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Welcome Week Rooftop Movie Night: PARASITE

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Welcome to Athens, Bobcats! Did you know there’s a fantastic indie movie theater in the heart of this city, right Uptown on Court St..?

To celebrate Welcome Week, we are offering a FREE (for students) movie screening on top of the Athens City Parking Garage at 15 East Washington St:

PARASITE

WELCOME WEEK ROOFTOP MOVIE NIGHT

Thursday, August 28th

Seating for the screening will begin at 7:30 p.m. Then, at 8:30 p.m. the show will roll!

The event will start with some movie-themed trivia to get you pumped up for cinema!

Admission is FREE for OHIO students with a valid OU student I.D. (Limit of 2 per student)

$8 General Admission for the public

Tickets can be acquired online (link below) or in our lobby during normal business hours.

A limited number of chairs will be provided, but you are encouraged to bring your own chair, pillow, blanket etc.

Concessions (popcorn, soft drinks, water, candy, etc) and Athena merchandise will be available for purchase on the rooftop.

** Since these events reach capacity quickly, we strongly recommend that students claim their tickets in advance by coming to The Athena lobby during our normal business hours. **

New Students: We encourage you to come visit our 110-year-old theater with its magnificent marquee. You can also come inside the lobby to find out about the other kinds of films we screen, grab some tasty concessions, peruse our great selection of Athena merch, say hello to our amazing staff, and get a limited-edition student loyalty card.

Or, if you’re really enthusiastic, help us out by becoming a member – the benefits are totally worth it!

About the Film

Centered on a South Korean family living in a basement in urban Seoul, Parasite follows The Kims as they struggle to make ends meet in a city where upward mobility is at a premium. When a family friend gives the group a special stone meant to bring them good fortune, The Kims believe that their troubles will soon come to an end. However, once they begin taking steps to lift themselves out of poverty, it soon becomes clear that rising to the top is not all it’s cracked up to be.

This black-comedy thriller from writer/director Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer, Mickey 17) was nominated for 6 Oscars in 2020 and 4 of them including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature.

 

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Running Time: 132 MIN132 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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Sustainability Series: HER SHARK STORY with Dr. Molly R. Morris

Watch Trailer Director: Ignacio Walker, Denis Arqueros
Cast: Sofia and Jonathan Green

Join us Wednesday, September 3rd at 7:00 p.m. as we kick-off our Sustainability Film Series with a touching documentary about a marine biologist who finds something greater than animal life in the deepest ocean!

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

This event will include a pre-show presentation with OHIO Biological Science professor Dr. Molly R. Morris

About the film

This is an inspiring feature documentary film about how an absent father reunites with his daughter thanks to their passion to save the biggest shark in the world, the whale shark. The story takes place in the remote Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean, where Sofia and Jonathan must face their past in order reconnect a lost connection, all while trying to find and study the biggest shark in the world under very dangerous conditions. This is a film aimed for a wide audience, about woman empowerment, family relationships and ocean conservation, with spectacular views of the underwater world that hosts the world’s most gigantic shark.

About the speaker

Dr. Molly R. Morris, PhD – Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University

“My research interests are in sexual selection, variation in female mate preferences, and the evolution of alternative reproductive strategies. In my laboratory, we are interested in the evolutionary processes that both constrain and drive biological diversity. We examine the evolution of diversity both within and across species of Xiphophorus fishes. These small live bearing fish, native to freshwater streams in Mexico, present a diversity of behaviors and morphologies that are ideal for examining the evolution of behavioral plasticity, female mate preferences, nutritional programming, maternal effects, and the evolution of alternative reproductive strategies. We observe behavior in the field as well as in the laboratory, incorporating molecular techniques to conduct paternity analyses and examine gene expression profiles. We are also very interested in the conservation of this group of fishes, and study how they respond to exposure to pollutants and global climate change.”

 

Check out the rest of our line-up of films in the Sustainability Film Series

This series was made possible thanks to the following sponsors:

 

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Running Time: 76 MIN76 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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CLJC: Constitution Day with Pamela R. Metzger

Join us Tuesday, September 16th at 7:00 p.m. for the Center for Law, Justice, and Culture’s annual Constitution Day Lecture featuring Sixth Amendment scholar Professor Pamela R. Metzger!

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

*Tickets will be available to claim in-person in our lobby during normal business hours leading up to and on the evening of the event

Professor Metzger’s lecture is entitled “The Right to Counsel on Day One: Delivering on the Constitution’s Promise”

About the speaker

Professor Metzger is the Executive Director of the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center at SMU Dedman School of Law. She is a nationally recognized expert on the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, public defense, and criminal legal ethics, and her research focuses on combining theory and practice to improve our criminal legal system.

Professor Metzger oversees the Deason Center’s independent research on the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, criminal legal systems in small, tribal, and rural (STAR) communities, prosecutorial discretion, and early-stage criminal procedure. She has helped secure millions of dollars in funding for the Deason Center to conduct innovative research and amplify compelling stories that promote criminal legal reform.

