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Author Archive | Matt Box

Heroes In Color: THE LAST DRAGON

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Join us Friday, February 27th at 7:00 p.m. as we wrap up our 3rd Annual Heroes In Color film series with a martial arts cult classic from 1985!

FREE Admission – Tickets are required

This event will include a special cocktail and a pre-show trivia contest with prizes for the winner!

About the film

Leroy Green (aka “Bruce Leeroy”), an inner-city youth and kung fu afficionado whose idol is Bruce Lee, learns from his master that he has nearly risen to the ultimate level of martial arts mastery known as “The Last Dragon” which will imbue him with a mystical power called The Glow. Green thus embarks on a quest through the gritty streets of New York to track down another master who may be able to help him to achieve this special goal. However, a real bad dude known as Sho’nuff, the self-proclaimed “Shogun of Harlem”, catches wind of Leroy’s abilities and challenges the youth to a duel to see whose fighting skills glow the brightest and who deserves to wear the crown as the baddest butt-kicker in the city!

Released in 1985, this film broke with tradition by featuring a mostly-black cast in a kung-fu action movie. Additionally, it was produced by Motown’s head-honcho Barry Gordy and, as a result, boasts a soundtrack that includes the smooth sounds of artists like DeBarge, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Rockwell, and Stevie Wonder. This action-packed martial arts extravaganza and cinematic time-machine back to the ’80s is a cult classic that you’ll never forget!

Check out the rest of our fantastic line-up of Heroes In Color films

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Running Time: 109 MIN109 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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Enter the Kingdom: PET SEMATARY

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Join us Tuesday, March 3rd at 7:00 p.m. for a classic Stephen King horror movie that puts the “pet” in petrifying!

Admission $8

About the film

When Dr. Louis Creed and his family relocate from the big city of Chicago to rural Maine, they strike up a friendship with their likeable neighbor. The neighbor hears about the death of the family cat and encourages the Creeds to bury the deceased animal in the “pet sematary” located in the woods behind the Creeds’ new home. The feline, however, miraculously comes back to life; only, this time, it isn’t the cuddly friend the family has been used to…it now has a real bad disposition. Dr. Creed learns that the backwoods memorial garden is actually part of an old Mi’kmaq Native-American burial ground that has the power to resurrect the dead. Soon thereafter, one of the Creed children is struck by a fast-moving truck and tragically killed. Heartbroken, Louis opts to bury his dead son in one of the pet cemetery plots (against the advice of his neighbor), hoping that the ground will work its magic and bring the boy back to life. It certainly does, but the re-animated child, like the cat before him, returns with a vengeance!

Pet Sematary, with its screenplay by Stephen King based on King’s award-winning 1983 novel, is a classic, full-blown horror film that’s still beloved by fans and critics over four decades later.

Check out the rest of our line-up of Enter the Kingdom films

 

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Running Time: 103 MIN103 MIN
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Ohio Goes to The Movies: HIDDEN FIGURES

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Join us Friday, March 6th at 9:00 a.m. for a special event screening to help celebrate Ohio Goes to The Movies!

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required

About the film

Partly based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s award-winning, best-selling non-fiction book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, this Oscar-nominated film follows a group of African-American women who rise from unremarkable roles in the segregated aeronautics industry of the 1960s to become integral members of scientific teams tasked by NASA to win the race to reach space.

Featuring excellent performances from Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe, this captivating film about strong women who overcome adversity also stars Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Mahershala Ali, and Jim Parsons.

 

This event is made possible in part by support from Ohio Goes to the Movies – America 250

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Running Time: 127 MIN127 MIN
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Enter the Kingdom: MISERY

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Join us Tuesday, March 17th at 7:00 p.m. for Stephen King’s chilling tale of fandom-gone-wrong that garnered actress Kathy Bates an Oscar!

Admission $8

About the film

What are the chances..? You’re a successful novelist returning to the city from a remote mountain hideaway with the manuscript of your yet-to-be published bestseller, and a snowstorm causes you to lose control of your car and end up hurt with no one around for miles. This is the fate of Paul Sheldon, a writer of romance novels, as he heads back to New York from Colorado. Lucky for Paul, he’s discovered before he freezes to death by Annie Wilkes who gets the writer back to the cozy warmth of her home and tends to hi wounds. As it turns out, not only is Annie a former nurse, she’s also a mega-fan of Sheldon’s novels — to say she is obsessed with them is an understatement. When Paul lets Annie read his new manuscript, however, he soon finds out that underneath Annie’s congenial, praise-lavishing exterior lies a much darker personality that rises to the surface when she learns what Paul has done to her favorite literary character.

This Rob Reiner-directed pairing of iconic actors James Caan and Kathy Bates was a huge hit when it was released in 1990, earning Bates an Academy Award for Best Actress. Anyone who’s seen it can immediately see why…her performance in this film is unforgettable!

