Children of Men

Monday, November 24

7:00 PM

DFAB Room 131 (Humanities Room)

We will continue our look at the work of filmmakers who set out to take certain film genres and elevate them to works of art by watching the 2006 Science Fiction film Children of Men, directed and co-written by Alfonso Cuarón, acclaimed director of Y Tu Mamá También, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Gravity.

Children of Men takes place in 2027.  Humans have become infertile, leaving society on the brink of collapse. Illegal immigrants seek sanctuary in the United Kingdom, where the last functioning government imposes oppressive immigration laws on refugees. Clive Owen plays Theo Faron, who is called upon to help a refugee woman who may be pregnant with the first child in eighteen years to escape Britain to join the "Human Project", a supposed scientific group in Portugal dedicated to curing infertility.

Based on P. D. James's 1992 novel of the same name, Children of Men was highly acclaimed by critics for its exciting and violent chase-thiller elements, its thought-provoking cautionary tale, and its virtuoso cinematography, exemplified by long, complex tracking shot that go on for several minutes without cutting.  On their list of the best movies of 2006, The A.V. Club, the San Francisco Chronicle, Slate and The Washington Post all placed the film at number one.  

Please join us on Monday, November 24 at 7:00 PM in DFAB Room 131 for a gorgeous film that, for all its dreariness, manages to uplift the spirit with themes of hope, redemption, and faith.

Detour

Thursday, September 25

DFAB Room 131

6:00 PM

This semester, we're going to change things up a bit.  The usual art documentaries will return next in the spring.  This semester, however, we will be taking a look at the work of filmmakers who set out to take certain film genres and elevate them to works of art.  Each evening there will be a brief discussion about the particular genre and how the film is representative of that genre.  We'll also discuss the innovative and artistic choices made by the filmmakers.  After the film, there will always be time for discussion.

First off, we will look at the art of film noir.  This term refers to the dark, gritty crime dramas of the 1940s and 50s that emphasized cynical attitudes, violence, and sexual motivations.  The low-key black-and-white visuals, stylish editing, and pulp fiction roots of these films are iconic characteristics.

The example of film noir that we will watch is Detour, a classic of the genre.  Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and adapted for the screen by Martin Goldsmith and Martin Mooney from a novel of the same name by Goldsmith, Detour was produced on an extremely low budget--as were many of films in this genre--with bare sets and minimal lighting.  But the unpolished surface is misleading. This film is held in very high regard by critics for reasons we will discuss at the showing.

Detour follows a piano player named Al, who is bitter about working as a piano player a New York nightclub for very little pay. His frustrations become unbearable when his girlfriend leaves to seek fame in Hollywood, leaving Al behind.  He eventually decides to join her, but with so little money, he is forced to hitchhike his way across the country.Along the way, chance events trap Al in a tightening net of violence and trouble.

Come join us Thursday night, September 25, at 6:00 PM in DFAB 131 to watch and discuss the art of film noir in Detour.

Marwencol

The final film of the semester in our series is Marwencol, a documentary about the fantasy world of Mark Hogancamp.

After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark builds a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard. Mark populates the town he dubs "Marwencol" with dolls representing his friends and family and creates life-like photographs detailing the town's many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helps Mark to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds of the attack. When Mark and his photographs are discovered, a prestigious New York gallery sets up an art show. Suddenly Mark's homemade therapy is deemed "art", forcing him to choose between the safety of his fantasy life in Marwencol and the real world that he's avoided since the attack.

 Marwencol was released theatrically by the Cinema Guild and aired on PBS in 2010. It has won over 25 awards, including two Independent Spirit Awards, Best Documentary of the Year from the Boston Society of Film Critics and Rotten Tomatoes, and the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary at the South by Southwest Film Festival. The Los Angeles Times calls the film “an exhilarating, utterly unique experience” while the Village Voice says that it's “exactly the sort of mysterious and almost holy experience you hope to get from documentaries and rarely do.”

Please join us Thursday night, April 24, at 7:00 PM in DFAB Room 131 (The Humanities Room) for a film described by The Boston Globe as "one of those tale of all-American oddness that just keeps flowing into weirder, richer territory."

Antics Roadshow

Thursday, March 27

7:30 PM

DFAB Room 131

The second film this semester in our Art That Moves series is Antics Roadshow, a 40-minute TV special that was released on the BBC in 2011.  Banksy, the film's director, is arguably the world's most famous (and infamous) street artist.  Over the past two decades, he has managed to maintain his anonymity, with only a select few people aware of his true identity.  This film, narrated by Kathy Burke, takes a look at famous pranks and acts of activism which have become iconic.  The film follows the work of activist artists and public pranksters such as The Yes Men, Pincess Hijab, and Noël Godin--among others--who call attention to the pretensions of authority figures, racial and cultural disparity, and inequality through notorious public spectacles, acts of vandalism, and public art projects, all infused with a sense of humor and irony.

