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
Alfonso Cuarón’s CHILDREN OF MEN (US/UK Revival)
Music Box Theatre - Check Venue website for showtimes
Rarely is a movie at once upsetting and invigorating, yet Alfonso Cuarón’s CHILDREN OF MEN manages to embrace that paradox for pretty much its entire running time. The film imagines a dystopian near-future where no children have been born for 18 years. Humanity is in its death throes, and late capitalism has entered a hideous, extreme state, with pockets of extreme wealth surrounded by abject misery all over the world. The planet on display is all the more horrifying for looking so similar to the one we already inhabit, the filmmakers exaggerating, but only just so, present-day images of inequality, environmental devastation, and social unrest. (Slavoj Zizek has provocatively described the movie as a sequel to Cuarón’s Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN in its skeptical portrait of class relations.) It’s also a fully realized world, designed in such remarkable detail that one gets a sense of what life is like for people across different social classes and in most areas of experience. The innovation doesn’t stop there. Throughout CHILDREN OF MEN Cuarón and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki execute extraordinary mobile long-takes that cover multiple complicated actions and narrative developments; the music selections are thoughtful and jarring; and Michael Caine delivers one of his best latter-day performances as a dope-smoking political cartoonist who serves as one of the movie’s few figures of sanity. All told, it’s of the supreme achievements of studio filmmaking in the first decade of the 21st century. (2006, 109 min, 35mm) [Ben Sachs]
James McTeigue’s V FOR VENDETTA (US Revival)
Music Box Theatre - Check Venue website for showtimes
It was inevitable that with the rise of right-wing authoritarian forces in the United States and other parts of the word, V FOR VENDETTA would rear its Resistance-loving head again. Based upon a British graphic novel and serialization that arose during Britain’s draconian Thatcher era, V FOR VENDETTA resurrects the spirit of Guy Fawkes, who, in 1605, sought to restore England’s Catholic monarchy by blowing up Parliament and whose failure is commemorated every Nov. 5 with bonfires and fireworks that celebrate the monarch’s and the government’s survival. Fawkes is the model and persona taken up by V (Hugo Weaving), a Zorro-like man who rescues Evey (Natalie Portman) from a dark alley where she is being accosted by several government security agents and escapes with her to a roof opposite the Old Bailey, Britain’s central criminal courthouse. By coincidence, the rescue occurs on Nov. 5, and Evey is unlucky enough to be seen on the roof with V when he launches his rebellion against Britain’s brutal police state by blowing up the courthouse. V and Evey become the focus of an intense search ordered by supreme dictator Adam Sutler (John Hurt) and led by Detective Finch (Stephen Rea), an intelligent cop who comes to have doubts about his assignment. The machinations of government propaganda, militarized law enforcement, and omnipresent surveillance will all resonate as much today as they did in 2005, when the U.S. was undergoing its own control-state transformation following the 9/11 terrorist attack and passage of the Patriot Act. Despite the film’s political throughline, a personal vendetta is at the heart of V’s crusade, which puts the character squarely in the grand tradition of many crusading comic-book avatars that cross the spectrum of good and evil, from Batman to Lex Luthor. The entire creative team on V FOR VENDETTA are operating at the top of their game. The literate, well-constructed script by Lilly and Lana Wachowski rarely misses, James McTeigue offers evocative settings and mainly avoids cliché, and the cinematography of Adrian Biddle creates some gorgeous visuals that borrow from noir while retaining a sumptuous, modern veneer that contrasts the craftsmanship of the past with the fascist monumentality of the imagined future. Most especially, the all-star cast really sells this tale, with special kudos to Portman, Rea, and Roger Allam as a Sean Hannity-style TV propagandist. Hats off to casting director Lucinda Syson for her clever choice of Hurt to play the polar opposite of his put-upon everyman in Michael Radford’s 1984 (1984). (2005, 132 min, DCP Digital) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
---
A 13-minute prerecorded conversation with director James McTeigue and co-writer/producer Lana Wachowski screens after the film.
Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez’s THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (US Revival)
Music Box Theatre (outdoor garden screening; very limited seating) – Friday and Saturday, 7pm
Twenty years on there is no question that THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT has entered the pantheon of horror films. It’s a generational watershed film: for Millennials (and some Gen Xers) it has become the equivalent of the Baby Boomer’s THE EXORCIST in terms of being, debatably, the scariest movie ever made. Its release in 1999 occasioned a haze of guerrilla marketing, misinformation, and outright lying, but the publicity worked: the film made $250 million on a budget of under $1 million. To call it a cultural phenomenon would be an understatement. There is modern horror cinema before THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and after; it led the way for an inundation of “found footage” or “mondo” style horror/exploitation film. The plot and premise are incredibly simple: in 1994 three filmmakers set out to make a documentary about the Blair Witch, a legendary local boogeyman that supposedly lives in the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland. During the filmmaking process things go from strange to terrifyingly deadly as the filmmakers find odd stick figures hanging from trees and cairns lying about. As the nights go on, they find themselves terrorized in their tents by an unseen force. Eventually a member of the crew, Josh, has a breakdown after realizing they’ve been walking in circles and disappears. The following day pieces of blood-soaked clothes, are found. As night falls, the remaining two hear Josh’s screams and following them into the darkness. An appropriately horrifying outcome results. What made, and makes, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT such an interesting film is that the entire movie is allegedly put together from the film that this film crew shot before disappearing. The use of both 16mm film and Hi8 video adds to the feeling of authenticity and amateurism of the “found” footage; it’s very easy to believe that the unnerved and distressing confessions and outbursts that the characters make are real. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is a film that could never be made again. It came out at a time when the nascent internet was utilized by the only the most-savvy and the 1.0 bubble had yet to pop. It was easy to create a fake website for the missing filmmakers, send the guerrilla marketing crew around the country to put up fake flyers for the missing filmmakers (something they did at the video store I was working at in the suburbs of Chicago) and trick people into seeing what was, if taken at face value, a supernatural snuff film through the strength of media manipulation. In the IMDB, Twitter, and Reddit driven film culture of today, such tactics would never fly. The closest thing we’ve seen to THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was this year’s MURDER DEATH KOREA TOWN, a film far more directly indebted to BLAIR WITCH than any other found footage film—proof that more than two decades later BLAIR WITCH is still the gold standard for found footage horror. You might find it to be the scariest movie ever made, you might not. But at a brisk 81 minutes, you have nothing to lose—except perhaps the map that can lead you out of the woods. (1999, 81 min, Digital Projection) [Raphael Jose Martinez]
---
Also at the Music Box this week: Tim Burton's 1993 animated film THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (76 min, Digital Projection) is on Friday-Sunday at 1pm; Panos Cosmatos’ 2018 film MANDY (121 min, DCP Digital) is on Saturday at 6:45pm; and Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s 2020 film SYNCHRONIC (102 min, DCP Digital) continues.
---
More info on the in-person Music Box screenings (including COVID policies) at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
LOCAL ONLINE SCREENINGS – New Reviews
Chasing Votes, Chasing Shadows (US/Documentary)
Available with suggested donation through Chicago Filmmakers through Monday here
Readers of Cine-File likely know Bill Stamets as a long-time local film critic, teacher, and photojournalist. But he's a maker of damn fine nimble and charming films to boot. Working largely in the Super-8 format, Stamets has created all sorts of films, from the low-key personal and poetic to the large-scale political and public. He describes his work like this: "Since 1975 I have been documenting a miscellany of civic occasions where Americans make sense of power..." "...when asked to explain what I'm doing I sometimes say I'm a news artist. As a freelance photojournalist I participate in the everyday rite of newsmaking. En route, though, I commit little acts of documentary on the campaign trail. My take is an ironic ethnography of politics and the press." Chuck Kleinhans expands on Stamets' work: "Beyond the simple recording function typical of traditional ethnographic filmmaking, Stamets investigates and interprets with the camera, and through editing he shapes our understanding of contemporary urban rituals. The roles of journalist and ethnographer combine with the experimental filmmaker who uses film as a medium for personal expression. Stamets makes film essays which use unorthodox techniques to further the filmmaker's statement. While not eschewing the communicative function and responsibility of film, Stamets clearly is not bound by the conventional 'objective' norms of most journalism and anthropology." This program includes a sampling of Stamets’ political work throughout the 1980s and 90s, and includes one very brief and delightful poetic film to wrap things up: IOWA AND ITS PRESIDENTS (1988), PRESIDENTIAL APPEARANCES I AND II (1988), PRIMARY VISIBILITY (1996, DVCam), and A GIRL CHASED THE SHADOW OF A WING OF A 727 (1994). Also screening in this program is Peter Kuttner's incisive CAUSE WITHOUT A REBEL (1965), which was a student film damning his fellow Northwestern classmates for their political apathy. (1965-96, approx. 79 min. total) [Josh B. Mabe]
---
Co-presented by Chicago Filmmakers, Media Burn Archive, and Chicago Film Archives
---
A live Q&A will stream Monday at 7pm, moderated by local documentary filmmaker Joe Winston.
