3 Faces at Real Art Ways

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3 Faces
This is Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s fourth completed feature since he was officially banned from filmmaking.

Well-known actress Behnaz Jafari is distraught by a provincial girl’s video plea for help–oppressed by her family to not pursue her studies at the Tehran drama conservatory.

Behnaz abandons her shoot and turns to filmmaker Jafar Panahi to help solve the mystery of the young girl’s troubles.

They travel by car to the rural northwest where they have amusing encounters with the charming folk of the girl’s mountain village.

But the city visitors soon discover that the protection of age-old traditions is as generous as local hospitality…

I Am Cuba
100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes

The newly restored I Am Cuba is ravishing and surreal — the improved visuals and the single-language soundtrack allow viewers to experience the film’s extraordinary cinematography, sound editing, and narrative power.

The film was started only a week after the Cuban missile crisis and turned out to be something quite unique — a wildly schizophrenic celebration of Communist iconography, mixing Slavic solemnity with Latin sensuality.

The plots feverishly explore the seductive, decadent (and marvelously photogenic) world of Batista’s Cuba — deliriously juxtaposing images of rich Americans and bikini-clad beauties sipping cocktails poolside with scenes of ramshackle slums filled with hungry children and gaunt old people.

Using wide-angle lenses that distort and magnify and filters that transform palm trees into giant white feathers, cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky’s acrobatic camera achieves wild gravity-defying angles as it glides effortlessly through long continuous shots.

But I Am Cuba is not just a catalog of bravura technique — it also succeeds in exploring the innermost feelings of the characters and their often desperate situations.

To Dust
HELD OVER

Shmuel, a Hasidic cantor in Upstate New York, distraught by the untimely death of his wife, struggles to find religious solace, while secretly obsessing over how her body will decay.

As a clandestine partnership develops with Albert, a local community college biology professor, the two embark on a darkly comic and increasingly literal undertaking into the underworld.

Starring Géza Röhrig and Matthew Broderick.

The Sower (Le Semeur)
100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes

The winner of the prestigious New Director competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival, Marine Francen’s debut is a sensual, visually stunning historical romance.

In 1851, France’s autocratic President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte has ordered the arrest of all the men of a remote mountain farming village following a Republican uprising. The women spend years in total isolation, forced to tend the crops themselves.

Some women have lost their husbands; others, like the shy but inwardly strong Violette, suddenly have no chance of experiencing physical love or motherhood. The women take an oath: if a man comes, they will share him as a lover.

When a mysterious and handsome stranger arrives, he ignites passions and jealousies that threaten to destroy the tight-knit community. In the vein of THE BEGUILED and THE GUARDIANS, this strikingly beautiful film is a part of a new wave of female-focused historical drama.

Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church
Electric Church presents the legendary guitarist in full flight at the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival before the largest U.S. audience of his career.

This critically acclaimed film combines 16mm multi-camera color footage of Hendrix’ unforgettable July 4, 1970 concert in its original performance sequence together with a new documentary that traces his journey to the festival amidst the dark shadow of civil rights unrest, the relenting toll of the Vietnam War and a burgeoning festival culture that drew together young people across the country who were inspired by the Woodstock festival.

Water Makes Us Wet – An Ecosexual Adventure
One-Time Showing
Stay after the film for Q & A with filmmakers Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens.

Water Makes Us Wet - Annie SprinkleFirst viewed at documenta 14 and previously screened at MoMA, Real Art Ways presents an evening of film and conversation from an ecosexual perspective.

Former porn star and environmental activist film director, Annie Sprinkle and her partner and co-director, Beth Stephens, a queer artist/activist from the coalfields of West Virginia and an art professor, will present their latest film, Water Makes Us Wet. This film incorporates a poetic blend of curiosity, humor, sensuality, ecology and concern about water.

Beth, Annie and their dog, Butch, take a road trip to explore water in all its glorious forms, and along the way they interact with a very diverse group of folks who reaffirm the power of water, life, and love.

Stephens and Sprinkle coo that, “If you love and appreciate water, we think you’ll really enjoy our film. Come dive in.”

About Beth & Annie

Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle live and work together in Boulder Creeks’s coastal redwood forest and in an old Victorian cottage in San Francisco.

Devoted to developing the ecosex movement through art, theory, practice and activism since 2004, they’ve produced numerous ecosex symposiums, ecosex weddings, workshops, lectures, walking tours, and art exhibits.

