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Author Archive | Alex Kamody

ReAct to Film Screening, November 3rd: THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY

Watch Trailer Director: Brian Knappenberger
Writer(s): Brian Knappenberger
Cast: Aaron Swartz, Tim Berners-Lee, and Cindy Cohn

The story of programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz. From Swartz’s help in the development of the basic internet protocol RSS to his co-founding of Reddit, his fingerprints are all over the internet. But it was Swartz’s groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing combined with his aggressive approach to information access that ensnared him in a two year legal nightmare. It was a battle that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26. Aaron’s story touched a nerve with people far beyond the online communities in which he was a celebrity. This film is a personal story about what we lose when we are tone deaf about technology and its relationship to our civil liberties.

“A moving documentary that will leave you heartsick” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

“A devastating meditation on what can happen when a prescient thinker challenges corporate interests and the power of the state.” – Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

This is a FREE one night only screening sponsored by ReAct to Film.

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Running Time: 105 Minutes105 MIN
R Rated

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Shield and Spear: ONE NIGHT ONLY – Friday, October 31st

Watch Trailer Director: Petter Ringbom
Writer(s): Petter Ringbom
Cast: Francois van Coke, Charl Blignaut, and Zanele Muholi

An artist paints a caricature of South African president Jacob Zuma that provokes a lawsuit, death threats and a massive street protest. Around this incident, “Shield and Spear” explores a constellation of stories about identity, art, race, and freedom of expression in South Africa, twenty years into democracy.

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Running Time: 89 Minutes89 MIN

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Eraserhead: Let’s Do Lynch

Watch Trailer Director: David Lynch
Writer(s): David Lynch
Cast: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph

This surreal nightmare examines male paranoia. Our hero and title character, Henry, faces a number of horrifying obstacles in meeting someone of the opposite sex, meeting her parents, and procreating. Produced during a one-and-a-half-year period while director David Lynch was a student at the American Film Institute, the film launched him as a major new talent admired by cinephiles and filmmakers all over the world. It stands today as a milestone in personal, independent filmmaking.

The Athena Cinema presents “Let’s Do Lynch”, eight weeks of feature films by David Lynch. All shows start at 7:00 p.m. Admission is $6.50.

9/7 &8: Elephant Man
9/14 & 15: Dune
9/21 & 22: Blue Velvet
9/28 & 29: Wild At Heart
10/5&6: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
10/12 & 13: Lost Highway
10/19 & 20: Mulholland Drive
10/26 & 27: Eraserhead

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Running Time: 89 min89 MIN
Rating: UR

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Tusk: Last Night Thursday, November 6th

Watch Trailer Director: Kevin Smith
Writer(s): Kevin Smith
Cast: Justin Long, Michael Parks, and Haley Joel Osment

An irreverent American podcaster interviews a Canadian adventurer whose wild tale of survival at sea masks sinister intentions in this twisted horror comedy from writer/director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Red State).

When podcaster Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) goes missing in the backwoods of Manitoba while interviewing a mysterious seafarer named Howard Howe (Michael Parks), his best friend Teddy (The Sixth Sense‘s Haley Joel Osment) and girlfriend Allison team with an ex-cop to look for him.

“Smith has delivered a left-field surprise that ranks among his very best work” – Scott Foundas, Variety

“has a genuinely haunting quality” – Clark Collins, Entertainment Weekly

“If Kevin Smith was stoned when he thought up his excellent walrusian nightmare, then marijuana is the best creative medicine.” – Brad Wheeler, Globe and Mail

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Running Time: 102 Minutes102 MIN
R Rated

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Dear White People: Last Day Thursday, December 4th

Watch Trailer Director: Justin Simien
Writer(s): Justin Simien
Cast: Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Kyle Gallner

Winner of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent, Dear White People is a sly, provocative satire of race relations in the age of Obama. Writer/director Justin Simien follows a group of African American students as they navigate campus life and racial politics at a predominantly white college in a sharp and funny feature film debut that earned him a spot on Variety’s annual “10 Directors to Watch.” When Dear White People screened at MOMA’s prestigious New Directors/New Films, the New York Times’ A.O. Scott wrote, “Seeming to draw equal measures of inspiration from Whit Stillman and Spike Lee, but with his own tart, elegant sensibility very much in control, Mr. Simien evokes familiar campus stereotypes only to smash them and rearrange the pieces.”

