Margaret's Museum
Directed by Mort Ransen, this touching love story stars Helena Bonham Carter as an independent woman in a 1940s Nova Scotia coal-mining town who falls for a free spirited bag piping Scotsman. But when they fall on hard times will he be forced to go back to the mines?
(1995, Canada, 114 mins)
The Searchers
One of the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest American Movies.
A Western classic from the director John Ford starring John Wayne as a Civil War vet. Ethan Edwards sets off to find his kidnapped niece but as the quest continues Edwards' motivation becomes increasingly questionable.
"A rip-snorting Western, as brashly entertaining as they come."- New York Times
(1956, USA, 119 mins)
The Philadelphia Story
One of the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest American Movies.
Starring Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart in the adaptation of the Broadway hit, the film tells the story of a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the arrival of her ex-husband and a tabloid journalist. Directed by George Cukor.
"Lifts the daily drudge into a charming never-never land. And besides, it's good, entertaining show."- TIME Magazine
(1940, USA, 112 mins)
Waste Land
Directed by Lucy Walker, this Oscar nominated documentary follows artist Vik Muniz (who showed at Real Art Ways in 1993) to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump. There he collaborates with the brilliant catadores (pickers ofo recyclable material) as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage.
(2010, Brazil, 99 mins)
Pizzicata
The pizzicata is a courtship dance performed in Italy. During World War II an Italian-American pilot is downed in Italy's rural Salentino peninsula. Rescued and hidden by a man with three daughters, the plot thickens as the pilot falls for the engaged daughter and she reluctantly falls for him.
Directed by Edoardo Winspeare.
(1996, USA, 93 mins)
Imitation of Life
Douglas Sirk made "women's films" or "weepies in the 50s with big stars and hidden social commentaries about the stifling conformity of the day. In this much imitated and much admired film, prejudice haunts two women (Lana Turner and Juanita Moore) and their daughters (Sandra Dee and Susan Kohner).
(1959, USA, 125 mins)
Deep Time Revealed:
Geological Tour of Central Connecticut
See the central Connecticut valley like never before.
Acclaimed geologist Robert Thorson will lead a journey across Connecticut - and through deep time - that will reveal the astonishing geological history of our region, stone by stone.
Thorson, who is a writer, journalist and professor of geology at the University of Connecticut, has over thirty years' experience as a geologist and has written four books on signature landforms, including Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History of New England's Stone Walls.
Passengers will embark at 10 AM on a comfortable coach bus with Robert Thorson at Real Art Ways. The tour will go north towards Massachusetts before heading southeast toward Storrs, where guests will have the opportunity to enjoy lunch and a lecture amid a blossoming spring landscape. (Bring your own bag lunch - we'll provide beverages and snacks!)
The tour will continue on its journey back west, taking the winding trails of scenic Connecticut through Bolton and Coventry, arriving back at Real Art Ways at 2 PM.
Don't miss this rare opportunity to learn about our region's untold history from a renowned expert. And for those who would like to celebrate both our Mother Earth and the mothers in their lives, this tour is a fantastic gift idea.
Domicile Conjugal (Bed and Board)
The fourth film in Truffaut's chronicle of Antoine Doinel. Expecting a child and still struggling for work, Doinel involves himself in an affair that threatens his marriage.
"Bed and Board is an exuberant domestic comedy that has quite a lot of unhappiness just beneath the surface. [...] Bed and Board, however, is never solemn. It is full of affection for the idiosyncrasies of that kind of petite bourgeoisie that only an outsider could love. [...]
Bed and Board is a kind of diary of thoughts, jokes, perceptions, movie routines, guilts, and aspirations, composed by one of our most complex filmmakers, who explores films while exploring himself." - Vincent Canby, New York Times Critic's Pick!
French with English subtitles.
(1970, France, 97 mins)
It Happened Here
Directed by Kevin Brownlow. It Happened Here presents history as it might have happened had England lost the Battle of Britain.
"It Happened Here is a masterpiece of independent cinema that will chill audiences to the bone. Released in England in 1964, it's an undiscovered classic that has languished for almost 36 years without American distribution. [...] Made on a shoestring by co-directors Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo, the film is meticulously crafted. - Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
(1965, UK, 93 mins)
Grey Gardens
A documentary about reclusive Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who live their eccentric lives in a filthy, decaying mansion in East Hampton.