Their award winning documentary, Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story has played in numerous film festivals. Beth is an Art Professor at UC Santa Cruz, Annie has a Ph.D. in Human Sexuality.

They aim to make the environmental movement a little more sexy, fun and diverse. You can learn more about their work here.

Woman at War
From Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson (Of Horses and Men)
94% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes

Halla is a fifty-year-old independent woman. But behind the scenes of a quiet routine, she leads a double life as a passionate environmental activist.

Known to others only by her alias “The Woman of the Mountain,” Halla secretly wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminum industry.

As Halla’s actions grow bolder, from petty vandalism to outright industrial sabotage, she succeeds in pausing the negotiations between the Icelandic government and the corporation building a new aluminum smelter.

But right as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that changes everything. Her application to adopt a child has finally been accepted and there is a little girl waiting for her in Ukraine.

As Halla prepares to abandon her role as saboteur and savior of the Highlands to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother, she decides to plot one final attack to deal the aluminum industry a crippling blow.

Never Look Away (Werk ohne Autor)
2019 Academy Award Nominee: Foreign Language Film
From Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Academy Award-winning director of The Lives of Others

Inspired by real events and spanning three eras of German history, the film tells the story of a young art student, Kurt (Tom Schilling) who falls in love with fellow student, Ellie (Paula Beer).

Ellie’s father, Professor Seeband (Sebastian Koch), a famous doctor, is dismayed at his daughter’s choice of boyfriend, and vows to destroy the relationship.

What neither of them knows is that their lives are already connected through a terrible crime Seeband committed decades ago.

Never Look Away is the new film from Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director of the Oscar-winning The Lives of Others.

CatVideoFest 2019
HELD OVER!

Each year, CatVideoFest curates a compilation reel of the latest, best cat videos culled from countless hours of unique submissions and sourced animations, music videos, and, of course, classic internet powerhouses.

Screening events take place all over the world in a host of venues and raise money for cats in need.

CatVideoFest is committed to raising awareness and money for cats in need around the world.

A percentage of the proceeds from our screenings will go to Cat Tales of Middletown, CT.

What better way for us humans to come together than by watching cats?

Roma
Ten 2019 Academy Award Nominations.
3 Oscars: Foreign Language Film; Directing; Cinematography

96% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes

The most personal project to date from Academy Award-winning director and writer Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien), ROMA follows Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a young domestic worker for a family in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma in Mexico City.

Delivering an artful love letter to the women who raised him, Cuarón draws on his own childhood to create a vivid and emotional portrait of domestic strife and social hierarchy amidst political turmoil of the 1970s.

2019 Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Live Action
One Week Only –  Through Thursday 2/14

Every year Real Art Ways brings the Oscar Nominated Short Films to its cinema so you can enjoy some of the finest film making of the year.

All three categories are offered – Animation, Live Action and Documentary (Programs A & B). This is your annual chance to see all of these nominees before the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24 at 8 PM.

LIVE ACTION

Madre – Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Maria del Puy Alvarado, Spain, 19 minutes
A single mother receives a call from her seven-year-old son who is on vacation with his father in the French Basque Country. At first the call is a cause for joy, but soon it becomes a horrible nightmare when the child tells her that he is alone and cannot find his father who left a while ago.

Fauve – Jeremy Comte and Maria Gracia Turgeon, Canada, 17 minutes
Set in a surface mine, two boys sink into a seemingly innocent power game with Mother Nature as the sole observer…

Marguerite – Marianne Farley and Marie-Helene Panisset, Canada, 19 minutes
An aging woman and her nurse develop a friendship that inspires her to unearth unacknowledged longing and thus help her make peace with her past.

Detainment – Vincent Lambe and Darren Mahon, Ireland, 30 minutes
Two ten year-old boys are detained by police under suspicion of abducting and murdering a toddler. A true story based on interview transcripts from the James Bulger case which shocked the world in 1993 and continues to incite public outrage across the UK today.

Skin – Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman, USA, 20 minutes
A small supermarket in a blue collar town, a black man smiles at a 10 year old white boy across the checkout aisle. This innocuous moment sends two gangs into a ruthless war that ends with a shocking backlash.

2019 Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Documentary (A)
Now Showing through Thursday 2/14

Every year Real Art Ways brings the Oscar Nominated Short Films to its cinema so you can enjoy some of the finest film making of the year.

All three categories are offered – Animation, Live Action and Documentary (Programs A & B). This is your annual chance to see all of these nominees before the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24 at 8 PM.

