Madeline’s Madeline at Real Art Ways

Madeline (newcomer Helena Howard) has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop’s ambitious director (Molly Parker) pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother (Miranda July) into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women’s lives. 

Writer/director Josephine Decker has long been an independent filmmaker to admire, utilizing a welcome expressionistic approach that imbues her subjects with a vibrant sense of urgency. Anchored by a virtuoso performance from newcomer Helena Howard, whose powerful screen presence commands attention, Decker’s film displays a rare sensitivity for capturing the messy struggles of discovering a sense of one’s self that defies easy narrative categorization. 

Roxane Coss, a famous American soprano, travels to South America to give a private concert at the birthday party of rich Japanese industrialist Katsumi Hosokawa.

Just as a handsome gathering of local dignitaries convenes at Vice-President Ruben Ochoa’s mansion, including French Ambassador Thibault and his wife, Hosokawa’s faithful translator Gen, and Russian trade delegate Fyorodov, the house is taken over by guerrillas demanding the release of their imprisoned comrades.

Their only contact with the outside world is through Red Cross negotiator Messner.

Starring Julianne Moore, Ken Watanabe, Sebastian Koch, Thorbjørn Harr and Christopher Lambert.

One Week Only: Friday August 31-Thursday, September 6

Written and directed by Julien Faraut and narrated by Mathieu Amalric, JOHN MCENROE: IN THE REALM OF PERFECTION revisits the rich bounty of 16-mm-shot footage of the left-handed tennis star John McEnroe, at the time the world’s top-ranked player, as he competes in the French Open at Paris’s Roland Garros Stadium in 1984.

Close-ups and slow motion sequences of McEnroe competing, as well as instances of his notorious temper tantrums, highlight a “man who played on the edge of his senses.”

Far from a traditional documentary, Faraut probes the archival film to unpack both McEnroe’s attention to the sport and the footage itself, creating a lively and immersive look at a driven athlete, a study on the sport of tennis and the human body and movement, and finally how these all intersect with cinema itself.

Real Art Ways celebrates Art House Theater Day – Sunday, September 23.

Real Art Ways is part of the Art House Convergence, a nationwide organization of Art House Theaters. Your Real Art Ways membership entitles you to discounted admission at participating Art House Theaters through the Art House Visiting Members Program. Your support matters – you are part of this effort to keep art house cinemas thriving.

About Art House Theater Day
Art House Theater Day 2018 is Sunday, September 23. Theaters across the nation will have special film presentations on this day. Real Art Ways will present the film, Foreign Body.

From the Art House Theater Day website: “Art House Theater Day celebrates the art house theater and the cultural role it plays in a community. It is a day to recognize the year-round contributions of film and filmmakers, patrons, projectionists, and staff, and the brick and mortar theaters that are passionately dedicated to providing access to the best cinematic experience.”

About Foreign Body
Seeking refuge from her Islamist radical brother whom she informed on, a young woman arrives in France illegally following Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution and discovers a new world of both hope and danger, in the fourth feature from writer-director Raja Amari.

In the turbulent aftermath of the Tunisian revolution, young Samia (Sarra Hannachi) flees her homeland. She braves hostile seas in the crossing to France, but once there she finds that her struggles have only just begun. With no friends, no family, and – most crucially – no immigration papers, Samia has to figure out how to make a life and a living in a foreign land.

She meets a young man, Imed (Salim Kechiouche, Blue is the Warmest Color), and soon finds work in the employ of the elegant Leila (the inimitable Hiam Abbass, The Lemon Tree). But her presence in Leila’s middle-class household triggers a shift in its dynamics, and soon Samia is enmeshed in a web of sexual tension.

In Emmanuel Finkiel’s haunting adaptation of Marguerite Duras’s semi- autobiographical novel, The War: A Memoir, famed author (Mélanie Thierry) recounts an emotionally complex story of love, loss, and perseverance against a backdrop of wartime intrigue.

