Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Miami Beach Cinemateque - February 2008 schedule

This week at MBC: WED: Iron Ladies of Liberia,
THU: VALENTINE'S DAY with Harold Lloyd,

FRI: Top Ten 2007: Syndromes and a Century,

SAT: MBC Filmmaking Workshops & Killer of Sheep,

SUN: DOCUSPAIN: Miracle of Candeal

(and Oscar® Quiz Question #4-see below)

Coming Feb 24: OSCAR NIGHT® Limited Tics available!


T H E M I A M I B E A C H C I N E M A T H E Q U E
The on-going film festival where you don't just watch films, you experience them!
512 Española Way at Plaza de España (305) 67-FILMS (673-4567) www.MBCINEMA.com



13 WED 8:30pm: Independent LENS 2007-2008

Florida exclusive previews of award winning documentaries

before they air on PBS...Presented with HANDS ON MIAMI

Iron Ladies Of Liberia

(Henry Ansbacher, Jonathan Stack, & Daniel Junge/2007)


She’s already overcome tremendous obstacles to become the first woman

ever elected president in Africa—now all she has to do is turn around Liberia --

a country devastated by unemployment, debt, corruption, and the legacy of civil

war. Follow Ellen Sirleaf Johnson through her first year in office as she faces

angry mobs, ambitious political rivals, and high-ranking members of the

international community. Her story is inspiring a new generation of leaders

in Africa and around the world.
COMPLIMENTARY Screening (Donations always welcome!)


14 THU 8:30pm: Valentine’s Day!

Join the Romantic Film Festival and MBC on Valentine’s Day

for a Great American Silent Comedy Romance!

Presented with the romantic film festival: “Romance In a Can”

Girl Shy (1924/USA/Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor)

With Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralstan




The other major “silent clown” of the Golden Age of American silent comedies

(besides Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and the lesser known Harry Langdon)

is the masterful, athletic, goofishly handsome “All American” Harold Lloyd.

His films of the 1920’s are rollicking and fast paced, always with romance as an

important part of the mix. Harold Meadows (Lloyd) is a shy, stuttering bachelor

working in a tailor shop, who is writing a guide book for other bashful young men,

"The Secret of Making Love," chapters from which are portrayed as fantasy sequences.

Fate has him meet rich girl Mary (Ralston), and they fall in love. But she is about to

wed an already married man, so our hero embarks upon a hair-raising daredevil

ride to prevent the wedding.







With a reception following the film, featuring an aphrodisiac wine

tasting by ZEN ZEN WINES complimented by chocolates

courtesy of CHOCOLATE Restaurant (next to MBC, for dinner

reservations before or after the film call 786 237-0748),

and a LIVE performance by cellist Andres Vera!





15 FRI 8:30pm: “Top Ten 2007”:

Miami Premiere! The best of international cinema 2007

Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul/Thailand/2007)




INDIEWIRE: “Best Film of the Year 2007”. . ."Syndromes and a Century"

It must sound insufferably pretentious and difficult to the uninitiated: we see two doctors,

a man and a woman, meet in a rural hospital and then go about their daily lives; halfway

through the film, we watch their initial meeting again, except the setting has changed to

something modern, sleek, and urban. Scenes, images, and characters from the first half

of the film continue to recur in its second half, more as echoes than mirror images.

"Syndromes and a Century," like Thai master Apichatpong Weerasethakul's last film,

"Tropical Malady," is a half-told love story twice told. But if it sounds like a movie only

a critic could love, it plays like something entirely different -- funny, light on its feet, and

delicately human. More a journey for the heart and the senses than a puzzle for the head,

"Syndromes" demands that we let go of our need for everything in a movie to make sense

and surrender ourselves to its sublime, mysterious beauty. In return, this strange and

astonishing art work offers nothing less than the most joyful, rapturous moviegoing

experience of the year.”

OFFICIAL SELECTION: Venice, New York, Toronto, London, Vancouver,

Chicago, and Tokyo Film Festivals.



Help free the Thai Cinema! Syndromes and a Century was CENSORED by the

Thai Government, so it can not play in its home country. Please help filmmakers in

Thailand by signing the petition HERE concerning the unjust treatment they have received.

For more information visit the director’s MYSPACE page, and read his statement below:



“I, a filmmaker, treat my works as my own sons or my daughters. When I conceived them,

they have their own lives to live. I don't mind if people are fond of them, or despise them,

as long as I created them with my best intentions and efforts. If these offspring of mine

cannot live in their own country for whatever reasons, let them be free. Since there are

other places that warmly welcome them as who they are, there is no reason to mutilate

them from the fear of the system, or from greed. Otherwise there is no reason for one to

continue making art.”—Apichatpong Weerasethakul







16 & 17 SAT & SUN MBC Filmmaking Workshops!