After the film, we'll speak with Grey Gardens director Albert Maysles using Skype video chat.
(1975, USA, 100 mins)
White Christmas
Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) are army buddies from World War II who have become a very successful song and dance team. Davis plays matchmaker and introduces Wallace to a pair of beautiful sisters (Betty and Judy, played by Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen) who also have a song-and-dance act.
When Betty and Judy travel to a Vermont lodge to perform a Christmas show, Wallace and Davis follow, only to find their former commander, General Waverly, is the lodge owner. A series of romantic mix-ups ensue as the performers try to help the General.
(USA, 1954, 120 mins)
Dodes'ka-den
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Episodes from the lives of a group of Tokyo slum-dwellers: Rokkuchan, a mentally disabled boy who brings meaning and routine to his life by driving an imaginary streetcar; children who support their parents by scrounging or by tedious and ill-paying endeavours; and schemers who plot or dream of escaping the shackles of poverty.
(Japan, 1970, 140 mins)
In Japanese with English subtitles
Sparrows
produced by and starring Mary Pickford
Evil Mr. Grimes keeps a rag-tag bunch of orphans on his farm deep in a swamp in the US South. He forces them to work in his garden and treats them like slaves. They are watched over by the eldest, Molly.
A gang in league with Mr. Grimes kidnaps Doris, the beautiful little daughter of a rich man, and hides her out on Grimes' farm, awaiting ransom. When the police close in, and Mr. Grimes threatens to throw Doris into the bottomless mire, Molly must lead her little flock out through the alligator-infested swamp.
(1926, USA, 84 mins)
Rivers and Tides
Portrait of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist whose specialty is ephemeral sculptures made from elements of nature.
Our post-film discussion will be facilitated by artist and art critic Olu Oguibe, whose 46-foot stonewall is currently in the Real Art Ways gallery.
"Watching this movie is like daydreaming." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"Intoxicating and meditative by turns, helped by Fred Frith's minimalist score, this film opens a portal into a singular creative mind." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
(Germany, Finland, UK, Canada, 2001, 90 mins)
Guys and Dolls
starring Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Stubby Kaye, Jean Simmons
All the hot gamblers are in town, and they're all depending on Nathan Detroit to set up this week's incarnation of "The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York"; the only problem is, he needs $1000 to get the place.
Throw in Sarah Brown, who's short on sinners at the mission she runs; Sky Masterson, who accepts Nathan's $1000 bet that he can't get Sarah Brown to go with him to Havana; Miss Adelaide, who wants Nathan to marry her; Police Lieutenant Brannigan, who always seems to appear at the wrong time; and the music/lyrics of Frank Loesser, and you've got quite a musical.
Includes the songs: "Fugue for Tinhorns," "Luck Be a Lady," and "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat."
(1955, USA, 150 mins)
Stolen Kisses
Jean-Pierre Leaud stars in the third film of François Truffaut's Antoine Doinel series. The film tells of Antoine's misadventures with his first love and many odd jobs.
Note: There will be no matinée screening on Monday, September 6, due to Labor Day.
(1968, France, 90 mins)
In French, with subtitles
They Came to Play
with a post-film piano concert
post-film piano performances by Larry Harris.
An uplifting documentary chronicling the passion, pressures and potential surrounding the International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs hosted by The Van Cliburn Foundation. The players are from all over the world, ranging from self-taught to classically-trained, aged thirty-five to almost eighty.
Entertaining, irreverent, and above all, inspiring, the film provides an intimate look into the lives of these colorful, multi-faceted competitors as they strive to balance the demands of work and family with their love of music.
(91 mins)
About Larry Harris:
Larry Harris, a resident of Madison, CT, grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, where his music studies began at age 6. He has appeared as soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and has been a frequent participant in chamber music programs, including Summertrios and the Bay Chamber Concerts Chamber Music Weekend. Over the last several years he has also participated in piano competitions for amateurs in Paris, Berlin, New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago, Fort Worth and Colorado Springs. Larry retired ten years ago, after a 35-year long career in investment management and investment banking, and resumed the full-time study of piano. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.
- official site - They Came To Play
The Lady Killers
Starring Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green, Jack Warner and Katie Johnson.
A gang planning a 'job' find themselves living with a little old lady who thinks they are musicians. When the gang set out to kill Mrs Wilberforce, they run into one problem after another, and they get what they deserve.