The unexpected election of activist Samantha White (Tessa Thompson) as head of a traditionally black residence hall sets up a college campus culture war that challenges conventional notions of what it means to be black. While Sam leverages her notoriety as host of the provocative and polarizing radio show “Dear White People” to try to prevent the college from diversifying Armstrong Parker House, outgoing head-of-house Troy Fairbanks (Brandon P. Bell), son of the university’s dean (Dennis Haysbert), defies his father’s lofty expectations by applying to join the staff of Pastiche, the college’s influential humor magazine. Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams), an Afro-sporting sci-fi geek, is recruited by the otherwise all-white student newspaper to go undercover and write about black culture—a subject he knows little about—while the aggressively assimilated Coco Conners (Teyonah Parris) tries to use the controversy on campus to carve out a career in reality TV.

But no one at Winchester University is prepared for Pastiche’s outrageous, ill-conceived annual Halloween party, with its “unleash your inner Negro” theme throwing oil on an already smoldering fire of resentment and misunderstanding. When the party descends into riotous mayhem, everyone must choose a side.

“A BUTTON-PUSHING WORD-OF-MOUTH DYNAMO.”-The Wall Street Journal

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Running Time: 100 Minutes100 MIN
R Rated

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Rich Hill: Three Nights ONLY!

Watch Trailer Director: Andrew Droz Palermo, Tracy Droz Tragos
Awards: Grand Jury Prize for a Documentary - Sundance Film Festival 2014

Rich Hill, Missouri. Seventy miles south of Kansas City, fifteen miles east of the Kansas border. Once a thriving mining town, shortly after World War II, the coal was gone – mined out. Stores closed, people moved away, farms were sold. It’s a story that could be told in hundreds of towns across America.

But people still live here: 1,393 of them at last count. Deep potholes line the gravel roads, and property tax is almost nonexistent. The town center is littered with piles of bricks, and crumbling buildings are all that remain of the original bank, the corner pharmacy, a cafe. Yet there is still the dream of transformation on the horizon: if only the citizens could attract more business or Rich Hill could be home to an industry once again.

Every year on the 4th of July, like many communities across America, the town puts on a grand celebration, with a carnival and a parade. Rich Hill has a record-setting pie auction to raise the funds for the fireworks. It is a once-a-year time to be part of something larger and grander – the way things used to be – for even a few days. And then the carnival pulls out.

Rich Hill intimately chronicles the turbulent lives of three boys living in an impoverished Midwestern town and the fragile family bonds that sustain them.

“Rich Hill doesn’t just make you feel like you know these boys; it makes you care about them.” – Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post

“Inside these average American lives are futures far too often passed over or, worse, written off. This terrific film gives the teenagers their due.” – Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

“A truly moving and edifying film, Rich Hill is the type of media object that could and should be put in a time capsule for future generations.” – Katie Walsh, The Playlist

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Running Time: 91 min91 MIN

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Southeast Asian Short Films: Letters from the South

Watch Trailer Director: Aditya Assarat, Royston Tan, Midi Zhao, Sun Koh, Tan Chui Mui, Tsai Ming Liang / Da Huang Pictures

“Six directors presenting six separate encounters from four Southeast Asian countries, Letters from the South (2013) explores the fluid relationship between the Chinese diaspora and their homeland. Shot across Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Myanmar, this fascinating anthology depicts the crisis of identity that accompanies international migration. China has a long history of migration across Southeast Asia. Foreign invasion, starvation and the Cultural Revolution have resulted in numerous waves across the continent. Letters from the South is a lyrical series of meditations on Chinese identity, varying in style and tone while covering the social and spiritual consequences.” (http://www.cine-vue.com/2014/06/edinburgh-2014-letters-from-south-review.html)

 

For more information please click: Here

The collection has been shown in Busan Film Festival in South Korea, International Film Festival Rotterdam and Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan.

