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Director: Amy Berg
Writer(s): Amy Berg, Billy McMillin
Cast: Jason Baldwin, Damien Wayne Echols, Jessie Misskelley
An examination of a failure of justice in the case against the West Memphis Three.
147 MIN
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Director: Cate Shortland
Writer(s): Cate Shortland and Robin Mukherjee
Cast: Saskia Rosendahl, Kai-Peter Malina, Nele Trebs
Awards: Official Selection of Cannes
Language: German, English
Left to fend for themselves after their SS officer father and mother, a staunch Nazi believer, are interred by the victorious Allies at the end of World War II, five German children undertake a harrowing journey that exposes them to the reality and consequences of their parents’ actions. Led by the eldest sibling, 14-year old Lore (striking newcomer Saskia Rosendahl), they set out on a harrowing journey across a devastated country to reach their grandmother in the north. After meeting the charismatic Thomas, a mysterious young refugee, Lore soon finds her world shattered by feelings of both hatred and desire as she must learn to trust the one person she has always been taught to hate in order to survive. Lush cinematography and an evocative, haunting mood infuse this unconventional take on the Holocaust legacy with unforgettable impact.
“For both audiences who admire it and the protagonist who lives it, the intense, emotional “Lore” is a picture from life’s other side.”–Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
109 MIN
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Director: David France
Writer(s): David France, Todd Woody Richman and Tyler H. Walk
Cast: Peter Staley, Larry Kramer, Iris Long
Awards: Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner, Academy Award Nominee for Best Feature Documentary
Ohio University’s School of Film presents a one-night only screening of the award winning documentary, “How To Survive A Plague” on Monday, April 8th at 7:00. Editor of the documentary, Tyler H. Walk will be present at the screening and there will be a Q&A following the screening.
Faced with their own mortality an improbable group of young people, many of them HIV-positive young men, broke the mold as radical warriors taking on Washington and the medical establishment.
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE is the story of two coalitions—ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group)—whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. With unfettered access to a treasure trove of never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and ’90s, filmmaker David France puts the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs of heroes in the making.
120 MIN
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Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cast: Audrey Tautou
Awards: Nominated for 5 Oscars
Language: In French with English Subtitles
One woman decides to change the world by changing the lives of the people she knows in this charming and romantic comic fantasy from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Amelie (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amelie didn’t attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Her mother Amandine (Lorella Cravotta) died in a freak accident when Amelie was eight, and her father Raphael (Rufus) had limited contact with her, since his presence seemed to throw her heart into high gear. Despite all this, Amelie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. When Princess Diana dies in a car wreck in the summer of 1997, Amelie is reminded that life can be fleeting and she decides it’s time for her to intervene in the lives of those around her, hoping to bring a bit of happiness to her neighbors and the regulars at the cafe.
122 MIN
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Director: Kalyanee Mam
Awards: Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance
This film is being screened as part of Ohio University’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies’ Khmer (Cambodian) Studies Forum. The screening is co-sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the School of Film at Ohio University.
For more info about the Khmer Studies Forum, please visit: www.seas.ohio.edu/ksf2013.html
Twice a year in Cambodia, the Tonle Sap River changes course, while the river of life flows in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth and of creation and destruction. Working in an intimate, verite style, filmmaker Kalyanee Mam (Director of Photography for the Oscar-winning documentary INSIDE JOB), spent two years in her native homeland following three young Cambodians struggling to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt. A breathtaking and unprecedented journey from the remote, mountainous jungles and floating cities of the Cambodian countryside to the bustling garment factories of modern Phnom Penh, A RIVER CHANGES COURSE traces a remarkable and devastatingly beautiful story of a country torn between the rural present and an ominous industrial future.
83 MIN
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Director: Benjamin J. Harbert
Cast: Quincy Jones, Otis Williams, Yves Bourgeois
This screening is part of the “Cultures of Incarceration Series”, presented by the Center for Law, Justice and Culture at Ohio University. “Cultures of Incarceration” is a three-film series showing at the Athena this spring and features three titles: THE HOUSE I LIVE IN, INTO THE ABYSS, and FOLLOW ME DOWN: PORTRAITS OF LOUISIANA PRISON MUSICIANS.
Following the screening of “Follow Me Down: Portraits of Louisiana Prison Musicians” will be a live discussion with the director, Benjamin J. Harbert.
