May 21, 2013
LA CAMIONETA
Directed by Mark Kendall
Not Rated | 71 min. | 2012 | U.S.A./Guatemala
Presented in English and Spanish with English subtitles
Daily, dozens of retired school buses travel from the United States to Guatemala, where they are resurrected as brightly-colored “camionetas” that transport people to work each day. Since 2006, almost 1,000 “camioneta” drivers have been murdered for not paying extortion money to the local gangs. LA CAMIONETA follows the journey of one bus and the five men whose lives become intertwined with its resurrection.
Official Selection – 2012 SXSW Film Festival; 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival
Series sponsored by the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation. Additional funding provided by eBay, the Salt Lake City Arts Council, the Utah Division of Arts & Museums and the National Endowment for the Arts
May 28, 2013
GOD LOVES UGANDA
Directed by Roger Ross Williams
Not Rated | 90 min. | 2013 | U.S.A.
**Director Roger Ross Williams in attendance for a post-film Q&A.
A powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to infuse African culture with values imported from America’s Christian Right. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting sexual immorality and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow biblical law.
Official Selection – 2013 Sundance Film Festival, 2013 Hot Docs Film Festival, 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival, 2013 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Series sponsored by the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation. Additional funding provided by eBay, the Salt Lake City Arts Council, the Utah Division of Arts & Museums and the National Endowment for the Arts
June 1, 2013
WILL
Directed by: Ellen Perry
105 min | 2011 | UK/Turkey
Recommended Ages: 9 and up
Eleven-year-old Will Brennan is Liverpool FC’s biggest fan. At his boys’ school in England, Will’s love and knowledge of The Beautiful Game even outshines his football-obsessed mates. But life is turned upside down when his long-absent father, Gareth, reappears with tickets to the 2005 Champions League Final in Istanbul.
But before the two can start anew, Gareth dies suddenly, impossibly — this time leaving Will forever. Searching for a sliver of meaning in a world that seems to have abandoned him, Will runs away to Turkey to honour his father’s memory and to be with his beloved Liverpool F.C.
En route, and needing help, Will befriends Alek, a former Bosnian football star who abandoned the game after a tragic event during his country’s civil war. Despite his initial reluctance, Alek finds himself inspired by Will’s heroic journey and agrees to take him to Istanbul. And thus this unlikely pair of underdogs takes to the road, battling fate and fortune in a desperate bid to prove to themselves that it’s never too late to dream.
June 4, 2013
TRASHED: No Place For Waste
Directed by Candida Brady
Not Rated | 97 min. | 2012 | U.S.A.
Narrated by and starring Academy Award-winning actor Jeremy Irons, this environmental documentary looks at the risks to the food chain and the environment through pollution of our air, land and sea by waste. The film reveals surprising truths about very immediate and potent dangers to our health. Visually and emotionally the film is both horrific and beautiful: an interplay of human interest and political wake-up call. But it ends on a message of hope: showing how the risks to our survival can easily be averted through sustainable approaches that provide far more employment than the current ‘waste industry.’
Official Selection – 2012 Festival de Cannes; Winner: Audience Award – 2012 Maui Film Festival; Winner: Special Jury Prize – 2012 Tokyo Film Festival; Official Selection at 7 other Film Festivals
Series sponsored by the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation. Additional funding provided by eBay, the Salt Lake City Arts Council, the Utah Division of Arts & Museums and the National Endowment for the Arts
June 5, 2013
THE SHORT GAME
Directed by Josh Greenbaum
Not Rated | 95 min. | 2013 | U.S.A.
Screens in English, Mandarin and French with English subtitles
**Director Josh Greenbaum and producer Chris Leggett will be in attendance for a post-film Q&A moderated by Doug Fabrizio, host of RadioWest.
THE SHORT GAME follows the lives of eight of the best 7-year old golfers in the world as they train for and compete in the World Championships of Junior Golf. The annual tournament hosts 1500 young golfers from 54 different countries. THE SHORT GAME presents a fascinating and often funny portrait of a group of very young athletes, their families, and the narrow-focused, peculiar and highly competitive junior golf subculture.
Official Selection – 2013 SXSW Film Festival
June 11, 2013
JAPAN’S KILLER QUAKE
Not Rated | 53 min. | 2011 | USA
**Post film discussion with University of Utah Research Associate Professor of Geology and Geophysics James Pechmann for a discussion of new understandings of the Tohoku earthquake and his research on earthquake hazards in Utah.