This event is sponsored by: Arts for Ohio, Center of Southeast Asian Studies, CoFA- Film Division, Shao You-Bao Overseas Chinese Center

 

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Running Time: 105 mins105 MIN

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Mulholland Drive: Let’s Do Lynch

Watch Trailer Director: David Lynch
Writer(s): David Lynch
Cast: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux

Along Mulholland Drive nothing is what it seems. In the unreal universe of Los Angeles, the city bares its schizophrenic nature, an uneasy blend of innocence and corruption, love and loneliness, beauty and depravity. A woman is left with amnesia following a car accident. An aspiring young actress finds her staying in her aunt’s home. The puzzle begins to unfold, propelling us through a mysterious labyrith of sensual experiences until we arrive at the intersection of dreams and nightmares.

The Athena Cinema presents “Let’s Do Lynch”, eight weeks of feature films by David Lynch. All shows start at 7:00 p.m. Admission is $6.50.

9/7 &8: Elephant Man
9/14 & 15: Dune
9/21 & 22: Blue Velvet
9/28 & 29: Wild At Heart
10/5&6: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
10/12 & 13: Lost Highway
10/19 & 20: Mulholland Drive
10/26 & 27: Eraserhead

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Running Time: 147 min147 MIN
R Rated

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Kill the Messenger: Last Night Thursday, November 6th

Watch Trailer Director: Michael Cuesta
Writer(s): Peter Landesman (written by), Gary Webb (book "Dark Alliance"), and Nick Schou (book "Kill the Messenger")
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Robert Patrick, and Jena Sims

Two-time Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner (“The Bourne Legacy”) leads an all-star cast in a dramatic thriller based on the remarkable true story of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb. Webb stumbles onto a story which leads to the shady origins of the men who started the crack epidemic on the nation’s streets…and further alleges that the CIA was aware of major dealers who were smuggling cocaine into the U.S., and using the profits to arm rebels fighting in Nicaragua. Despite warnings from drug kingpins and CIA operatives to stop his investigation, Webb keeps digging to uncover a conspiracy with explosive implications. His journey takes him from the prisons of California to the villages of Nicaragua to the highest corridors of power in Washington, D.C. – and draws the kind of attention that threatens not just his career, but his family and his life.

“A gripping, thoughtful picture.” – Soren Anderson, Seattle Times

“Jeremy Renner gives his best performance since ‘The Hurt Locker’ in this assiduous, engrossing drama about the late investigative reporter Gary Webb.” – Andrew Barker, Variety

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Running Time: 112 Minutes112 MIN
R Rated

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The Two Faces of January: Last Day Thursday, October

Watch Trailer Director: Hossein Amini
Writer(s): Hossein Amini and Patricia Highsmith (Novel)
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Oscar Isaac and Viggo Mortensen

Screenwriter Hossein Amini (The Wings of the Dove, Drive) makes a stylish directing debut with this sleek thriller set in Greece and Istanbul, 1962, and adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s novel. Intrigue begins at the Parthenon when wealthy American tourists Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen) and his young wife Collete (Kirsten Dunst) meet American expat Rydal (Oscar Isaac), a scammer working as a tour guide. Instead of becoming his latest marks, the two befriend him, but a murder at the couple’s hotel puts all three on the run together and creates a precarious bond between them as the trio’s allegiance is put to the test.

“a gripping old-school suspenser.” – Peter Debruge, Variety

“Carefully directed and gorgeous to look at, with haunting performances and maximum suspense.” – Rex Reed, New York Observer

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Running Time: 96 Minutes96 MIN
PG-13 Rated

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