(91 mins)
NOTE: There will be NO matinée screening on Monday, July 5 due to the holiday.
- Links coming soon!
Chariots of Fire
Post-film discussion with Laura Nova. Her solo exhibition, Limited Run, opens Thursday, May 20.
Director Hugh Hudson's absorbing drama, based on a true story, deals with the personal struggles faced by two very different long-distance runners competing for Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games.
- Links coming soon!
DAYTRIP:
Storm King Art Center
With a stop at the
Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art
Depart from Real Art Ways at 8 AM
Arrive at Real Art Ways at 6 PM
Join us for a daytrip to The Storm King Art Center! Five hundred acres of landscaped lawns, fields and woodlands provide the site for postwar sculptures by internationally renowned artists.
Divorce Italian Style
Critic’s Pick: “Deliciously ingenious and grandly diabolic.”
- The New York Times
Pietro Germi’s hilarious and pointed satire is the prototypical Italian sex comedy.
Citizen Kane
Matinée Movie
[watch the original theatrical trailer]
“More than a great movie; it is a gathering of all the lessons of the emerging era of sound.” - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Orson Welles’s directorial debut charts the rise and fall of Charles Foster Kane.
Brooklyn Museum
Daytrip
We're taking a daytrip to the Brooklyn Museum. You should come, too. The Brooklyn museum is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the country. Its world-renowned permanent collections range from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art. We won't have time to tour the whole space, so we're focusing this trip on the contemporary art collection. After the tour, you'll have time to explore some of the other areas of the museum and grounds, including the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.
Reserve a spot on the bus by calling or emailing Brandy Rollins: 860.232.1006 x 103 or brollins@realartways.org
Photo by Chion Wolf
The Seventh Seal
Matinée Movie
"Essentially intellectual, yet emotionally stimulating too, it is as tough – and rewarding – as the moviegoer has had to face this year." - Bosley Crowther, The New York Times
"This is an uncompromising film, regarding good and evil with the same simplicity and faith as its hero." -Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
After ten years fighting in the Crusades, a knight returns to his homeland, only to find it ravaged by plague. When Death comes to collect, the Knight challenges him to a game of chess so that he can buy enough time to gain insight into the meaning of life. Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
Hidden Fortress
Matinée Movie
A pair of misfit soldiers fleeing the enemy after a disastrous defeat fall in with a general in search of a huge cache of gold and a kidnapped princess in exile. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, the film was the basis for George Lucas's adaptation of Star Wars.
Departures
Matinée Movie
This film has been so popular that we're bringing it back for a matinée screening.
"...the movie is uncommonly absorbing." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"...a gentle film about a quiet man in conflict with his world, his father, himself. It is also about death and its rituals. Yet the film manages to be anything but dark; whimsy and sweet irony are laced throughout, a warmhearted blend that turned it into the surprise winner of 2008's Oscar for foreign-language film." - Betsy Sharkey, LA Times
When a small symphony orchestra in Tokyo disbands, cellist Daigo Kobyashi is suddenly unemployed. He moves back to his hometown an answers a Help Wanted ad for "Departures," which he assumes is a travel agency. Not asking the details of the job until after being hired, Daigo finds himself (and, well, finds himself) preparing bodies for cremation.
(Japan, 130 min) in Japanese with English subtitles
Amarcord
Matinée Movie
"...Federico Fellini's most marvelous film. It's an extravagantly funny, sometimes dreamlike evocation of a year in the life of a small Italian coastal town" - Vincent Canby, New York Times
In this carnivalesque portrait of provincial Italy during the Fascist period, Federico Fellini’s most personal film satirizes his youth and turns daily life into a circus of social rituals, adolescent desires, male fantasies, and political subterfuge, all set to Nina Rota’s classic, nostalgia-tinged score. The Academy Award–winning Amarcord remains one of cinema’s enduring treasures.
Sound of the Soul: The Fez Music Festival
Matinée Movie
Discussion after the film with Joan Walden, Adjunct professor of Film Appreciation at Manchester Community College
Every year, thousands of musicians and fans gather in Morocco, known for religious tolerance, for the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music. The musicians come from Muslim, Christian, and Jewish backgrounds, all connected through their artistry by profound expressions of love and longing. In a world increasingly polarized by religious conflicts and fundamentalist forces, Sound of the Soul is a timely and profound experiential journey.
