cinema | independent film & video 7 nights a week
Admission:Film Fieldtrips Available for School Groups
Schedule subject to change. Call 860.232.1006 to confirm.
2 for 1 on Monday & Tuesday with the GHAC Let*s Go! Arts Card
Logorama
Matter of Loaf and Death
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
Instead of Abracadabra
[watch trailers for each film at the official site]
We're screening the short films nominated for Oscars, in live action and animated.
Total running time: 101 mins.
"
The Door" dir. Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
Ireland (Russian, 17 min.)
A man and his family deal with the terrible aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.
"Instead of Abracadabra" dir. Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellstrom
Sweden (Swedish, 18 min.)
Tomas is a bit too old to still be living at home with his parents, but his failure to become a magician leaves him with no other choice. His father Bengt wants him to get a proper job. At Bengt’s 60th birthday party, Tomas gives him and all his guests a quite bizarre magic show.
"Kavi" dir. Gregg Helvy
USA, India (Hindi, 19 min.)
Kavi is a boy in India who wants to play cricket and go to school, but instead he is forced to work in a brick kiln as a modern-day slave. Unsatisfied with his fate, Kavi must either accept what he’s always been told, or fight for a different life even if he’s unsure of the ultimate outcome.
"Miracle Fish" dir. Luke Dollan and Drew Bailey
Australia
(English, 18 min.)
8-year-old Joe has a birthday he will never forget. After friends tease him, he sneaks off to the sick bay, wishing everyone in the world would go away. He wakes up to find his dream may have become a reality.
"The New Tenants" dir. Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson
USA, Denmark
(English, 20 min.)
A prying neighbour, a glassy-eyed drug dealer, and a husband brandishing both a weapon and a vendetta (played by Vincent D’Onofrio), make up the welcome wagon. Set amidst the as-yet-unopened boxes and the hopes for a fresh start of two men on what might just be the worst moving day ever. Their new apartment reveals its terrifying history in a film that is by turns funny, frightening, and unexpectedly romantic. Also starring Kevin Corrigan & David Rakoff.
Total running time: 101 mins.
"French Roast" dir.
Fabrice O. Joubert
France (French, 8 min.)
A businessman drinking coffee in a Parisian café discovers that he has lost his wallet. To save time, he decides to order more coffee.
"Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty" dir. Nicky Phelan and Darrgh O‚Connell
Ireland (English, 6 min.)
Granny O’Grimm, a seemingly sweet old lady, loses the plot as she tells her version of the Sleeping Beauty story to her terrified granddaughter.
"The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)" dir. Javier Recio Gracia
Spain
(Non-dialogue, 8 min.)
A sweet old lady lives alone on her farm, waiting for death so that she can see her beloved husband once again. One night, she is invited to enter death's domain, but a determined doctor ruins everything.
"A Matter of Loaf and Death" dir. Nick Park
United Kingdom
(English, 29 min.)
Wallace & Gromit have started a new bread baking business, ‘Top Bun’ and converted 62 West Wallaby Street into a granary with ovens, robotic kneading arms and an old-fashioned windmill on the roof. Although business is booming, Gromit is concerned by the news that a dozen local bakers have ‘disappeared’ this year – but Wallace
isn’t worried. He’s too distracted and ‘dough-eyed’ in love with former beauty and bread enthusiast, Piella Bakewell.
While they enjoy being the ‘Toast of the Town’, Gromit soon realises his master’s life is in jeopardy, and turns sleuth to solve the escalating murder mystery – in what quickly becomes ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death.’
"Logorama" dir. Nicholas Schmerkin
France (English, 17 min.)
In a world made up entirely of trademarks and brand names, Michelin Man cops pursue a criminal Ronald McDonald.
NOTE from the distributor: With the exception of the final film in the animated program, Logorama, all animated films are rated G or PG and suitable for younger audiences. Parents will be given the option to leave before the screening of the final film, if they so choose.
We suggest that concerned parents visit the Oscar Shorts official site and view the trailers for each film.
(all non-English films will be shown with English subtitles)
Screening times
Animated and Live Action nominees screen separately.
