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Spotlight on Documentary: A JIHAD FOR LOVE

Watch Trailer Director: Parvez Sharma
Writer(s): Parvez Sharma
Cast: Muhsin Hendricks, A.K. Hoosen, Mazen
Language: English

A documentary on gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims across the Muslim and Western worlds.

The Spotlight on Documentary Series will be focusing on Parvez Sharma, an award-winning writer and filmmaker. This series is brought to us by the E.W Scripps School of Journalism, the College of Arts and Sciences “Love and Hate” Theme, and the Center for Law, Justice, and Culture.

“Mr. Sharma’s film emphasizes testimony over context to such a degree that it feels at first of little use to anyone except gay Muslims who might take comfort in knowing they’re not alone. But the documentary gains depth of feeling as it goes and even develops something of a nail-biting narrative.” – Nathan Lee, The New York Times

“Even though the message that people should have the right to love whomever they want is hardly groundbreaking, Parvez captures some interesting conversations about what it means to be gay and Muslim.” – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

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Running Time: 81 minutes81 MIN
Not Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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Spotlight on Documentary: A SINNER IN MECCA

Watch Trailer Director: Parvez Sharma
Language: English

For a gay filmmaker, filming in Saudi Arabia presents two serious challenges: filming is forbidden in the country and homosexuality is punishable by death. For filmmaker Parvez Sharma, however, these were risks he had to assume as he embarked on his Hajj pilgrimage, a journey considered the greatest accomplishment and aspiration within Islam, his religion. On his journey Parvez aims to look beyond 21st-century Islam’s crises of religious extremism, commercialism and sectarian battles. He brings back the story of the religion like it has never been told before, having endured the biggest jihad there is: the struggle with the self.

The Spotlight on Documentary Series will be focusing on Parvez Sharma, an award-winning writer and filmmaker. This series is brought to us by the E.W Scripps School of Journalism, the College of Arts and Sciences “Love and Hate” Theme, and the Center for Law, Justice, and Culture.

“Mr. Sharma has created a swirling, fascinating travelogue and a stirring celebration of devotion.” – Andy Webster, The New York Times

“A Sinner in Mecca is a suitably messy mix of the gritty and the surreal, the wrenching and the transcendent, from the midst of the trek to Islam’s holiest site.” – Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

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Running Time: 79 minutes79 MIN
Not Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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Learning to Drive: Leaving the Athena Thursday, October 1st

Watch Trailer Director: Isabel Coixet
Writer(s): Sarah Kernochan
Cast: Patricia Clarkson, Ben Kingsley, Grace Gummer

Isabel Coixet’s slice-of-life comedy/drama Learning to Drive stars Patricia Clarkson as Wendy, a middle-ages book critic who is shattered when her husband Ted (Jake Weber) leaves her. In order to visit her daughter (Grace Gummer), who lives upstate, Wendy begins taking driving lessons from Darwan (Ben Kingsley) an American citizen originally from India who makes a living as a cabbie and giving driving lessons. The two strike-up a friendship that helps her learn to take control of her life, and him adjust to his new life after an arranged marriage. Learning to Drive screened at the 2014 (Toronto International Film Festival.

“Learning to Drive is precisely the sort of adult-themed, intelligent and heartfelt film it wants to be, with Clarkson and Kingsley wonderfully on point.” -Tom Long, Detroit News

“Learning to Drive is a story of companionship, loneliness, resilience. It’s a small, artfully crafted thing, but it resonates in big ways.” -Steven Rea, Philidelphia Inquirer

“It’s a beautifully acted tale of friendship, and about how sometimes, you just need to move forward – in a car, or otherwise.” -Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

*Closed Caption devices are available for this film.

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Running Time: 90 minutes90 MIN
R Rated

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SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE: Last Day Thursday, October 22nd

Watch Trailer Director: Leslye Headland
Writer(s): Leslye Headland
Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Alison Brie, Jordan Carlos

Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie star as two romantic failures whose years of serial infidelity and self-sabotage have led them to swear that their relationship will remain strictly platonic. But can love still bloom while you’re sleeping with other people? Writer/director Leslye Headland’s (Bachelorette) sexy romantic comedy co-stars Amanda Peet, Adam Scott, and Natasha Lyonne.

“As we watch changes of conscience emerge and moral comeuppance arrive, this freewheeling alternative to the standard date movie emerges as one of the year’s best surprises.” -Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Sudeikis is terrific. And Brie can break you up or just plain break your heart.” -Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

“Rom-coms died because they weren’t very rom and didn’t have enough com. But Sleeping With Other People, which is both hilarious and emotionally alive, is as delightful as a first date that crackles with possibility.” -Kyle Smith, New York Post

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Running Time: 101 minutes101 MIN
R Rated

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MEET THE PATELS: Last Day Thursday, October 22nd

Watch Trailer Director: Geeta Patel, Ravi Patel
Writer(s): Matthew Hamachek, Billy McMillin, Geeta Patel, Ravi Patel
Cast: Champa V. Patel, Geeta Patel, Ravi Patel

A laugh-out-loud real life romantic comedy about Ravi Patel, an almost-30-year-old Indian-American who enters a love triangle between the woman of his dreams…and his parents. This hilarious and heartwarming film reveals how love is a family affair.