Follow Me Down: Portraits of Louisiana Prison Musicians
FOLLOW ME DOWN is a feature-length documentary about music in prison. Shot over the course of two years in three Louisiana prisons, Georgetown ethnomusicologist Ben Harbert weaves together interviews and performances of extraordinary inmate musicians–some serving life sentences, some new commits and one soon to be released. The result, in essence, is a concert film, but instead of bright lights and big stages, these musicians rap in the fields while picking okra, soothe themselves with R&B in lockdown and create a cappella gospel harmonies. With unprecedented access and Harbert’s insistence on letting the music speak for itself, the film offers an unexpected look at prison life, pushing viewers to reach their own conclusions about criminality, regret, redemption, and the humanity in us all.
104 MIN
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Director: Werner Herzog
Cast: Werner Herzog, Richard Lopez, Michael Perry
Awards: Winner of BFI Grierson Award
This screening is part of the “Cultures of Incarceration Series”, presented by the Center for Law, Justice and Culture at Ohio University. “Cultures of Incarceration” is a three-film series showing at the Athena this spring and features three titles: THE HOUSE I LIVE IN, INTO THE ABYSS, and FOLLOW ME DOWN.
Into the Abyss
In his fascinating exploration of a triple homicide case in Conroe, Texas, master filmmaker Werner Herzog probes the human psyche to explore why people kill—and why a state kills. In intimate conversations with those involved, including 28-year-old death row inmate Michael Perry, Herzog achihieves what he describes as “a gaze into the abyss of the human soul.” Herzog’s inquiries also extend to the families of the victims and perpetrators as well as a state executioner and pastor who’ve been with death row prisoners as they’ve taken their final breaths. As he’s so often done before, Herzog’s investigation unveils layers of humanity, making an enlightening trip out of ominous territory.
107 MIN
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Director: Eugene Jarecki
Writer(s): Eugene Jarecki and Christopher St. John
Cast: Nannie Jeter, David Simon
Awards: Winner of the 2012 Sundance Grand Jury Prize
This screening is part of the “Cultures of Incarceration Series”, presented by the Center for Law, Justice and Culture at Ohio University. “Cultures of Incarceration” is a three-film series showing at the Athena this spring and features three titles: THE HOUSE I LIVE IN, INTO THE ABYSS, and FOLLOW ME DOWN.
The House I Live In
As America remains embroiled in conflict overseas, a less visible war is taking place at home, costing countless lives, destroying families, and inflicting untold damage on future generations of Americans. Over forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests, made America the world’s largest jailer, and damaged poor communities at home and abroad. Yet for all that, drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever before.
“A model of the ambitious, vitalizing activist work that exists to stir the sleeping to wake.”–Manohla Dargis, New York Times
108 MIN
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Director: Quentin Dupieux
Writer(s): Quentin Dupieux
Cast: Jack Plotnick, Todd Giebenhan, Eric Judor
Awards: Nominated for Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival
Dolph Springer (Reno 911’s Jack Plotnick) awakens one morning to find he has lost the sole love of his life – his dog, Paul. Desperate to reunite with his best friend and to set things right, Dolph embarks on a journey which spirals into the realm of the absurd. On his quest, he drastically alters the lives of several severely bizarro characters, including a promiscuous pizza delivery girl (Entourage’s Alexis Dziena), a mentally unstable, jogging-addicted neighbor, an opportunistic French-Mexican gardener, an eccentric pet detective (Steve Little of HBO’s Eastbound And Down) and most mysterious of all, an enigmatic pony-tailed guru, Master Chang (William Fichtner) who imparts his teachings to Dolph on how to metaphysically reconnect with his pet. From fearless cinematic surrealist Quentin Dupieux, the director behind the head-exploding Rubber, Wrong is a wholly original and hilariously hallucinatory universe all its own.
94 MIN
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Director: Don Coscarelli
Writer(s): Don Coscarelli and David Wong
Cast: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti
We’re talking about a drug that promises an out-of-body experience with each hit. On the street they call it Soy Sauce, and users drift across time and dimensions. But some who come back are no longer human. Suddenly a silent otherworldly invasion is underway, and mankind needs a hero. What it gets instead is John and David, a pair of college dropouts who can barely hold down jobs. Can these two stop the oncoming horror in time to save humanity? No. No, they can’t. Based on the novel by author David Wong, John Dies at the End was adapted and directed by horror auteur Don Coscarelli.
99 MIN
Southeast Ohio's Premier
Art House Theater
Est. 1915