M. Hulot's Holiday
Matinée Movie
Discussion after the film with Lieve Keeney, St. Joseph’s College, Expertise in Belgium and France
"When has a film so subtly and yet so completely captured nostalgia for past happiness? The movie is about the simplest of human pleasures: The desire to get away for a few days, to play instead of work, to breathe in the sea air, and maybe meet someone nice." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Directed by and starring Jaques Tati. M. Hulot's Holiday is reminiscent of silent films from the 20's and 30's, with visual gags and wordless punch lines. The film follows the mishaps of M. Hulot as he attempts to relax while staying at a Brittany resort.
Day Trip:
MASS MoCA
You’re invited to join Real Art Ways staff on a day trip to Mass MoCA in the Berkshires for a guided tour of the Sol LeWitt exhibition, A Wall Drawing Retrospective. Featuring 105 of LeWitt’s large-scale wall drawings spanning the artist’s career from 1969 to 2007, the exhibition occupies nearly an acre of specially-built interior walls that have been installed—per LeWitt’s own specifications—over three stories of a historic mill building.
Space is limited! Reserve your spot now by calling 860-232-1006 x103
Virtual JFK:
Vietnam if Kennedy had Lived
Matinée Movie
"Elegantly constructed. The question: can an individual leader take a nation to, or keep it from, war? The conclusion: individual temperament matters, and John F. Kennedy's example proves it." - J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
Discussion after the film with director Koji Masutani
Virtual JFK investigates one of the most debated "what if" scenarios in the history of U.S. foreign policy: What would President John F. Kennedy have done in Vietnam if he had not been assassinated in 1963, and had he been re-elected in 1964?
from the director's statement:
"Virtual JFK is a relevant film that addresses these questions by looking at the way President Kennedy dealt with six deep foreign policy crises (Cuba to Vietnam) without going to war. Combining footage from numerous Kennedy press conferences, in-depth interviews and a close reading of the documentary record, the film argues that critical decisions about the use of restraint and coercive diplomacy often require greater acts of courage than the use of force, and that character matters greatly in Presidential leadership."
Shoot the Piano Player
Matinée Movie
Discussion after the film with Deborah Gaudet – Curator of Film and Theater at Wadsworth Atheneum
François Truffaut is drunk on the possibilities of cinema in this, his most playful film. Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Shoot the Piano Player relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague.
Pygmalion
Matinée Movie
"Pygmalion is good Shaw and a grand show." - Frank S. Nugent, New York Times (1938 review)
Discussion after the film with Helene Kvale, Professor, UConn's Department of Dramatic Arts.
George Bernard Shaw's modernization of the classical myth and the basis for My Fair Lady. Stars Leslie Howard as Henry Higgins.
Written on the Wind
Matinée Movie
"This is a perverse and wickedly funny melodrama in which you can find the seeds of Dallas, Dynasty, and all the other prime-time soaps. Sirk is the one who established their tone, in which shocking behavior is treated with passionate solemnity, while parody burbles beneath." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Discussion after the film with Meghan Dahn, Real Art Ways Staff.
Mitch Wayne and Kyle Hadley are childhood best friends. Kyle's sister, Marylee, wants to marry Mitch. Mitch wants to marry Lucy, but so does Kyle. Kyle gets Lucy, Lucy gets pregnant...but Kyle is impotent! The circle of "friends" spiral out of control as accusations fly in this melodrama starring Lauren Bacall, Rock Hudson, and Robert Stack.
Obscene
Matinée Movie
Discussion after the screening with Will K. Wilkins, Executive Director of Real Art Ways
Obscene is a look at the life of publisher Barney Rosset, who fought to publish some of the most important and controversial writers of the 20th century. Through Grove Press and the Evergreen Review, Rosset published the otherwise unpublishable. The names are now iconic: Samuel Beckett, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Edward Albee, and more. Documentarians Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor assert that Rosset didn't just shape his times; he was also a product of them.
The Lady Vanishes
Matinée Movie
Discussion after the screening with Joan Walden, Adjunct Professor of Film, Manchester Community College
In Alfred Hitchcock's most quick-witted and devilish comic thriller, the beautiful Margaret Lockwood, traveling across Europe by train, meets Dame May Whitty’s charming old spinster, who seemingly disappears into thin air.