“Often riotously funny.” -Andrew Barker, Variety

“It’s a delight of a film, but it also examines problems of assimilation, culture clash, modern romance and the value (or prison) of tradition. Which is quite a bit of stuff for a movie that’s just plain fun to watch.” -Tom Long, Detroit News

“It’s impossible not to care about the people on screen.” -Jen Chaney, Washington Post

“It turned one man’s culturally specific journey into a lively and engaging universal story made with an unmistakable sense of fun.” -Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

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Running Time: 88 minutes88 MIN
PG Rated

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Food on Film: SPIRITED AWAY

Watch Trailer Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Writer(s): Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Miyu Irino
Language: Japanese

During her family’s move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.

“Turns everything we know about the contemporary world on its head, and substitutes it with one in which spirits, monsters, magicians and animals mix it up in a carnival of energy, good humor and freewheeling illusion.” – Jack Mathews, New York Daily News

“Does full honor to Miyazaki’s teeming and often unsettling landscape, and to the conflicted complexity of his characters: Not a single frame was cut, and the voice casting and performances are uniformly excellent.” – David Chute, L.A. Weekly

“It is plainly, though not simply, a masterpiece from an acknowledged master of contemporary animation, and a wonderfully welcoming work of art that’s as funny and entertaining as it is brilliant, beautiful and deep.” – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

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Running Time: 125 minutes125 MIN
PG Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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Food on Film: JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI

Watch Trailer Director: David Gelb
Cast: Jiro Ono, Masuhiro Yamamoto, Daisuke Nakazama
Language: Japanese

In the basement of a Tokyo office building, 85 year old sushi master Jiro Ono works tirelessly in his world renowned restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro. As his son Yoshikazu faces the pressures of stepping into his father’s shoes and taking over the legendary restaurant, Jiro relentlessly pursues his lifelong quest to create the perfect piece of sushi.

“David Gelb’s thoughtful and wonderful documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, explores the dedication of this humble, bespectacled man, and the Zen-like focus he has for his work – or, as many would claim, for his art.” – Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
“One of the film’s best moments of deliciousness comes with the revelation that Yoshikazu, rather than his father, made the sushi that won the Michelin inspectors over; so much for working humbly in the old man’s shadow.” – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
“For all the trite sayings that come to mind, the story feels exceptional thanks to the subject, a self-made perfectionist still pursuing culinary transcendence.” – Stephanie Merry, Washington Post

 

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Running Time: 81 minutes81 MIN
PG Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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Parents Weekend: RAISING ARIZONA

Watch Trailer Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Writer(s): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman

We’re celebrating OU Parents weekend with a showing of RAISING ARIZONA, an early Coen Brothers favorite about a couple (Nic Cage and Holly Hunter) who want to have a child… so they take one.

A surreal, hyperactive farce in which a bumbling petty thief and the lady cop who keeps arresting him fall in love and decide to start a family. When they discover they can’t have babies, they steal one from a furniture mogul who has just sired a set of quintuplets. The joys of parenthood are soon marred, however, by the difficulties of raising an infant on the run. The none-too-bright couple must flee across the southwestern desert in order to elude the villainous biker that has been hired to retrieve the tyke.

“A wacky, happy, daring, darkly comic tale of parenting outside the law.” -Rita Kempley, Washington Post

“Starting from a point of delirious excess, the film leaps into dark and virtually uncharted territory to soar like a comet.” -Geoff Andrew, Time Out

“To their old fascination with Sunbelt pathology, to their side-winding Steadicam and pristine command of screen space, the Coens have added a robust humor, a plot that keeps outwitting expectations and a…dollop of sympathy for their forlorn kidnapers.” -Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine

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Running Time: 94 minutes94 MIN
PG-13 Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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100 Years of Athena: DO THE RIGHT THING

Watch Trailer Director: Spike Lee
Writer(s): Spike Lee
Cast: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee

Director Spike Lee dives head-first into a maelstrom of racial and social ills, using as his springboard the hottest day of the year on one block in Brooklyn, NY. Salvatore “Sal” Fragione (Danny Aiello) is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito), becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria’s Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin’ Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin’ Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.

“Comes closer to reflecting the current state of race relations in America than any other movie of our time.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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Running Time: 120 Minutes120 MIN
R Rated

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No Pryor Knowledge: WATTSTAX

Watch Trailer Director: Mel Stuart
Cast: The Dramatics, The Staple Singers, Kim Weston
Language: English

This is a documentary about the 1972 Watts Summer Festival, which culminated in a day long concert by Stax Records artists at a sold-out Los Angeles Coliseum. The concert was headlined by Issac Hayes and the support acts included Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla, the Bar Kays and the Staple Singers. The film also features commentary by many African Americans who comment on how things were in Watts since the riots that tore the city apart seven years earlier.

“A candid, colorful and deeply meaningful sociocultural time capsule, one that captured the black community at the height of its political energy and optimism.” – Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post

“Not only documents the soul-titan concert held at L.A. Coliseum seven years after Watts burned, but illuminates the rue and kinesis of a city in full Black Power flower.” – Laura Sinagra, Village Voice

“The film is saved by the raw power of the performances, and especially, Richard Pryor’s bitterly funny observations.” – Michael Scheinfeld, TV Guide Magazine

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Running Time: 103 minutes103 MIN
R Rated

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