Monday, November 3, 2008

November at the Miami Beach Cinematheque!‏

NOVEMBER at MBC. . .


"NEW AMERICAN INDEPENDENTS":

CHRIS SMITH~AZAZEL JACOBS~COURTNEY HUNT~

LANCE HAMMER~JOSHUA SAFDIE~and...MADONNA!

PLUS..a newly restored Independent~KENT MACKENSIE.





And...the November MBC photographic exhibition:

“The Frida Files” by LEO MATIZ

Leo Matiz (1917-1998) was born in Aracateca, Colombia, but was known internationally as a “citizen of the world”. The intense and stark compositional beauty of his photographs are world famous, particularly in some of the iconic portraits of our time, and especially in his immortal legendary portraits of Frida Kahlo. Matiz was a master at depicting the internal passions of his subjects, with graphic grace and sharp contrasting

elements defining their features. Like Sergei Eisenstein’s gorgeously photographed film Que Viva Mexico! (which screens November 30th as a companion piece and closing night event to this MBC exhibition, and is accompanied by the modernist electronic music of DJ Maximus 3000), the images of Leo Matiz capture history told through faces. These images are on display courtesy of Alejandra Matiz, the artist’s daughter, who will be a special guest on closing night. The photographs are also for sale.



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 ongoing HD film festival where you don't just watch, you experience!

512 Española Way at Plaza España, 3 blocks from the beach (305) 67-FILMS (673-567)

BECOME A MEMBER OR RENEW MEMBERSHIP HERE: www.MBCINEMA.com






NEWS at MBC!

OSCAR NIGHT® AMERICA 2009 (Feb 22, 2009) IS ON SALE EARLY!

For details visit www.MBCinema.com (click "tickets" and go to 2/22/2009)



MBC is participating of a cultural exchange program with Spain, and we

have a new intern for nine months! Come say hi to Rafa from Barcelona!



NOVEMBER 2008 at a Glance:

05: "The Big Read Project": Chased By the Dogs

07, 08: "New American Independents": Chris Smith The Pool

09: "New American Independents": Courtney Hunt Frozen River

12: "Cine IMPROV!": (Theme: American Indies!)

13: "JUDAICA on Film": My Mexican Shivah

14, 15: "New American Independents": Azazel Jacobs Momma's Man

16: "New American Independents": Joshua Safdie: The Pleasure of Being Robbed

18-21: Miami Short Film Festival

22-24: Look who's also a New American Independent: MADONNA Filth and Wisdom

26: A newly restored American Independent: Kent Mackensie The Exiles

28,29: “New American Independents”: Lance Hammer Ballast

30: "SILENTS, Please!": Que Viva Mexico! with LIVE accompaniment!






05 WED 8:30pm:

The Big Read Project: Egypt-USA Film Series

In collaboration with the

Florida Center for the Literary Arts

Chased By the Dogs (El less wal Kilab)

(Directed by Kamal El Sheiken, based on Naguib Mahfouz’s novel

The Thief and the Dogs) (1962)





This classic Arabic film inspired by the novelist Naguib Mahfouz (Nobel Prize Laureat), tells the story of Mahran, a thief who quickly ascends to be the head of his gang. However, his second in

command conspires against Mahran to take his position and his wife. After a prison term, Mahran is thirsty for revenge, but being chased by police and by his new enemies destines him to a tragic ending. In Arabic with English subtitles

Official Competition: Berlin Film Festival Golden Lion

"The Nobel Prize has given me, for the first time in my life, the feeling that my literature could be appreciated on an international level."--Naguib Mahfouz

This is a complimentary event

Your MBC Ticket is good for 25% off wine tasting. . .

at CAVAS Wines! (across the street at 437 Española Way)







07 FRI, 08 SAT, 7:45pm & 9:40pm:

An MBC Premiere HD DIGITAL Presentation!

In collaboration with Emerging Pictures

Miami Theatrical Premiere!

NEW AMERICAN INDEPENDENTS: Chris Smith

Jury Prize WINNER 2008 Sundance Film Festival!