Professor Metzger’s work has appeared in publications such as the Yale Law Journal, George Washington Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, and Southern California Law Review, and has been cited by leading authorities and by the United States Supreme Court.

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Sustainability Series: PLASTIC PEOPLE with Liliana Kijeck

Watch Trailer Director: Ben Addleman, Ziya Tong

Join us Wednesday, September 17th at 7:00 p.m. as our Sustainability Film Series continues with an award-winning documentary delving into the relationship between humans and microplastics!

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

This event will feature a pre-show presentation by Liliana Kijeck

About the film

The award-winning feature documentary Plastic People investigates our addiction to plastic and the growing threat of microplastics on human health. Almost every bit of plastic ever made breaks down into “microplastics.” These microscopic particles drift in the air, float in all bodies of water, and mix into the soil, becoming a permanent part of the environment. Now, leading scientists are finding these particles in our bodies: organs, blood, brain tissue, and even the placentas of new mothers. What is the impact of these invisible invaders on our health? And can anything be done about it?

Acclaimed author and science journalist Ziya Tong takes a personal approach by visiting leading scientists around the world and undergoing experiments in her home, on her food, and her body while collaborating with award-winning director Ben Addelman (Discordia, Bombay Calling, Nollywood Babylon, Kivalina v. Exxon) in an urgent call to action for all of us to rethink our relationship with plastic.

About the speaker

Liliana Kijeck is a recent graduate of Ohio University’s Master of Science in Environmental Studies Master’s program and a new Appalachian Ohio Restore Corps AmeriCorps member with Raccoon Creek Partnership at the Ridges in Athens. Originally from the Cleveland area, Liliana grew up spending all of her time outside and in Lake Erie, which prompted her to study political science at Cleveland State University in order to understand environmental politics and policy, the politics of conservation and sustainability, and human-environment relationships. During her Master’s program, she spent her time focusing directly on human and environmental interactions, water quality, and specifically plastic pollution and microplastic occurrence in drinking water in relation to socioeconomic and demographic aspects.

Check out the rest of our line-up of films in the Sustainability Film Series

This series was made possible thanks to the following sponsors:

 

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Running Time: 84 MIN84 MIN
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From the Hills and Hollers: THE EVENING HOUR with Carter Sickels

Watch Trailer Director: Braden King
Cast: Philip Ettinger, Stacy Martin, Lili Taylor, Cosmo Jarvis

Join us on Thursday, September 18th at 7:00 p.m. as we kick off our Appalachian Stories Film Series!

This event will include a pre-show presentation by author Carter Sickels

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required

About the film

Based on the critically-acclaimed novel by Carter Sickels, The Evening Hour tells the story of Cole Freeman, a nursing home worker who has made a side-hustle selling the excess prescription pills of his elderly patients to the local people in his rural West Virginia town. Cole’s motive is not profit, however: he sees himself as a more compassionate source of the addicting drugs than the local drug dealer who cares more about money than the lives he is destroying. It’s a delicate balancing act – Cole must make sure that he doesn’t overstep his bounds and draw the ire of his competition. This delicate balance starts to erode, though, when an old friend of Cole’s returns to town with the goal of getting set up in the local drug trade.

About the speaker

Carter Sickels is the author of the novel The Prettiest Star, winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Fiction, the Southern Book Prize, and the Weatherford Award, and selected as a Kirkus Best Book of 2020 and a Best LGBT Book by O Magazine. His debut novel The Evening Hour was adapted into a feature film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020. His writing has appeared in publications includingThe Kenyon Review, The Atlantic, Oxford American, Poets & Writers, BuzzFeed, and Guernica. Carter is an assistant professor of creative writing at North Carolina State University.

Carter will be discussing the film adaptation of his novel The Evening Hour. The film, directed by Braden King, was shot in Harlan, Kentucky, and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020.

 

Check out the rest of the films in the Appalachian Stories Film Series

This series is sponsored by the Ohio Honors Program, University Libraries, College of Health Sciences and Professions, The Department of Social and Public Health, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, OU School of Film, and The Office of Signature Academic Experiences.

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Running Time: 114 MIN114 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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OU Family Weekend: MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL 50th Anniversary

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Seek no further, for thou hast found the Holy Grail!

Continuing our long tradition for OU Family Weekend, we’re thrilled to announce a special event that will make your “knights” in Athens unforgettable — Join us Friday, September 19th and Saturday, September 20th at 7 p.m. for some classic medieval British comedy as we screen one of the craziest films of all time: Monty Python and The Holy Grail!

This year marks the monumental 50th anniversary of this timelessly hilarious film from one of the world’s greatest comedy troupes!

Admission $8

About the Film

Poking fun at the revered legend of King Arthur and his Knights of The Round Table, the troupe of Pythons pull out all the comedic stops for a wild (and irreverent) ride through the misty Dark Ages! Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam are in top form as various characters in some of the most side-splitting material ever put on screen. Bits like “The Knights Who Say Ni!”, “The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch”, “The Trojan Rabbit”, and “The Black Knight” have etched themselves permanently on the landscape of comedy like the ornate letters in an old biblical manuscript!

