Film @ International House

Thirty Years of Film at International House

FILM WITH LIVE SCORE

 

Screening movies with a live soundtrack is a staple of Film @ International House programming. From Phantom of the Opera to The Valerie Project, we seek to expand the film-going experience by adding newly composed music to classic and contemporary films. We once again merge these two elements into one fantastic evening of sight and sound.

 

Saturday, February 9 at 8pm

Aelita, Queen of Mars - Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Yakov Protazanov, Russia, 1924, video, 100 mins, b/w, silent w/ English intertitles

 

Live Score by Gene Coleman for Theremin and ensemble

with guest artist Anthony Jay Ptak, theremin and Ensemble Noamnesia -

Gene Coleman, bass clarinet; Marina Peterson, cello; Jason Calloway, cello; Alban Bailey, guitar + accordion; Dustin Hurt, trumpet + accordion; Evan Lipson, double bass; Thaddeus Squire, conducting

Stay after for the performance for a Q & A with Theremin player Anthony Jay Ptak and Ensemble Noamnesia

 

A classic of Soviet cinema, Aelita, Queen of Mars follows radio engineer Los from Moscow to Mars and back again. After receiving a message from space, Los begins to wonder who sent it while Aelita watches him through a telescope. Once on Mars and with the support of Queen Aelita, Los leads a popular uprising against her father the king. Switching action from Russia to Mars, Aelita’s message may not be as revolutionary as it seems. It is not about Mars but life in Russia. While very popular at first, the film later fell out of favor with the Soviet government and was thus very difficult to see until after the Cold War period.

 

Aelita, Queen of Mars is presented with live music created by Philadelphia composer Gene Coleman, performed by Ensemble Noamnesia and features the Theremin, an electronic instrument invented in the early 20th century, which many people are familiar with from its use in music for sci-fi films of the 1950s.

 

Gene Coleman is a composer, musician and artistic director. He has created over 50 works for various instrumentation, often-using complex notations and improvisation in the same score. Founded by composer Coleman in Chicago in 1987, Ensemble Noamnesia consists of about 10 musicians who work on a project-by-project basis in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York. Many of the players come from a classical music background, but are equally versed in new types of interpretation and sound production, as well as improvisation. Over the years a stellar cast of international guest artists have worked with them, including Jim O'Rourke, Helmut Lachenmann, Otomo Yoshihide, Luc Ferrari, George Crumb and many others.

 

SOUND ON SCREEN        

 

A monthly series of music and music related films, Sound on Screen gives a home to the growing list of music documentaries, bio-pics and concert films that have captured some of the some of the most unique sounds from around the globe. Music is an incredibly influential tool that unites people, while at the same time, is almost always a uniquely personal journey.  These films will surely bring a deeper understanding of the power that music has over all of us.

 

Thursday, February 7 at 7pm

Building a Broken Mousetrap

dir. Jem Cohen, US, 2006, video, 62 mins, color

Co-presented by Small Change Screening Series

 

Director Jem Cohen (Benjamin Smoke, Instrument) captures Dutch punk legends The Ex in a performance at New York City’s Knitting Factory. The explosive, politically charged music of The Ex is inter-cut with New York City street scenes including footage of protests from the 2004 Republican convention. Capturing the magic and precision of a group of musicians who have been performing together for decades, Jem Cohen’s film is powerful musical experience.

 

preceded by

Smells Like Teen Spirit

dir. Jem Cohen, US, 2007, video, 8 mins, color

 

Jem Cohen presents Patti Smith’s unique take on the Nirvana hit.

Thursday, March 6 at 7pm

My Name is Albert Ayler

dir. Kasper Collin, Sweden, 2007, video, 79 mins, color

Co-presented by Ars Nova Workshop

 

In 1962 free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler recorded his first album in Sweden.  Eight years later he was found dead at 34 in New York’s East River. This new documentary follows the trail of Ayler from his native Cleveland by way of Sweden to New York, meeting family, friends and close colleagues.  Ayler himself guides us with his voice and music.  Seven years in the making, the film includes newly discovered footage of Ayler and band.  

Please visit www.mynameisalbertayler.com for more information.

One of the most starkly beautiful and moving documentaries ever made about a jazz musician - Jazz Times

Thursday, April 17 at 7pm

An Evening with Jeff Krulik

Co-presented by Small Change Screening Series

 

Jeff Krulik, the man behind the cult short Heavy Metal Parking Lot takes over International House for a night of screenings and discussion. You can expect to visit a few parking lots as well as catch a glimpse of some of Krulik’s more recent works.

 

Washington DC-based director/producer Jeff Krulik has screened films at the Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, the American Film Institute and on PBS. His documentaries include Hitler's Hat, Ernest Borgnine on the Bus and the award winning I Created Lancelot Link. Heavy Metal Parking Lot was turned into Parking Lot, a reality TV series on TRIO. In 2002, Jeff Krulik was honored as a guest filmmaker at the 48th Annual Robert Flaherty Film Seminar and 2004 he received the first Peter C Rollins Film Award for Achievement in Documentary Film, given by the Popular Culture Association. His resume includes work for Errol Morris, Discovery Networks and National Geographic Channel.

 

THE JANUS COLLECTION

 

Truly one of our national treasures, American film culture without Janus Films is unimaginable. Film @ International House is celebrating our 30th birthday with a selection of titles from Janus’ extraordinary collection, all in brand-new or restored 35mm prints.  Here’s your chance to celebrate their achievements and to be dazzled all over again by highlights from their incomparable collection.

 

Saturday, February 16 at 7pm  

The Spirit of the Beehive

dir. Victor Erice, Spain, 1973, 35mm, 95 mins, color, Spanish w/ English subtitles  

 

The Spirit of the Beehive is widely regarded as the greatest Spanish film of the 1970s. In a small Castilian village in 1940, directly following the country’s devastating Civil War, six-year-old Ana (played by the luminous Ana Torrent) attends a traveling movie show of Frankenstein and then becomes seemingly possessed by its memory. Produced as Franco’s long regime was nearing its end, The Spirit of the Beehive, a bewitching portrait of a child’s haunted inner life, is one of the most visually arresting movies ever made - from one of cinema’s most elusive auteurs.

Click Here for Spirit of the Beehive Program Notes

Saturday, March 15 at 7pm

Cleo from 5 to 7

dir. Agnes Varda, France, 1962, 35mm, 90 mins, b/w and color, French

w/ English subtitles

 

We are with pop singer Cleo Victorie for 90 minutes of nearly real time as she awaits the results of a doctor’s test for cancer. Varda’s Cleo is an exhilarating and deeply penetrating film: just beyond the beguiling surface, the spectre of mortality is always waiting.  “Through an arresting use of Paris as both visual centerpiece and reflection of a woman’s inner journey,” writes Molly Haskell, “Varda paints an enduring portrait of a woman’s evolution from a shallow and superstitious child-woman to a person who can feel and express shock and anguish and finally empathy."

Click Here for Cleo from 5 to 7 Program Notes

 

Saturday, April 26 at 7pm

Confidential Report

dir. Orson Welles, 1955, US, 35mm, 105 minutes, b/w

Orson Welles’ Mr Arkadin (aka Confidential Report) tells the story of an elusive billionaire who hires an American smuggler to investigate his past, leading to a dizzying descent into a Cold War European landscape. The film’s history is also marked by this vertigo. There are at least eight Mr Arkadin's: three radio plays, a novel, several long-lost cuts, and the controversial European release known as Confidential Report. At last Janus Collection is unraveling one of cinema’s great mysteries.

Click Here for Confidential Report Program Notes

 
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