It’s 1944 Nazi-occupied France, and Marguerite is an active Resistance member along with husband Robert Antelme and a band of fellow subversives. When Antelme is deported to Dachau by the Gestapo, she becomes friendly with French Nazi collaborator Rabier (Benoît Magimel) to learn of her husband’s whereabouts.

But as the months wear on with no news of her husband, Marguerite must begin the process of confronting the unimaginable. Using subtly expressionistic imagery and voiceover passages of Duras’s writing, Finkiel evokes the inner world of one of the 20th century’s most revolutionary writers.

Starring: Mélanie Thierry, Benoît Magimel, Benjamin Biolay, Shulamit Adar, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Emmanuel Bourdieu.

Set in the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park, Brooklyn, 93QUEEN follows a group of tenacious Hasidic women who are smashing the patriarchy in their community by creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in New York City.

With unprecedented — and insider — access, 93QUEEN offers up a unique portrayal of a group of empowered women who are taking matters into their own hands to change their own community from within.

96% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

100 years ago 1,200 immigrant miners were violently deported from Bisbee, Arizona.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21: Local people’s historian and activist Steve Thornton (pictured left) will lead a post-film discussion to compare the intersection of work, immigration and union organizing in 1917 and the present.

Combining documentary and genre elements, the film follows several members of the close knit community as they collaborate with the filmmakers to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Bisbee Deportation, where 1200 immigrant miners were violently taken from their homes by a deputized force, shipped to the desert on cattle cars and left to die.

When the last copper mines closed in 1975, the once-booming Bisbee nearly became another Arizona ghost town, but was saved by the arrival of a generation of hippies, artists and eccentrics that give the place its strange vibe today. Bisbee is considered a tiny “blue” dot in the “red” sea of Republican Arizona, but divisions between the lefties in town and the old mining families remain. Bisbee was once known as a White Man’s Camp, and that racist past lingers in the air.

As we meet the townspeople, they begin to confront the violent past of the Deportation, a long-buried secret in the old company town. As the 100th anniversary of Bisbee’s darkest day approaches, locals dress as characters on both sides of the still-polarizing event, staging dramatic recreations of scenes from the escalating miner’s strike that lead to the Deportation. Spaces in town double as past and present; reenactors become ghosts in the haunted streets of the old copper camp.

Richard plays the sheriff in a Western, Fernando portrays a Mexican miner in a Musical, a local politician is in her own telenovela. These and other enacted fantasies mingle with very real reckonings and it all builds towards a massive restaging of the Deportation itself on the exact day of its centennial anniversary.

Electronic music pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto has had a prolific career spanning over four decades. From techno-pop stardom to Oscar-winning film composer, the evolution of his music has coincided with his life journeys.

Following Fukushima, Sakamoto became an iconic figure in Japan’s social movement against nuclear power.

As Sakamoto returns to music following a cancer diagnosis, his haunting awareness of life crises leads to a resounding new masterpiece.

The documentary is an intimate portrait of both the artist and the man.

A New York Times Critic’s Pick

Us three. Us brothers. Us kings, inseparable.

Three boys tear through their childhood, in the midst of their young parents’ volatile love that makes and unmakes the family many times over.

While Manny and Joel grow into versions of their loving and unpredictable father, Ma seeks to shelter her youngest, Jonah, in the cocoon of home. More sensitive and conscious than his older siblings, Jonah increasingly embraces an imagined world all his own.

With a screenplay by Dan Kitrosser and Jeremiah Zagar based on the celebrated Justin Torres novel, We the Animals is a visceral coming-of-age story propelled by layered performances from its astounding cast – including three talented, young first-time actors – and stunning animated sequences which bring Jonah’s torn inner world to life.

Drawing from his documentary background, director Jeremiah Zagar creates an immersive portrait of working class family life and brotherhood.

Presented in conjunction with CONCORA’S Friends of Bach Committee. A brief reception will follow the film.

Perhaps Europe’s most popular pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago attracts wayfarers of all stripes to walk its ancient paths in search of meaning.