The Pool (Chris Smith/USA/2008)




The Pool is the story of Venkatesh, a "room boy" working at a hotel in Panjim, Goa, who sees from his perch in a mango tree a luxuriant garden and shimmering pool hidden behind a wall. In making whatever efforts he can to better himself, Venkatesh offers his services to the wealthy owner of the home. Not content to simply dream about a different life, Venkatesh is inquisitive about the home's inhabitants-indeed about the world around him-and his curiosity changes the shape of his future.

In English and Hindi with English subtitles

WINNER: Special Jury Prize Sundance Film Festival 2008

Independent Spirit Awards nominee for John Cassavettes Award

“A TRIAMPH. . .ESQUISITE!”—Time Out

“GORGEOUS!”-Stephen Holden NY Times

Your MBC Ticket is good for 25% off wine tasting. . .

at CAVAS Wines! (across the street at 437 Española Way)





09 SUN 8:30pm:

An MBC Premiere HD DIGITAL Presentation!

In collaboration with Emerging Pictures

NEW AMERICAN INDEPENDENTS: Courtney Hunt

Grand Jury Prize WINNER 2008 Sundance Festival!

Encore Screening!

Frozen River

(A Film by Courtney Hunt/USA/2008)




Critical acclaim abounds for Courtney Hunt's auspicious directorial debut which won the Grand Jury Prize for Drama at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The plot follows Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) who is left in a lurch by her degenerate husband. Unable to provide for her two children, she teams up with a street-smart Mohawk woman to smuggle illegal immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River.

WINNER: Grand Jury Prize Sundance Film Festival 2008

Seattle Film Festival Women in Film Award

“Let its bracing drama and the intensity of its acting restore your spirits as well as your faith in American independent film."—Kenneth Turan, LA Times

Your MBC Ticket is good for 25% off wine tasting. . .

at CAVAS Wines! (across the street at 437 Española Way)





12 WED 8:30pm: “Cine-IMPROV!”
A LIVE Comedic Jam served with cinema on the side!

Miami’s hottest improv actors perform unscripted theater based on your suggestions, in the art of “long form improv," rather than the typical comedy you see at the clubs and on TV. Including film dubbing, the "Armando Diaz Experience," and a live improvised "movie" based on the life experiences of one of our audience members, with stylistic parody, edits, and scenic devices.


This month’s theme: AMERICAN INDIES!

Your MBC Ticket is good for 25% off wine tasting. . .

at CAVAS Wines! (across the street at 437 Española Way)





13 THU 8pm: “JUDAICA on Film”:

An MBC Premiere HD DIGITAL Presentation!

In collaboration with Emerging Pictures

Miami Beach Theatrical Premiere!

My Mexican Shivah

(Morirse está en Hebreo)

(Alejandro Springall/Mexico/USA/2007)

with Blanca Guerra, Martha Roth, Sergio Kleiner, Guillermo Murray




Set in Polanco, a Jewish quarter of Mexico City, and spoken in Spanish, Yiddish and Hebrew, "My Mexican Shivah" is a dramatic comedy about how the death of a man results in the celebration of his life. According to Jewish belief, from the moment a Jew is born, he or she is accompanied by two angels: the angel of light and the angel of darkness. With the passing of Moishe (75), his family and friends gather to sit shivah, the 7-day Jewish mourning ritual. If the shivah reveals anything, it's that Moishe´s family and friends loved him with all his flaws and mystery- and most of all his spirit.

In Hebrew, Spanish and Yiddish with English subtitles

Your MBC Ticket is good for 25% off wine tasting. . .

at CAVAS Wines! (across the street at 437 Española Way)





14 FRI, 15 SAT 7:45pm & 9:35pm:

An MBC Premiere HD DIGITAL Presentation!

In collaboration with Emerging Pictures

NEW AMERICAN INDEPENDENTS: Azazel Jacobs

Miami Theatrical Premiere!

Momma's Man
(A Film by Azazel Jacobs/USA/2008)

With Ken and Flo Jacobs, Richard Edson, Dana Varon




Starring the young director’s parents, legendary avant-garde American filmmaker Ken Jacobs and his wife Flo, Momma’s Man is brought to you by the producers of Half Nelson and Maria Full of Grace. The film chronicles the increasingly anxious dilemma of Mikey, a young husband and father who stops off at his parents' loft during a business trip to New York and finds himself emotionally unable to leave. Unsure of his own motivations, he makes up excuses about why he's staying – his flight is delayed; his flight is canceled – but while his doting mother (the director's real mother) is more than happy to enable his procrastination, his father (the director's real father) grows suspicious of his son's changes of plans.