Please join us Thursday night, March 27, at 7:30 PM in DFAB Room 131 (The Humanities Room) for what promises to be a silly time with a serious message.

The Ghost Army

Thursday, February 6

7:00 PM

DFAB Room 131 (The Humanities

Our first film of the spring semester will be The Ghost Army, a film by writer/director Rick Beyer.

During World War II, a hand-picked group of American GI's undertook a bizarre mission: create a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German Army as their audience. The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops used inflatable rubber tanks, sound trucks, and dazzling performance art to bluff the enemy again and again, often right along the front lines. Many of the men picked to carry out these dangerous deception missions were artists. Some went on to become famous, including fashion designer Bill Blass. In their spare time, they painted and sketched their way across Europe, creating a unique and moving visual record of their war. Their secret mission was kept hushed up for nearly 50 years after the war's end.

Released in 2013, The Ghost Army tells the unique story of how this band of artists helped the Allies win World War II through in-depth interviews of surviving members of the famed "Ghost Army" and declassified film footage, photographs, and the artists' sketchbook pages.

Please join us in Room 131 of the Dickey Fine Arts Building at 7:00 PM on Thursday, February 6, for a film that celebrates a fascinating moment in time when art helped win the war.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Thursday, October 24

7:30 PM

DFAB 131 (The Humanities Room)

The second film of the fall in our Art That Moves series will be Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, a film by director Alison Klayman.

Ai Weiwei is China's most famous international artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. Against a backdrop of strict censorship and an unresponsive legal system, Ai expresses himself and organizes people through art and social media. In response, Chinese authorities have shut down his blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention.

Released in 2012, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is the inside story of a dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and blurs the boundaries of art and politics. First-time director Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to Ai while working as a journalist in China.

From 2008 to 2010, Klayman documented Ai's artistic process in preparation for major museum exhibitions, his intimate exchanges with family members and his increasingly public clashes with the Chinese government. Klayman's detailed portrait of the artist provides a nuanced exploration of contemporary China and one of its most compelling public figures.

Please join us in Room 131 of the Dickey Fine Arts Building at 7:30 PM on Thursday, October 24, for a film that celebrates the life and work of an artist who has made it his mission to fight social injustices in his native country.

 

Jean-Michel Baquiat: The Radiant Child

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12

7:30 PM

DFAB 131 (THE HUMANITIES ROOM)

The first film of the fall in our Art That Moves series will be Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child.  

Released in 2010, this film was directed by Tamara Davis and documents the meteoric rise to fame and tragically short life of postmodern neo-expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.  Central to the film is a videotaped interview with Basquiat that Davis conducted in the 1980s only a couple of years before the young artist's death by overdose.  Davis did not reveal any of the content of the interview until the release of this film.

Davis intertwines this footage with 2010 interviews with others who knew Basquiat, such as  Julian Schnabel, Larry Gagosian, Bruno Bischofberger, Tony Shafrazi, Fab 5 Freddy, Jeffrey Deitch, Glenn O'Brien, Maripol, Kai Eric, Nicholas Taylor, Fred Hoffmann, Michael Holman, Diego Cortez, Annina Nosei, Suzanne Mallouk, Rene Ricard, Kenny Scharf, and many others.  The resulting takes pays definitive, and unflinching, homage to the life and artistic process of Jean-Michel Basquiat while also examining his status as an iconoclast leaving an indelible mark on the history of art.

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist who began his work as an obscure graffiti artist in New York City in the late 1970s and quickly rose to fame as he evolved into an acclaimed Neo-Expressionist painter in the 1980s.  Basquiat combined the visual language of the Abstract Expressionists (such as Jackson Pollack) and the influences of Bebop and street graffiti to create a unique style of painting that was quickly recognized by the international art world as an important contribution to the burgeoning postmodern movement in art.  Temporing Basquiat's amazing success were his battles with personal demons, depression, racism, and misunderstanding.  The artist died of an overdose in 1988, at the tragically young age of 27.

Please join us in Room 131 of the Dickey Fine Arts Building at 7:30 PM on Thursday, September 12, for a powerful film that explores the life of an extraordinary artist, as well as the rewards and perils of rapid stardom in the art world.