2011 Season
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
January 5th, 2011
Dir. Woody Allen | 100 mins | 2010 | Spain, USA | Spanish, English
Hally’s parents’ marriage breaks up when her father undergoes a mid-life crisis and impulsively weds a prostitute. Meanwhile, Sally’s own marriage also begins to disintegrate.
Never Let Me Go
January 19th, 2011
Dir. Mark Romanek | 103 mins | 2010 | United Kingdom | English
As children, Ruth, Kathy and Tommy spend their childhood at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. As they grow into young adults, they find that they have to come to terms with the strength of the love they feel for each other, while preparing themselves for the haunting reality that awaits them.
Blue Valentine
February 16th, 2011
Dir. Derek Cianfrance | 112 mins | 2010 | USA | English
Dean Pereira and Cindy Heller Pereira are a young working-class married couple with a young daughter, Frankie. Dean currently works as a painter and Cindy is a nurse at a medical clinic. Despite their relatively tender ages, they are both ravaged by the life they’ve eked out together and by the experiences they’ve had leading into their marriage. High-school dropout Dean comes from a broken home and never really had a mother figure; he never imagined getting married or having a family despite falling in love with Cindy at first sight. He has no professional ambition beyond his current work–which he enjoys since he feels he can down a beer at 8AM and it won’t affect his work–although Cindy believes he has so much more potential in life. Cindy also comes from a dysfunctional family; her parents didn’t set an example of a harmonious married or family life. One of her previous serious partners, Bobby Ontario, has had a profound effect on many aspects of her marriage to Dean. Dean and Cindy head off on an overnight getaway together without Frankie, seeking a clearer picture of whether their marriage can survive its many issues.
The Way Back
March 2nd, 2011
Dir. Peter Weir | 133 mins | 2010 | USA, United Arab Emirates, Poland, India | English, Russian, Polish, Tibetan, Mongolian
In 1940, three men attempted to flee communist Russia, escaping a Siberian gulag. This movie tells their story and that of four others who escaped with them and a teenage girl, Irena Zielinska, who joins them in flight. The group’s natural leader is Janusz Weiszczek, a Pole condemned by accusations secured by torturing his wife, who spent much of his youth outdoors and knows how to live in the wild. They escape under cover of a snowstorm: cynical American Mr. Smith, Russian thug Valka, comedic accountant Zoran, pastry chef Tomasz Horodinsky, who draws, Priest Andrejs Voss, and Polish Kazik, who suffers from night blindness. They face freezing nights, lack of food and water, mosquitoes, an endless desert, the Himalayas, as well as many moral and ethical dilemmas throughout the journey towards freedom.
Reteaching Gender and Sexuality + Q&A with Filmmaker Sid Jordan
March 8th, 2011
Dir. Sid Jordan | 2 mins 48 secs | 2010 | English
Please join The Department of Gender Equality and Social Justice in a free event celebrating International Women’s Day. Film screening of the documentary “This is Reteaching Gender and Sexuality” followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Sid Jordan and youth activist Hanna King.
“Reteaching Gender & Sexuality is a message about queer youth action and resilience. The video was generated to contribute additional queer/trans youth voices to the national conversations about queer/trans youth lives. Reteaching Gender & Sexuality intends to steer the conversation beyond the symptom of bullying, to consider systemic issues and deeper beliefs about gender and sexuality that impact queer youth. Share the video with your friends, family and networks and talk about what THIS means to you!” – Sid Jordan
Another Year
March 23rd, 2011
Dir. Mike Leigh | 129 mins | 2010 | United Kingdom, USA | English
A married couple who have managed to remain blissfully happy into their autumn years is surrounded over the course of the four seasons of one average year by friends, colleagues, and family, who all seem to suffer some degree of unhappiness.
Jane Eyer
April 27th, 2011
Dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga | 120 mins | 2009 | United Kingdom, USA | English, French
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska) goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Mr. Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender). Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Mr. Rochester’s terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
Of Gods and Men
May 11th, 2011
Dir. Xavier Beauvois | 122 mins | 2010 | France | French, Arabic
In 1996, in Algeria, eight French monks of The Monastery Notre-Dame de l’Atlas of Tibhirine have a simple life serving the poor community that was raised around the monastery. During the Algerian Civil War, they are threatened by terrorists but they decide to stay in the country and not return to France.
In A Better World
September 14th, 2011
Dir. Susanne Bier | 118 mins | 2010 | Denmark, Sweden | Danish, Swedish, English, Arabic, Catalan, Spanish
Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family face conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness. Anton and his wife Marianne, who have two young sons, are separated and struggling with the possibility of divorce. Their older, 10-year-old Elias, is being bullied at school, until he is defended by Christian, a new boy who has just moved from London with his father, Claus. Christian’s mother recently lost her battle with cancer, and Christian is greatly troubled by her death. Elias and Christian quickly form a strong bond, but when Christian involves Elias in a dangerous act of revenge with potentially tragic consequences, their friendship is tested and lives are put in danger. Ultimately, their parents help them come to terms with the complexity of human emotions, pain, and empathy.
One Day
September 28th, 2011
Dir. Lone Scherfig | 108 mins | 2011 | United Kingdom, USA | English
Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their university graduation. We see them every year on the anniversary of that date – July 15th. Emma is smart but success doesn’t come quickly for her, whereas for Dexter, success and women come very easily. Through the years they grow apart as their lives take different directions and they meet other people. But as they grow apart from those other people and their lives start taking opposite directions again, Emma and Dexter find that they belong with each other.
The Tree of Life
October 12th, 2011
Dir. Terrence Malick | 139 mins | 2011 | USA | English
The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.
Beginners
October 26th, 2011
Dir. Mike Mills | 104 mins | 2011 | USA | English
In 2003, 38-year-old graphic artist Oliver Fields has just lost his father Hal to cancer, 5 years after his mother Georgia’s death. Oliver is naturally sullen because of his relationships with his parents growing up (especially his mother, who had a unique view of life) and watching their cordial but somewhat distant marital relationship, but he’s more so now as he deals with his personal losses. He embarks on a relationship with French actress Anna, hoping that his re-energized relationship with Hal following Georgia’s death, and Hal’s new outlook on life, will show him how to act in a loving relationship. After Georgia’s death, Hal came out of the closet and began to live with a new joie de vivre and have an open relationship with Andy, a much-younger man. Oliver’s relationship with Anna has other obstacles, including her own vagabond lifestyle and Oliver inheriting Arthur, Hal’s very needy Jack Russell terrier.
Midnight in Paris
November 9th, 2011
Dir. Woody Allen | 94 mins | 2011 | USA, Spain, France | English, French, Spanish, German
Gil and Inez travel to Paris as a tag-along vacation on her parents’ business trip. Gil is a successful Hollywood writer but is struggling on his first novel. He falls in love with the city and thinks he and Inez should move there after they get married, but Inez does not share his romantic notions of the city or the idea that the 1920s were the golden age. When Inez goes off dancing with her friends, Gil takes a walk at midnight and discovers what could be the ultimate source of inspiration for writing. Gil’s daily walks at midnight in Paris could take him closer to the heart of the city but further from the woman he’s about to marry.