SCREENWRITING I & II and DIRECTING





HALF DAY EACH (OR FULL DAY FOR BOTH)

With instructor Harriette Yahr

16 SAT 11am-2pm:

Screenwriting Workshop #1 - "The Basics Part 1"

This workshop is a basic introduction to the art and craft of screenwriting. It consists of

lecture material as well as “hands-on” writing assignments. Topics covered include story

structure, character, tone, dialog, theme, genre, and the nuts and bolts of industry standard

script formatting. We will touch briefly on the business of screenwriting and how to register

and copyright your script, and touch on the steps involved in moving your script into production.

Appropriate for fiction and documentary writers working in film, video, and television.

$65 (or $125 for both Part I & II) (includes limited materials)

($50 or $100 for MBC Members)



16 SAT 3pm-6pm:

Screenwriting Workshop #2- "The Basics Part 2"

This is a continuation of the Workshop #1. Topics include further discussion of character,

dialog, description, proper script format, and new topics such as exposition and screenplay

treatments. "Hands-on" writing assignments combine with lecture material. Additionally, we

will analyze an award-winning short film to understand what makes a good script work. In that

analysis, you will get a brief introduction to cinematic techniques—as they relate to story and

to your writing. We will discuss the business of screenwriting and the steps involved in moving

your script into production in more depth, as well as discuss the avenues of film festivals,

markets and screenplay competitions. Prerequisite: Workshop #1, basic screenwriting

knowledge, or confidence to jump right in.

$65 (or $125 for both Part I & II) (includes limited materials)

($50 or $100 for MBC Members)





17 SUN MBC Filmmaking Workshop!

DIRECTING

FULL DAY WORKSHOP

With instructor Harriette Yahr

11am-2pm & 3pm-6pm:

SO YOU WANNA BE A DIRECTOR? The Basics of Filmmaking 1, 2, 3.

Have a video camera? Want to know how to use it? This course will start off by

analyzing an award-winning short to see what the components of a successful film

are from a director’s standpoint. This is not a screenwriting workshop, but a practical

hands-on filmmaking workshop. You will learn how to breakdown a script to choose

your “coverage” i.e. the shots that will make up your final film. You will learn about

aesthetic choices, and get to know your own style. The basics of Production Design,

Cinematography, Location, Wardrobe, and other elements that show up in your film—

and separate the successful from the also-ran—will be touched upon. This class is made

up of Lecture and Hands-on individual and group exercises.

Highly Recommended: video camera.

$125 per person (includes limited materials), or $100 MBC Members.





16 SAT 8:30pm:

An African American Film Masterpiece for Black History Month:

Miami Premiere!

Killer Of Sheep (Charles Burnett/1977/released 2007)



Killer of Sheep examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s

through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb

from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse. Killer of Sheep was shot on

location in Watts in a series of weekends on a budget of less than $10,000. Finished

in 1977 and shown sporadically, its reputation grew and grew until it won a prize at

the 1981 Berlin International Film Festival. Since then, it was declared it a national

treasure as one of the first fifty on the National Film Registry and the National Society

of Film Critics selected it as one of the "100 Essential Films" of all time. However,

due to the expense of the music rights, the film was never shown theatrically or made

available on video. It has only been seen on poor quality 16mm prints at few and far

between museum and festival showings. Now, thirty years after its debut, it has been

brilliantly restored. Milestone's premiere of the restored Killer of Sheep was at the

2007 Berlinale Film Festival and its first USA theatrical release began this year.

WINNER: Berlin International Film Festival Forum of New Cinema & FIPRESCI

Special Award New York Film Critics Circle 2007

"What the Italian neorealists accomplished in the years after World War II...

Burnett— a one-man African-American New Wave—achieved with [Killer of Sheep]:

he gave a culture, a people, a nation new images of themselves."

—SENSES OF CINEMA

"Way ahead of its time 30 years ago, and just as stunning today, Killer of Sheep

is one of those marvels of original moviemaking that keeps hope of artistic

independence alive" --ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY





17 SUN 8pm: “DOCUSPAIN”

Award winning, provocative documentaries in Spanish,

produced with Spanish support...once a month at MBC!

Presented by MAHOU, and PRAGDA Barcelona/New York,

with support from the Embassy of Spain, the Spain Foreign Cultural Corporation,

the International Documentary Association, and Tapas y Tintos restaurant.