DOCUMENTARY (A)

Black Sheep – Ed Perkins and Jonathan Chinn, UK, 27 minutes
Following the killing in 2000 of a 10-year-old boy of Nigerian descent, Cornelius Walker’s Nigerian mother, fearing that her sons could also be targeted, moves her family from London to Essex. Their housing estate is filled with racists, however, prompting Cornelius to go to extremes to fit in and find friendship.

End Game – Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, USA, 40 minutes
At Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, teams of medical professionals, social workers and counselors work with patients and their families to ensure that their end-of-life care is compassionately tailored to their needs while also trying to alleviate their fears about death.

2019 Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Documentary (B)
Now Showing through Thursday 2/14

Every year Real Art Ways brings the Oscar Nominated Short Films to its cinema so you can enjoy some of the finest film making of the year.

All three categories are offered – Animation, Live Action and Documentary (Programs A & B). This is your annual chance to see all of these nominees before the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24 at 8 PM.

DOCUMENTARY (B)

Lifeboat – Skye Fitzgerald and Bryn Mooser, USA, 40 minutes
In 2016, the German nonprofit Sea-Watch aids refugees braving the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Europe. One such rescue mission, piloted by British captain Jon Castle, plucks refugees from several tiny boats and carries them to safety. During the journey, the refugees reveal how poverty, violence and sexual trafficking forced them to flee their homes.

A Night at the Garden – Marshall Curry, USA, 7 minutes
On February 20, 1939, more than 20,000 Americans gathered in Madison Square Garden to celebrate the rise of Nazism. Archival footage shows the speech given by Fritz Kuhn, the leader of the German American Bund, as he urges his supporters to mistrust the media and free America from the influence of Jews.

PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE. – Rayka Zahtabchi and Melissa Berton, India, 26 minutes
In the rural village of Hapur, outside of Delhi, India, women hope to make feminine hygiene supplies easily available and end the stigma surrounding menstruation, which often results in girls having to drop out of school. A machine that makes sanitary pads is installed, and the women operating it find financial security and independence.

 

2019 Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Animation
Held Over!

Every year Real Art Ways brings the Oscar Nominated Short Films to its cinema so you can enjoy some of the finest film making of the year.

All three categories are offered – Animation, Live Action and Documentary (Programs A & B). This is your annual chance to see all of these nominees before the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24 at 8 PM.

ANIMATION

Bao (The Winner!) – Domee Shi and Becky Neimann-Cobb, USA, 8 minutes
An aging Chinese mom suffering from empty nest syndrome gets another chance at motherhood when one of her dumplings springs to life as a lively, giggly dumpling boy.

Late Afternoon – Louise Bagnall and Nuria Gonzalez Blanco, Ireland, 10 minutes
Emily is an elderly woman who lives between two states, the past and the present. She journeys into an inner world, reliving moments from her life. She searches for a connection within her vivid, but fragmented memories.

Animal Behaviour – Alison Snowden and David Fine, Canada, 14 minutes
Dealing with what comes naturally isn’t easy, especially for animals. Five animals meet regularly to discuss their inner angst in a group therapy session led by Dr. Clement, a canine psychotherapist.

Weekends – Trevor Jimenez, USA, 16 minutes
The story of a young boy shuffling between the homes of his recently divorced parents. Surreal dream-like moments mix with the domestic realities of a broken up family in this hand-animated film set in 1980’s Toronto.

One Small Step – Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas, USA, 8 minutes
Luna is a vibrant young Chinese American girl who dreams of becoming an astronaut. From the day she witnesses a rocket launching into space on TV, Luna is driven to reach for the stars. As Luna grows up, she enters college, facing adversity of all kinds in pursuit of her dreams.

PLUS A SELECTION OF ADDITIONAL ANIMATED SHORTS:

Wishing Box – 6 minutes

Tweet Tweet – 11 minutes

 

The Original Laurel and Hardy Restored
One Week Only!
A special program featuring five shorts from the UCLA Archives gives new lustre to both the films’ visual quality and soundtracks.

Battle of the Century (1927)
The 2018 full restoration of the big pie fight film always excerpted but never seen in its entirety.

Berth Marks (1929)
This film features a restored Vitaphone soundtrack for the first time ever and has the boys trying to escape an irate husband through multiple train cars.

Brats (1930)
The famous Stan and Ollie playing dual roles as both the fathers and their young spoiled sons, also featuring restored Vitaphone sound.

Busy Bodies (1933)
This film has Laurel and Hardy working at a sawmill in a recipe for disaster!

