 Within Our Gates (dir. Oscar Micheaux, USA, 1920)  Stace England and The Salt Kings |
Stace England & The Salt Kings bring us a new score to legendary filmmaker Oscar Micheaux's 1920 film Within Our Gates, his powerful rebuttal to D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. Depicting the violence of the Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan, Within Our Gates was an independent cinematic voice for social equality decades before the civil rights movement. Micheaux, who was born in Metropolis Illinois, has been referenced as a role model of many African American filmmakers for his independent business spirit and his willingness to tackle difficult social issues. |
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 Joshua, age 27, is one of the young video journalists who works undercover to counter the propaganda of the military regime. Joshua is suddenly thrown into the role as tactical leader of his group of reporters, when the monks lead a massive but peaceful uprising against the military regime. After decades of oblivion - Burma returns to the world stage, but at the same time foreign TV crews are banned from entering the country, so it is left to Joshua and his crew to document the events and establish a lifeline to the surrounding world. It is their footage that keeps the revolution alive on TV screens all over. Burma VJ
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 Selections from the African World Documentary Film Festival Selections Coordinated by Professor Segun Ojewuyi Sunday Feb. 21st 7-9pm Longbranch Cafe:
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 A documentary about the legendary concert venue, Cowtown Ballroom, in Kansas City Missouri. Though the venue was only open for three years, it established an incredible musical heritage, playing host to the likes of Frank Zappa, Electric Light Orchestra, Blue Oyster Cult, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Van Morrison, B.B. King, and Linda Ronstadt. Cowtown Ballroom was directed by Joe Heyen, president of the Independent Filmmakers Coalition of Kansas City. Cowtown Ballroom: Sweet Jesus!
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In the confusion following a massive power outage, an awkward demolition derby driver vanishes, setting in motion a series of events affecting his pregnant girlfriend, his helplessly car-less father, a pack of wild boy scouts, a lactose intolerant roller rink employee, an elderly woman in search of her lost dog, and his best friend, a ten-year-old girl named Turkeylegs. The Guatemalan Handshake, directed by Todd Rohal, was the winner of The Special Jury Prize at the Slamdance Film Festival, and was an official Selection at the Athens, Torino, Cucaloris, and Southside film festivals. The Guatemalan Handshake  Sita Sings The Blues is a humorous, controversial, and boldly epic adaptation of selections from the Ramayana. Taking Sita as its main character, the beautifully animated film finds as its subject a woman's cry for equal treatment. Animator Nina Paley?s work encompasses and appropriates various cultural sources, often those bound by copyright law. We bring you Sita Sings The Blues under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License. Sita Sings The Blues
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 A progressive mash up of Cinema and Music that challenges the bounds of each with projections, improvisational percussion, and site-specific live art that will never be seen again. Image + Sound + Sign |
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Bunker Hill is the story of a former Wall Street executive who leaves prison and heads
for the small town of Bunker Hill, Kansas, where his ex-wife and their children have
started a new life. Soon after he arrives, an apparent massive terrorist attack against
America darkens the town. Cut off from the world, the town's militant past is
reawakened and forces coalesce to protect citizens from an unseen enemy. The town's
fear leads to the creation of a posse of gunmen, resulting in torture, illegal searches and
eventually, murder. |
Bunker Hill |
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Chekhov for Children explores writer Phillip Lopate's 1979 Broadway staging of Uncle Vanya, a heartbreaking play about middle-aged longing, starring public school 5th graders, including the filmmaker. Chekhov for Children revisits the once young performers, now middle-aged, and weaves together contemporary vignettes of the adults they have become with rare archival footage of Lopate's stage production and 1970s-era student-made films |
Chekhov For Children |
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Low-level mob hand and loving family man Joey Gazelle finds his life turned upside down when he ignores the mob's instructions to dispose of a gun used in the fatal shooting of a corrupt cop during a bungled drug buy, setting off a wild chase from both the mob and a corrupt cop who is hell-bent on profiting from the missing gun, Joey embarks on a chilling, bloody pursuit, maneuvering his way through a horrific web of criminals on a frantic night-long search, to locate Oleg, retrieve the gun and make it home to his family alive. |
Running Scared |
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| Queer/Gender Spotlights: |
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| Outreach Screenings: |
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