One such pilgrim is Dane Johansen, an American cellist who in 2014 ventured to walk the Camino with his instrument on his back, performing music for his fellow pilgrims along the way. As Dane soon discovers, the paths we travel through life are often uncomfortably magnified by the reality of life on the Camino.

Accompanied by the vast landscapes of Northern Spain, the haunting music of J.S. Bach for solo cello (performed by Johansen), and the very personal struggles and joys of the many pilgrims encountered along the way, the film examines the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of the concept of ‘journey’ and the vital role it can play as part of the human experience​.

Only three centuries ago, setting out to climb a mountain would have been considered close to lunacy. Mountains were places of peril, not beauty, an upper world to be shunned, not sought out.

Why do mountains now hold us spellbound, drawing us into their dominion, often at the cost of our lives? From Tibet to Australia, Alaska to Norway armed with drones, Go-Pros and helicopters, director Jennifer Peedom has fashioned a symphony of mountaineers, ice climbers, free soloists, heliskiers, snowboarders, wingsuiters and parachuting mountain bikers.

Willem Dafoe provides a narration sampled from British mountaineer Robert Macfarlane’s memoir Mountains of the Mind, and a classical score from the Australian Chamber Orchestra accompanies this majestic cinematic experience.

50th Anniversary Release – Special Sing-Along Version.

The music-loving inhabitants of Pepperland are under siege by the Blue Meanies, a nasty group of music-hating creatures.

The Lord Mayor of Pepperland (Dick Emery) dispatches sailor Old Fred (Lance Percival) to Liverpool, England, where he is to recruit the help of the Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr).

The sympathetic Beatles ride a yellow submarine to the occupied Pepperland, where the Blue Meanies have no chance against the Fab Four’s groovy tunes.

Follow the onscreen lyrics and sing along with all the classic Beatles songs!

It’s the age of The Wild West, circa 1870. An affluent pioneer, Samuel Alabaster (Robert Pattinson) ventures deep into the American wilderness to reunite with and marry the love of his life, Penelope (Mia Wasikowska).

For his journey he brings Butterscotch, a miniature horse intended as a wedding present for his bride, and enlists drunkard Parson Henry (David Zellner) to conduct the ceremony.

As they traverse the lawless frontier their once simple journey grows treacherous, and the lines between hero, villain, and damsel are blurred.

A loving reinvention of the western genre from the Zellner brothers (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter), DAMSEL showcases their trademark unpredictability, off-kilter sense of humor, and unique brand of humanism.

In 1941 marksmen from the Royal Ulster Constabulary, following a Directive from The Ministry of Public Security, shot dead 23 animals at Belfast Zoo. They destroyed one hyena, six wolves, one puma, one tiger, one black bear, one Barbary lion, two polar bears, one lynx and a giant rat named Hugo.

During these turbulent times, a woman secretly walked a young elephant from the zoo each evening to the backyard of her terraced home. There, she cared for and comforted it as the Luftwaffe bombs rained down over Belfast.

This is a true story… Seen through the eyes of 10 year old Tom (Art Parkinson), aided and abetted by his misfit friends, this moving adventure unfolds as Tom takes on the fight to save Buster the elephant.

Starring Art Parkinson, Penelope Wilton and Toby Jones.

HELD OVER!
Tim Wardle’s acclaimed documentary is an amazing, incredible, remarkable true story.

In 1980, through a series of coincidences, two complete strangers—19-year-olds Robert Shafran and Edward Galland — made the astonishing discovery that they were identical twins. They had been separated at birth, adopted and raised by different families.

Even more incredibly, when their story ran in the New York Post, another 19 year-old, David Kellman, realized he was their triplet, adopted by yet another family. After a joyful reunion, they became instant media sensation sensations, interviewed by Tom Brokaw and Phil Donahue, clubbing at Studio 54, even appearing in a movie with Madonna.

But the brothers’ discovery set in motion a chain of events that, decades later, unearthed an extraordinary and disturbing secret.