Maybe your mother isn’t a hamster, and perhaps your father doesn’t smell like elderberries, but one thing’s for sure — watching this film together will give you and your family a (Came)lot of good times to share!

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Running Time: 91 MIN91 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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Hispanic Film Series: MY SEXTORTION DIARY

Watch Trailer Director: Patricia Franquesa

Join us on Tuesday, September 23rd at 7:00 p.m. for the first film in our new Hispanic Film Series celebrating Hispanic cinema and culture!

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

This event will include a Q&A session

About the film

Film producer Pati Franquesa takes viewers inside her personal experiences with being the victim of a sextortion scheme in this powerful documentary.

When her laptop is stolen, Pati’s world crumbles when she receives a disturbing message from a friend: An anonymous hacker is sending intimate photos of her to her contacts. The threat is clear: Pati must pay $2,400 to stop the mass distribution. Caught in a psychological battle, Pati seeks refuge behind her screen, only to discover that thousands of others around the world are being extorted in the same way. Faced with the indifference and inefficacy of the authorities, Pati realizes that only she can find a way out of this nightmare.

Check out the rest of our line-up of films in the Hispanic Film Series

The Spanish Film Club series was made possible with the support of the OHIO School of International Studies and Languages (SISAL), Sigma Delta Pi (National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society), Pragda, SPAIN arts & culture, and the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain.

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Running Time: 64 MIN64 MIN
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STRANGE JOURNEY: THE STORY OF ROCKY HORROR

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Whet your appetite for our special screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Friday, September 26th and Saturday, September 27th with this fantastic documentary that tells the story behind one of the greatest cult films of all time!

Strange Journey will be shown on Friday, September 26th and Saturday, September 27th at 7:00 p.m., then The Rocky Horror Picture Show film will be screened afterwards at 10:00 p.m.

Admission $6.50

About the film

Half-a-century ago The Rocky Horror Picture Show hit the big screen and, while not an immediate success, has since become one of the most revered cult films of all time; not to mention a pop-cultural phenomenon that has spurred, among other things, countless annual midnight screenings with costumes and choreography, a video game, and a long-rumored project for a sequel. It is difficult to estimate how much impact this strange film about aliens, gender fluidity, and rock n’ roll has had on the world at large, but the fact that, fifty years later, fans are still coming out in droves to participate in it should tell us something!

Featuring interviews from original cast and crew members and a wealth of rarely-seen memorabilia, director Linus O’Brien (the son of Richard O’Brien who wrote the original stage play, co-wrote the film script, penned the iconic songs, and starred as “Riff Raff” in the original film), Strange Journey treats audiences to an intimate behind-the-scenes look at this beloved cult classic that will surely propel Rocky Horror’s legacy for another half-century at least.

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Running Time: 89 MIN89 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW 50th Anniversary

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Join us on Friday, September 26th and Saturday, September 27th at 10:00 p.m. to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the rockin’-est cult film of all – The Rocky Horror Picture Show…a “time warp”, indeed!

Admission $8

We’re also screening the documentary film Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror before both of the Rocky Horror screenings – visit the link below for tickets and info:

Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror

About the film

A flat tire on a rainy night… This is all it takes to ensnare naive newly-weds Brad and Janet in a life-changing, gender-bending, and mind-blowing adventure.

Seeking some roadside assistance the young couple make their way through the rain to the door of the first house they can find…the abode of “Dr. Frank-N-Furter”. Brad and Janet were only looking for a phone, but they end up discovering a strange cast of unforgettable weirdos and stumble upon Frank’s (rather sexy) plot to return to his home planet of Transsexual, Transylvania.

Boasting an incredible cast, unforgettable performances, and one of the best musical soundtracks in the history of cinema, Rocky Horror might just have you dancing in the aisles and quoting almost every line!

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Running Time: 100 MIN100 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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Friends of India Present: THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS

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“This peppy first feature by Fawzia Mirza has a boisterous energy and toe-tapping use of music.” – Observer (UK)

This delightful Pakistani-Canadian co-production is the debut film from writer/director Fawzia Mirza, based on her theatrical stage play Me, My Mom & Sharmila, which in turn was based on her 2012 short film which shares the same name as the feature. Starring Amrit Kaur, this comedy-drama tells the story of “Azra”, a woman whose relationship with her parents has become strained ever since she came out as lesbian, and who undergoes a rollercoaster of emotions after the unexpected and untimely death of her father.

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required

All members of the Athens community are welcome

Claim tickets in-person at The Athena or by clicking the showtime link below

The Friends of India organization will provide Indian snacks and Chai during intermission

 

To learn more about the Ohio University’s Friends of India Endowment visit their website here

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Running Time: 96 MIN96 MIN
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