Cineculture Club announces fall schedule

The Cineculture Club will show 15 films during the fall semester. The film series is provided to students, faculty, and staff at no charge. Anyone interested in taking Cineculture for academic credit for the fall semester may sign up through Continuing and Global Education (ext. 0333). The course is CI180T #79561.

All films will be shown at 5:15 p.m. in ED 170 in the Kremen School of Education,

unless otherwise indicated.

Films with *** are part of the Margaret Mead Traveling Film Festival, from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, funded by The International Programs Office at Fresno State. These films are first-release independent cultural documentaries.

The schedule is as follows:

August 26
“James Journey to Jerusalem”
Ra'anan Alexandrowicz. 2004. 87 min. India. Rated G
This film is about a Zulu man (played by Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe) who is on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, as a sort of holy man in-training for his people. Arriving in Israel he is jailed for being an illegal immigrant, but is soon semi rescued by a Jewish businessman who regularly pays the jailers for supplying him with an illegal work force for his cleaning business. James is freed into a sort of indentured servitude, but stays devout in his beautiful and inspiring need to continue in his pilgrimage to Jerusalem as he learns the ways of this urban black market business. Until he discovers consumerism. This tragedy, is the main character's journey to the mall. James' journey through this film is complicated, and quickly becomes a metaphor for all of our journeys in life; trying to navigate between getting what we want physically and the desire to feel fulfilled by higher purpose.

September 2
“The Future of Food”
Deborah Koons Garcia. 2003. U.S./Canada/Mexico. 88 min.  Not Rated.
***N.Y. Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
What will food look like for future generations? Will all plant species become private property? The Future of Food raises important questions about genetically modified food. It highlights the role of corporations and government in agriculture, and the role consumers have yet to play in determining what we will eat in the decades to come. Viewing this film, you'll never look at food the same way again!

September 9
“The Cup”

Khyentse Norbu. 2000. Bhutan. 93 min. No Rated.

This is the first motion picture ever to emerge from the tiny central Asian country, Bhutan. The writer/director, Khyentse Norbu, recognized in Buddhist culture as the incarnation of a nineteenth century Tibetan saint, was able to gain the confidence and cooperation of everyone living behind the cloistered walls of the Chokling Monastery to present a candid view of how monks and monks-in-training live. This true story centers on a 14-year old monk-in-training with an unquenchable passion for soccer. During the 1998 World Cup, he and several cohorts sneak out of the monastery by night and make their way to a shop in the local town where they can watch the matches. Eventually, they are caught and punished. Undeterred, however, they come up with a scheme to bring the World Cup Final to within the walls of the monastery. This film embraces the culture clash between the existence within the safe confines of the monastery and life in the outside world.

September 16
“Rojo Amanecer”
Jorge Fons. Mexico.1989. Rated R.  In Spanish. No subtitles.
It's a feature about the Government's massacre of students at Tlatelolco (the Plaza of the Three Cultures) in Mexico City in 1968.   It was made in the mid 80's in a warehouse in Mexico City:  made clandestinely, without the support of any studio.   When it was finished, it was banned for a couple of years by order of the Presidential Guard: but its reputation was such that the system of State Censorship collapsed, and ROJO AMANECER became, domestically, the most successful Mexican film of all time.  It stars Hector Bonilla, Maria Rojo, Demian and Bruno Bichir, and Jorge Fegan..  The whole movie takes place inside one family's apartment, overlooking Tlatelolco:  the massacre itself is never seen. This movie got the awards for the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Original Story in the Mexico's Ariel Awards 1991. Also won a "Special Prize of the Jury" in the San Sebastian International Film Festival 1990.

September 23
“Pelle the Conquerer”
.Bille August. 1988. 150 min. Denmark. PG-13.
The Grand Prix Award winner at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, Pelle the Conqueror is about the course each man must steer in following his dreams. Drunken and defiant laborer Lasse Karlsson (a transcendent Max Von Sydow) and his young son Pelle (Pelle Hevenegaard) migrate from Sweden to Denmark in search of farm work. They find it -- along with much more than they bargained for -- on the Kongstrup farm.

September 30
“Bagdad Café”
Percy Adlon. 1988. USA/West Germany. 108 minutes. Rated PG.
This West German film is set in the California Desert. A husband-and-wife pair of Bavarian tourists becomes stranded when their car breaks down. This movie exemplifies how one person in the right place can affect a community of lives. It's just a greasy spoon and a rusty gas pump in the middle of the Mojave Desert, but to a mysterious, stranded Bavarian woman and a few mismatched regulars, the Bagdad Cafe becomes a magical piece of paradise. Academy Award Nominations: Best Song ("Calling You"). A well-crafted view of the lives of tourists everywhere and the difficulties they can face. A whimsical and lovingly photographed look at the vast wasteland that is too often ignored by much of humanity.

October 7 (two films)
“A Panther in Africa”

Aaron Matthews. 2004. 71 min. Tanzania. Not Rated.

***N.Y. Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
In 1969, Black Panther Pete O'Neal was arrested on a gun charge in Kansas City, Missouri. To avoid conviction, he fled to Africa, where he has spent the last 34 years living in exile in Tanzania. During the past three decades, he and his wife have devoted themselves to intense community work dealing with health, literacy, and anti-racism. Now, faced with the possibility of returning to America, O'Neal reflects on his life and confronts his radical past.

“a/k/a Mrs. George Gilbert”

Coco Fusco. 2004. USA. 31 min. Not Rated.

***World (film festival) Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
This hybrid video blends fictional and documentary source material in an imaginative re-creation of a crucial political moment in U.S. history. Co-scripted by Rick Moody (The Ice Storm), it tells the story of an FBI agent who confesses to his involvement in the nationwide search for Angela Davis, the famous radical philosopher and black activist who was on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list in 1970 and an underground fugitive for two months.

