Lives Matter movement has been that there are seemingly two justice systems in America, one for white people and another for everyone else; Bradley, a young, second-time feature director, illustrates this tragic maxim in the most human terms possible—by closely concentrating on the love story between Fox and Rob and the sadness of their separation. Given the subject matter, many other non-fiction filmmakers would have undoubtedly chosen to include more information about incarceration inequality (with an emphasis on statistics presented via on-screen text, expert interviews, etc.) but Bradley daringly eschews this approach in favor of a relentless focus on just a few people and their emotions (the Richardsons' children are also prominently featured). TIME poignantly incorporates Fox’s own SD video diaries from over the years with newer HD footage of the Richardson family in the months leading up to Rob’s release, a strategy that, in Bradley's own words, allows the narrative to move forwards and backwards through time simultaneously. The resulting accumulation of scenes spans over two decades but has been telescoped into a tight 81-minute run time, one that climaxes with a reunion so intimate and powerful to witness that it bears comparison to the final scene of Mizoguchi’s immortal SANSHO THE BAILIFF. Adding to the film’s spellbinding effect is evocative black-and-white cinematography and a soundtrack comprised of terrific gospel-blues piano songs by the Ethiopian composer Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou. (2020, 81 min, DCP Digital) [Michael Glover Smith]
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More info on the in-person Landmark Century Centre Cinema screenings here. Read Smith’s interview with Garrett Bradley on our blog.
Cooper Raiff’s SHITHOUSE (US)
Music Box Theatre – Check Venue website for showtimes
Even if you’ve never set foot on a college campus, Cooper Raiff’s SHITHOUSE will resonate due to Raiff’s vulnerability. As writer/director/star of this small film, Raiff shows a level of honesty and genuine emotion that might not have worked with another actor who may not have lived through the events that happen in SHITHOUSE. The film follows Alex (Raiff), a lonely freshman struggling through his first year in college, as he bonds with his residence assistant Maggie (Dylan Gelula) at and after a standard party of heavy-drinking and, for seemingly everyone outside of Alex, new hookups and new friends. This might suggest a college-aged riff on Richard Linklater’s BEFORE SUNRISE, but Raiff’s debut remains wholly unique, with slight yet effective performances from Raiff and Gelula (a genuine chemistry bubbling between them) and a realistic sense of time and place. SHITHOUSE reminds you that it’s okay to be lost, lonely, and uncertain about the future, regardless of age. In fact, when you’re 18 or 19, it becomes easy to let these emotions seep in and infect your daily decisions, though it takes only one person to pull you out of this state of being. SHITHOUSE’s warmth comes from experiences both remembered and forgotten. It comes from those singular nights of wading through hoards of young people dancing in someone’s living room and can have a profound effect. (2020, 102 min, DCP Digital) [Michael Frank]
Brandon Cronenberg’s POSSESSOR (US)
Music Box Theatre – Friday and Saturday, 10pm
In the subgenre of body horror, the Cronenberg name carries weight. Due to David Cronenberg’s nearly 50 years of making audiences squeamish, his son Brandon Cronenberg’s film career contains a certain set of expectations. His first film, ANTIVIRAL in 2012, opened to solid, though not exceptional, reviews of a first entry in another career marked by the psychological and body horror genres. His follow-up, POSSESSOR, takes these ideas to another level, crafting a film equally horrifying and arresting. Focused on the idea of brain-implant technology that helps assassins commit high-profile murders, Cronenberg’s Sundance hit will satisfy fans of his father’s work, giving him established credibility as an impressive filmmaker in his own right. It’s a bloody, visceral, striking film that relies on detached performances from Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Abbott’s performance sticks into your mind, though, nestling itself deep inside your brain, due to the disturbing imagery Cronenberg throws at you with constant pressure. Abbott represents a man who delves into madness, confusion, and the unknown, representing a relatable feeling of uncertainty cranked up to max volume. The film knocks you down without hesitation, showing you just enough gore to make you turn your head, but not enough for you to close your eyes. Cronenberg completes a balancing act of taking you to the edge of the building, and only reeling you back in once you’ve seen and heard enough. Though not without a few plot holes, unexplainable moments, and nearly implausible jumps in story, POSSESSOR shows Cronenberg’s growth in the eight years since his first feature, placing him as a filmmaker with talent, guts, and the willingness to show audiences the unexpected. If you can stomach it, POSSESSOR is a burst of light, blood, and gushing beauty, pricked with fine actors, interesting ideas, and a sense of technological dispassion that only a Cronenberg can create. (2020, 103 min, Digital Projection) [Michael Frank]
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Also at the Music Box this week is Ben Wheatley’s 2020 film REBECCA (121 min, DCP Digital)
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More info on the in-person Music Box screenings (including COVID policies) here.
CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
The Chicago International Film Festival opened on Wednesday and continues through October 25 with a mix of online and drive-in screenings. You’ll find a generous selection of reviews below; check our list next week for some additional reviews. The full schedule and additional information can be found here.
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Julia von Heinz’s AND TOMORROW THE ENTIRE WORLD (Germany)
Available for rent through October 25 here
The most recent feature film from German filmmaker Julia von Heinz is by far her most personal. Based on her own experiences in an Antifa activist group in the 1990s, AND TOMORROW THE ENTIRE WORLD is an emotional, although muddled, look at violence as a tool for change. A middle-class law student, Luisa (Mala Emde), moves into an Antifa commune in Berlin with her best friend Bette (Luisa-Céline Gaffron) to try to change the world more directly. They soon realize that while much of the commune champions non-violence, there is a growing community of radicals who adopt the same principles of violence as their alt-right enemies—which complicates Luisa’s moral compass as she finds herself falling for the group’s leader, Alfa (Noah Saavedra). In a time amplified by calls for justice by any means necessary—as well as the consistent confusion around and misinterpretation of Antifa—AND TOMORROW THE ENTIRE WORLD is certainly a movie for the moment. By film’s end, it often finds itself unsure of its own core philosophy—but the viewer is ultimately won over by a phenomenal performance from Emde and an ultra-contemporary style that outshines its small budget. (2020, 111 min) [Cody Corrall]
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Shahram Mokri’s CARELESS CRIME (Iran)
Available for rent through October 25 here
With his fourth feature, CARELESS CRIME, Shahram Mokri cements his reputation as one of the most innovative directors working today. Mokri manages here to make cross-cutting seem new: interweaving three narrative lines, he constructs a complex structure that grows more mysterious as the film progresses. Watching it today is comparable to what it may have been like to see Alain Resnais’ MURIEL when it premiered in 1963. CARELESS CRIME hovers around political, social, and self-referential themes, yet never lands on what it’s all about, forcing viewers to search actively for meaning. Perhaps its ultimate subject (like MURIEL’s) is how we strive to perceive the world at a contentious historical moment. The film is inspired by and partly about the notorious Cinema Rex fire of 1978, when four men burned down a movie theater in the town of Abadan, killing between 400 and 500 people. The event sparked great public outrage, and many feel it helped spur the Iranian Revolution the following year. CARELESS CRIME considers the implications of the Cinema Rex fire largely through metaphor—the film is, on one level, about the incendiary power of cinema itself. It’s also about the violence that’s latent in everyday life. Mokri accumulates scenes of unrest, so that catastrophe always feel imminent; the onscreen action, which takes place in the present, is haunted not only by the fire of 1978, but by the possibility that it will happen again today. One of the storylines of CARELESS CRIME follows four arsonists as they plot to burn down a cinema. Mokri never reveals the men’s motives, making the characters seem alternately naive and determined. In contrast to the scenes of the male arsonists, who are middle-aged and old, are scenes of young moviegoers, many of them female, as they prepare to watch a new film called “Careless Crime” (also directed by Mokri). Their conversations are impassioned and philosophical—reflecting Iran’s rich, longstanding cinema culture—yet these scenes too feel haunted. No one seems particular happy, and the dispassionate long-takes invoke a sense of dread. The third storyline belongs to the movie-within-the-movie: it depicts a small military outfit that finds an unexploded missile in the countryside, then meets a few young women who plan to screen a movie outdoors for the local population. Crucially, the movie they’re going to show is THE DEER (1974), one of Iran’s most acclaimed pre-Revolutionary films and the film that was screening during the Cinema Rex fire. Mokri’s direction of “Careless Crime” is identical to his direction of CARELESS CRIME—that is, he shoots each scene in a single take and advances an unwavering, deadpan tone that renders every new development surprising. The style is never less than breathtaking: Mokri’s command over camera movement and montage puts most other working filmmakers to shame. (2020, 136 min) [Ben Sachs]
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Steve James’ CITY SO REAL (US/Documentary)
Episodes 1 - 4 available for rent through October 25 here; Episode 5 available for rent October 20-25