Tous les matins du monde
Matinée Movie
Racked with grief after his wife's untimely death, gifted viola da gamba player Monsieur de Sainte Colombe moves into a small house in his garden to keep himself and his two young daughters safe from the outside world. But their solitude is broken when a young musician comes calling in search of a lesson.
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra: A Working Rehearsal
Culture & Conversation
Rather than sit passively and let the music wash over you, you're invited to participate in an actual rehearsal. The Symphony's French Horn Quartet will sight-read a piece of music. You'll witness the speed bumps and errors that are all part of a real rehearsal. Come prepared to ask questions, offer suggestions, and make comments as the rehearsal progresses.
Words and Music by Jerry Herman
Matinée Movie
Monday, November 3, 2008
Amber Edwards' documentary celebrates the life and talent of the gifted composer-lyricist who gave us Mame, Hello, Dolly!, and La Cage aux Folles. Rehersal sessions and never-before-seen archival footage of original Broadway performances create a warm and humorous portrait of a living theater legend.
Director Amber Edwards will join us for a post-film talk, with Real Art Ways film programmer John Morrison.
(2007, US)
ICA/Boston
Daytrip
We really enjoyed the trip that Real Art Ways staff members and supporters made to dia:beacon earlier this year. And we're insatiable! We want to go on more trips with you.
An influential forum for multi-disciplinary arts, the Institute of Contemporary Art has been at the leading edge of art in Boston for seventy years. Like its iconic building on Boston's waterfront, the ICA offers new ways of engaging with the world around us. Its exhibitions and programs provide access to contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas.
Anita O'Day, Life of a Jazz Singer
Matinée Movie
Before her death in November 2006 at age 86, Anita O'Day, one of jazz's most complex and rhythmic vocalists, smiled on the music world for six decades. This film portrait captures all the magic that took this sly Chicago native, a girl who could hold her own against Billie and Ella, from Gene Krupa's bandstand to solo stardom. Film footage of Anita O'Day's appearance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, immortalized in the 1960 documentary Jazz on a Summer's Day and excerpted here, may be the defining moment of the post-bebop era.
After the screening, Nicki Mathis from The Many Colors of Women Inc. will lead a discussion.
(US, 2007, 90 min)
Brief Encounter
Though he might be best remembered for sweeping epics such as DOCTOR ZHIVAGO and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, renowned British director David Lean began his film career with small-scale character studies based on the plays of Noel Coward. Lean's fourth film, BRIEF ENCOUNTER - which was also his fourth and final collaboration with Coward - adapts the playwright's heartbreaking tale of two ordinary people caught up in the extraordinary power of love.
Laura (Celia Johnson) is a seemingly happy, middle-class housewife who meets the equally married physician Alec (a young Trevor Howard in only his third screen role) when he removes a speck of dust from her eye at a London railway station. The pair soon find themselves drawn together through weekly meetings at the station cafe, their casual encounters blooming into a chaste love affair marked by intimate conversation, longing glances - and the tragic realization that neither of them will be able to break the bonds of social propriety that keep them wedded to other people.
Seen by some as quintessentially English, Lean's achingly lovely exploration of the conflicting demands of personal happiness and social responsibility remains nonetheless universal and timeless. Johnson and Howard's nuanced performances, Robert Krasker's shadowy cinematography, and a soundtrack of hauntingly romantic Rachmaninov piano concertos only add to the film's aura of quiet desperation.
(UK, 87 min.)
Culture & Conversation
Sam McKinniss and Corinne Beardsley
Meet Sam McKinniss and Corinne Rae Beardsley for a special conversation between these emerging New England artists. You will have a tour of our latest exhibitions from the artists themselves. This program includes a light lunch.
Matinée Movies
King of Masks
Real Art Ways screened this film years ago and audiences loved it. We're presenting it again, as a one-time screening, with a discussion following.
At the end of his life, The King of Masks (Chu Yuk), a master of an ancient and revered form of mask making, seeks to pass on his craft. However, tradition dictates that he can only teach the form to a male heir. Desperate to preserve his art, and in some sense himself, the heirless old man purchases a destitute child on the black market. When the boy reveals an unexpected secret, The King of Masks is torn between filial affection and ancient customs.
Culture & Conversation
Jeanne Manzelli
Local muralist and painter Jeanne Manzelli will be setting up shop in our Real Room. Her paintings exhibit a gestural quality that's filled with movement and vitality. Learn about her art and her process while watching her work right before your eyes.