October 14
“Princess Mononoke” Will be shown in ED 390
Hayao Miyazaki. 1997. Japan.  PG 13 for images of violence and gore. 133 min.      
Japan's Hiyao Miyazak is internationally acknowledged as the world's greatest living animator. PRINCESS MONONOKE is both Miyakazi's masterwork and the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time. A realized tale of civilization versus nature, PRINCESS MONONOKE is a true epic. Essentially a statement on the ecological devastation brought on by human advancement, the story follows the battle between Princess Mononoke and a mining village. Miyazaki, who was personally responsible for 80,000 of the film's 144,000 hand drawings, uses the story's lush feudal setting as a character unto itself, filling the screen with vast mountainous landscapes and gorgeous wooded glens. The startlingly fluid movements of these mythological characters are detailed far beyond any other hand-animated production, easily making this one of the most spectacular animated films ever made. Best Film 1997 at the Japanese Academy Awards.

October 21
“Talk to Her”
Pedro Almodóvar.  2002. Spain. 113 min. Rated R.
After a chance encounter at a theater, two men, Benigno and Marco, meet at a private clinic where Benigno works. Lydia, Marco's girlfriend and a bullfighter by profession, has been gored and is in a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking after another woman in a coma, Alicia, a young ballet student. The lives of the four characters will flow in all directions, past, present and future, dragging all of them towards an unsuspected destiny.

October 28
“Underground”
Emir Kusturica. 1995. Hungary/Germany/France.  192 min.  No Rating: (Violence/Not for Children/Sexual Situations)

UNDERGROUND is  based on a 20 year old play by Balkan scriptwriter Dusan Kovecevic, but under Kusturica's tutelage turned into something altogether larger; a tragi-comic epic. This movie reflects the history of Yugoslavia since the beginning of WWII (and similar to all ex-communist countries) to the last horrible events in Balcanian countries. Behind the comedy is hidden the pain of whole generations, which have suffered WWII, The Cold War, the war in Yugoslavia, the communism, the treachery of their own leadership, the fall. The film shows us the reality, as seen by those who feel unlimited love for their country and culture. Marko and Blacky represent the true leaders of country, the soul of nation and not without controversies. The film alternates between high comedy and Balkan melancholy coupled with a superb sound-track from local gypsy musicians. Winner of the Palme d'Or Award at the 1995 Cannes International Film Festival.

November 4
“The Day I Became A Woman”
Mohsen Makhmalbaf  2001. Iran.  80 min. Not Rated.
The Day I Became a Woman tells three stories of women at different ages. Each story is a metaphor for the struggles that women, particularly Muslim women, endure. Each story takes place at a different point in the lives of the women (beginning, middle and end) and can represent freedom, subjugation, or both. Like many other movies from Iran, none of the principal stars are actors. Silver Hugo for Best First Film, 2000 Chicago International Film Festival; Best Director, 2000 Thessaloniki Film Festival; UNESCO Award, Isvema Award, CinemAvvenire Award, 2000 Venice Film Festival.

November 11
“The Wild Reeds”
André Téchiné 1994.  France. (Adult Situations/Questionable for Children/Adult Language). 110 min. Not Rated.
This film is an unusual coming-of-age story set at a French boarding school in 1962, when news of France's war in Algeria is still plentiful. Téchiné focuses on a handful of students, measuring their transition into adulthood against the reality of love, sex, and the war's controversial cost. Three boys on the verge of manhood are in residence at a boarding school in the south of France in 1962. One is gay, the second is bi-sexual and the third is straight. Through their interactions we (and they) discover their sexuality.
Wild Reeds won four Cesars (France's equivalent of the Oscar), including the award for that year's Best Picture.

November 18 (two films)
“How to Fix the World”
Jacqueline Goss. 2004. U.S./Uzbekistan. 28 min.  Not Rated.
***U.S. Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
This highly inventive digitally animated film brings to life the celebrated work of A.R. Luria's research with the Uzbek Soviet farm collectives in the 1930's. Photographs of the collectives taken during this same period serve as the basis for the animated images. The restaged conversations between the famed cognitive psychologist and the "subjects" reveal the impact of Soviet socialism on these Muslim oral-based agricultural communities.
 

“Oscar”
Sergio Morkin. 2004.  Argentina. 61 min. Not Rated.
***U.S. Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
Oscar is a taxi driver, family man, and intrepid guerilla artist who rebels against the bombardment of advertisements in Buenos Aires. In doing so, he attracts attention from both the media and academia as an artist/activist whose story resonates strongly. But can he pay his bills without selling out?

December 2
“Rocks With Wings”
Rick Derby. 2001. USA. 113 minutes. Rating: PG
In 1988, award-winning filmmaker Rick Derby heard about a girl's basketball team on a New Mexican Navajo reservation that was writing itself into the state's record books. Rocks with Wings chronicles the 14 years Derby spent following the team, shooting more than 300 hours of footage with much of his own money. Shiprock High School's girl's varsity basketball team was fighting a losing battle when a young African-American named Jerry Richardson landed a teaching job at the school in the mid-80s. He inherited the job of coaching the girl's basketball team, who, under his guidance, won a handful of state championships and achieved acclaim. Rocks with Wings is compelling in countless ways. The Navajo people are not used to winning: "They didn't know how good they were," Richardson says of his team. In one particularly beautiful segment, the use of a "spirit line" in Navajo weaving is explained. Derby weaves the idea of the "spirit line" through the film, drawing together concepts that apply to everything from basketball and cultural genocide to pervasive Navajo belief systems. Rocks with Wings has screened at many festivals and picked up numerous awards, including the HBO Documentary Feature Prize at UrbanWorld Film Festival in New York City.

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