Check out the rest of our line-up of Enter the Kingdom films

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Running Time: 107 MIN107 MIN
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Hillel at Ohio University Presents: THE PRINCE OF EGYPT

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Join us Monday, March 23rd at 7:00 p.m. for a special event screening of “biblical proportions” presented by Hillel at Ohio University!

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required

Special thanks to Hillel at Ohio University for helping to make this event possible

About the film

Detailing one of the greatest tales ever told, The Prince of Egypt is DreamWorks Animation’s epic adaptation of the Book of Exodus. Transporting us back through the millennia of history to the time of the pharaohs, the film tells the story of the biblical prophet Moses who, once a prince of Egypt himself, is ultimately chosen by God to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt and free them from the cruel bonds of slavery imposed upon them by the Pharaoh Seti. During this remarkable journey, Moses and his followers encounter miraculous phenomena like the “burning bush”, the Ten Plagues of Egypt, the “pillar of fire”, the parting of the Red Sea, and the bestowal of the Ten Commandments — each a thread in the timeless tapestry of religious mythology.

Click here to learn more about Hillel at Ohio University

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Running Time: 99 MIN99 MIN
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Enter the Kingdom: THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

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Join us Tuesday, March 24th at 7:00 p.m. for an epic adaptation of a Stephen King novella about a prison escape — filmed in Ohio!

Admission $8

About the film

After he is sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison for the alleged murder of his wife and her lover in 1947, banker Andy Dufresne is transferred to the notoriously-tough Shawshank Prison to live out the rest of his days behind bars. Andy, however, is innocent and doesn’t intend to give up his freedom so easily. As time goes on, he strikes up a close bond with “Red”, another inmate who is serving a life sentence, and the two men learn many things from one another. Eventually, Andy’s financial know-how is utilized by the prison’s cold-hearted warden to improve Shawshank’s balance sheet (and to help the warden launder a significant amount of money). As a result, Andy gets an easier time in the harsh conditions of the prison. When Red, skilled at smuggling contraband items, procures for Andy a couple of unique items, Andy plans his escape now that he’s no longer under the warden’s watchful eye. Andy finally implements his well-thought-out scheme and breaks free of Shawshank’s chains. Once he gets to the outside world again, he goes off-the-grid, but not before he brings the warden’s scandalous behavior into the light. Andy also leaves a trail for Red, who eventually serves his time, earns parole, sets out to find his old friend.

Based on a novella by Stephen King and nominated for 7 Academy Awards, The Shawshank Redemption is another sterling example of King’s ability to tell incredible stories. Similar in tone and scope to other classic prison dramas like The Birdman of Alcatraz, Cool Hand Luke, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, this epic drama examines how incarceration and the desire to overcome authority can unveil a person’s true humanity and inspire them to achieve amazing things!

Check out the rest of our line-up of Enter the Kingdom films

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Running Time: 142 MIN142 MIN
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National Evening of Science on Screen: PROJECT HAIL MARY with Dr. Sarah Wyatt

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Join us Tuesday, March 24th at 7:30 p.m. as we feature a special screening of Project Hail Mary that includes a talk by Ohio University Distinguished Professor Dr. Sarah Wyatt!

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required

“Project Hail Mary – The Realities of Living in Space”

Plant molecular biologist Dr. Sarah Wyatt discusses her collaborations with NASA, including five experiments conducted aboard the International Space Station, to consider what living in space might look like for future astronauts

 

About the speaker

Dr. Wyatt is an internationally renowned leader in the field of plant responses to gravity and is greatly admired by colleagues in her field for her cutting-edge research. Her research includes multiple collaborations with NASA, with five experiments conducted aboard the International Space Station. In 2023, she was also selected as one of just 18 scientists nationwide to help develop a 10-year research roadmap supporting human exploration of the moon and Mars.

A highly regarded educator, Dr. Wyatt has received numerous teaching awards throughout her OHIO tenure. She is the immediate past chair of Faculty Senate and previously led Ohio University’s interdisciplinary graduate program in molecular and cellular biology. At Ohio University, Dr. Wyatt makes a daily difference with her relentless support of the research enterprise by collaborating and working to build research infrastructure.

Dr. Wyatt is deeply engaged in advancing the educational mission of both her profession and Ohio University. She founded and continues to lead the Tech Savvy Ohio program, which highlights women in STEM fields, and has contributed to national education initiatives through the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology’s Space Biology Education Committee. She also established Ohio University’s Science Café and the Young Scholars OHIO program and has been an active participant in campus outreach efforts that promote scientific learning.

Most recently, Dr. Wyatt has brought the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program to Ohio University. The program, run by NCESSE, provides students with the opportunity to work in teams to develop an experiment to fly to the International Space Station (ISS), write a proposal and compete with their peers for the experiment to fly. To date, one experiment has flown with another scheduled for this summer and a third waiting for its turn to launch. In addition, she is a dedicated mentor to both graduate and undergraduate students, many of whom have gone on to co-author scholarly publications with her.

