HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR

Friday, April 19 from 8:30 – 10 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Hiroshima, Mon Amour is a 1959 French film directed by Alain Resnais and is considered one of the high water marks of French New Wave cinema. It follows the intense conversation of a Japanese-American couple, known only as “She” and “He,” as they remember and recount traumatic events of World War II. Using brief flashbacks, Resnais sets his audience off-balance, making them never sure if what they’re seeing occurred in 1945 or in 1959. In form and in content, this film challenges its viewers to explore the roles of memory and point-of-view in understanding tragedy.

View an excerpt from the film:

MILK

Friday, April 12 from 7 – 9 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Of Milk, Roger Ebert wrote, “In 1977, Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States….Milk made a powerful appeal to closeted gays to come out to their families, friends and co-workers, so the straight world might stop demonizing an abstract idea….Milk didn’t enter politics as much as he was pushed in by the evidence of his own eyes. He ran for the Board of Supervisors three times before being elected in 1977. He campaigned for a gay rights ordinance. He organized. He acquired a personal bullhorn and stood on a box labeled “SOAP.” He forged an alliance including liberals, unions, longshoremen, teachers, Latinos, blacks and others with common cause. He developed a flair for publicity. He became a fiery orator. Already known as the Mayor of Castro Street, he won public office. It was a bully pulpit from which to challenge rabble rousers like Anita Bryant….Milk tells Harvey Milk’s story as one of a transformed life, a victory for individual freedom over state persecution, and a political and social cause. There is a remarkable shot near the end, showing a candlelight march reaching as far as the eyes can see. This is actual footage. It is emotionally devastating. And it comes as the result of one man’s decisions in life.”

EL NORTE

Friday, March 15

6:30-9 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Of El Norte, a 1983 film directed by Gregory Nava, Roger Ebert said “From the very first moments…, we know that we are in the hands of a great movie. It tells a simple story in such a romantic and poetic way that we are touched, deeply and honestly, and we know we will remember the film for a long time. The movie tells the story of two young Guatemalans, a brother and sister named Rosa and Enrique, and of their long trek up through Mexico to el Norte — the United States. Their journey begins in a small village and ends in Los Angeles, and their dream is the American Dream. But El Norte takes place in the present, when we who are already Americans are not so eager for others to share our dream. Enrique and Rosa are not brave immigrants who could have been our forefathers, but two young people alive now, who look through the tattered pages of an old Good Housekeeping for their images of America.”

Even today, El Norte  captures the issues of the U.S. immigration debate, despite being filmed 30 years ago. The film was the first independent movie to be honored with an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay and has been selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry for its cultural, historical and aesthetic significance.

Friday, March 1

7 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Katja von Garnier’s “Iron Jawed Angels” tells the remarkable and little-known story of a group of passionate and dynamic young women, led by Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and her friend Lucy Burns (Frances O’Connor), who put their lives on the line to fight for American women’s right to vote.

Swank and O’Connor head an outstanding female ensemble, with Julia Ormond, Molly Parker, Laura Fraser, Brooke Smith and Vera Farmiga as a rebel band of young women seeking their seat at the table; and such cinematic icons as Lois Smith, Margo Martindale, and Anjelica Huston as the steely older generation of suffragettes.

This true story has startling parallels to today, as the young activists struggle with issues such as the challenges of protesting a popular President during wartime and the perennial balancing act between love and career. Utilizing a pulsing soundtrack, vivid colors, and a freewheeling camera, Katja von Garnier’s (“bandits”) driving filmmaking style shakes up the preconceptions of the period film and gives history a vibrant contemporary energy and relevance.

Capitães da Areia (Captains of the Sands)

Friday, January 11

7 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Salvador, Bahia – In Brazil, alive with the charm of the 1950s, a gang of street kids known as “Capitães da Areia” [Captains of the Sands] is committing petty thefts and sophisticated mansion robberies and as a result are hunted like common criminals. As we draw closer, we see that they are just children, almost a hundred of them, completely abandoned. But they won’t be children for long: by the end of this odyssey, many will have become men. This feature film, based on the novel by Jorge Amado, shows a year in the lives of these boys, their incredible adventures, their most wonderful dreams, their visits to hell, and their discoveries of both death and freedom.

LE GAMIN AU VELO OR THE KID WITH A BIKE

Friday, January 4

7 – 8:30 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Co-winner of the Grand Prix at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, The Kid With a Bike or Le Gamin au Velo features Cyril, almost 12, who has only one plan: to find the father who left him temporarily in a children’s home. By chance he meets Samanatha, who runs a hairdressing salon and agrees to let him stay with her on weekends. Samantha accompanies Cyril in his search for his bicycle, his father, and answers. Cyril doesn’t recognize the love Samantha feels for him, a love he desperately needs to calm his rage.

Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and starring Cecile de France and Thomas Doret.

Joyeux Noël

Friday, December 7

7-9 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Joyeux Noel is a 2005 French film depicting the well-known Christmas armistice that occurred in 1914 during the Great War. On Christmas Eve 1914, a remarkable event took place in the trenches where the Germans faced the British and the French. There was a spontaneous cease-fire, as the troops on both sides laid down their weapons and observed the birth of the savior in whose name they were killing each other. In this moment, men from each side discover what they have in common: they come from the same kinds of homes, went to the same kinds of schools and worship the same kinds of Gods. They are required to fight, and most of them are required to die.

GLORY

Friday, November 16, 7-9 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Glory stars Matthew Broderick as Colonel Robert Gould Shaw with Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington as two of the members of the 54^th Massachusetts Regiment, one of the first African American regiments in the Union Army. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert wrote, “These men are proud to be soldiers, proud to wear the uniform and also too proud to accept the racism they see all around them, as when a decision is made to pay black troops less than white. Blacks march as far, bleed as much and die as soon, they argue. Why should they be paid less for the same work? …[This question provokes a] turning point for the 54th, fusing the officers and men together into a unit with mutual trust.” But can they prove their worth to the Union army as a whole?

LITTLE WOMEN

Saturday, October 13, 7-9 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Little Women (1994), based on Louisa May Alcott’s novel of the same name, features Winona Ryder as Jo March with Trini Alvarado, Kirsten Dunst and Claire Danes as her three sisters. The film follows the coming of age of Alcott’s Little Women, four sisters growing up in a family of a Transcendentalist bent (like Alcott’s own) and living in the years during and immediately following the American Civil War. Jo’s and her sisters’ trials present Alcott’s views on the struggles for women in postbellum America and her beliefs about how American women should embrace aspects of the domestic sphere like marriage and motherhood while stepping into the world, in this case as writers (like Jo) and artists (like Amy).

WEST SIDE STORY

Friday, October 12, 7-9:30 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

See Tony of the Jets and Maria of the Sharks embody the classic tale of Romeo of the house of Montague and Juliet of the house of Capulet in a whole new way.

NEW YET OLD—a tale from Ovid’s Metamorphoses IV, 55-166, used by Shakespeare in his tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, and in Act V of his comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, NOW ALIVE in New York City, in bursting song and thrilling dance:

WEST SIDE STORY

“This ‘brilliant’ (The New Republic) film sets the ageless story of Romeo and Juliet against a backdrop of gang warfare in 1950s New York. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins and scripted by Ernest Lehman, the film combines Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s unforgettable score (‘Maria,’ ‘America,’ ‘Somewhere,’ ‘Tonight’) with Robbins’s own exuberant choreography to achieve an exhilarating ‘work of art’” (Saturday Review).