Wednesday,
November 12 -
Saturday,
November 15
Views
of a Changing World, 4th Edition
"These
are the best and the worst times for documentaries," says
producer Philip Hampson. "There have never been so many
ways to make a difference, and never so many practical difficulties
doing that." Views of a Changing World examines those practical
difficulties.
Wednesday,
November 12 at 7pm
The
Old, Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk
Music
dir.
Rani Singh, US,
2007, BetaSP, 90 mins, color
 Harry
Smith – filmmaker, musician, painter – was also an insatiable
amateur musicologist, amassing a collection of more than 8,000
"round black ghosts". In 1959, Smith released the
Anthology of American Folk Music, an enduring selection of blues
and country classics recorded between 1927 and 1934 by the likes
of Blind Lemon Jefferson, the Carter Family and the Memphis
Jug Band. Concerts featuring transcendent performances by Beth
Orton, DJ Spooky, Sonic Youth, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Lou
Reed, Philip Glass, Richard Thompson, Emmylou Harris, Beck and
Nick Cave were staged upon the collection’s re-release in 1997.
Singh assembled the footage, interviews and archival images
into a fittingly celebratory, rockin’ doc. Steven Jenkins, San
Francisco Film Festival
followed
by
Early
Abstractions #1-5, 7, 10
dir.
Harry Smith, US, 1939, 16mm, 23 mins, color, sound
Originally
silent, then accompanied by a reel-to-reel tape with songs by
The Fugs – whose
first album Smith produced –
and subsequently by an
optical soundtrack featuring Meet the Beatles. At first
the anthology included only No. 1-4, later No. 5, 7 and 10 were
added. In 2006, Early
Abstractions was
selected for preservation in the United States National Film
Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally,
historically, or aesthetically significant".
Thursday,
November 13 at 7pm
The
Sari Soldiers
dir.
Julie Bridgham, US/Nepal,
2008, BetaSP, 90 mins, color, Nepali w/ English subtitles
 An
extraordinary story of six women’s courageous efforts to shape
Nepal’s future in the midst of an escalating civil war against
Maoist insurgents and the King’s crackdown on civil liberties,
The Sari Soldiers intimately delves into the journey
of these women on opposing sides of the conflict. When Devi,
mother of a 15-year-old girl, witnesses her niece being tortured
and murdered by the Royal Nepal Army, she speaks publicly about
the atrocity. The army abducts her daughter in retaliation.
For three years, Devi tries to find out her fate. The film also
follows Maoist Commander Kranti; Royal Nepal Army Officer Rajani;
Krishna, a rural monarchist leading a rebellion against the
Maoists; Mandira, a human rights lawyer and Ram Kumari, a young
student activist.
Friday,
November 14 at 7pm
The
Cool School: Story of the Ferus Art Gallery
dir.
Morgan Neville, US, 2007, BetaSP, 86 mins, color
 An
object lesson in how to build an art scene from scratch and
what to avoid in the process, the film focuses on the seminal
Ferus Gallery, which groomed the LA art scene from a loose band
of idealistic beatniks into a coterie of competitive, often
brilliant artists, including Ed Ruscha, Craig Kauffman, Wallace
Berman, Ed Moses and Robert Irwin. The Ferus also served as
launching point for New York imports, Andy Warhol (hosting his
first Soup Can show), Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein as well
as the first Marcel Duchamp retrospective and Pop Art show.
What was lost and gained is tied up in a complex web of egos,
passions, money and art. This is how LA came of age.
followed
by
The
Way We Do Art Now and Other Sacred Tales
dir. John
Baldessari, US, 1973, BetaSP, 28 mins, b/w, sound
The
Way We Do Art Now and Other Sacred Tales
is a series of parables concerning modes of representation,
language and cognition. Often conveyed through conscious misinformation,
Baldessari's witty puns and jokes play off the relation of word,
image and meaning; the intersection of what is heard or written,
what is seen, and what is understood.
Free admission members
above Internationalist level; $5 Internationalist members, students
+ seniors; $7 general admission. In advance at TICKETWEB
and 866-468-7619 or 1/2 hour before showtime.
Saturday, November 15 at 2pm
The
Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom
dir.
Adam Curtis, UK, 2007, DVD, 180 mins, color
Show
in three parts: Pt. 1 F**k
You Buddy”, Pt. 2 The Lonely Robot and Pt. 3 We Will Force You
to Be Free
Introduced
by Arancha Garcia del Soto
Written
and directed by BAFTA-winning producer Adam Curtis, The
Trap: What Happened To Our Dream of Freedom? examines
the origins of our contemporary, narrow idea of freedom. The
West fought the Cold War for freedom and individual freedom
is the dream of our age. It is what our leaders promise to give
us and defines how we think of ourselves. But if one looks at
what liberty actually means for us today, it is a strange and
limited kind of freedom. Curtis argues that we have forgotten
other ideas of freedom… we are in a trap of our own making,
a trap that controls us, deprives us of meaning, and causes
death and chaos abroad.
Arancha Garcia del Soto
is the Hamlyn Senior Fellow, Institute for International
Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University.
Free
admission for The Trap.
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