A Lecturer on Visual Arts at Tunxis Community College, Jeanne will host a guided tour of our exhibitions following her workshop. We're looking forward to hearing her perspective on the work!
Jeanne on her art: "At this point my imagination is caught by Hartford and the changes that
bring its past and present into balance. Murals, print, and folding screens are the art forms that this interest is taking."
Matinée Movies
Sense and Sensibility
Actress Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay for and stars in this adaptation of Jane Austen's SENSE AND SENSIBILITY—a novel that perceptively examines the social manners and laws of early-19th-century Britain.
Set in the English countryside, the film follows the loves and heartaches of sisters Elinor (Thompson) and Marianne Dashwood (Kate Winslet). The two have extremely divergent approaches to life: Elinor represents "sense" and believes in behaving with propriety and thoughtfulness, while Marianne represents "sensibility" and basks in her own emotions. Both women, however, experience confusion when their lovers, seemingly on the verge of proposing marriage, spurn them.
For director Ang Lee, the film marks a break from his Father Knows Best trilogy, which examined the problems of the contemporary Taiwanese family. Many people questioned whether an Asian director could handle an English period film. Lee answered those questions with a gorgeous film that both captures the nuances of Austen's novel and proves that Lee is a first-rate director capable of tackling any material. Featuring Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman, among others, the stellar cast inspired Lee to flatteringly exclaim, "Can everyone in England act?"
(United States, 136 minutes)
Dia:Beacon
Day Trip
Join Real Art Ways staff members for a visit to the Dia Arts Foundation's renowned collection of art from the 1960s to the present, in beautiful Beacon, New York.
Tickets, on sale now, are: $35 for seniors/students/Real Art Ways members, and $45 for the general public.
Cost includes transportation from Real Art Ways to Dia:Beacon, museum admission, and docent tours. Lunch (not included) is available at the museum cafe, with light fare including coffee, pastries, sandwiches, salads and soups.
For more information and to save your spot, please contact Trudi Lebron at 860-232-1006 x103.
Strictly Ballroom
Matinée Movies
Scott Hastings is a champion-caliber ballroom dancer, but much to the chagrin of the Australian ballroom dance community, Scott believes in dancing "his own steps." Fran is a beginning dancer — and a bit of an ugly duckling — with the audacity to ask Scott to be her partner, after his unorthodox style causes his regular partner to dance out of his life. Together, these two misfits try to win the Australian Pan Pacific Championships and prove the Ballroom Confederation wrong when they say, "there are no new steps!"
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
(Austrailia, 94 min.)
Salsa performer and instructor extraordinaire David Polon will demonstrate his moves and facilitate an audience discussion about competitive ballroom dancing.
Talk by Connecticut Author Howard Layton
Culture & Cocktails
WWII Royal Air Force Navigator, electrical engineer, inventor, airplane pilot, entrepreneur, professional actor, and published author Howard Layton will be on hand for an afternoon of literature and laughs.
Music provided by a Hartt School of Music solo jazz keyboardist.
Music from the Inside Out
Matinée Movies
Music from the Inside Out is the result of a unique five-year collaboration between Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Anker and the 105 musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The film explores the intersection of art and life through the stories, passions, and artistry of some of the finest musicians in the world.
Groundbreaking in style and approach, the main character of the film is music itself. Incorporating a blend of well-loved musical works including classical, jazz, bluegrass, salsa, and world music, the film features an eclectic, intoxicating soundtrack.
Jeff Krieger, Gene Bozzi and Rick Rozie from the Hartford Symphony will be on hand to discuss the film and their lives as professional musicians. In addition to performing with the symphony, Mr. Bozzi is Music Department Chair of the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, and Mr. Rozie is also an accomplished jazz musician.
The Red Shoes
Matinée Movies
Based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a pair of enchanted crimson ballet slippers, 'The Red Shoes' follows the beautiful Vicky Page (Moira Shearer), a young socialite who loves ballet, the rising composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring) whom she loves, and her dictatorial director, Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook).
The film will be preceded by a special discussion led by ballet dancer Hilda Morales. Currently a member of the dance faculty at the Hartt School, Morales began her career at the Ballet San Juan. She was a featured dancer in the movie The Turning Point. Ms. Morales will be on hand to answer questions about the dance and film industries and to chat.
Real Art Ways' daytime programs are made possible by support from:
