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Program Notes |
Older Calendars:
One Week: July 13 - 19
BOY CULTURE
Premiere (2006, 88 minutes)
Q. Allan Brocka's film is deceptively simple. In it, a successful Seattle-based
male escort who goes by the name X (Derek Magyar) confesses to the camera his
tangled romantic relationships with two roommates and with an older, enigmatic
male client (Patrick Bauchau). Kam Williams of NewsBlaze finds Boy Culture to be
a "refreshingly realistic, homoerotic adventure featuring recognizable gay
characters actually acting gay, not behaving in some sanitized fashion intended
to appeal to straight audiences," with Brian Orndorf of eFilmCritic.com joining
in to say that the film "dares to speak on the gay experience without the need
for affectation, and it's a rewarding and often superb viewing experience."
According to Jeannette Catsoulis in The New York Times it's a "sleek, absorbing
drama...a cerebral blend of insight, wit and raunchy self-awareness."
Based on the novel by Matthew Rettenmund
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One Week: July 13 - 19
10 QUESTIONS FOR THE DALAI LAMA
Premiere (2006, 86 minutes)
Director Rick Ray (Inside Iraq: The Untold Stories) arrives in India one day
hoping the government will let him visit the exiled Tibetan leader, Tenzin
Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, who resides in Dharamsala. Ray doesn't
present himself as a disciple or even a Buddhist, just a curious human being
worried about the state of the world. Eventually Ray contacts the Dalai Lama via
e-mail - Ray's driver happens to have the address - and is indeed granted a 45-
minute audience, but in three months. In the meantime Ray tours India, and the
resultant film alternates travelogue tales with the Dalai Lama's back-story.
Marrit Ingman of the Austin Chronicle found 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama
"informative and challenging, touching on issues of free speech, modernity,
democracy, and globalism." Ty Burr of the Boston Globe says that "one comes away
from 10 Questions emboldened, energized, and sadder - aware that peace remains
so radical a concept that most of us aren't yet worthy of it." Stephen Hunter of
the Washington Times concludes that the film is a "nicely crafted, economical
introduction to that most eminent of men, the spiritual leader and deposed head
of state of Tibet."
If you only had one hour, what would you ask?
One man's journey through the northern Himalayas
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One Week: July 20 - 26
LADY CHATTERLEY
Premiere (2006, 168 minutes)
D. H. Lawrence wrote three versions of Lady Chatterley's Lover, that
groundbreaking novel that helped loosen censorship laws both in England and the
United States. The book concerned Constance, Lady Chatterley (played here by
Marina Hands), a young woman whose upper-class husband, Clifford (Hippolyte
Girardot), was paralyzed and rendered impotent in WW I. Her sexual isolation
leads her into an affair with a brooding gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors (here called
Parkin and played by Jean-Louis Coulloc'h). Director Pascale Ferran has chosen
to use as the film's source the second version, which is much less notorious
(but which still sports six sex scenes). Lawrence has finally found his most
sensitive translator. Ferran has made what Andrew Sarris of the New York
Observer paradoxically calls a "fiercely tender saga." "It's a movie as timely
as it is thrilling to watch," adds Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. Lisa
Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly calls Lady Chatterley a "startling, womanly
adaptation," and it "nicely captures how the title character transforms from Ms
Malaise to a radiant woman," according to Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve. The
film even evoked romantic feelings in J. Hoberman of the Village Voice, who
wrote that Lady Chatterley is "not so much a love story (and even less a story
about love) than it is a movie of passionate loveliness."
Based on the novel by D. H. Lawrence
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One Week: July 27 - August 2
FINDING NORMAL
Theatrical Premiere (2007, 77 minutes)
If you want it, the non-profit Central City Concern will help indigent people
get off the street or off drugs, via the Hooper Detox Center and through the
CCC's Recovery Mentor Program. There, counselors (and recovering addicts) such
as David Fitzgerald and Jill Kahnert use tough love as they guide and advise
clients though the thickets of re-entry into society. The organization has a 75
per cent success rate, but the failures still pain them, as is made clear in
Brian Lindstrom's profile of the organization and its processes, its clients,
and two of its charismatic counselors. Scott Moore of the Portland Mercury
writes that the Recovery Mentor Program is a process "at once ugly, frustrating,
and hopefu." Lindstrom tells the personal stories of addicts and counselors at
CCC's downtown Portland rehab center in the style of Frederick Wiseman and other
breakthrough documentarians who found reality in the rawness of hand held
cameras and direct sound. "A thoroughly engrossing documentary ... raw and real
... impossible to imagine a more honest look at this all-too-common world,"
concludes The Oregonian's Shawn Levy.
From Portland filmmaker Brian Lindstrom - an unflinching look at the daunting difficulties in overcoming addictions and the dynamic within Portland's Central City Concern's recovery mentor program
Filmmaker will attend opening night screening July 27
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One Week: July 27 - August 2
TEKKON KINKREET
Theatrical Premiere (2006, 100 minutes)
The back-story on Tekkon kinkreet is almost as interesting as the film itself.
Based on a manga by Taiyo Matsumoto called Black and White and published by
Kodansha, the film began life as a short subject made by American filmmaker
Michael Arias (a producer on Animatrix), who found himself obsessed with the
subject matter, as well as '60s Tokyo in general (the title is a blend of the
Japanese words for "iron," "concrete," and "muscles"). The short became a cult
sensation in Asia, leading to the creation of toys and eventually to a feature
film. The tale concerns two street kids named Black (voiced by Alex Fernandez)
and White (Yu Aoi). Black is a teenager with visions of comic book heroism,
while White is a boy who may be an idiot savant. These vigilantes-in-training
are waging war against mobsters who want to build an amusement park in the
ancient heart of their beloved city, Treasure Town. A hit of the recent Platform
International Animation Festival, Tekkon kinkreet is a film that Russell Edwards
of Variety calls "exquisitely realized, minutely detailed." Julia Wallace of the
Village Voice writes that it "harnesses the dramatic power of the decaying city
to spectacular effect." Doug Cummings of Film Journey writes that the film is
"film is a visual wonder." And Grant Butler of The Oregonian calls it
"visually stunning, action-packed adventure!"
The highly acclaimed Japanese anime from The Platform Animation Festival
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One Week: August 3 - 9
INTERVIEW
Premiere (2007, 83 minutes)
After an argument with his editor, political journalist Pierre Peters (Steve
Buscemi) is assigned the task of interviewing a frivolous It Girl, an actress
named Katya (Sienna Miller). Their ensuing encounter is part interview, part
battle of the sexes, part confessional. Told in near real time, the film takes
place in Katya's Soho loft, where her jangly unpredictability increasingly
irritates the journalist who takes himself very seriously, indeed. As star,
writer, and the film's director, Steve Buscemi offers up a very personal drama,
which is also a remake of a film by slain Dutch director Theo van Gogh. Dennis
Harvey of Variety calls the film a "nimble two-hander," praising the film's
"twisty nature" and noting that "Buscemi is excellent, limning Pierre's career
battle-fatigue even as the character flickers from amusement to sympathy to
contempt." Pam Grady of Reel.com says that the "screenplay is witty, and Buscemi
and Miller are both excellent." Film School Rejects's Loukas Tsouknidas adds
that "Sienna Miller is fantastic. Maybe it's her naughty starlet experience,
maybe a pure talent she never showed before, but she's right at home with the
role of Katya."
based on the film by Theo van Gogh
"A Sexually and emotionally charged Drama!" - emanuellevy.com
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One Week: August 10 - 16
NO END IN SIGHT
Premiere (2007, 101 minutes)
A documentary prize winner at the Sundance Film Festival, Charles Ferguson's No
End in Sight is a truly comprehensive look at the Bush Administration's conduct
of the Iraq war and its occupation of the country. Narrated by Campbell Scott,
the film is a "systematic and rigorous history of the Iraq war to date,"
according to Andrew O'Hehir of Salon, while Robert Koehler of Variety notes that
Ferguson delivers a "calm, meticulous survey of U.S. policy." "The film is
methodically edited, interspersing tales from the ground with policy wonks,
decisions with consequences, until it paints the administration into a corner,"
notes Kim Voynar of Cinematical, and online critic Emanuel Levy finds the film
to be a "damning critique conducted with surgical precision."
The Decider decided to go to war. That was as far as he got.
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One Week: August 17 - 23
THE TEN
Premiere (2007, 93 minutes)
Which of the Ten Commandments do you follow? They are hard. They are also
contradictory. And director David Wain and his co-writer Ken Marino also find
them funny. In this collection of 10 vignettes that illustrate the humorous
underpinnings of the laws Moses delivered from God, Wain asks such stars as
Jessica Alba, Adam Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Paul Rudd, Famke Janssen, Gretchen
Mol, Rob Corddry, Winona Ryder, Liev Schreiber, and Oliver Platt not to covet
thy neighbor's wife, take the Lord's name in vain, worship false gods, steal,
commit adultery, murder, while also keeping the Sabbath day, and honoring mom
and dad. John DeFore of the Hollywood Reporter praises the film's "restless
comic imagination," and Dennis Harvey of Variety liked the "the overall
conceptual giddiness," while Steven Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer was amused
by the "screwball improv and inspired throwaways." "Any film that casts Oliver
Platt as an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator and takes the name of Dianne
Wiest in vain gets my vote," concludes Richard Horgan of FilmStew.com.
"Hilarious!" - Variety
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One Showing: 7 PM, Friday, August 24
JOHN CALLAHAN: TOUCH ME SOMEPLACE I CAN FEEL
Theatrical Premiere (2006, 60 minutes)
"He who jokes, confesses," philosophizes Portland-based but internationally
famous cartoonist John Callahan in Touch Me Someplace I Can Feel, the new
documentary about him made for Dutch television. Director Simone de Vries (who
has made previous films about Rutger Hauer and Kinky Friedman) captures the
cartoonist as he embarks on a new career as a blues singer-songwriter. De
Vries's film is patterned after Terry Zwigoff's Crumb, offering a reasonably
full a portrait of Callahan, augmented with talking head interviews with the
likes of Robin Williams, and even including Tom Waits calling to leave a
rendition of one of Callahan's songs on his message machine. Callahan is his
usual acerbic self as he discusses Portland street life, politics, some local
hangouts, and coffee house culture. In addition, Callahan is shown drawing
cartoons in unlikely places, sketching a model, and composing and performing his
tunes. As D. K. Holm points out at Green Cine Daily, this compassion film's
"shots of mothers with carriages, skateboarders and joggers seem to be a rebuke
against those who enjoy full mobility."
Willamtte Week Presents: A documentary about Portland cartoonist and musician John Callahan
John Callahan in person
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One Week: August 24 - 30
THE KING OF KONG
Premiere (2007, 79 minutes)
Called one of the great rivalries of all time, the competition between diehard
video game fans Steve Sanders, a middle school science teacher, and Billy
Mitchell, a hot sauce mogul, reaches a fever pitch when the duo battle for the
Guinness world record on the arcade classic video game Donkey Kong. Director
Seth Gordon's account of their rivalry is "thoroughly engaging" according to
Steven Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe calls
the film an "hilarious and moving study," while Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net
says that The King of Kong is "up there with some of the greatest sports docs."
Eugene Novikov of Film Blather believes that the film plays like "a real-life
version of a Christopher Guest mockumentary." Scott Weinberg of Cinematical
thinks the film is "as fascinating as something that Ken Burns put together,"
while Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat says it is "compelling and involving."
A middle school science teacher and a hot sauce mogul battle for the guinness world record on the arcade classic, Donkey Kong.
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One Week: August 31 - September 6
THE 11TH HOUR
Premiere (2007, 95 minutes)
A look at the state of the global environment, concluding with visionary and
practical solutions for restoring the planet's ecosystems, this documentary, co-
produced by Leonardo DiCaprio (who also narrates), draws upon the skills and
knowledge of scholars, statesmen, and writers who include Mikhail Gorbachev,
Thom Hartmann, Paul Hawken, Stephen Hawking, Bill McKibben, David Orr, and David
Suzuki. Says Kenny Ausubel in the film, "The environment is going to survive.
We're the ones that may not survive. Or we may survive in a world that we don't
particularly want to live in." Variety's Justin Chang calls the film a
"ruminative essay on what it means to be human in a scarce world." J. Sperling
Reich of Film Stew notes that The 11th Hour offers "some altogether fascinating
ideas about how to go about solving the climate crisis."
Restoring the planet's ecosystem isn't so much a technological problem as it is a challenge of leadership
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Two Days: September 7 - 8
THE BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL
The Bicycle Film Festival is coming to Portland for the first time! The BFF
celebrates the bicycle in all its styles. If you can name it - Tall Bike
Jousting, Track Bikes, BMX, Alleycats, Critical Mass, Bike Polo, Cycling to
Recumbents - they've probably either ridden or screened it. What better way to
celebrate these lifestyles than through art, film, music and performance?
Founded in 2001, the Bicycle Film Festival was born in the streets of New York
City by Brendt Barbur, who was hit by a bus while riding a bicycle. The
experience compelled him to turn a negative into something positive, founding
the Bicycle Film Fest. It has now spread to 16 cities around the world. The
Bicycle Film Festival features films from around the world. This includes
shorts, documentaries, avant-garde, narrative features and more. The BFF shorts
programs are especially popular. Among the amazing films offered by the festival
are Monkey Warfare, the inspiring Ayamye, the historic mountain bike film
Klunkerz, and the adventurous Bike Car. For more information and updates, please
visit www.bicyclefilmfestival.com.
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Five Days: September 9 - 13
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES
Premiere (2006, 80 minutes)
This documentary by Jennifer Baichwal follows the career of Canadian
photographer Edward Burtynsky, who specializes in images of industry. For
Burtynsky, there is nothing more beautiful or intriguing than a gaping blackened
pit dug out of the earth by a mining company or the husk of a rusted ship being
dismantled by a team of Bengalese children like insects on a carcass, or a
Manhattan-sized factory filled with uniformed worker drones churning out 200
light fixtures a day. As he states near the end, Burtynsky makes no attempt to
politicize his images. He merely presents them for the viewer, or photo buff, or
connoisseur to work out what they think of it. "A profound, open-ended
meditation on man's physical impact on his environment," opines Peter Debruge in
Variety. Notes D. K. Holm at Green Cine Daily, "you can see the affection in the
crisp, colorful images that the film reproduces." "This film can actually
broaden Burtynsky's work, underlining the power of the photographs by revealing
more of the subject," writes Kate Taylor in the Globe and Mail, and to Jim
Ridley of the Village Voice, "Nothing illustrates the monstrosity of globalized
commerce more vividly than the lateral tracking shot that opens Jennifer
Baichwal's mesmerizing documentary." "A work that is every bit as cogent,
innovative and profoundly unsettling as its subject," writes Geoff Pevere of the
Toronto Star.
"A Majestical Tour Of The World's Most Devastated Industrial Zones with Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky." - Salon.com
"An Extraordinary Visual Record Of Change On An Unprecedented Scale." - New York Magazine
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One Week: September 14 - 20
DELIRIOUS
Premiere (2006, 107 minutes)
In Tom DiCillo's new film, Toby (Michael Pitt), a desperate but affable homeless
kid, insinuates himself into the life of Les (Steve Buscemi), a hapless
paparazzo, and offers to serve as his unpaid assistant. Always game for a deal,
Les shows him the sleazy ropes of party crashing, scoring goody bags, and
chasing hot tips. As Les and his cameraman cronies clamor for photo ops, the
handsome Toby locks eyes with K'harma (Alison Lohman), the sexy reigning pop
princess, and is suddenly swept into a glittery fairy tale romance, leading to a
profound conflict with Les. Gina Gershon, Kevin Corrigan, and Elvis Costello
also star in this film that delivers a high-energy, sharp-witted satire that
pokes ironic fun at the absurd machine (paparazzi, publicists, and stars) that
manufactures fame, while also addressing the toll it takes on those caught in
its cogs. Jeremy Mathews of Film Threat liked the "consistently amusing cast
members, who make you laugh at their characters' self-absorbed folly." Jonathan
Holland of Variety found Delirious "hilarious," Sura Wood of the Hollywood
Reporter noted that no one is spared in this "whip-smart comedy." Clint Morris
of Moviehole deems it a " joyously raucous, sexy, deliciously biting fable ...
Delirious is superbly entertaining and completely satisfying."
"A whip-smart comedy about the entertainment industry." - Hollywood Reporter
"A joyously raucous, sexy, deliciously biting farce...superbly entertaining and completely satisfying!" - Clint Morris, MOVIE HOLE
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One Week: September 21 - 27
DEEP WATER
Premiere (2006, 93 minutes)
When in 1967 London's Sunday Times decided to sponsor the first non-stop,
single-handed round-the-world sailing race in history, after Sir Francis
Chichester set a one-stop record the year before, little did the newspaper
suspect that it was initiating one of the most harrowing sea faring tales of all
time. The dark horse in the race was the then 36-year-old amateur yachtsman
Donald Crowhurst who had a wife, four kids and major financial problems.
Eventually trapped in a leaky boat and saddled with an unforgiving contract,
Crowhurst made a deal with the devil. Documentarians Louise Osmond and Jerry
Rothwell make great use of some startling material: the original tape recordings
and 16mm films made by Crowhurst as well as by his fellow contestant, Bernard
Moitessier, as they spent more than 10 months alone at sea. Deep Water is
"carefully researched and well-written," according to Deborah Young of Variety.
Andrew Pulver of the Guardian fines it "expertly assembled and engrossing,"
while Internet reviewer Jamie Russell thinks it is "terrific ... a sobering,
anti-heroic tale of an ordinary man who set out to attempt the extraordinary."
Narrated by Tilda Swinton, Deep Water is "a remarkably gripping and emotionally
wrenching tale" according to Internet reviewer Rich Cline.
From the producer of "Touching the Void"
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Two Weeks: September 28 - October 11
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON
Premiere (2007, 96 minutes)
It's only 240, 000 miles away, but only 24 people have ever been there, and only
12 have set foot on it. The moon tempts us nightly with its exotic illumination,
but as shown in this terrific documentary, the urge to get there was originally
political, part of a Cold War race with the Russians to establish primacy in
space. David Sington's film, made for the BBC, mixes a treasure trove of
archival footage with engaging commentaries of surviving astronauts from all
nine Apollo moonshots, bringing it all back for those with first-hand memories
of the time, while providing a stimulating primer for younger generations. The
U.S. space program and other aspects of the topic have been dealt with in
numerous dramas and other documentaries, but here the producers went back to the
original NASA film cans, found some material never used before and remastered
everything, meaning that the mostly color footage looks as good as new. These
are combined with HD interviews with the now aging but still articulate space
travelers, including Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins, Alan Bean, Jim Lovell, Edgar
Mitchell, et. al. (all excepting the reclusive Neil Armstrong). Todd McCarthy
of Variety notes that the "excitement, majesty and extraordinary human
accomplishment of the American lunar program of the '60s and early '70s is
rousingly captured."
auto
Ron Howard Presents
The surviving crew members from NASA's Apollo missions tell their story in their own words
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Ten Days: October 12 - 21
11th Annual Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
We're busy searching for the best LGBT programming we can find and
planning this year festivities. Look for a complete schedule in early September.
Meanwhile, join our mailing list at www.plgff.org to be kept up-to-date on the
latest developments, special events and screenings. Also, you can find us on
MySpace at www.myspace.com/plgff where you can be our friend!
In Partnership With Film Action Oregon
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Three Days: October 15 - 17
DeBakey
Premiere (2007, 68 minutes)
Inspiring documentary about Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, who at 99 is
perhaps the best known surgeon in the world. DeBakey's contributions
to the field of medicine have impacted millions of people
worldwide. He helped found the M.A.S.H. units, the VA Hospital system
and Medicaid. Notable patients include Boris Yeltsin, Jerry Lewis and
countless celebrities and dignitaries. DeBakey's innovations include
the development of the roller pump for cardiopulmonary bypass, which
launched the era of adult heart surgery.
Inspiring documentary about Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, perhaps the best known surgeon in the world.
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Everything that Lotti Latrous has created on the Ivory Coast of Africa in the last seven years was based on a number of serious and difficult life decisions. Having lived a fulfilling family life, the mother of three began to critically question her choices up that point, raising self-doubt about the meaning of her affluent lifestyle. In her quest to understand, Lotti began to see herself as overly dependent on the social norms and demands of her society. But having had everything and conformed perfectly, she realized that she was unfulfilled. She began to work for the Mother Theresa Hospice in Ivory Coast, accompanying the dying, and for the first time understood the importance and richness of life and realized how much she had to offer. Her decision to stay in Africa and open an AIDS clinic there offered her an opportunity to explore what it meant to live freely. It was a choice that society could not easily understand because 'Madame Lotti' essentially abandoned her family, including her nine-year-old daughter Sarah, in order to provide a home and give love to the sick and needy people of Adjouffou, an Abidjan slum.
Latrous calls herself the "biggest egoist of the world" because of the social judgment she was confronted with and moral conflicts in regard to her family that she was obliged to respond to. Today she feels certain her decision was a good one. Her personal journey was incredibly meaningful for her and brought her the liberation she craved from a luxurious life that carried little meaning for her. From having had everything, she gave up almost all of it, yet now she feels more fortunate than ever.
By loosening her family obligations and following her heart, Lotti created a new life for herself and the people around her, for which she is respected internationally. Her incredible dedication to work, her enormous giving, and her will to fight against injustice has made her a role model for many who enthusiastically support her. And yet, all long, she's only doing what she wants to do.
A new documentary about the Swiss humanitarian.
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