Winner of Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award, Three Identical Strangers is an exuberant celebration of family that transforms into a thriller with colossal implications and proof that life is truly is stranger than fiction.

Forty years after the death of Elvis Presley, two-time Sundance Grand Jury winner Eugene Jarecki’s new film takes the King’s 1963 Rolls-Royce on a musical road trip across America.

From Memphis to New York, Las Vegas, and beyond, the journey traces the rise and fall of Elvis as a metaphor for the country he left behind.

Jarecki paints a visionary portrait of the state of the American Dream and a penetrating look at how the hell we got here.

A diverse cast of Americans, both famous and non, join the journey, including Alec Baldwin, Rosanne Cash, Chuck D, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Hawke, Van Jones, Mike Myers, and Dan Rather, among many others.

*Tune in to Culture Dogs on WWUH – 91.3FM radio on Sunday, August 5 at 8 PM for an interview with director Eugene Jarecki.

Thomas, a talented German baker, is having an affair with Oren, an Israeli married man who has frequent business visits in Berlin.

When Oren dies in a car crash in Israel, Thomas travels to Jerusalem seeking answers regarding his death.

Thomas finds Anat, Oren’s widow and insinuates himself into her life – and her restaurant.

The encounter with the unfamiliar reality will make Thomas become involved in Anat’s life in a way far beyond his anticipation. To protect the truth he will stretch his lie to a point of no return.

 A Movie in the Afternoon. Every Day.

Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is a solitary, middle-aged parish pastor at a small Dutch Reform church in upstate New York on the cusp of celebrating its 250th anniversary.

Once a stop on the Underground Railroad, the church is now a tourist attraction catering to a dwindling congregation, eclipsed by its nearby parent church, Abundant Life, with its state-of-the-art facilities and 5,000-strong flock.

When a pregnant parishioner (Amanda Seyfried) asks Reverend Toller to counsel her husband, a radical environmentalist, the clergyman finds himself plunged into his own tormented past, and equally despairing future, until he finds redemption in an act of grandiose violence.

From writer-director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver; American Gigolo; Affliction) comes a gripping thriller about a crisis of faith that is at once personal, political, and planetary.

A Movie in the Afternoon. Every Day.

ADRIFT is based on the inspiring true story of two sailors who set out to journey across the ocean from Tahiti to San Diego.

Tami Oldham and Richard Sharp couldn’t anticipate they would be sailing directly into one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history.

In the aftermath of the storm, Tami awakens to find Richard badly injured and their boat in ruins. With no hope for rescue, Tami must find the strength and determination to save herself and the only man she has ever loved.

ADRIFT is the unforgettable story about the resilience of the human spirit and the transcendent power of love.

Starring Shailene Woodley (Fault in Our Stars, Divergent films) and Sam Claflin (Me Before You, The Hunger Games films),

From director Jim McKay (GIRLS TOWN, OUR SONG, EVERYDAY PEOPLE), the film follows a group of undocumented immigrants living in Sunset Park, Brooklyn over the course of seven days.

Bicycle delivery guys, construction workers, dishwashers, deli workers, and cotton candy vendors, they work long hours six days a week and then savor their day of rest on Sundays on the soccer fields of Sunset Park.

José, a bicycle delivery worker, is the team’s captain–young, talented, hardworking and responsible. When José’s team makes it to the finals, he and his teammates are thrilled. But his boss throws a wrench into the celebration when he tells José he has to work on Sunday, the day of the finals.

José tries to reason with his boss or replace himself, but his efforts fail. If he doesn’t work on Sunday, his job and his future will be on the line. But if he doesn’t stand up for himself and his teammates, his dignity will be crushed.

Shot in the neighborhoods of Sunset Park, Park Slope, and Gowanus, EN EL SÉPTIMO DÍA is a humane, sensitive and humorous window into a world rarely seen. The film’s impact is made quietly, with restraint and respect for the individual experiences, everyday challenges and small triumphs of its characters.