Mon 3/8; Weds 3/10: Live: 5 PM
Tues 3/9; Thurs 3/11: Animated: 5 PM
Tales of the City starring Natalie Portman, Shia LaBeouf, Orlando Bloom, Chris Cooper, Ethan Hawke, and Irrfan Khan.
"The rules: No more than two days' shooting time. One week of editing. An eight-minute time limit. Ten directors, and one more to consider the 10 short films and create transitions....The film assembles a collection of colorful characters, who find that eight minutes is quite enough to make an impression, as so many New Yorkers would agree." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
(France, USA; 103 mins.)
Fri 3/5 - Thurs 3/11: 7 PM
"I'm telling you here and now to seek out Fish Tank ...because it's absolute dynamite... It's an explosive female coming-of-age story set against a dreary backdrop of poverty, abuse and neglect." - Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
"In Fish Tank, nothing goes right, yet Mia’s fate never seems preordained. Her constant motion might or might not be her salvation, but it keeps you in suspense until the last frame—and beyond." David Edelstein, New York Magazine
(UK, 123 mins)
Fri 3/12: 7 PM
Sat 3/13: 2 PM; 4:30 PM; 7 PM
Sun 3/14: 4:30 PM; 7 PM
Mon 3/15 - Weds 3/17: 7 PM
An intimate portrait of soul legend Bill Withers, best known for his classics “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean On Me,” “Lovely Day,” “Grandma’s Hands,” and “Just the Two of Us.”
"Still Bill is about a man who topped the charts, walked away from it all in 1985 and is pleased that he did...Withers seems as close to everyday Zen as I can imagine. He talks a great deal about his philosophy, to be sure, but it's direct and manifestly true: Make the most of your chances, do the best you can, stop when you're finished, love your family, enjoy life." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
"Offstage Bill Withers, the eternal hero of karaoke baritones, exhibits the same gift for aphorism and general soulfulness that informed hit songs like “Lean on Me” and “Ain’t No Sunshine.” This makes much of the biographical documentary Still Bill pleasant and even moving. Looking out the window of a car, pondering his place in the culture, Mr. Withers says: 'I think I’m kind of like pennies. You have ’em in your pocket but you don’t remember they’re there.'”
- Mike Hale, The New York Times
(USA, 78 min.)
A triptych of films from directors Julian Jarrold, James Marsh (Man on Wire) and Anand Tucker.
A neo-noir epic based on horrific, factual events and adapted for the screen from David Peace's series of groundbreaking novels. The Red Riding Trilogy follows controversial stories revolving around the manhunt for the brutal Yorkshire Ripper.
"A rich, heady fictionalized biography of the exiled Russian poet Joseph Brodsky..." - Stephen Holden, The New York Times (Critic's Pick!)
(Russia, 130 mins) In Russian, with English subtitles.
"A straight-ahead, enthralling story of moral courage ... So many people risked their livelihoods to put the 7,000-page Pentagon Papers out there... We have not celebrated Daniel Ellsberg enough. Let’s begin."
- David Edelstein, New York Magazine
"Fortunately, the staunchly committed and controversial Ellsberg, now 78, is still around to tell his history-making tale, and he lends the film gravitas as both its persuasive narrator and primary talking head."
- Gary Goldstein, LA Times
"Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's film deserves recognition as an exemplary piece of nonfiction filmmaking, it pulses with the suspense and momentum of a sleek thriller -- a wily caper flick that just happens to revolve around one of the most crucial chapters in recent American history."
- Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
"This is meaty, dramatic stuff - see this movie with your teenagers and watch their jaws hit the floor."
- Ty Burr, Boston Globe
(USA, 82 mins)
More information on the exhibition is on our visual arts page. Films from the West Indies, engaging discussions after. Selected Sundays, at 2 PM. FREE.
See more info on our Education programs
Made possible with the support of Real Art Ways Members, Travelers, the George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation, the Fisher Foundation, the Hartford Courant Foundation, the Kohn-Joseloff Foundation and Lincoln Financial.
More Film Field Trip offerings can be found on our education page.
See more info on our Education programs
Made possible with the support of Real Art Ways Members, Travelers, the George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation, the Fisher Foundation, the Hartford Courant Foundation, the Kohn-Joseloff Foundation and Lincoln Financial.
More Film Field Trip offerings can be found on our education page.