When former Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he would not run for reelection in 2019, he set off shockwaves across the city. Hot off the controversy of his mangled dealing of the Laquan McDonald case and closing half of the city’s mental health clinics—among other things that soured his reputation—his departure from the race signaled an opportunity for change in Chicago’s political structure. An unprecedented 14 candidates came out of the woodwork to fill his spot: some political veterans, some political nobodies, and a Daley for good measure—Chicago is still Chicago, after all. Steve James’ five-part documentary CITY SO REAL is a comprehensive look at the chaos that swept the city for the better part of six months. By closely following those entrenched in local politics like Toni Preckwinkle and Susana Mendoza, along with relative newcomers like Amara Enyia, Neal Sáles-Griffin, and Lori Lightfoot, James manages to pull back the curtain of the shady underbelly of electoral politics: from the pettiness of challenging rival candidate’s signatures for hours on end, to the constant struggle between the new era of Chicago politicians and those with experience but tainted by corruption, to Willie Wilson’s campaigns for nearly every form of office. Campaigning is always hell, but this election proved a different set of problems—how do you stand out when voters are overwhelmed with choices? CITY SO REAL, unlike many depictions of Chicago that resort to cheap shots without context, makes a point to get at the heart of what residents from all over Chicago want from their city and those elected to represent them. Watching CITY SO REAL feels like you’re there in the moment, as James manages to do the near-impossible task of documenting every press conference, town hall and interview—or at least subsidies it with news coverage from the time—along with behind the scenes conversations with candidates and campaign officials not seen anywhere else. It’s less focused on a supposed “changing of the guard” in Chicago as it is with the hard to understand yet hard to ignore why’s of the unique spectacle of Chicago politics. (2020, 300 min) [Cody Corrall]
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Ivo van Aart’s THE COLUMNIST (The Netherlands)
Available for rent through October 25 here
“Don’t read the comments. Never read the comments.” This is advice given to Femke Boot (Katja Herbers), a journalist working for a well-known publication in the Netherlands. She writes a column on her life experience, her relationships, and living in the city as a single mother, and is also currently working on a book. The advice comes from Femke’s boyfriend, a writer of horror fiction (Bram van der Kelen), and, unlike him, she is constantly inundated with sexist remarks on social media—including death threats. There are even violent comments targeting her teenage daughter, Anna (Claire Porro), who herself is campaigning against her headmaster for the right to free speech at her high school. It’s not so easy for Femke to ignore the comments, and the sheer amount of hate thrown at her daily begins to eat away at her sanity. When she finds her neighbor is one of the commenters, and discovers his social media is filled with not only sexist but also racist and xenophobic posts, she reaches her limit. The result is bloody, and Femke gets a taste for vengeance that doesn’t stop there. THE COLUMNIST is a biting satire about social media, and, despite being filled with over-the-top moments of violence, it is also a layered and timely take on the revenge horror genre. Herbers gives a playful, measured performance, serving to balance the excessiveness of her horrific actions with a relatable woman who’s genuinely upset by the constant bombardment of hate being written about her; she’s wonderful to watch. Director Ivo van Aart balances the film overall well, too, as he shifts from family drama to outright horror and back, always with a bit of comedy. A montage of Femke’s gory revenge juxtaposed with her burgeoning relationship and time spent with her daughter, all set to a crescendoing horror soundtrack, is particularly hilarious. Of course, Femke’s actions can only lead to a bloodier conclusion, but, in THE COLUMNIST, it is also a contemplative one. (2020, 83 min) [Megan Fariello]
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Tsai Ming-liang's DAYS (Taiwan)
Available for rent through October 25 here*
DAYS, Taiwanese master Tsai Ming-liang’s latest ode to urban loneliness, begins with a middle-aged man, Kang (Lee Kang-sheng), simply sitting in a room and staring out the window on a rainy afternoon. Tsai’s patient camera eye observes the man’s expressionless face for a full five minutes before cutting. It's an astonishing scene in which nothing seems to happen while also suggesting, on an interior level, that perhaps a lot is happening, thus setting the tone for the two hour audio-visual experience that follows. As viewers, we are invited to not only observe Kang as the shot’s subject but also allow our eyes to wander around the beautifully composed frame, noticing the details of what is reflected in the window out of which Kang stares (since the shot is framed from outside) as well as listen to the sound of the gently falling rain. From there, an almost entirely wordless narrative proceeds, in fits and starts, as the daily life of this man, who is suffering from and being treated for an unspecified illness, is juxtaposed with that of a younger man, a Laotian immigrant masseur named Non (Anong Houngheuangsya). Eventually, the lives of both protagonists come together in an erotic hotel-room encounter before breaking apart again, presumably for good. The way these two minimalist character arcs briefly intersect reveals a surprisingly elegant and classical structure lurking beneath the movie's avant-garde surface and also serves to function as a potent metaphor for nothing less than life itself: We may be born alone and we may die alone but, if we're lucky, we can make meaningful connections with other people along the way. DAYS is a formally extreme film, even for Tsai, and probably not the best place to start for those unfamiliar with the director's previous work. But I emerged from it feeling as refreshed and energized as I would if I had visited a spa. (2020, 127 min) [Michael Glover Smith]
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*Only available in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri.
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Andrei Konchalovsky’s DEAR COMRADES! (Russia)
Available for rent through October 25 here
Winner of the Special Jury Prize at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, DEAR COMRADES! is writer-director Andrei Konchalovsky’s fraught depiction of the Novocherkassk massacre that occurred June 2, 1962, in Soviet Russia. We follow the labor strike leading to the massacre, the pandemonium of the massacre itself, and the chaos and uncertainty of its aftermath. Yuliya Vysotskay, is Lyudmila, a committed Communist still reeling from the death of Stalin. When her daughter disappears in the anarchy of the massacre, she frantically has to search for her, threatening not only her own safety, but that of those around her. She begins to question not only the methods of the Party but the idea of faith itself. DEAR COMRADES! is filmed in black and white, giving it a gorgeous patina of false historicity that allows us to fall deep inside of it, forgetting that this is a period drama, confusing it for a film of the time. Konchalovsky plays with the perception of the Soviet government quite cleverly through Lyudmila and her family. While she openly laments Stalin’s death, her nameless father gets drunk and wears his pre-Soviet military garb and expresses his wish that JFK would just nuke them all. Lyudmila’s daughter is a product of the era of de-Stalinization and is willing to go against the Party and participate in the strike and demonstrations that lead to the massacre. Konchalovsky pulls off the feat that so many filmmakers attempt and rarely, if ever, achieve, successfully taking a single moment or event and turning it into a true microcosm of the greater political zeitgeist. While I wouldn’t be so brash as to say he thoroughly dissects the entirety of Soviet Russia through this single film, Konchalovsky does manage to leave his fingerprints across it in a way that shows a deft handling. All this, through a story of desperation and mystery; a mother searching for her missing daughter, in the face of the government she has worked her whole life for. DEAR COMRADES! is a dramatic political thriller of the most personal nature. Where faith in government, self, others, God, and oneself all come into question. Films reflect the times in which they are made. Right now, across the globe, we’re seeing a rise of a type of politics that feeds on unquestioning faith, DEAR COMRADES! utilizes the framework of history to unfold today, and warn us about tomorrow. (2020, 120 min) [Raphael Jose Martinez]
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Gregory Monro’s KUBRICK BY KUBRICK (France)
Available for rent through October 25 here*
Stanley Kubrick was renowned for his reclusiveness. Despite making some of the most influential films of the 20th century, he rarely gave interviews to the press, resulting in a sort of mythos about the man and his filmmaking that grew over the years. In KUBRICK BY KUBRICK, audiences get to see this veneer pulled back and hear him talk about his films through a series of interviews conducted by French film writer Michel Ciment. Director Gregory Monro unveils these interviews utilizing a re-creation of the bedroom from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and displaying iconography from the pertinent Kubrick film being discussed in that segment, with stills and clips also intercut. This creates an interesting effect, like one walking through a museum personally narrated by Kubrick. The topics discussed between him and Ciment not only give tremendous insight into Kubrick’s directorial mind but also reveal his penchant for playing with narrative motifs. KUBRICK BY KUBRICK draws significant influences from HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT and is a must-see for Kubrick fans hoping to hear more from the man they so much admire. (2020, 72 min) [Kyle Cubr]
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*Only available in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri.
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Luchina Fisher’s MAMA GLORIA (US/Documentary)
Available for rent through October 25 here
MAMA GLORIA is a deeply personal documentary that illuminates a larger history of transgender people of color in Chicago. Gloria Allen, now in her 70s, is an icon of the community, having started a charm school for transgender people at the Center on Halsted. The charm school inspired Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins’ Charm, and Gloria became known for her maternal support for and engaged work with transgender youth. The charismatic Gloria narrates her own story, which is filled with traumatic moments of violent abuse and loving acceptance from her family and friends, especially her mother. Allen begins by telling how her grandmother worked as a seamstress for drag performers in the early 20th century; she’s aware of how her personal history intertwines with a broader one, framing her story against historically significant moments and people, from the Civil Rights Movement and Emmett Till to the Stonewall Riots and Marsha P. Johnson. MAMA GLORIA emphasizes the power of Gloria sharing her story, not just directly with the film’s audience, as she recounts her personal history into the camera, but also with others, most compellingly with the queer youth she inspires. Gloria mentions, in a lovely scene where she shares a meal with her friends from high school, that she was voted “most friendly,” and the camera captures her welcoming nature. Gloria is also aware that her older age signifies survival, as she mentions losing so many friends; MAMA GLORIA notes that only 14% of transgender identifying adults in the U.S. are seniors. Gloria’s story is compelling not just in its engagement with history, but in its acknowledgement of contemporary struggles, as transgender rights are threatened and incidents of extreme violence against transwomen of color continue. MAMA GLORIA is an optimistic film that also recognizes there is still a lot of work to be done. (2020, 76 min) [Megan Fariello]
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João Paulo Miranda Maria's MEMORY HOUSE (Brazil)
Available for rent through October 25 here*
A striking, unsettling story set in southern Brazil from João Paulo Miranda Maria pits Christovam (Cinema Novo regular Antonio Pitanga), an aging, solitary Black man relocated from the north, against the austerity measures of the multinational dairy factory that employs him as well as the local Austrian community who disrespect and torment him (and his dog). The headstrong Jenifer (Ana Flavia Cavalcante) is a prostitute at the local watering hole who rejects Christovam’s chauvinistic guidance. His ramshackle home houses a panoply of ancestral totems, which prompt him to transform first into a traditional cowboy and, eventually, to imagine himself as an avenging bull. With its unified motifs of cattle and execution, Miranda Maria’s film—his feature debut—offers no simple vision of racism, resistance, and colonialism. Make this one a priority: while cold, it offers the kind of original, visceral, surprising vision we look for at the fest. (2020, 93 min) [Scott Pfeiffer]
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*Only available in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri.
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Stefanie Klemm’s OF FISH AND MEN (Switzerland)
Available for rent through October 25 here
Writer-director Stefanie Klemm’s debut feature feels like an inversion of the sort of movie the great Claude Chabrol frequently made. Where Chabrol specialized in dressed-down art films that resembled potboiler thrillers, Klemm delivers a tony art film that’s really a potboiler at heart. OF FISH AND MEN introduces several Chabrolian themes—namely, murder, guilt, and the lengths that people will travel to preserve their sense of domestic stability—but instead of fleshing them out through vivid characterization and settings (as Chabrol would have done), Klemm attends mainly to mood. With its relentless, gloomy atmosphere, the film inspires abstract musings rather than cutting insights. It does, however, contain some nice footage of how fisheries are operated in the Swiss countryside, which grants the film a documentary quality that fitfully grounds the narrative in something tangible. Judith, who owns and operates the fishery, is a 30-ish single woman with a young daughter. She lives contentedly in relative solitude; apart from her daughter, the only person she spends much time with is her handsome employee Gabriel. The sudden arrival of Gabriel’s ex-convict brother disrupts the harmony of Judith’s life, and so does another, even more jarring event that I won’t reveal here. Suffice it to say, all the major characters undergo surprising transformations, most of which stem less from plausible psychological motivation than from Klemm’s desire to move the story forward. The film succeeds by and large as a thriller, bogged down only occasionally by its generic festival-film atmospherics, though you might wish the characters were defined by more than just a few traits a piece. The charismatic performances compensate for the underwritten characters, just as Kacper Czubak’s variegated cinematography alleviates the monotony of Klemm's dramatization. (2020, 89 min) [Ben Sachs]
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Claudio Noce’s PADRENOSTRO (Italy)
Available for rent through October 25 here
In 1970s Italy, the Cosa Nostra and right-wing extremist groups embarked on a terror campaign against judges and other public figures who were trying to root out the Mafia’s control over public life. Francesco Rosi famously explored this episode of modern Italian history in his 1976 policier ILLUSTRIOUS CORPSES, and other filmmakers have since followed suit with thrillers, documentaries, and political dramas. PADRENOSTRO, an autobiographical feature by director Claudio Noce, considers Italy’s legacy of domestic terrorism from a child’s perspective, resulting in an uncommonly tense coming-of-age story. Set in Rome in 1976, the film centers on Valerio, a ten-year-old boy whose father occupies an important, but unidentified, position in Italian society. Shortly after the story begins, a group of masked men open fire on the father as he’s leaving for work, wounding him and killing one of his associates. The remainder of PADRENOSTRO charts the repercussions of that incident as Valerio’s family starts living under armed protection and Valerio works through the trauma of seeing an attempt on his father’s life. The boy evades his grief by indulging in reckless behavior, finding a partner and enabler in mischief in a 14-year-old delinquent named Christian. The older boy shows up to pull Valerio away from school and into secret misadventures; because Christian never appears when adults are around, I wondered at first if the character was simply a figment of Valerio’s imagination. Noce generates an interesting tension from this possibility, only to dash it in the film’s second half, when Christian joins Valerio’s family on a vacation-cum-hideout in the countryside. Yet the straightforward plotting befits Noce’s mission to introduce troubling Italian history to young viewers. PADRENOSTRO is well-suited for older children who are just learning about political history—or, for that matter, who are trying to make sense of the wave of domestic terrorism currently befalling the United States. (2020, 122 min) [Ben Sachs]
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Lili Horvát's PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME (Hungary)
Available for rent through October 25 here*
Feeling middle age encroaching, brilliant neurosurgeon Dr. Marta Vizy (Natasa Stork) returns to her native Budapest after 20 years of practicing in America. Dr. Janos Drexler (Viktor Bodo), a visionary in her field, is the man she met a month earlier at a conference in New Jersey; as she recalls, they arranged a rendezvous at her favorite bridge back home. Yet at their next encounter Janos claims not to know her, and Marta begins to wonder if she wanted love so badly she dreamed up the whole thing. Lili Horvát wrote and directed this intriguing, poignant story about loneliness and tricks of perception. Her well-made film is worth a look for its sensitively handled treatment of love’s dark, obsessive, potentially destructive side. Horvát keeps Marta framed closely as she glides through the city in cabs and trams, and Stork gives her a shaky self-possession, a secretive expression encompassing Marta’s angst and hope. (2020, 95 min) [Scott Pfeiffer]
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*Only available in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri.