Chicago Home Movie Day (Special Event)
There’s something inherently spooky about strangers' home movies (in a good way, of course). They contain the ghostly images of people unknown to us, who we’ll likely never know, but who exist as shadowy specters in the frame. The second all-online program of Chicago Home Movie Day, curated by the Chicago Film Archives, is a special Halloween edition, adding another layer of eeriness to the already shadowy stuff that sometimes are home movies. Much of this program is either explicitly about Halloween or else adjacent to it. Various segments show people in costume participating in a number of activities: “Halloween Hijinx 1960,” shot by Robert J. Conlin and housed in the William O'Farrell collection (the Archives’ so-called “orphan” collection), features a Halloween party at what appears to be a bar, focusing on the costumes in which people arrive, while an excerpt from "Halloween 77 Sarah, Amy, Todd and Friends" (1977), from the Tom Palazzolo collection, depicts a wholesome Halloween gathering in which adorable little kids and their families go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. More horrifyingly, the program features several DIY horror movies—a genre I didn’t know I needed to explore until now—made by enterprising youngsters. Three (I'M NOT ALONE [1979], THE BIG GREEN HOUSE ON THE CORNER [1982], and SOMEONE IS IN MY HOUSE! [1980]), were made by brothers Mike and Bill Armstrong, who appear before each to discuss their artistic choices. The films are crude and delightful, teeming with cheapo gore and youthful imagination. Chicago Film Archives Transfer Technician Justin Dean composed the soundtracks, thrumming scores perfectly attuned to the entrancingly simplistic plots. Another in this category is Janice Sutton’s UNKNOWN BUT KNOWN (1972), which features original music by Matt Schwarz; a title card specifies that it’s also called WE KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO BABY JANE. Chills. It’s about a girl who’s stalked by a Bonnie Braids baby doll, and it’s duly spine-tingling, complete with a gratuitously bleak ending. Along these uncanny lines, but less explicitly scary, is DANLEY’S BIOGRAPHY (1931), narrated via title cards from the perspective of a baby. To that end, it’s likewise adorable and unnerving. THE BLACK WIDOW (1947), made by Amateur Cinema League members Rosalie Vandandaique and Carl D. Frazier, is one of the most polished of the bunch; it presents a longer, more fleshed-out narrative, centering on an old house supposedly haunted by a ‘black widow’ serial killer. One of my favorites of the home-movie variety comes courtesy of the Chicago Film Society: THE SPIDER AND THE FLY (1938), shot by Harry and Lill Fulscher. An introductory title card elaborates on the specialness of this particular film. “[It’s] an early example of a home movie with synchronized sound,” it reads. “Picture and sound were recorded simultaneously on a single strip of 16mm film with the RCA Sound Camera, the first of its kind available to amateurs.” Toward the beginning, Harry introduces the first part of the movie, which was shot in September and October 1938, saying, “I present a small bit of insect life, which exists right in your backyard.” Aptly, this applies to real insect life behind the Fulscher’s house and also to the philosophy of home movies in general. In the first part we see Harry, Lill, their son, and Harry’s father at their home on Labor Day and then at the Riverview Amusement Park; in the second half, it becomes a Halloween fable in which Harry, dressed up as various spooky characters, assesses whether or not his son has been good or bad. Another of my favorite segments includes recent home movies shot by local archivists, projectionists, filmmakers, and Chicago Film Archives employees and volunteers Justin Dean, Olivia Babler, Cameron Worden and Jiayi Chen, and Rebecca Lyon (2017-19), edited by and featuring commentary from Dean. The people involved are swell, and this showcases the ways in which home movies—shot on film—are still worthwhile as miniature paeans to life’s joys. The segment will make you wistful for time spent with friends and also thankful that ephemera like this has been preserved. Lastly, I must also mention "Cats" (1980), from the JoAnn Elam collection, because what is Halloween without them? This program includes another contribution from the Japanese American Service Committee, as well as other films from the Chicago Film Archives and personal collections. (1931-82, 120 min total) [Kathleen Sachs]