Official Selection: Sundance and New York Film Festivals

"THIS IS INDEPENDENT FILM DEFINED..."--Manohla Dargis, New York Times

“AN EXTRAORDINARY MOVIE IN EVERY WAY.”—Peter Travers Rolling Stone

“Profoundly Affective!”—Andrew O’Hehir, Salon



Check out Momma’s Man blogspot HERE

Your MBC Ticket is good for 25% off wine tasting. . .

at CAVAS Wines! (across the street at 437 Española Way)





16 SUN 8:30pm:

An MBC Premiere HD DIGITAL Presentation!

In collaboration with Emerging Pictures

NEW AMERICAN INDEPENDENTS: Joshua Safdie

Closing Night: Cannes Director’s Fortnight!

Florida Theatrical Premiere!

The Pleasure of Being Robbed

(Directed by Joshua Safdie/USA/2008)

with Eléonore Hendricks, Josh Safdie, Wayne Chin




By turns delightful, exasperating, goofy and opaque, The Pleasure of Being Robbed has been called a “mumblecore” film, but either that's totally wrong or the term means nothing beyond an inexpensively made indie about people in their 20s. Nobody sits around talking about relationships in Safdie's film, and in fact most of the talk in the movie consists of lies, misdirections and driving instruction. His main character (Eléonore Hendricks) is either a kleptomaniac or a semi-professional thief, and as such is constantly in motion. Shot guerrilla-style on the streets of New York and Boston, The Pleasure of Being Robbed is both a fresh, original work and one that bears the marks of New Wave-era art cinema.—Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

Official Selection Closing Night Director’s Fortnight Cannes Film Festival

"THE AMERINDIE BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR!" --Salon

"Evokes alternative NY cinema of the 1960's"--Cahiers du Cinema

“The Pleasure of Being Robbed' is a magical film. It is rare to see such artistry and freshness in a film...Films like this should be promoted by the NYTimes.”—(“giotto21”, in response to the NYT review calling the film “technically deficient”.)

Your MBC Ticket is good for 25% off wine tasting. . .

at CAVAS Wines! (across the street at 437 Española Way)





Miami Short Film Festival (Nov 18-21)




18 TUE 8pm: “WORD!”

The word is to the story what the image is to the film – the basis for the whole tale.

This collection of imaginative shorts shares its source of inspiration from the world of literature. Total running time: 68 min.

Butterfly Narrative, 6:00, Chris Olsen, USA

Crowded with Voices Animation, 5:00, Anya Belkina, USA

The Cave: An Adaptation of Plato’s Allegory in Clay

NOMINEE, Best Animation Animation, 3:10, Michael Ramsey, USA

Alicja Wonderland Experimental, 20:00, Martin Gavreau, Poland/UK

A Life’s Passion Documentary, 6:40, Gary Thomas, Canada

Proud Iza Narrative, 19:31, Anna Condo, USA

Your MBC Ticket is good for 50% on drinks

at Chocolate (next door) after the films!





19 WED 8pm: MSFF: "HELL on EARTH”

Visually and viscerally astonishing explorations of psyches, grappling with demons of

all kinds - both internal and external. Feverish visions and pulse-pounding thrills await you in this program! Total running time: 68 min.

An Unquiet Mind Experimental, 6:00, Chihwen Lo, USA

Some of an Equation NOMINEE, Best Experimental

Experimental, 7:49, Burke Roberts, Spain/UK

A Season to Wither Narrative, 10:48, Leigh Ann Maynard, Canada

Permute Animation, 4:25, Lydia Fu, Canada

Hunger (Gorta) Narrative, 14:00, Mark Lynch, Ireland

Room 38 (Quatro 38) Narrative, 25:00, Thomas Edward Hale, Brazil

Your MBC Ticket is good for 50% on drinks

at Chocolate (next door) after the films!