The Miracle Of Candeal (El milagro de Candeal)

(Fernando Trueba/Spain/2005)



Candeal is a marginal area in the heart of Salvador, the capital of Bahia and home

of Grammy award winning musician Carlinhos Brown. The film is a stunning parable

of how a notorious slum transformed itself into a model community through the power

of music, pushed along by Brown’s commitment to the local youth.



Every DOCUSPAIN film will be followed by an afterparty at Tapas y Tintos,

featuring LIVE Flamenco, complimentary tapas and MAHOU beer for filmgoers!





And the rest of the month...



21 THU 8:30pm:

Closing Night of the Romantic Film Festival:

“Romance in a Can”

with support of the Israeli Consulate and the Israeli House

The Passion of Amos GITAI

Yom Yom (Day After Day) (1998)

With Moshe Ivgy, Hanna Meron, Juliano Mer.



In Yom Yom, the second film in Amos Gitai's celebrated "City Trilogy," Israel's

preeminent writer-director weaves, "a darkly comic tale of characters driven by

divided loyalties and neurotic inhibitions" (The Village Voice) in the mixed

nationality Mediterranean port city of Haifa. In spite of blood ties to both Haifa's

Jewish and Arab populations, Moshe (Ivgy) leads a rootless existence. Moshe

becomes entangled in the hidden connections between friend, wife, lover, parent,

Arab and Jew. Underneath its deadpan surface, Yom Yom is a film of incisiveness

and energy that places an individual face on a city's divided identity, and reveals

the heart beneath anonymous modern ennui. Hebrew with English subtitles.

WINNER: Jerusalem Film Festival Best Israili Screenplay, Wolgin Award

"Lighted by...sparks of formal bravado that recall the old radicalism of the

French New Wave." - A. O. Scott, The New York Times





23 SAT 8:30pm: The Passion of Amos GITAI

Alila (2003)

With Yaël Abecassis, Hana Laszlo, Uri Klauzner.

Amos Gitai’s Alila intertwines the stories of over

a dozen distinct characters who inhabit an apartment complex located in a rundown

neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Holocaust survivor Schwartz (Yosef Carmon) has enjoyed

a peaceful existence living in his small apartment with Linda (Lyn Shiao Zamir), a

young Filipino who comes regularly to give him medication and company. One of the

many obtrusive men audible to Schwartz is Hezi (Amos Lavie). He recently rented one

of the nearby apartments in the building for a secret rendezvous with a beautiful and

self-deprecating woman named Gabi (Yael Abelcassis). Their intense, unequal and

often-violent love affair turns Gabi’s life into a public and dissonant garble of

psychological pain and physical pleasure.

Hebrew with English subtitles.

Official Selection: Venice Film Festival, Award of the Israeli Academy

"An engaging subtly arresting drama. Captures the rhythms of the

community with humor and humane spirit." - Time Out



With Gitai’s short film from:

11’09”01 – September 11 (2003)

Eleven directors, eleven films, one story.

Eleven of the world’s best modern directors including Amos Gitai were gathered

together by French producer Alain Brigand to each present a short film about 9/11.

The only artistic restraint was that each film’s length must be exactly eleven

minutes, nine seconds, plus one frame. The result of the collection is world cinema’s

unique and varied response to the tragic event.

WINNER: UNESCO and FIPRESCI Awards at the Venice Film Festival





24 SUN 6:30pm: Oscar Night® America 2008

At Hotel Victor on South Beach!



Join us on the Red Carpet Sunday, February 24th at 6:30pm,

And experience the Oscars® in Celebrity Style!

Come celebrate at Miami’s ONLY Oscar Night Party officially sanctioned by the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, presented by HOTEL VICTOR,

and benefiting (for the seventh year in a row!), The Miami Beach Cinematheque!



6:30pm: Red Carpet arrivals and cocktails

8pm: Live telecast of the 80th annual Academy Awards® on WPLG-Channel 10

with Master of Ceremonies Laurie Jennings.



Enjoy select fine wines provided by Libation, The Love of Wine, a selection of

Ultimate Martinis provided by Ketel One Vodka and Ketel One Citroen, and

Gourmet Supper-By-The-Bite, plus a live auction by Diva Extraordinaire

Elaine Lancaster!



ADVANCE TICKETS are available at www.MBCINEMA.com

Tickets are $150 per person (or $125 for MBC Members) and include all of the

above, plus the official Oscar® souvenir program, tax, gratuity, and a fabulous gift bag!

(Optional valet parking is $20. . .the best price on Ocean Drive!)

Black Tie Optional.

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