Hog Wild (1930)
Witness the debacle on Hardy’s roof when he decides to install a radio antenna. This last film has been restored to its full aperture so you can see ALL the mayhem!

Minding the Gap
2019 Academy Award Nominee: Best Documentary
100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes

Three young men bond together to escape volatile families in their Rust Belt hometown.

Compiling over 12 years of footage shot in his hometown of Rockford, IL, filmmaker Bing Liu searches for correlations between his skateboarder friends’ turbulent upbringings and the complexities of modern-day masculinity.

As the film unfolds, Bing captures 23-year-old Zack’s tumultuous relationship with his girlfriend deteriorating after the birth of their son and 17-year-old Keire struggling with his racial identity as he faces new responsibilities following the death of his father.

While navigating a difficult relationship between his camera, his friends, and his own past, Bing ultimately weaves a story of generational forgiveness while exploring the precarious gap between childhood and adulthood.

Hale County This Morning, This Evening
2019 Academy Award Nominee: Best Documentary
96% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes

An inspired and intimate portrait of a place and its people, the documentary looks at the lives of Daniel Collins and Quincy Bryant, two young African American men from rural Hale County, Alabama, over the course of five years.

Collins attends college in search of opportunity while Bryant becomes a father to an energetic son. The audience is invited to experience the mundane and monumental, birth and death, the quotidian and the sublime. These moments combine to communicate the region’s deep culture and provide glimpses of the complex ways the African American community’s collective image is integrated into America’s visual imagination.

In his directorial debut, photographer and director RaMell Ross offers a direct approach to documentary that fills in the gaps between individual black male icons. Hale County This Morning, This Evening allows the viewer an emotive impression of the Historic South, trumpeting the beauty of life and consequences of the social construction of race, while simultaneously offering a testament to dreaming despite the odds.

Ramen Shop

Masato, a young Ramen chef, leaves his hometown in Japan to embark on a culinary journey to Singapore to find the truth about his past.

He uncovers a lot more than family secrets and delicious recipes.

Director Eric Khoo says, “I have always been intrigued by food and the role that it plays in our lives. As the noted food historian Ben Rogers says, ‘Food is, after language, the most important bearer of cultural identity.’ I feel that what food signifies goes beyond that, it defines who we are and shapes the lives we lead. On top of that, I also think that food is a unifying force. It has the power to bring people together under the most mysterious circumstances.”

Four Games in Fall: The Deflategate Documentary
Film + Discussion

Post-film discussion with Matthew Dicks of Speak Up and Moth storytelling renown. Matt is also a New England Patriots season ticket holder.

This award-winning film explores the highly topical issues of media manipulation, science for hire, and perversion of the legal system…all through the lens of the Deflategate scandal.

Through interviews with attorneys, journalists, professors, and fans, FOUR GAMES IN FALL examines how accusations of deflated footballs became a national obsession. We go beyond the football to show that the tactics used by the NFL in this scandal are not unique, but are frequently replicated to manipulate public opinion, influence government regulation, muddy the waters around science, and unfairly impact the outcome of court cases.

Featuring interviews with NFLPA spokesperson George Atallah, New York Law School Professor Robert Blecker, Patriots Attorney Daniel L. Goldberg, MIT Professor John J. Leonard, Sports Illustrated Legal Analyst and UNH Law School Associate Dean Michael McCann, former ESPN reporter Jane McManus, Jim Morris, Editor of Pulitzer-Prize winning Center for Public Integrity, attorney Jonathan Ruckdeschel, Barstool Sports writer Jerry Thornton, and St. Mary’s Professor Andrew E. Wilson.

FOUR GAMES IN FALL is written and directed by Julie Marron (Happygram, 2015) and produced by Ami Clifford, Lila Kerns, Hellfire Films, and Rob & David Gomes. Executive Producer Kurt Redfield.

Rubén Blades is Not My Name
Selected as the Panamanian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. Audience Award-winner at SXSW 2018.

Latin American icon Rubén Blades was at the center of the New York Salsa revolution in the 1970’s. His socially charged lyrics and explosive rhythms brought Salsa music to an international audience.

Blades has won 17 Grammys, acted in Hollywood, earned a law degree from Harvard and even run for President of his native Panama.

Director Abner Benaim takes us on a journey through Rubén’s 50-year career, revealing that Rubén still has both musical and political ambitions.

This is a film about a living legend and his struggle to come to terms with his legacy. Featuring Paul Simon, Sting, Junot Diaz and Gilberto Santa Rosa.