20 THU 8pm: MSFF: BROTHERS & SISTERS

Our brothers and sisters are often our first and last friends, constants through a lifetime of comings and goings. This quartet of films examines sibling connections, through humor, sorrow, baseball bats and above all, the unwavering fidelity that characterizes blood ties. Total running time: 72 min.

The Ladies Documentary, 13:00, Christina Voros, USA

You Better Watch Out NOMINEE, Best Narrative

Narrative, 21:43, Steven Callen, Australia

Hartslagen Narrative, 13:14, Vincent Coen, Belgium

Rushers Narrative, 24:00, Joey Boukadakis, USA

Your MBC Ticket is good for 50% on drinks

at Chocolate (next door) after the films!





21 FRI 8pm:MSFF: "COME TOGETHER”

These films explore a series of sexual longings and collisions that look at sex and its myriad of possibilities – beautiful, quick, slow, awkward, complicated, dangerous, painful, and tender. Some encounters may never have a second chance; some are all about the second chance. Total running time: 87 min.

Aprop NOMINEE, Best Experimental and Best Foreign

Experimental, 6:20, Aitor Echeverria, Spain

The Confession Narrative, 3:40, Thomas Hefferon, Ireland

Player NOMINEE, Best Narrative Narrative, 19:51, Mary Nighy, UK

My First Kiss NOMINEE, Best Narrative Narrative, 16:36, David Wexler, USA

Pelo Ouvido Narrative, 17:18, Joaquim Haickel, Brazil

To Catch Narrative, 1:00, Alec Brownstein, USA

still lives Narrative, 11:00, Michael Rababy, USA

Über Alice NOMINEE, Best Narrative Narrative, 10:00, Rebecca Feldman, USA

Your MBC Ticket is good for 50% on drinks

at Chocolate (next door) after the films!





22 SAT, 23 SUN, & 24 MON 7:45 & 9:30pm:

An MBC Premiere HD DIGITAL Presentation!

In collaboration with Emerging Pictures

Surprise. . .

look who’s an AMERICAN INDEPENDENT too: MADONNA!

Miami Theatrical Premiere!

Filth and Wisdom

(Directed by Madonna/USA/2008)

with DJ Ade, Gogol Bordello, Olegar Fedoro, Stephan Graham, Shobu Kapoor




Madonna's directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, is a hilariously sexy tale of three roommates who must delve into mischievous and naughty behavior in pursuit of bigger and brighter futures. A Ukrainian immigrant, A.K. (Eugene Hutz), finances his dreams of 'trans-continental superstardom' with his band, Gogol Bordello, by turning tricks as a role-playing cross dresser. As A.K. literally whips the privileged of London into shape, he also secretly pines for the object of his affection, Holly (Holly Weston), an aspiring ballerina looking for her big break while moonlighting as a slippery stripper. Meanwhile, Juliette (Vicky Mclure) steals medicine from her pharmaceutical job in hopes of quenching her dreams of helping Africa's youth. Filth and Wisdom is every bit as erotic and playful as it is poignant and touching, revealing the universal struggles we all face in our pursuits of happiness.

Official Selection: Berlin Film Festival

“SHEER EXUBERANCE!...Madonna has done herself proud, with an artistic ambition that has simply bypassed her husband, Guy Richie”—The Times

Your MBC Ticket is good for 25% off wine tasting. . .

at CAVAS Wines! (across the street at 437 Española Way)





26 WED 8:30pm:

An MBC Premiere HD DIGITAL Presentation!

In collaboration with Emerging Pictures

A newly restored AMERICAN INDEPENDENT:

Kent Mackensie

Miami Theatrical Premiere!

The Exiles (Kent Mackensie/USA/1961)



From the people who brought you the restored version of Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, THE EXILES chronicles one night in the lives of young Native American men and women living in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles. Based entirely on interviews with the participants and their friends, the film follows a group of exiles — transplants from Southwest reservations — as they flirt, drink, party, fight, and dance. In July 1957, filmmaker Kent Mackenzie spent long hours making friends and earning the confidence of these Indians who finally agreed to re-enact scenes from their lives for this picture.