 

Science on Screen is an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

 

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Friends of India Present: DEVDAS

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Join us Saturday, March 28th at 1:00 p.m. for a special event screening of a Hindi romance starring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, presented by the Friends of India!

Admission is FREE and open to the Public – Tickets are required

Indian snacks and beverages will be provided by the Friends of India organization

About the film

One of the greatest love stories ever told, Devdas is based on the 1917 novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and tells the story of a man whose inability to marry his childhood best friend (and true love) ultimately sends him on a broken-hearted downward spiral into alcoholism. It is the story of how emotionally crushing it can be when cultural traditions and social hierarchies obstruct the true feelings of one’s heart and the fulfilment of one’s destiny.

Winning numerous awards and garnering substantial box office success, Devdas is a beautiful film that is considered a true classic of Indian cinema.

 

Click here to find out more about the Friends of India

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Running Time: 185 MIN185 MIN
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Ohio Goes to The Movies: HE’S ONLY MISSING + LETTING GO with Special Guest Robin Smith

Join us Sunday, March 29th at 7:00 p.m. for a special event screening of two documentaries by Ohio University alumna Robin Smith to celebrate Ohio Goes to The Movies and Vietnam Veterans Day!

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required

A reception with filmmaker Robin Smith will take place at The Athena from 6:00-7:00 p.m

We were asleep when the telegram arrived. Two Marines in uniform, feeling out of place in Athens, Ohio, stood nervously on our front porch. Mom’s face must have betrayed her deepest fear. The colonel, my father’s friend, rushed in.

“Jane, he’s only missing!”

Words filled with hope, to comfort a wife too young to be a widow.

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robin Smith will introduce two powerful films chronicling her family’s search for answers about the fate of Colonel Robert N. Smith (USMC) whose plane was shot down over North Vietnam in 1969.

About the films

He’s Only Missing (1978, 30 min)

This film explores the “state of limbo” Robin and her family were experiencing not knowing if their loved one was dead or alive.

Letting Go (1995, 12 min)

Two decades later the first shred of information about what had happened emerged. Robin traveled with a CBS News crew to her father’s crash site in Vietnam and uncovered answers that had eluded the family for years.

About the Speaker

Robin Smith is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker with 48 years of professional experience. A graduate of Ohio University (BFA ’72) and the School of Public Communication at Boston University (MS ’78), her first documentary was a personal story about her father, a fighter pilot declared Missing in Action in 1969 during the Vietnam war. CBS bought rights to the film, and in 1978 and she began a career in broadcast journalism on CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt.

In 1990, she established a nonprofit production company to collaborate with educators, artists, and innovative program leaders in the creation of documentary shorts and public awareness videos. Examples of video|action’s award-winning work can be found at www.videoaction.org.

Robin Smith is currently a member of the Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts Leadership Council and a Trustee on the Ohio University Foundation Board.

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ACLU Ohio Presents: HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY + A Post-Show Panel Discussion

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Join us Tuesday, March 31st at 6:00 p.m. for a special event screening of the documentary Heightened Scrutiny that details the legal challenges of access to gender-affirming care in the battle for trans rights!

This event will include a post-show panel discussion – See below for info on the panelists

Admission is FREE and open to the Public

Tickets are required and can be claimed by registering via scanning the QR Code on the flyer or by clicking the ACLU registration link below:

Register for Heightened Scrutiny Event

Once you have registered and have claimed your ACLU ticket, please present it to us upon arrival at the event and we will give you an Athena Cinema ticket — this allows us to keep an accurate headcount of attendance for the event

 

 

About the film

Fearless civil rights lawyer Chase Strangio battles at the Supreme Court for transgender adolescents’ access to gender-affirming healthcare, confronting not only the legal system but also a media landscape that distorts public perception and threatens the struggle for trans rights. With the dangerous SCOTUS decision upholding the ban on life-saving healthcare, this landmark film is an urgent call to action against bigotry and injustice.

About the panelists

Keri Johnson (they/them) is a journalist and poet from Southeast Ohio whose work is rooted in place and public service. Prior to co-founding the Independent, Keri was an AmeriCorps VISTA and general assignment reported for the The Logan Daily News.

 

 

Micah McCarey (he/him) serves aswhere everyone feels seen, safe, and valued. Dr. McCarey brings both lived experience and a governance-informed perspective to conversations about civil rights, democratic norms, and the responsibilities of local leadership during time of heightened scrutiny.

 

 

Jamie Miller (he/him) is a trans man serving as the Programs and Organizing Manager at United Campus Ministry. He oversees the free community meals and works with community members to provide and receive direct action. He also runs Bad Art Club. When he’s not at work, he’s walking in the creek with his dog.

 

 

Tess Sabo (she/her) is a passionate defender of liberty an has been professionally helping to protect civil liberties for over seven years. In her work, Tess has in-depth knowledge of each of ACLU OH’s legal cases, which she enjoys sharing with the public in terms easy for non-lawyers to understand.

 

 

 

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Running Time: 85 MIN85 MIN
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