Filmed shortly after the devastating Tohoku earthquake of March 2011, this NOVA documentary examines the powerful geologic forces that unleashed the quake and how they brought Japan to the brink of a nuclear meltdown. Using exclusive footage and illuminating animations, the film follows the progress of the earthquake as it was generated under the Pacific Ocean, travelled throughout the Japanese mainland, and produced a destructive tsunami.
June 18, 2013
WHEN I WALK
Directed by Jason DaSilva
Not Rated | 85 min. | 2012 | U.S.A/Canada
**Director Jason DaSilva will participate in a post-film Q&A via Skype.
In 2006, the 25-year-old filmmaker Jason DaSilva was on a beach with his family when, suddenly, he fell down and couldn’t get back up. Doctors told him he had multiple sclerosis. Being a filmmaker, Jason picked up the camera, turned it on himself, and began filming the slow, difficult decline of his body and the miracles he encountered along the way. An emotional and inspirational documentary, When I Walk is an energizing film experience whose creative engine is its young filmmaker’s determination to live .
Official Selection – 2013 Sundance Film Festival; 2013 Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival
June 20, 2013
STRUCK BY LIGHTNING
Directed by Brian Dannelly
Not Rated | 90 min | 2012 | USA
This coming-of-age comedy-drama film written by and starring Chris Colfer is also based on his novel. After senior Carson Phillips is struck by lightning and killed in his high-school parking lot, he recounts the last few weeks of his life, including the way he blackmailed his classmates into contributing to his literary magazine. Featuring knock-out performances form Rebel Wilson, Allison Janey, Dermot Mulroney and Christina Hendricks.
June 25, 2013
HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE
Directed by Stephen Maing
Not Rated | 86 min. | 2012 | U.S.A.
Screens in Mandarin with English subtitles
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**Director Stephen Maing in attendance.
HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE follows the journey of two of China’s first citizen reporters as they travel the country – chronicling underreported news and social issues stories. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras these formerly average citizens develop skills as independent one-man news stations while learning to navigate China’s new social media landscape and evolving censorship regulations – all while avoiding the risk of political persecution.
Official Selection – 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, 2012 Hot Docs Film Festival; Winner – Best Documentary – 2012 Little Rock film Festival; Winner – Documentary Special Jury Prize – 2012 Independent Film Festival Boston; Winner – Best Cinematography – 2012 Woods Hole Film Festival
Series sponsored by the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation. Additional funding provided by eBay, the Salt Lake City Arts Council, the Utah Division of Arts & Museums and the National Endowment for the Arts
July 1, 2013
THE MALTESE FALCON
Directed by John Houston
Not Rated | 100 min | 1941 | USA
Movie starts at dusk
One of the best known of all noir films, John Huston’s adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett mystery novel features most of the genre’s trademark characters. Cynical private eye (Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade), conniving mystery woman (Sam’s latest client, played by Mary Astor), Weaselly stooge (Peter Lorre), and corpulent, sweaty bad guy, Sydney Greenstreet. They’re all there.
Still, as familiar as the story might seem on paper—Astor’s character gets Sam involved in murder and intrigue—there are more than enough twists and turns to keep this tale interesting. It doesn’t hurt that the cast all seems to be having fun with this material. There’s a reason why it’s considered one of the classics.
July 2, 2013
SIGN PAINTERS
Directed by Faythe Levine and Sam Macon
Not Rated | 90 min | 2013 | USA
Director Faythe Levine will be in attendance for a post film Q+A
There was a time, as recently as the 1980s, when storefronts, murals, banners, barn signs, billboards and even street signs were all hand-lettered with brush and paint. Today, the proliferation of computer-designed, die-cut vinyl lettering and inkjet printers has ushered a creeping sameness into our landscape. Fortunately, there is a growing trend to seek out traditional sign painters and a renaissance in the trade. SIGN PAINTERS is a history of the craft and features the stories of more than two dozen sign painters working in cities throughout the United States.
July 6, 2013
CHICKEN RUN
Directed by Nick Park and Peter Lord
Rated G | 84 min. | 2000 | U.S.A.