Federico Fellini’s LA STRADA (Italy)
Available for rent through the Music Box Theatre here
Featuring one of the most expressively iconic performances in cinema history, LA STRADA is a visually lyrical character study. Director Federico Fellini’s approach to the film straddles the neorealism style of post-World War II Italian cinema and his later, more surrealist works like LA DOLCE VITA (1960) and 8 ½ (1963). LA STRADA tells the story of Gelsomina (the remarkable Giulietta Masina), a childlike young woman who’s purchased from her mother by the cruel Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), a traveling strongman performer. He trains her to entertain crowds as a clown and play music as he performs his act. Despite Gelsomina’s eagerness to learn and to please, Zampanò is an abusive caretaker. The film follows their travels on the road, as they eventually join up with a circus that includes high-wire performer, Il Matto (Richard Baseheart), who relentlessly teases Zampanò. The two men’s rivalry leads to tragedy for the sensitive Gelsomina. LA STRADA combines a sense of fantasy—with the circus setting and musical performances—with the harsh reality that Gelsomina is forced to navigate. It is heartbreaking to watch her enthusiasm waver as she faces the challenges of life on the road with Zampanò. The cinematography is impressively affecting throughout, concentrating on emotional beats rather than story, and supporting the outstanding performances; THE GODFATHER composer Nino Rota adds to this with his moving score. LA STRADA, however, most fully belongs to Giulietta Masina whose face, both in and out of clown makeup, is incredibly expressive, bringing poignancy to every scene. She is extraordinary to watch, and it is near impossible not to be moved by her performance. (1954, 108 min) [Megan Fariello]
What does it mean to come from somewhere? - Films by Fox Maxy (US/Experimental)
Available through Block Cinema - starting at 7pm on Thursday, November 5, the films will be available to view on Block's Vimeo page for a 24-hour period; RSVP here
In a recent interview with Hyperallergic, Ipai Kumeyaay and Payómkawichum filmmaker Fox Maxy said, “I try my hardest to recognize that filmmaking is just like every other aspect of being alive.” I read this before watching the three videos in the program, and it stuck with me throughout. This is an apt characterization of the stream-of-consciousness mode of filmmaking in which the California-based Maxy is working; it flows like a person’s thoughts and is enigmatic to the degree that no one ever truly knows what’s in the mind of another. Maxy’s cultural and political aims, however, are clear. An Indigenous artist, Maxy punctures the lived experiences of his people and epitomize the problems facing Native societies at large. There’s immense joy in these works as well, and this reflects the inner duality of oppressed people as they experience jubilance amidst persecution. CALIFORNIA GIRLS (2018, 8 min) profiles Chemehuevi multi-media artist Tiffany Adams, whose work includes performance art, Native American regalia, and paintings of Indigenous women with customary facial tattoos. Adams touches on the concept of knowledge sharing among Native people in California. Maxy explores something similar in SAN DIEGO (2020, 30 min), named for where he’s from, as it pertains to the ongoing pandemic. A description of the work states that “[t]he content is based on a question of how to keep our communities safe,” which applies not just to the actual virus, but to the insidious epidemic of colonialism. Mixed with the seemingly random, mind-map-like footage are Facebook posts from during the pandemic, in which artists, organizations, and regular people put forth their skills, hobbies, and good thoughts to continue fostering community in quarantine. In this way, the work is about a community’s spiritual safety as much as its physical safety, both of which are integral to the survival of Indigenous culture. Maxy’s work is especially thrilling in his use of contemporary and traditional music in tandem with various media, from diaristic footage shot on lo-fi recording devices and iPhones to archival, news, and interview footage. The editing is rhythmic, a song of the mind to which only Maxy knows the words. The work is often pure sensory delectation, an amalgam of media nimbly woven together to create a singular tapestry. Much of it is political in nature, reflecting the way in which such considerations are inextricably melded with one’s personal life. Similarly, but again singularly, MAAT MEANS LAND (2020, 30 min) asks, “What does it mean to come from somewhere?” It’s not a city symphony but rather a lament of the land. At the center of this work—which incorporates the ecstatic randomness of the previous film—is identity and place, the latter being a crucial concern to Indigenous peoples. Maxy sporadically revisits footage of prisoners fighting forest fires in California and confrontations with border guards, both exhibiting ways in which the land has been weaponized by colonizers. He eschews provincial modes of thought through his filmmaking, utilizing unfettered technique to disparage limiting conceptions. “It’s my time on this planet so I’ll do what I must,” said Maxy in the Hyperallergic interview. That sense of determination to create in such a way that’s wholly particular is on display in this work; Maxy temporarily invites us to spend this time with him but also asks that we consider the implications of our spectatorship. The end credits sequences for the latter two films include information about the people who appear, including social media handles where their respective creative and business endeavors can be sought. In SAN DIEGO text appears that proclaims, “ur on stolen land”; in MAAT MEANS LAND, “respect indigenous knowledge as truth.” In each, “support Native voices,” which turns into “$upport Native voices.” Maxy extends the subject matter of his art outside its confines, asking viewers to do the same by ingratiating these truths into their realities. [Kathleen Sachs]
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]
Steve James’ CITY SO REAL (US/Documentary)
Available on Hulu (subscription required; free trial available)
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]
Tyler Taormina’s HAM ON RYE (US)
Available to rent through Facets Cinémathèque here
HAM ON RYE, a suburban coming-of-age comedy-drama with a large ensemble cast, boldly stands out from the crowded landscape of recent American indies for its genuine narrative weirdness and singular aesthetic ambition. What seemingly begins as an end-of-high-school nostalgia trip, in the vein of AMERICAN GRAFFITI and DAZED IN CONFUSED, soon gives way to something far darker and more subversive: The movie's first half features deft cross-cutting between short, clever scenes in which dozens of teenage characters are getting dressed and prepping for a big, prom-like event, an annual rite-of-passage where kids in late adolescence are expected to congregate at a popular local delicatessen in the unnamed town where the film is set, and ultimately pair off into couples for a celebratory dance. But, as in the early work of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, HAM ON RYE proves to be something of a narrative shapeshifter—the warmth and humor of the early daylight scenes are soon displaced by a second half imbued with a potent, Hopper-esque sense of nocturnal melancholy. Most of the characters from the first half disappear at the dusky half-way mark—some quite literally into thin air—only to be replaced by a new cast of more disaffected-seeming young adults. One character, Haley (Haley Bodell), who pointedly flees from the deli before the dance begins, bridges the film's two halves but it is unclear how much time elapses in between; the second half could either be taking place the same night as the first half or a couple of years later, an ambiguity that lends the movie much of its haunting and dreamlike power. What does it all mean? I think that Taormina, a first-time feature filmmaker but hardcore cinephile who is also a talented musician, intends for the narrative to function as a kind of complex metaphor for the notion of "growing up" in general and, more specifically, the way some people leave their hometowns in an attempt to fulfill ambitious destinies while others choose to sadly remain behind. But see it and decide for yourself: independent American cinema of this uncommonly poetic caliber deserves to be seen and discussed far and wide. (2019, 85 min) [Michael Glover Smith]