"MIRACULOUS...the night photography alone would make the film immortal."
—Richard Brody The New Yorker

"ENTHRALLING and BREATHTAKINGLY GORGEOUS"—New York Magazine

“The best films are the most difficult to write about, and Kent Mackenzie’s exceptional The Exiles is no exception.”—Movies Into Film

Your MBC Ticket is good for 25% off wine tasting. . .

at CAVAS Wines! (across the street at 437 Española Way)





28 FRI, 29 SAT 7:45pm & 9:35pm:

An MBC Premiere HD DIGITAL Presentation!

In collaboration with Emerging Pictures

NEW AMERICAN INDEPENDENTS: Lance Hammer

Miami Theatrical Premiere!

BEST DIRECTOR 2008 Sundance Film Festival!

Ballast

(Lance Hammer/USA/2008)




With Michael J. Smith Sr, JimMyron Ross, Tarra Riggs, Johnny McPhail

BALLAST is one of those rare films that maximize the medium through an aesthetic of understatement. Every frame is deliberately and beautifully composed, every cut artfully and economically executed—not only to transmit a quietly gripping story but to reveal characters’ layered emotional experiences and the specific textures and sensations of their locales. In the

cold, winter light of a rural Mississippi Delta township, a man’s suicide radically transforms three characters’ lives and throws off-balance what has long been a static arrangement among them. With circumstances thrusting them into proximity, a subtle interdependence and common purpose emerge for Marlee and Lawrence as they navigate grief, test new waters, and tentatively move forward.

WINNER: Best Director & Excellence in Cinematography Sundance Film Festival

Film Society of Lincoln Center and Museum of Modern Art Directing Prize

Grand Jury Prize Buenes Aires Film Festival

FIPRECSI Prize: New York and Buenes Aires Film Festivals

“A STARTINGLY ASSURED, PITCH PERFECT FIRST FEATURE!”

—Manohla Dargis NY Times

Your MBC Ticket is good for 25% off wine tasting. . .

at CAVAS Wines! (across the street at 437 Española Way)





30 SUN 7:45pm:

“SILENTS...PLEASE!”

A special audio-visual experience

unlike you have ever seen before!

Featuring the LIVE electronic music styling of DJ Maximus 3000!

Que Viva Mexico! (Sergei Eisenstein/Mexico/Russia/1931)

The KINO restoration of a lost masterpiece of cinema




A blend of the ethnographic, the political, the scenic and the surreal, Qué Viva México! is nothing short of brilliant; a highly stylized (silent with limited subtitles) documentary on the people and volatile social climate of Mexico. It remains superior to the legion of films it strongly influenced: Orson Welles' It's All True, Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo and the works of Sergio Leone. With sequences devoted to the Eden-like land of Tehuantepec, the savage majesty of the bullfight, the struggles of the noble peasant and the hypnotic imagery of the Day of the Dead, Qué Viva México! is a vivid tapestry of Mexican life which, thanks to Grigory Alexandrov and Nikita Orlov's careful restoration, takes its rightful place alongside Eisenstein's other legendary works.

Tonight the film is complemented and contrasted with the modern electrionic sounds of DJ Maximus 3000. The film will be followed by the closing night reception for the MBC LEO MATIZ Frida Kahlo exhibition, with special guest, Alejandra Matiz, the artist’s daughter.

$12 or $10 MBC Members / Students / Seniors






TICKETS:

FILMS: $10 or $7 MBC Members / Students / Seniors

SILENTS...PLEASE! $12 or $10 MBC Members / Students / Seniors

Cine-IMPROV! $12 or $10 MBC Members / Students / Seniors

Complimentary event: "The Big Read Project"

Doors open fifteen minutes before screenings



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 ongoing HD film festival where you don't just watch, you experience!

512 Española Way at Plaza España (305) 67-FILMS (673-4567) www.MBCINEMA.com










Ordinary

movies?

NEVER!

1 comment:

Amy said...

Hi Johanna,

What an interesting collection! This site looks like a great resource - I would love to contribute events and to be linked to listings like this one. If possible, would you be able to let me know how to join or post on this blog?

Thank you,

Amy Weinfurter
aweinfurter@storycorps.net