From the Academy Award-winning team behind the popular “Wallace and Gromit” shorts comes a feature-length animated adventure set at Tweedy’s chicken farm, where any chicken who doesn’t make her egg quota can meet a “fowl” fate. The action turns on the characters of Rocky (an American rooster) and Ginger (a British chicken) who, along with their fellow flock, are determined to break out from the sinister farm before they can be fried, filleted or fricasseed.
July 8, 2013
THE THIRD MAN
Directed by Carol Reed
Not Rated | 93 min | 1949 | UK
Movie starts at Dusk
Acclaimed novelist Graham Greene collaborated with director Carol Reed and actor Orson Welles on this suspenseful, post-World War II mystery-thriller (Greene is credited with writing the adaptation of his novel, though Reed and Welles both provided uncredited re-writes and contributions). The film follows a pulp writer (hmmm…) who tries to investigate the mysterious death of an old friend.
The Third Man also re-united Citizen Kane co-stars Joseph Cotton, who plays the seemingly clueless novelist Holly Martins, and Welles, who plays the enigmatic title character, opportunistic black marketer Harry Lime. A subtle but effective score (courtesy of Anton Karas) just makes the tension build.
July 9, 2013
FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE
Directed by Michelle Metivier
Not rated | 44 min. | 2005 | Canada
Post film discussion
Monster forest fires, big enough to be seen from space and hot enough to create their own weather, used to be a once-in-a-decade nightmare. But now, they’re an everyday summer reality across vast stretches of North America. Authorities in Canada and the United States are bracing for increasing infernos each fire season. This provocative film raises questions about conventional methods of fighting fire, and whether decades of suppressing fire have simply made matters worse.
July 11, 2013
127 HOURS
Directed by Danny Boyle
Rated R | 93 min | 2010 | USA
Salt Lake Tribune Film Critic Sean Means has been reviewing films for Utah audiences since July 1993. To celebrate his 20th Anniversary, we’ve asked him to curate a film that he loved and lead a post-screening discussion. Join us to celebrate his contribution to local film culture.
Easily the best movie made in Utah in my 20 years as movie critic at The Salt Lake Tribune. More than that, though, it’s a fascinating and absorbing survival drama, depicting Aron Ralston’s survival and dissecting how his go-for-broke life got him into that predicament in the first place. Credit director Danny Boyle for making a movie that’s surprisingly dynamic considering it’s about a guy literally stuck in the same spot. – Sean Means
July 15, 2013
VERTIGO
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Rated PG | 1958 | 128 min | USA
Movie starts at Dusk
The debate rages as to the true “noir-ness” of Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller, especially since it was shot and shown in color. But certainly in terms of its characters and subject matter, it qualifies as noir. A retired San Francisco detective, “Scottie” Ferguson (Jimmy Stewart), becomes obsessed with the woman he’s been hired to investigate (Kim Novak).
Vertigo is not only Hitchcock’s most colorful film; arguably, it’s his most creative one as well. From its use of set pieces, costuming, camera work and, as always, a terrific Bernard Herrman score, the film is an inarguable masterpiece. Along with Psycho and North by Northwest, it’s one of Hitchcock’s most fondly remembered features.
July 16, 2013
DR. ATOMIC
Directed by Peter Sellars
Not Rated | 190 min. | 2008 | USA
Film begins at 6:00 PM
Representing the culmination of nearly two decades of collaboration between composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars, this modern opera focuses on the J. Robert Oppenheimer experiments that led to the creation of the atomic bomb. Baritone Gerald Finley plays the physicist and soprano Jessica Rivera sings the role of his wife in this 2007 production that features the Netherlands Opera Chorus and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.
Presented in partnership with UCANN and the Utah Symphony/Utah Opera
July 17, 2013
THE INSTITUTE
Directed by Spencer McCall
Not Rated | 91 min | 2012 | USA
**Director Spencer McCall will participate in a post-film discussion moderated by Doug Fabrizio, host of KUER’s RadioWest
The Insitute follows the experiences of participants in a San Francisco-based phenomenon, where cryptic narratives and real worlds collide to produce unforeseen and often unsettling consequences. This fascinating film takes the viewer on a journey into a secret underground organization teeming just beneath the surface of
everyday life.
Official Selection – 2012 Mill Valley Film Festival; 2013 Slamdance Film Festival; 2013 True/False Film Festival