William Greaves’ NATIONTIME (US/Documentary)
Available to rent through Facets Cinémathèque here
At a time when Black Lives Matter has become a vital rallying cry for change the world over, William Greaves’ NATIONTIME (sometimes listed as NATIONTIME—GARY) asserts that Black lives are also a source of political and social change. The film documents the National Black Political Convention of 1972, when Black Americans of all walks of life convened in Gary, Indiana, to draft a platform of national unity. There are no scenes of the break-out sessions that led to the actual drafting; rather, Greaves focuses on the speeches delivered to the Convention as a whole. The opening remarks, delivered by Rev. Jesse Jackson, comprise the film’s longest and most electric sequence, as Jackson stresses the need for Black unity and a proportionally accurate representation of Black people in U.S. government and public offices. (Other prominent speakers include Dick Gregory and Imamu Amiri Baraka.) Best known today for the experimental feature SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE (1968), Greaves matches Jackson’s excitement with such cinematic techniques as dynamic editing, sudden zooms, and immersive handheld camerawork. NATIONTIME exudes energy from the opening moments, apropos to the historic breakthrough of the Convention; but more importantly, it conveys the immense potential that Black political groups possess, whether through voting or direct social action. Haunting the Convention are the shocking tragedies of the 1960s (Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz, widows of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, respectively, are both key speakers), and the film suggests that the call for Black political unity in the early 1970s grew, in part, out of a sense of dissolution following the murders and arrests of too many prominent Black leaders. The Convention didn’t produce a viable platform, since the delegations could not agree on all parts of the document, yet NATIONTIME doesn’t end in a sense of failure. Indeed, a spirit of triumph prevails. Perhaps the Convention’s failure to reach consensus after a few days speaks to the remarkable richness and diversity within the Black American community, which is something worth celebrating. (1972, 80 min) [Ben Sachs]
Jia Zhang-Ke's STILL LIFE (China)
Available to 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
Block Cinema (Northwestern University)
Liberating History - Inherited Memory: Blood Runs Thicker Than Water (Habibi Collective Shorts II), the second of two shorts programs curated by Róisín Tapponi, is on Thursday at 7pm. Screening are: BROTHERHOOD (Meryam Joobeur, 2018, 25 min), AZIZA (Soudade Kaadan, 2019, 13 min), A JOURNEY (Lamia Joreige, 2006, 40 min), and LIKE A STRING OF BEADS (Inas Halabi, 2019, 26 min). More info and registration link here.
Conversations at the Edge
The Conversations at the Edge series has rescheduled the Alison O'Daniel - Artist Talk and Conversation from a few weeks ago; the recorded talk is available beginning on Friday at 2pm and will be online through December 20 here. O'Daniel's ongoing project THE TUBA THIEVES (2013-continuing, 45 min) is also returning for free through November 2 at the same link (scroll down).
Video Data Bank
VDB presents Antoni Muntadas and Marshall Reese’s 2020 compilation work POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT X 1952-2020 (2020, 98 min) through Wednesday here.
Mostra Brazilian Film Festival Chicago
Mostra moves online this year, from November 4-14. Full schedule and more info 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
Check the Facets website for hold-over titles.
Gene Siskel Film Center
Check the Siskel website for hold-over titles.
Music Box Theatre
Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s 2020 Spanish film MADRE (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.
ADDITIONAL ONLINE SCREENINGS
King Hu’s LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN (Taiwan)
Streams with a subscription to MUBI or MUBI on Amazon Prime Video, for rent on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube or Apple TV, and for free on Kanopy through participating libraries with your library card
In ancient China, Qingyun Ho (Shih Chun), a scholar who has failed his civil service exam, makes a living as an itinerant copyist. He is hired by a high Buddhist monk to copy a recently translated Indian sutra that is said to free trapped spirits of the dead, and is given the address of a remote compound where he can work quickly and quietly to fulfill the urgent commission. After a seemingly endless trek to the location, Ho is greeted by Mr. Tsui (Tung Lin), who shows him around the abandoned compound of General Han (Yueh Sun) and tells him of the great battles Han fought and eventually lost, turning the area into a no man’s land. Soon, however, Ho comes under the sway of Madame Wang (Rainbow Hsu) and her daughter, Melody (Hsu Feng), a powerful demon with designs on the sutra. Ho’s quiet retreat turns into a struggle for survival, as ghosts and demons battle against a Taoist priest (Chen Hui-lou) and a lama (Ng Ming-choi) for possession of the sutra. Fans of director King Hu’s wuxia films may be a bit disappointed by the lack of martial artistry in LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN, but Hu’s assured storytelling offers something more substantial. The script is based on a fable set in the 11th-century Sung Dynasty and Pu Songling’s classic 18th-century collection Stories from a Chinese Studio, a formal departure Hu made when his later films performed poorly at the box office. (Ho’s failure as a scholar and his comment about his copyist trade, “It’s a living,” may reflect Hu’s personal feelings.) The expansiveness of this film, restored in 2018 to its original length, allows Hu to provide his characters with backstories that are both cruel and pitiable, revealing the human drama beneath the supernatural machinations. Music plays a major role in the film, not only as a mood-setter for romantic interludes between Ho and the lovely flutist Cloud (Sylvia Chang), but also as the weapon used by Melody and the lama as they struggle over the sutra. Hu received incentives from the South Korean government to shoot in their country, and he really gave them their money’s worth. Majestic forests, towering cataracts of water, and breathtaking sunsets give scope to the story. Hu’s footage of animals is a bit on the nose in reflecting plot, but it is the very use of cinematic conventions that marks LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN not as a philosophical meditation, but rather as a wholly immersive entertainment. The ending may seem like a cheat, but I see it as a wonderful testament to the human imagination. (1979, 192 min) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s THE LURE (Poland)
Available free on Kanopy through participating libraries with your library card and streaming on the Criterion Channel (with subscription)
As with most fairy tales, it is easy to go back to the source material to envision a more terrifying adaptation than the Disney-fied ones to which we’ve become accustomed. THE LURE does just that with Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid, drawing on the original tale’s darkness and turning sweet mermaids into vampiric sirens. Set in the 1980s in the colorful club-scene of Warsaw, this isn’t just a horror, but a full-blown musical. Two mermaid sisters, Golden (Michalina Olszańska) and Silver (Marta Mazurek) join up with a rock band, eventually starting their own singing act. It gets messy, however, when Silver falls for the bass player and, oh yes, the sisters have a thirst for blood. It is as bizarre as it sounds, as the film contains scenes like a musical number set at a shopping mall but also obsessive shots of the sisters’ tails, which are not beautiful emerald fins, but fleshy, realistic fish appendages. The film also doesn’t shy away from engaging directly with the constant sexual objectification the young mermaids face as they become a part of the club scene. Olszańska and Mazurek expertly navigate the emotional themes of this dark coming-of-age story, primarily through their singing. It doesn’t hurt, either, that some of the musical performances featured throughout are genuinely great. Director Agnieszka Smoczyńska marries outwardly disjointed styles together seamlessly; the whole film is an ingenious work of imagination, that leans into both the delight of an 80s mermaid club act, and the melancholy reality of life beyond the safety of the water, especially referencing the chilling tragedy of Anderson’s original story. THE LURE would make a fantastic double-feature with Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 cult-classic HOUSE—both genre-distorting horrors about adolescence, bursting with unabashed girlish-whimsy while still delivering on the terror. (2015, 92 min) [Megan Fariello]
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 30 - November 30, 2020
MANAGING EDITOR // Patrick Friel
ASSOCIATE EDITORS // Ben Sachs, Kathleen Sachs
CONTRIBUTORS // Cody Corrall, Megan Fariello, Marilyn Ferdinand, Kalvin Henley, Josh B. Mabe, Raphael Jose Martinez, Harrison Sherrod, Michael Glover Smith, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky