UPCOMING

Mythic Journeys                       
Starts March 19                       

Filmmakers in person for 7:45p Friday-Sunday, 12 noon Sunday shows

This inventive fusion of documentary and animation visits the myths that impact our lives—often without us even knowing them. Asking questions that we all ask ourselves—Who am I? What is my purpose?—and answering using the reservoir of human knowledge, MYTHIC JOURNEYS is intended to inspire, inform and help each of us help ourselves. Winner of the Best Documentary Awards at the Santa Fe and Rome film festivals, the Audience Award at Dances With Films, the film features narration by Mark Hamill and Tim Curry and interviews with luminaries including Deepak Chopra.
(U.S., 2009, 90m, video)

Ajami                                   
Starts March 26                       

Oscar nominee, Best Foreign Language Film

"A remarkable accomplishment, a swirling, choral sea of humanity." –Andrew O'Hehir, Salon

Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani set their electrifying film in an Israeli neighborhood, a melting pot of cultures and conflicting views among Jews, Muslims and Christians. Back and forth in time, and through the eyes of various characters, we meet a sensitive 13-year-old boy living in fear after their uncle foolishly wounds a prominent clan member; a naïve Palestinian refugee illegally crossing the border to raise money for his mother’s surgery; an affluent Palestinian Binj and his Jewish girlfriend; and a Jewish policeman Dando is obsessed with finding his missing brother. This potent collision of different worlds won five Israeli Oscars, including Best Film, and awards at Cannes and the European Film Awards.
(Israel, 2009, 120m, 35mm, Kino Releasing)

                      
TAPPED
March 26, 8PM                       

Director in person!

Dollar for dollar, it may be the biggest scam in American history: the bottling of tap water and resale of it as a healthful drink. Stephanie Soechtig (a former producer for 20/20) and the producing team behind WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR expose the multi-billion dollar bottled water market. This persuasive, intelligent and compelling look begins with a small town in Maine whose water supply is being depleted by Poland Springs, a Nestle brand, before examining deeply troubling elements of corporate practice e, including the scare tactics used to keep Americans from drinking tap water and the environmental impacts, including the enormous amount of cancer-causing plastic used.
(U.S., 2009, 79m, video)

The Sun                       
TBD

"Wonderfully eccentric and fascinating … As a portrait of pathology—that of Japan and of Hirohito both—it’s terrific." –Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

August 15, 1945: a shocked Japan hears the voice of divine leader Emperor Hirohito for the first time, as he implores his people to cease all military activity, initiating a formal end to WWII and the beginning of a new period of American Occupation, led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Acclaimed Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (RUSSIAN ARK, MOTHER AND SON) creates an incisive, eerie portrait of the enigmatic Hirohito during the twilight of the war, as he faces surrender and renunciation of his divine status. Issey Ogata gives a mesmerizing performance as the defeated emperor whose legendary meetings with MacArthur determine the fate of his nation and lay the foundation for Japan’s phoenix-like postwar reconstruction.
(Russia, 2005, 110m, 35mm, Kino International)