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Yoav Shamir’s THE PROPHET AND THE SPACE ALIENS (Israel/Austria/Documentary)
Available for rent through October 25 here
How is a religion based on a Frenchman’s declaration that he was visited by aliens in the 1970s and given the secret to the meaning of life different from any other religion? And does it even matter? In this often hilarious documentary, filmmaker Yoav Shamir goes on a personal journey with Claude Vorilhon (aka Raël) around the world to explore his rapidly expanding New Age religion and the people drawn to it. Along with Raëlian followers and Raël himself, Shamir speaks with religious scholars and people from Vorilhon’s pre-Raël past to get a well-rounded idea of what exactly might be going on here. From Raël’s beliefs that humans were derived from ancient aliens to a bit of the “sex cult doth protest too much,” Shamir keeps a critical eye on everything while retaining a good sense of humor about what seems to be a group of people finding joy and greater meaning among their new community. He never quite takes a position, for or against, the Raëlians. At a time when so many odd obsessions, quasi-religions, and cultish groups seem to thrive on hatred, fear mongering, and division, this is a goofy, fun dive into one man’s strange world. Watch and judge Raël for yourself. (2020, 86 min) [Raphael Jose Martinez]
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Jerry Rothwell’s THE REASON I JUMP (UK/Documentary)
Available for rent through October 25 here
Jerry Rothwell’s THE REASON I JUMP is an act of translation multiple times over. In the most literal sense, it’s a translation of a translation of the eponymous autobiography, allegedly written by Naoki Higashida, a Japanese teenager with nonverbal autism. In a more significant way, the film is a translation of the subjective experiences of neuro-atypical people, with Rothwell and his documentary team attempting to render into language (linguistic, cinematic) the thoughts and feelings of those unable to express themselves through speech. Anchored by English-narrated excerpts from the book, THE REASON I JUMP takes us into the mind and body of Higashida, as well as five other nonspeaking or verbally-limited autistic people around the world. The film deploys uniquely cinematic tools to immerse us in their perspectives: localized sounds and abstracted, haptic closeups of light and texture are used to conjure heightened perceptual states, while irregular montage suggests an experience of time and memory that, as the father of one of the autistic subjects puts it, resembles “an out-of-control slideshow.” Though the risk of romanticizing or misinterpreting their disability is always a lingering threat(valid doubts about the truth of Higashida’s authorship are swiftly dismissed), THE REASON I JUMP mostly avoids these pitfalls by taking into account the large, ever-growing body of scientific knowledge that has emerged around autism. The film shrewdly dispels many of the beliefs and stigmas surrounding the condition. One of the clearest examples of this comes from best friends Emma and Ben, who use letter boards to eloquently communicate their thoughts about pedagogy, relationships, and their civil rights. At times, Rothwell turns their spelled-out sentences into subtitles, the closest the film is able to get to letting us hear directly from its subjects. If THE REASON I JUMP is perhaps a bit pat and polished, a little too willing to speak in platitudes, it’s nevertheless an invaluable resource, sure to facilitate empathetic understanding in both neuro-typical and -atypical individuals. It’s no mistake a lighthouse features prominently; though fully comprehending another’s consciousness isn’t possible, enough illumination can do a lot to guide the way. (2020, 82 min) [Jonathan Leithold-Patt]
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Shorts Program 2: Disconnect the Dots (Animation)
Available for rent through October 25 here
Handcrafted animation is alive and well in this superb program, where a diversity of enchanting artistic styles and techniques prove integral to the films’ dreamlike effects. Whether it’s vibrating lines, squelching clay, or flowing pigments, the tangible materiality of the media supports these tales of evolution, transfiguration, and being stuck in dark places. A candidate for the most visually astonishing of the group, Yngwie Boley, J.J. Epping, and Diana van Houten’s PILAR (10 min) depicts a young woman trapped in a post-apocalyptic village with another survivor. Entirely hand-painted, it’s a scintillating feast of color, texture, and composition; the “ghosting”—paint traces still visible from previous frames—further testifies to the animators’ awe-inspiring work. Frédéric Schuld’s THE CHIMNEY SWIFT (5 min) may not be as extravagant, but it’s equally affecting; its scruffy pencil lines and squeezed aspect ratio aptly convey the squalid working conditions of a 19th-century “climbing boy.” Narrated using real remarks from London master chimney sweeps, it’s a vivid window into a disturbing, archaic past. More fantastical in its darkness is Alberto Vázquez’s HOMELESS HOME (15 min), which takes place in an underworld populated by witches, diabetic monsters, and skeletons just happy to have found somewhere affordable to live. The spooky but whimsical black-and-white animation is well matched to the short’s sardonic edge. Irony is steeped in heartache in the stop-motion THE FABRIC OF YOU (11 min). Josephine Lohoar Self’s film centers on a gay mouse (really!) stuck reliving the freak death of his beloved, for whom he had tailored a special jacket. Grief, repression, and clothing mix in a singular, and highly morose, fashion. Weijia Ma’s moving STEP INTO THE RIVER (15 min) is the most kid-friendly short, although it too deals with guilt and death, as two young girls in a small seaside village bond over their tragic, personal relationships to China’s one-child policy. Alexandra Ramires’ TIE (11 min), a more abstract outing, takes viewers on a hallucinatory journey where humanoid figures lose, discover, and reform parts of their bodies in a biologically porous, scratchboard-like landscape. The program closes, rather appropriately, with a musical of world-annihilating, and world-reviving, proportions. Across 16 minutes, Renee Zhan’s O BLACK HOLE! tells a parable of a sort of reverse Mother Earth, who, terrified of losing everything to the passage of time, decides to devour the whole universe. Becoming a singularity after thousands of years, she is coaxed by a trio of sonorously voiced ghouls into restoring all worldly things to life. Juxtaposing illustration, paint, and richly tactile claymation, it’s a droll, striking existential odyssey, like Don Hertzfeldt crossed with Aardman. Make sure to watch this one with headphones for a truly immersive trip. [Jonathan Leithold-Patt]
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Shorts Program 6: It Hurts to Laugh (Comedy)
Available for rent through October 25 here
It can be hard to laugh in times of distress—this collection of dark comedies understands that, implores you to find the humor in the absurdities of life, and revel in your worst impulses. Bridget Moloney’s BLOCKS (11 min) tackles the inanity of parenthood as a mother finds her two children compulsively vomiting toy blocks. In Gunhild Enger’s PLAY SCHENGEN (15 min), a video game company attempts to make immigration education in the EU cool and relatable to children. Georgi M. Unkovski’s STICKER (19 min) brings you into the mundanity of bureaucracy—and the dramatic consequences of simply failing to renew your license and registration. In Kerli Kirch Schneider’s VIRAGO (15 min), a man approaches his 40th birthday in a village where, mysteriously, no man has lived to that age—causing his wife to protect him from anything slightly dangerous in his way. The standouts of this program, however, are Zach Woods’ DAVID (12 min) and Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson’s STUMP THE GUESSER (20 min). DAVID—starring a remarkable duo of William Jackson Harper and Will Ferrell—follows a therapist appointment where both parties need more help than they’re letting on. STUMP THE GUESSER, conversely, is a zany black-and-white silent film about carnies and incest—you’ll find yourself blown away by its sheer audaciousness and technical prowess. [Cody Corrall]
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Shorts Program 8: Realms Unknown (Experimental)
Available for rent through October 25 here
Appropriately titled, “Realms Unknown” contains three experimental shorts about otherworldly environments. Two of the pieces make overt references to science-fiction, while the third merely evokes sci-fi through its preternatural aesthetic; in any case, all three inspire feelings of displacement in time and space. THE END OF SUFFERING (A PROPOSAL) (14 min), by Greek filmmaker Jacqueline Lentzou, is the least abstract of the three—its central metaphor is straightforward, but no less affecting as a result. The short begins with a young woman having a panic attack on a train, and Lentzou presents the woman in semi-blurry medium-closeup to render palpable her intense emotional discomfort. Getting off the train, the woman is contacted by a voice from outer space, possibly representing the wisdom of the universe, that attempts to talk her out of her attack. (This development recalls a memorable scene from Ildikó Enyedi’s Hungarian classic MY TWENTIETH CENTURY.) The voice explains that not only is the woman from Mars, but the Red Planet is home to a thriving civilization drastically different from that of Earth. If she can embrace her native culture, the voice suggests, then perhaps she will start to feel better. It’s a lovely metaphor for working through one’s emotional problems and learning to love oneself, and Lentzou adds to its poignancy with tender images of flowers and constellations. Where THE END OF SUFFERING achieves many of its best poetic effects through montage, Dorian Jespers’ SUN DOG (20 min) is all about uninterrupted camera movements. Shot in an unidentified city in the Russian Arctic, SUN DOG looks at life in this city at a time of long nights. Jespers employs fluid overhead shots and roving Steadicam work to suggest the experience of exploring an alien planet, and that feeling is most pronounced in the final shot, where one subject encounters at long last a beautiful sunrise. The program concludes with LOOK THEN BELOW (22 min) by Ben Rivers, arguably the most important British experimental filmmaker of his generation. A sequel of sorts to Rivers’ SLOW ACTION (2011), this also features narration by the American sci-fi writer Mark von Schegell and moody landscape shots that suggest real-world analogues to the fantastic locations described in the text. What’s different this time is that Rivers also incorporates computer animation, which augments and sometimes supplants the real-life imagery. The director fluidly melds the authentic and the digital, resulting in a pleasantly disorienting experience where you’re never certain of what’s real; eerie choral music adds to the overall effect. For over a decade, Rivers has been making some of the most beautiful movies in the world (his command over 16mm cinematography is second to none), and LOOK THEN BELOW is a worthy addition to his filmography, contemplating landscapes both real and fictional to evoke the expansiveness of the imagination. [Ben Sachs]
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Michael Venus’s SLEEP (Germany)
Available for rent through October 25 here
In his first full-length feature, German director Michael Venus presents an impressive surreal horror. Flight attendant Marlene (Sandra Hüller) is troubled by sleep, haunted by terrifying nightmares. When she finds an advertisement for a village hotel that looks like the one recurring in her dreams, she travels there to find answers. She becomes physically paralyzed by a horrifying vision she encounters in her hotel room and ends up in a nearby hospital. Marlene’s daughter, Mona (Gro Swantje Kohlhof), has always been concerned about her mother’s mental health and worries, too, that these issues may be hereditary. Wanting to be close as her mother recovers, and to figure out what happened at the hotel, Mona checks in. As it’s the off-season, Mona is the only guest and she gets to know the owners and the locals—a peculiar bunch, indeed. She quickly begins experiencing visions of her own, confusing dreams with reality. These dreams also seem to be connected to the strange and violent history of the hotel—one that intertwines with Mona and Marlene’s traumatic pasts. SLEEP is filled with fairytale-inspired horror imagery of beasts, the woods, and even a witch-like figure. The film feels, at times, very Lynchian, especially against the eccentric supporting characters that populate the film and appear in one-off odd scenes; it is hard, too, not to think of THE SHINING in the empty hotel setting that incites visions of a violent past. SLEEP is unique, though, especially in its strange and engaging story. It is beautifully shot, and the mostly vacant spaces of the hotel, hospital, and village add to its dreamlike quality; this makes it difficult to completely trust when Mona and Marlene are dreaming and when they’re awake. As much as SLEEP may seem familiar at times, there is a noticeable confidence to this first-feature. (2020, 100 min) [Megan Fariello]
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Ignacio Márquez’s THE SPECIAL (Venezuela/US)
Available for rent through October 25 here
This is a sublime film in both substance and style. Uncomfortable at times, THE SPECIAL treats both its subject matter and audience with respect, casting aside notions of concern-trolling or hand-wringing. Chúo (Greyber Rengifo) is a 23-year-old man with Down Syndrome living with his father “El Chivo” Lopez (Rupert Vasquez). Lopez is a handyman at an office building. Constantly drunk, he regrets having to give up his career and fame as a Latin jazz percussionist to take care of Chúo; he makes it clear that he sees his son as a burden. Despite this home tension, Chúo has taken to the creative outlets of drawing and painting. When the school he attends kicks Chúo out, his father has no choice but to take him to work until he finds a suitable place for him. Here Chúo meets employees of a design firm who look at his drawings and see that he has talent. Chúo tries to manage life on his own while his father begins to reckon with his own past, his expectations for his future, and his expectations for Chúo’s as well. With an uplifting soundtrack of Latin jazz, THE SPECIAL is a gratifying film about the perseverance of love, from its ugliest sides to its joyous embrace. Rengifo’s performance as Chúo is nothing less than captivating and Vasquez’s Lopez manages to be both villain and hero. The chemistry between the two actors is simply delightful. What could be a morality tale or even somber exploitation is instead a rich and vibrant celebration. THE SPECIAL is a perfect example of what cinema can be when it wants to explore the ugliness of life with an unrelenting positivity. It knows that life’s unpleasantness only serves to make its joys all the sweeter. (2020, 91 mins) [Raphael Jose Martinez]
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François Ozon’s SUMMER OF 85 (France)
Available for rent through October 25 here
The summer fling is a staple of coming-of-age narratives, showing up in everything from SUMMER OF ’42 to CALL ME BY YOUR NAME and the works of Éric Rohmer. With SUMMER OF 85, François Ozon adds his own take to the mix; while it doesn’t exactly reinvent the proverbial wheel, it more than stands apart thanks to the director’s sizzling eroticism, macabre wit, and emphatically queer sensibility, all on ravishing display in a Highsmith-esque suspense tale that should please fans of Ozon’s earlier, hotly hormonal thrillers. Sidestepping expectations from the start, SUMMER OF 85 opens with a grim prologue before sending us out to a more familiar scene of pop-scored, sunny coastal France (The Cure, naturally, provides Ozon’s music cue of choice). What we are about to see, 16-year-old Alex (Félix Lefebvre) warns us while in police custody, is the story of a corpse. Relating his indelible summer from the present day, the boy goes on to detail his intense romance with the 18-and-one-month-old David (Benjamin Voisin), who rescued him from a capsized boat one fateful day. David, whom we’re told will end up as the corpse, is a shimmering, quixotic Adonis, mischievous and mysterious, prone to reckless motorcycling and brazen games of seduction. Obviously, this can’t end well. But Ozon, viscerally capturing the heady rush of first love and the reality-disavowing, ego-dissolving spell of infatuation, has us as bewitched as Alex. It helps that SUMMER OF 85 is itself a delectably crafted play of sensuous surfaces, from the lapis lazuli waters sparkling through Hichame Alaouié’s 16mm lensing, to the jean jackets, poofy hair, and poster-limned bedroom walls of its beachside mid-80s milieu. In a centerpiece sequence, Ozon sets a montage of Alex and David’s cresting passions to Rod Stewart’s elating “Sailing,” and for more than a moment, we can feel ourselves floating. It’s a picture of idealized, frictionless, naive love, the kind that can exist before reality has to make its harsh intrusion. In the movies, thankfully, it can last a little longer. (2020, 100 min) [Jonathan Leithold-Patt]
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Magnus von Horn’s SWEAT (Poland)
Available for rent through October 25 here
Social media, for better or worse, has ingrained itself onto the daily lives of just about everyone around the world. A natural byproduct has been the rise of influencers and internet personalities into pseudo-celebrities. SWEAT follows three days in the life on one such person. Sylwia (Magdalena Koleśnik) is fitness instructor who utilizes her online platform to teach followers about workouts, positivity, and love. She meticulously documents nearly every facet of her day-to-day life for her fandom, but at what cost? The film explores the dual nature of this situation, the outward-facing persona versus the inward-facing persona. While Sylwia is admired online by more people than most of us could dream of, she struggles with any kind of intimacy in her actual life. Her online interactions bring her joy, but that joy is short-lived and lacks any kind of long-term fulfillment. SWEAT rips away the fanciful facade of Internet stardom, offers a critique of the tolls it takes on the psyche, and asks whether it's even worth it at all. (2020, 105 min) [Kyle Cubr]
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Mohammad Rasoulof’s THERE IS NO EVIL (Iran/Germany/Czech Republic)
Available for rent through October 25 here*
Mohammad Rasoulof wrote and directed this suspenseful, wise anthology about Iran’s death penalty and its impact on concepts of sacrifice, duty, and denial. The lengthy film contains four diverse stories: a portrait of a family man’s domestic life builds to an ending I mustn’t spoil; a young conscript, under duress, faces his state-mandated turn at executing a prisoner; an engaged couple is reunited in time for the woman’s birthday, but the fiancé, on leave from the army, stumbles upon a terrible realization about something he’s done; a dying man welcomes his niece, a student in Germany, for a visit, but harbors a secret he shudders to tell. From tale to tale, Rasoulof dramatizes decisive moments and the life trajectories resulting therefrom. See this for its nuanced look at saying No to injustice, which suggests the tragedies, but also the compensating rewards, of such a choice. For his efforts, Rasoulof has been sentenced by the authorities to one year in prison for “propaganda against the system.” (2020, 150 min) [Scott Pfeiffer]
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*Only available in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri.
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Bruno Santamaria’s THINGS WE DARE NOT DO (Mexico)
Available for rent through October 25 here
Bruno Santamaria’s THINGS WE DARE NOT DO brings a lyrical quality to the documentary form that is very rare. The film has a mellifluous quality that often belies its documentary style, tricking you into believing that what you’re watching may be fiction. With a fluid, almost languid, eye, professional cinematographer Santamaria observes the life of Ñoño, an openly gay 16-year-old Mexican from El Roblito, Nayarit. Ñoño loves dancing, their family, and their small village. Most importantly, Ñoño, who is masculine presenting, wants to come out to their family as dressing in women’s clothing. Santamaria captures the dissonance between the macho culture often imbued in Latinx culture and the familial love that has an equally strong hold on the culture. When violence erupts at a town dance, leaving a man dead, the fragility of everything—from society to life itself—gets splayed across the screen. Santamaria captures moments of tension, fear, love, and innocence lost, which reflect the confluence of a sympathetic eye and pure luck of timing. The director handles Ñoño’s story gorgeously, with tender care and honest pacing. There is nothing sensational here, nothing exploitative. The documentary style is often shunted in discussions of films that are motivated by an educational purpose. The reigning idea is that documentaries are supposed to teach you something, or expose something. THINGS WE DARE NOT DO goes directly in the face of this prevailing idea. Santamaria reminds us that reality is often just as truly dramatic as any artificial construct can be. If we bother to look, we can find stories that put any we come up with to shame. (2020, 71 min) [Raphael Jose Martinez]
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Nishikawa Miwa’s UNDER THE OPEN SKY (Japan)
Available for rent through October 25 here
After serving a 13-year prison sentence for murder, middle-aged former yakuza Mikami gets released back into society to adapt to his new life. Director Nishikawa Miwa, a protégé of celebrated filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-Eda, examines the minutiae of Mikami’s daily life with the same kind, yet detached, handling that her mentor is renowned for. But as much as their styles are alike, Nishikawa’s film has a tone that’s less meditative than inquisitive. A product of public institutions since he was abandoned by his parents as a child, Mikami searches for respect and meaning. His story is framed through the lens of a TV director and producer looking to make him a subject of a TV show that shows the difficulties of life after prison, which gives the commentary on Mikami’s life a meta nature. Do we as an audience wish to see redemption? Do we expect to see failure? What do we have to gain by helping others, and is what we’re doing ever truly altruistic? Miwa mines such uncomfortable realities as ageism, PTSD, desperation, integrity, obsolescence, and self-sustainability, searching for any chunk of truth. Lead by the guileless acting of Yakusho Koji, UNDER THE OPEN SKY brings deep nuance to the “reformed prisoner” trope.(2020, 126 min) [Raphael Jose Martinez]
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Christian Petzold’s UNDINE (Germany/France)
Available for rent through October 25 here*
Christian Petzold is a director for whom history is both subject and inspiration. He used a partitioned Germany to tell a riveting personal story of dedication and sacrifice in BARBARA (2012), and with his latest film, UNDINE, he returns to partition—more specifically, the partition of Berlin—as the historical bookmark in a story that conjures mythological dimensions that have long powered German music and literature. The film re-teams Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, whose mysterious bond in TRANSIT (2018) Petzold hasn’t quite gotten out of his system, to tell a full-on, ardent love story between Beer’s character, Undine Wibeau (last name straight out of a story by Goethe), a historian who lectures tourists on the architectural development of East and West Berlin, and Christoph (Rogowski), a commercial diver. The film opens on Undine looking stricken when her lover, Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), breaks up with her. She makes the bizarre statement that if he does not love her anymore, she will have to kill him. Fortunately for him, only 30 minutes after this unsettling encounter, Undine meets Christoph, whose awkwardness causes him to bang into some shelving, sending an aquarium at the top crashing down on them both. Laying on the floor in the aquarium water, they magically fall in love. Petzold channels Beer’s irresistible strangeness in TRANSIT to create the character of Undine, a creature who can live as an ordinary woman only in the arms of love. Petzold seems to want to make a connection between his country’s pagan past and the destruction and restoration of a centuries-old palace that used to form Berlin’s center, but the link is too tenuous and obscure for most viewers to understand. Nonetheless, Beer’s presence, even when she is lecturing, and the chemistry she and Rogowski share onscreen make for engaged viewing. (2020, 90 min) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
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*Only available in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri.
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Hong Sang-soo's THE WOMAN WHO RAN (South Korea)
Available for rent through October 25 here*
The films of prolific South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo have become steadily more oriented around their female protagonists since he began working with Kim Min-hee in 2015’s RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN. This mighty director/actress combo has reached a kind of apotheosis in their seventh and latest collaboration, THE WOMAN WHO RAN, a charming dramedy about three days in the life of a woman, Gam-hee (Kim), who spends time apart from her spouse for the first time after five years of marriage. When her husband goes on a trip, Gam-hee uses the occasion to visit three of her female friends—one of whom is single, one of whom is married, and one of whom is recently divorced—and Hong subtly implies that Gam-hee’s extended dialogue with each causes her to take stock of her own marriage and life. Gam-hee also comes into contact with three annoying men—a nosy neighbor, a stalker, and a mansplainer—while visiting each friend, situations that allow Hong to create clever internal rhymes across his triptych narrative structure. Hong’s inimitable cinematographical style has long favored long takes punctuated by sudden zooms and pans, but rarely have the devices felt as purposeful as they dohere. Notice how his camera zooms, with the precision of a microscope, into a close-up of a woman’s face immediately after she issues an apology to Gam-hee during the film's final act, and how the tears in this woman's eyes would not have been visible without the zoom. This is masterful stuff. (2020, 77 min) [Michael Glover Smith]
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*Only available in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri.
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Philippe Lacôte’s NIGHT OF THE KINGS (Ivory Coast)
Available for rent October 18 at 2pm CT and October 21 at 7pm CT for a four-hour window here
At once folkloric and cutting-edge, NIGHT OF THE KINGS transposes elements of the Arabian Nights to a prison in present-day Ivory Coast, showcasing in the process writer-director Philippe Lacôte’s talents for narrative construction, mise-en-scène, and suspense. The film dispenses with all the necessary backstory in a few minutes: the setting, “La Maca,” is the world’s most dangerous prison, where the inmates have so overwhelmed their captors as to have created their own self-governing society. One of the society’s traditions is that on the night of a red moon, a prisoner is chosen to entertain all the inmates through storytelling until dawn. Enter a fresh-faced new prisoner whose innocent look catches the eye of the inmate Boss. The young man is named the new “Roman,” or storyteller. He has a few hours to prepare for a nightlong performance; if he fails, he will be killed. Lacôte introduces a claustrophobic and highly realistic setting, only to subvert it through the fantastic power of the Roman’s storytelling. The surprise appearance of Denis Lavant early on signals that NIGHT OF THE KINGS will not be a straightforward prison drama, and indeed, Lacôte finds ways to open up and complicate the confined setting, first in the Roman’s performance, then in scenes visualizing the stories he tells. The director handles the transformation elegantly, generating mounting tension along the way. (2020, 93 min) [Ben Sachs]
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Available only in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri.
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Gianfranco Rosi's’s NOTTURNO (Italy/France/Germany)
Available for rent October 19 - 25 here
The latest work from FIRE AT SEA director Gianfranco Rosi extends that documentary’s poetic approach and humanitarian concern to look at the scarred Middle East that many refugees have fled. Rosi’s never narrates or editorializes, trusting the grief and strength of civilians—as well as his haunting, sumptuous, carefully-composed imagery—to speak for themselves. Children traumatized by unspeakable ISIS atrocities engage in art therapy; mothers visit cells where the regime killed their sons; a mother plays voicemails from her kidnapped daughter; a Ramadan drummer wanders deserted streets, singing; a boy ekes out a living acting as a spotter for hunters; patients at a psychiatric institute stage a play about their fractured homeland. Though his film ranges across Iraq, Kurdistan, Lebanon, and Syria, Rosi says he wants it to chronicle a “psycho-geographical, not physical” place—a state of mind. He embedded himself for three years along colonially-carved borders, achieving a remarkable intimacy. This is a hushed, disorienting cinematic experience to remember, a heartbreaking vision of hell and resilience. (2020, 100 min) [Scott Pfeiffer]
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Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s FIREBALL: VISITORS FROM DARKER WORLDS (UK/US)
Available for rent October 20 from 4pm CT for a 6-hour window here
FIREBALL: VISITORS FROM DARKER WORLDS is a title that evokes an invasion from extraterrestrials. While not about aliens in the traditional sense, the film explores the human obsession with meteorites and how these rocks from outer space have shaped not just our understanding of the cosmos, but, more significantly, culture here on earth. Directors Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer (a volcanologist from Cambridge) travel the globe, conducting interviews with scientists, artists, and indigenous people. These interviews, along with the impressive cinematography, provide a myriad of perspectives with which to consider the literal and figurative impact of meteorites. These rocks can be destructive, suggesting annihilation and isolation, but their presence also implies creation, especially as they help shape human communities. The film focuses on the meteorite’s ability to ignite human imagination and impact such aspects of culture as history, religion, and art. The cinematography, by long-time Herzog collaborator Peter Zeitlinger, is expectedly wonderful, and it captures both the immensity of some of these rocks—in shots of giant craters—with dazzling images of crystals in much smaller samples. Similarly, dash cam and cell phone footage gets juxtaposed with incredible shots of vast and gorgeous landscapes. FIREBALL: VISITORS FROM DARKER WORLDS is most interesting in its constant dialectic of opposing forces presented by the meteorites, as extraterrestrial objects from space that tell us so much about what it means to be human. The choice of the word “visitor” stands out in the film’s title, implying liminality and highlighting meteorites as representations of transient states and spaces. Oppenheimer plays host to the audience, while Herzog narrates, and his distinctive voice gives the film a subjective lens to explore this otherworldly material. In one of my favorite moments, he interrupts his own movie to show clips of Mimi Leder’s DEEP IMPACT (1998), sincerely interested in cinematic representation of the fear of apocalyptic devastation. Herzog is clearly delighted by his subjects as he continues to be fascinated by the relationship between humans and the natural world. (2020, 97 min) [Megan Fariello]
MUSIC BOX OF HORRORS AT THE DRIVE-IN
Bruce Pittman’s HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT II (Canada)
Music Box Theatre at the Chitown Drive-In (2343 S. Throop St.) – Sunday 10:15pm
I was first introduced to HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT II last year when it was featured on an episode of the “bad” movie podcast How Did This Get Made? The hosts, along with guests Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen, concluded the film is worth a watch, and I wholeheartedly agree. HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT II is an absurd horror with wildly fun performances and genuinely unsettling special effects. Despite the subtitle, the film has nothing to do with the 1980 original PROM NIGHT (which starred formative scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis) other than a high school setting. In 1957, right after being crowned prom queen, Mary Lou Maloney (Lisa Schrage) is murdered in a prank gone terribly wrong. Thirty years later, shy high schooler Vicki (Wendy Lyon) goes searching for a cheap prom dress option in the props department of the school theater and finds herself possessed by Mary Lou’s uninhibited spirit. The film also stars Michael Ironside as Mary Lou’s former beau turned high school principal, who also happens to be the father of Vicki’s steady boyfriend (Justin Louis)—needless to say, things get complicated. HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT II draws on familiar tropes of late 70s and 80s teen horrors but smashing them together results in an entertaining supernatural slasher; it helps, too, that the film doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are disturbing kills and impressive effects, with especially unnerving scenes involving a possessed rocking horse and a haunted chalkboard. There are also surprisingly sincere moments, particularly early scenes between Vicki and her friend Jess. (1987, 97 min, Digital Projection) [Megan Fariello]
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More info here.
LOCAL ONLINE SCREENINGS – New Reviews
Selma Baccar’s FATMA 75 (Tunisia)
Starting at 7pm on Thursday, October 22, the film will be available to view on Block Cinema's Vimeo page for a 24-hour period; RSVP here
In 1975, the United Nations declared its first International Women’s Year, precipitating activities around the world that focused on achieving equality for women. Among the cultural contributions to the year was FATMA 75, the first feature-length film by a Tunisian woman, Selma Baccar. An early advocate of women’s rights, Baccar began making feminist-focused films in the 1960s as a member an amateur film club for women. Using as a framing device a contemporary college student studying the role of women in Tunisian history, Baccar shows the strength and national pride of Tunisian women. For example, she uses an actor to depict a Maghrebi noblewoman who killed herself rather than capitulate to Roman rule as her male ally did. Baccar criticizes French colonial rule as well, showing a French soldier keeping a watchful, intrusive eye on the daily lives of Tunisian farmers. She tells the fascinating history of the Union of Muslim Women through an interview with one of its founders, Bchara Ben Mradis, and resurrects the work of scholar and reformer Tahar Haddad, whose book Our Women in the Shari’a and Society (1930) set the stage for Tunisia’s modern feminist movement and the 1956 Code of Personal Status that was the country’s version of an equal rights amendment. The paucity of films from Tunisia is reason enough to see FATMA 75 in this new digital restoration by Africa in Motion, but Baccar gives audiences so much more in recounting the history of this colonized land and the women who have worked over the millennia to make it a better, more equitable homeland. (1975, 60 min) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
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A live-streamed discussion between Professor Florence Martin, scholar of Maghrebi women’s cinema, and Issrar Chamekh, a graduate student in Northwestern University’s Department of Political Science, follows the film.
Rubika Shah’s WHITE RIOT (UK/Documentary)
Available for rent through the Music Box Theatre here
The mid-2000s ushered in a new wave of punk, an academic and archival movement rather than a musical and cultural one. Once rare and marginalized, punk became respectable: the number of academic papers on it seemed to explode, books on its history were published, and documentary films were released. The original wave of punks (those who had survived that long) knew that they needed to tell their own story before they kicked over. And the Hardcore generation (which had turned into the college rock/alternative rock generation) finally reached their one-day-we’ll-look-back-and-laugh mid-40s, creating the perfect storm for a glut of punkademia and folk history. There have been countless punk-history documentaries, some good (AMERICAN HARDCORE), some great (END OF THE CENTURY), some utterly awful (ONE NINE NINE FOUR). But the most important (and often the best) have been the hyper-local micro-histories. Punk has always been about local scenes—local bands, local venues, local style, local sounds—and Rubika Shah’s WHITE RIOT is an invaluable look at one such scene. Focusing on the history of Rock Against Racism (primarily through the lens of their fanzine Temporary Hoarding), WHITE RIOT presents the arc of the leftist activist group, from their 1976 inception through the momentous Carnival Against Racism on April 30, 1978, when approximately 100,000 people came to Victoria Park in London. The folks who created Rock Against Racism (RAR) weren’t punks; they were pre-punk leftists. Soon, though, the RAR joined with the nascent punk scene through a sense of common rebel culture and anger with far-right politics, becoming a force to be reckoned with. The list of bands involved with the organization is staggering; among the bands showcased here is the criminally underrated and overlooked Alien Kuture, a punk band comprised of children of Asian immigrants. It’s through this kind of focus that WHITE RIOT sets itself apart; it includes incendiary footage (with amazingly mastered sound) of the Clash with Sham 69’s Jimmy Pursey at the Carnival Against Racism, but it spends far more time on small bands who operated on a local level. The film is also noteworthy for its clever visual style, which creates a film-as-fanzine aesthetic. WHITE RIOT captures the looseness of the punk aesthetic—the cut-and-paste, copy machine, imperfect beauty—and splashes it across the screen as if it were a can of paint. In a year that marred by the ugliness of the far-right raising its head, WHITE RIOT serves as a reminder and that the arts can be weaponized and that the revolution will always need a soundtrack. A protest film, a concert film, a historical documentary, and a call to action—WHITE RIOT is a film of 1978 and for now. (2020, 80 mins) [Raphael Jose Martinez]
LOCAL ONLINE SCREENINGS – Held Over/Still Screening/Return Engagements (Selected)
Abderrahmane Sissako's BAMAKO (Mali)
Available for rent through the Gene Siskel Film Center here
Similar to the work of Ousmane Sembène, Abderrahmane Sissako's BAMAKO is an audacious piece of political filmmaking that imagines a trial in which the plaintiff, African society, has charged the defendant, international financial institutions such as World Bank and the IMF, with the crimes of neocolonialism and the unjust exploitation of African peoples. Shot almost entirely in Sissako's childhood courtyard, the film is an intriguing blend of fiction and documentary. On the one hand, the scenario couldn't be more fantastical, however, the film features real Malian denizens voicing their outcries as well as professional lawyers who approach the proceedings as if they were part of an actual court case. As the trial progresses, the hum of everyday existence continues in the periphery: a marriage disintegrates, women dye cloth, a wedding takes place. This attention to marginalia has a humanizing effect, reminding the viewer that amidst all the weighty political rhetoric, individual lives carry on. One of BAMAKO's most surreal moments is a mini-film parody of the western genre titled "Death in Timbuktu" starring Danny Glover (one of the film's producers), which satirizes the dispensability of African life and the omnipresence of American influence. When the trial reaches its crescendo, Brechtian detachment gives way to an impassioned indictment of global capitalism and a vociferous demand for a guilty verdict. Despite being released in 2006, BAMAKO has a fresh, contemporary relevance for American viewers in the wake of the Occupy movements, which signaled an unprecedented First World disillusionment with major financial institutions. (2006, 115 min) [Harrison Sherrod]
Mathieu Kassovitz’s LA HAINE (France)
Available for rent through the Music Box Theatre here
“Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: So far so good… so far so good… How you fall doesn’t matter. It’s how you land.” The opening monologue in Mathieu Kassovitz’s LA HAINE sets a strong tone for what will unfold over the next 24 hours for three French teenagers in the wake of a destructive riot in the Paris suburbs that left one of their compatriots severely injured and hospitalized. Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui), and Hubert (Hubert Koundé) have varying sentiments about the police, ranging from utter disdain to pacifistic restraint, but are all united against the officers’ abuse of power that has frequently lead to authoritarian violence against the youths of the neighborhood. Kassovitz made the bold choice of shooting the film in black and white to stress the disparity between the citizens and the police, good and bad, and the morally gray areas that pervade the film. This color palette not only adds a crispness to the parts of the image shot in focus but creates a looming sense of foreboding to the people left in the out of focus areas, recalling a sort of fog of war like the clouds of tear gas shown during the film’s opening montage sequence of real riots that occurred in France during the 1980s and 90s. One of the most fascinating aspects to this film is the internal struggle each of the three principal characters face about who they really are and what they hope to be perceived as. “The World Is Yours” and an image of planet Earth are seen plastered on several billboards the characters travel past. This motif not only recalls Howard Hawks’ SCARFACE but also emboldens the trio’s more compulsive, and often volatile urges. The film’s use of violence and, sometimes more importantly, the threat of violence creates a sense of a powder keg ready to explode in any given scene. Again, the “so far so good” line comes to mind in these instances. Will this be the scene they finally land or will they continue to fall? LA HAINE broaches the familiar notion of youth in revolt but finds complexity within the characters’ internal dilemmas and their longing to bring about change in the world, whether it is altruistic or narcissistic. (1995, 98 min) [Kyle Cubr]
Alan Govenar’s MYTH OF A COLORBLIND FRANCE (US/Documentary)
Available for rent through the Gene Siskel Film Center here
The title of MYTH OF A COLORBLIND FRANCE is rather misleading. If you’re looking for an exposé of racism in France, that discussion takes up very little room in this film. A better title might have been “Black Americans in Paris,” as that’s the main focus of Alan Govenar’s edifying documentary about Black American expatriates that made their way to the City of Lights. He discusses how the incursion of Black soldiers into France during World War I set off something of a fad for all things American—especially African American. Govenar checks off the usual suspects—Josephine Baker, Richard Wright, James Baldwin—and spends a lot of time on the jazz luminaries who passed through Paris, particularly soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet. But he also provides snippets of information about other expats of note, such as writer Chester Himes and a slew of artists, including Beaufort Delaney, Lois Mailou Jones, and Augusta Savage. Scholars provide their talking-head assessments, poet James Emanuel recites some of his works, filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris discusses the ample space he found for his queer expression in Paris, and artist Barbara Chase-Riboud recounts her adventurous life and defends her convention-defying sculptures. Especially interesting is a segment on internationally celebrated artist Henry Ossawa Tanner, which includes some rare home movie footage. (2020, 86 min) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
Ric Burns’ OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE (US/Documentary)
Available for rent through the Music Box Theatre here
If you ever read the stunning 2004 essay "In the River of Consciousness" by beloved neurologist and author Oliver Sacks (later included his similarly titled 2017 book), you'll find he had a better understanding of film and filmmaking than Ric Burns, the director of this charming hagiography of Sacks. The film undercuts the life and work of Sacks with sloppy visual generalizations. Sacks' brilliant writing on migraines and vision is illustrated with all the conceptual complexity of an Excedrin commercial, and Sacks' harrowing drug-fueled youthful motorcycle trips might as well be out-takes from 90s syndicated TV show Renegade. But forget all that! Despite the standard-issue mainstream documentary trappings, it's a delight to be around the funny, warm, and brilliant Sacks for two hours. For those unfamiliar, it's a fine introduction to his life and his work; for Sacks fans, it's a pleasurable reminder of why you love him, and occasionally offers some new insights from his friends, family, and admirers. Sacks is shown as a gracious and sincere man with corny jokes and dirty stories. He is shown as a man who struggled with family trauma, and sociality-imposed and internalized homophobia throughout his life, the beautiful effectiveness of therapy (from professionals and friends), the great value of swimming naked, and the occasional drug-aided/addled career decision. While Sacks deserves and will hopefully get a better film than this one, it's still absolutely worth your time to spend an evening reflecting on his life. (2019, 114 min) [Josh B. Mabe]
Betsy West and Julie Cohen’s RBG (US/Documentary)
Available for rent through the Music Box Theatre here
Is there any figure whose opinions are more routinely ignored, discounted, or even ridiculed in our contemporary society than an old woman’s? And yet—even before 2018 would become a summer defined by grueling media attention on the Supreme Court—Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an exception, able to quietly command attention and reverence through every word she utters. The alluring mystery at the heart of the biography RBG is Ginsburg herself, as a representation of the increasingly rare, public figure still able to inspire thoughtful reflection and advocacy, against the tide of our culture’s worst instincts. This buoyant profile of Ginsburg lovingly emphasizes her significance in various career roles, first as a feminist icon (crediting her as the architect behind the ACLU’s strategy for the women’s movement in the 1970s), then as the Court’s most accomplished litigator, and finally—in modern, increasingly traditionalist years—as the Court’s most forceful and resolute dissenting voice. Although West and Cohen’s doc frequently takes on all the trappings of a glossy magazine profile rather than the incisive portrait surely deserved by one of the greatest intellects of our time, it nevertheless benefits immeasurably from the remarkable, rejuvenating presence of Ginsburg herself. The weirdness of our culture’s Internet celebritydom becomes a part of RBG’s story too, but compared with Ginsburg’s depth, this maddening new source of cultural power feels like an entirely false and estranging one. Still, in an age of inadvertent stardom, it’s comforting to have a figure like RBG to idolize. (2018, 98 min) [Tien-Tien Jong]
Jia Zhang-Ke's STILL LIFE (China)
Available for rent through the Gene Siskel Film Center here
The people of Fengjie scramble to salvage what they can as their surroundings are submerged by water displaced by the Three Gorges Dam; there're the sensations of walking across rubble, of soup-steam getting in your face, of cheap labor and unheated rooms. STILL LIFE is a poem and a survey by director Jia Zhang-Ke, his actors, cinematographer Yu Lik Wai, the 21st century, digital video, and China's landscapes. (Social landscapes as well as geographic ones / the architecture of interactions as much the architecture of bridges and the building-ghosts of razed cities / great spans of distance across gorges and between people seated side by side.) It is tactile, aromatic, romantic, simple and final. A document of China's break-neck growth that tells us more about the present than most films that would call themselves documentaries. It's a lunar expedition to a familiar place: a Neo-(Sur)Realist film written by world economics like Jia's THE WORLD and UNKNOWN PLEASURES, and a (modern) history lesson like his debut PLATFORM. The film has more in common with a photograph than the painting its title suggests, capturing an instant in a rapidly changing world. It stresses the passage of time to express a feeling for life. A focus on time brings a focus to life. (2006, 108 min) [Kalvin Henley/Ignatiy Vishnevetsky]
LOCAL ONLINE SCREENINGS – Also Screening/Streaming
Conversations at the Edge
The Conversations at the Edge series presents a livestreamed conversation with Swiss artist and filmmaker Ursula Biemann on Thursday at 7pm. RSVP here. A selection of four films by Biermann is streaming for free via the Gene Siskel Film Center from October 18-24 here.
Gallery 400 (UIC)
Natalie Bookchin’s 2016 video LONG STORY SHORT (45 min) is available through October 26 here.
Video Data Bank
VDB’s online platform presents local filmmaker Tirtza Even’s 2014 documentary NATURAL LIFE (77 min) here.
Renaissance Society (UofC)
The Renaissance Society presents two videos online in conjunction with their current show Nine Lives. Streaming here through November 15 are: Marwa Arsanios’ 2014 video HAVE YOU EVER KILLED A BEAR? OR BECOMING JAMILA (26 min) and Tamar Guimarães’ 2018 video O ENSAIO [THE REHEARSAL] (51 min).
Asian Pop-Up Cinema
Asian Pop-Up Cinema continues to present a series of drive-in screenings (through October 31) at the Davis Theater Drive-in at Lincoln Yards (1684 N. Throop St.). More information and ticket links here.
Facets Cinémathèque
Erika Cohn’s 2020 documentary BELLY OF THE BEAST (88 min) is available for streaming beginning this week. Check the Facets website for hold-over titles.
Gene Siskel Film Center
Check the Siskel website for hold-over titles.
Music Box Theatre
Pietro Marcello’s 2019 Italian film MARTIN EDEN (129 min) is available for streaming beginning this week. Check the Music Box website for hold-over titles.
Music Box of Horrors
The Music Box Theatre’s annual 24-hour horror film marathon is moving to the drive-in and spreading out over all of October, with at least one film each day. The full schedule and more information are here.
SUPPORT LOCAL THEATERS AND SERIES
As we wait for conditions to improve to allow theaters to reopen, consider various ways that you can help support independent film exhibitors in Chicago weather this difficult time. Memberships, gift cards, and/or merchandise are available from the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Music Box Theatre, and Facets. Donations can be made to non-profit venues and organizations like Chicago Filmmakers, the Chicago Film Society, South Side Projections, and many of the film festivals. Online streaming partnerships with distributors are making films available through the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Music Box Theatre, and Facets; and Facets also has a subscription-based streaming service, FacetsEdge, that includes many exclusive titles.
COVID-19 UPDATES
Most independent, alternative, arthouse, grassroots, DIY, and university-based venues and several festivals continue to have suspended operations, are closed, or have cancelled/postponed events until further notice. Below is the most recent information we have, which we will update as new information becomes available.
Note that venues/series marked with an asterisk (*) are currently presenting or plan to do regular or occasional “virtual” online screenings.
OPEN:
Music Box Theatre – The Music Box has reopened in a limited capacity, presenting physical, in-theater screenings and also continues to present online-only screenings*
CLOSED/POSTPONED/HIATUS:
Beverly Arts Center – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice
Block Cinema (Northwestern University) – Closed until furtuer notice (see above for “virtual” online screenings)
Chicago Film Society – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice
Chicago Filmmakers – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice*
Comfort Film (at Comfort Station) – Programming cancelled until further notice
Conversations at the Edge (at the Gene Siskel Film Center) – Will be presenting online discussions and screenings in October
Doc Films (University of Chicago) – Screenings cancelled until further notice
Facets Cinémathèque – Closed until further notice (see above for “virtual” online screenings)*
Film Studies Center (University of Chicago) – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice*
filmfront – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice
Gallery 400 (UIC) *
Gene Siskel Film Center – Closed until further notice (see above for “virtual” online screenings)*
The Nightingale – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice
The Park Ridge Classic Film Series (at the Park Ridge Public Library) – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice
FESTIVALS:
Rescheduled with new dates announced:
The Gene Siskel Film Center will present a delayed online edition of the Black Harvest Film Festival from November 6-30. Information will be available at the Siskel website here.
The Chicago Underground Film Festival will take place virtually from November 9 - 22 and will also include two nights of drive-in screenings on November 12 - 13. More information here.
Postponed with no announced plans yet:
The Cinepocalypse film festival (June) – Postponed with plans to reschedule at a future time
The Windy City Horrorama festival (April 24 - 26) – Cancelled; will possibly be rescheduled or reconfigured at a future date
The Chicago Critics Film Festival (May 1 - 7) – Postponed until further notice
CINE-LIST: October 16 - October 22, 2020
MANAGING EDITOR // Patrick Friel
ASSOCIATE EDITORS // Ben Sachs, Kathleen Sachs
CONTRIBUTORS // Cody Corrall, Kyle Cubr, Megan Fariello, Marilyn Ferdinand, Michael Frank, Kalvin Henley, Tien-Tien Jong, Jonathan Leithold-Patt, Josh B. Mabe, Raphael Jose Martinez, Scott Pfeiffer, Harrison Sherrod, Michael Glover Smith, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky