Tag Archives: cinema village

EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY PEOPLE

Sheila Kay Adams is featured in new documentary and will perform live at two screenings opening weekend at Cinema Village

EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY PEOPLE (Alan Govenar, 2017)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, September 15
212-529-6799
www.firstrunfeatures.com
www.cinemavillage.com

With the future of such government agencies as the National Endowment for the Arts in jeopardy, documentarian and folklorist Alan Govenar celebrates the NEA’s National Heritage Fellowships in Extraordinary Ordinary People. Since 1982, the fellowships have honored “our nation’s master folk and traditional artists . . . recognizing the ways these individuals demonstrate and reflect our nation’s living cultural heritage and the efforts of these artists to share their knowledge with the next generation.” Govenar speaks with the program’s founder and first director, Bess Lomax Hawes, and former director Dan Sheehy, who explain the importance of nurturing a diverse group of artists who often live and work on the margins. New and archival footage feature more than two dozen figures, from such musicians and singers as Koko Taylor, Clifton Chenier, Wanda Jackson, Narciso Martinez, Sheila Kay Adams, “Flaco” Jiménez, John Lee Hooker, Chum Ngek, “Queen” Ida Guillory, Earl Scruggs, and B. B. King to such artisans as quilter Laverne Brackens, lace maker Sonia Domsch, and ceremonial regalia maker Clarissa Rizal. Govenar (The Beat Hotel, Stoney Knows How) previously documented the story of another of the film’s subjects, dancer and drummer Sidiki Conde, in You Don’t Need Feet to Dance. The film opens September 15 at Cinema Village; the 8:00 shows on Friday and Saturday night will be followed by a Q&A and mini-concert with Govenar, Adams, and Conde.

COMPANY TOWN

Crossett, Arkansas, pastor David Bouie leads fight against Koch Industries over environmental injustice and corporate accountability in Company Town (photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki)

COMPANY TOWN (Natalie Kottke-Masocco & Erica Sardarian, 2016)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, September 8
212-529-6799
www.companytownfilm.com
www.cinemavillage.com

In Company Town, director, writer, and producer Natalie Kottke-Masocco and codirector, writer, and producer Erica Sardarian investigate the cancer cluster affecting Crossett, Arkansas, which has experienced an alarming number of men, women, and children suffering from the disease. Pastor David Bouie and others firmly place the blame on illegal dumping and sewage wastewater from the local Georgia-Pacific paper and chemical plant, which was purchased by Koch Industries, owned by controversial billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, in 2005. Kottke-Masocco and Sardarian spent nearly four years in Crossett, documenting the town’s fight against big business, an uphill battle all the way as it makes its case to the EPA, the Crossett Water Commission, ADEQ (Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality), the Arkansas Department of Health, and other organizations that are responsible for public health issues. “Koch Industries is one of the all-time champions of using the levers of political influence throughout the nation . . . and, yes, including Arkansas,” says investigative journalist and professor Charles Lewis. Former Obama administration environmental adviser Van Jones adds, “This is happening all across America; this is not just about one town. This is about a whole series of small towns in vulnerable neighborhoods that are being preyed upon by economic power and big polluters. They think they can get away with this. It is a century-defining problem, but it’s going to be resolved by little towns like Crossett fighting their way to some kind of justice.” The fight is led by Pastor Bouie, who refuses to take no for an answer as Crossett, the Forestry Capital of the World, uncovers the abuses by Georgia-Pacific and the “door-to-door cancer” occurring in the town of about 5,500 people, primarily of African-American heritage. Among those residents willing to go on camera and speak out against the plant that is also the financial lifeblood of the community are Jessie Johnson, Hazel Parker, Leona Edwards, young child and cancer sufferer Simone Smith, and former GP contractor Ken Atkins. They are joined by environmental scientist (and folk musician) Barry Sulkin; Elaine Shannon, editor in chief of Environmental Working Group; Huffington Post reporter Paul Blumenthal; research scientist Anthony Samsel; chemist Wilma Subra of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network; whistleblower Diki Guice, who only reveals his identity after he loses his job at GP; environmental law and policy expert Heather White; and Ouachita Riverkeeper Cheryl Slavant, who declares, “Everyone who lives in Crossett or works in Crossett is in danger.”

A community comes together to fight environmental and corporate injustice in Company Town (photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki)

Company Town is one of those documentaries that reveals mind-boggling injustice, where the average person seemingly has no recourse against corporate greed and a government turning its back on them. When regional EPA administrators finally do come to Crossett to check out the residents’ claims firsthand, it is clear that Georgia-Pacific, which did not respond to requests from the filmmakers to participate in the film in any way, was warned in advance and has made some changes that last only a week. Despite evidence that families in eleven of fifteen homes on one block have members who have died from or are battling cancer, the various government organizations don’t find that unusual. Pastor Bouie, who is also a former GP employee and reserve deputy sheriff, is determined to never give up. “How many of us that have worked to keep the company going, keep the company in business, how many of us have to die? How many of our children and family members have to die in order to keep one job at this plant?” he says. And his wife, Barbara Bouie, states the situation very succinctly. “They know what they’re doing is wrong, and they need to correct it.” Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go. The film opens September 8 at Cinema Village, with the 8:00 shows Friday and Saturday night followed by Q&As with Kottke-Masocco and Sardarian along with producer Adam Paul Smith and cinematographer, editor, and producer Edgar Sardarian. The Friday night discussion will also feature New York State attorney general Eric Schneiderman and members of the cast.

WHISKY GALORE!

A dry Scottish island decides to wet its whistle with contraband drink in Whisky Galore!

WHISKY GALORE! (Gillies Mackinnon, 2016)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, May 12
212-529-6799
www.whiskygaloremovie.com
www.cinemavillage.com

Gillies Mackinnon’s Whisky Galore! follows in the tradition of such British charmers as Local Hero, Waking Ned Devine, and The Full Monty, another quirky tale of a small community coming together when facing unexpected challenges. It’s 1943, and WWII has not quite made it to the remote (and fictional) Scottish island of Todday, but you wouldn’t know it from the actions of Captain Wagget (Eddie Izzard), an English commander rigidly leading a ragtag unit of islanders just in case Hitler should attack. The town has gone dry, with no alcohol deliveries expected because of the war, putting a damper on everything, including celebrations; most importantly, postmaster Joseph Macroon (Gregor Fisher), a leader on the island, won’t allow his daughters, Catriona (Ellie Kendrick) and Peggy (Naomi Battrick), to marry their intendeds, schoolteacher George Campbell (Kevin Guthrie) and Sergeant Odd (Sean Biggerstaff), respectively, until they can have the proper party, with plenty of booze. George also faces the wrath of his Bible-thumping mother (Ann Louise Ross), who forbids him from marrying Peggy. In desperate need of drink, the town gets excited when a cargo ship runs aground just off the island, transporting tens of thousands of export-only alcohol for a cabinet minister. While Captain Waggett seeks to protect the bounty from thieves — his colleagues and neighbors — a group of thirsty islanders, including Joseph, George, Odd, Sammy (Iain Robertson), the Biffer (Antony Strachan), Old Roddy (Sean Scanlan), and Angus (Brian Pettifer), devise a plan to obtain the contraband whisky, right under Waggett’s nose.

Macroon (Gregor Fisher) and his daughters (Ellie Kendrick and Naomi Battrick) have some choice words for the town bartender (Ken Drury) in Scottish remake

Whisky Galore! is a remake of Alexander Mackendrick’s classic 1949 Ealing comedy — his debut, which was reedited by Charles Crichton when the producer was not satisfied with the original cut. The film was based on Sir Compton Mackenzie’s novel, inspired by real events in which the S.S. Politician, a British cargo ship carrying tens of thousands of cases of export-only whisky, crashed in the Outer Hebrides in 1941. (Coincidentally, Mackendrick gave Mackinnon a prize for his graduation film back in 1986.) Written by Peter MacDougall and photographed by Nigel Willoughby, the film has a lot of Scottish color, and not just the beautiful amber of whisky, even if production designer Andy Harris was heavily influenced by the work of American painter Andrew Wyeth. Izzard turns Waggett into a pathetic but determined soldier, egged on by his prudish wife, Dolly (Fenella Woolgar), while Fisher makes gentle widower Macroon the emotional center of the film. And keep a lookout for the late Tim Pigott-Smith (The Jewel in the Crown, King Charles III) as Colonel Woolsey, in one of his last roles. Glaswegian MacKinnon (Hideous Kinky, The Last of the Blond Bombshells) keeps it all from getting too ridiculous, although several plot twists go awry, including one involving Edward, Prince of Wales, and his true love, Wallis Simpson. But no matter; this is a film that goes down fairly smooth, without too much harshness.

THE PENGUIN COUNTERS

Ron Naveen counts penguins amid glorious surroundings in THE PENGUIN COUNTERS

THE PENGUIN COUNTERS (Peter Getzels & Harriet Gordon, 2016)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, April 21
212-529-6799
www.cinemavillage.com
www.penguincountersmovie.com

Peter Getzels and Harriet Gordon’s The Penguin Counters arrives at Cinema Village just in time for World Penguin Day on April 25, which celebrates the cute and cuddly black-and-white (and often yellow) aquatic birds. However, the tuxedoed animals are facing a major challenge, as climate change threatens their very existence. The film follows Ron Naveen and his small team — Thomas Mueller of Frankfurt’s Biodiversity and Climate Research Center, research ecologist Steve Forrest, Stony Brook assistant professor Heather Lynch, and PhD candidates Mike Polito and Paula Casanovas — as they go from Argentina to Deception Island, tracking three varieties of penguins and following in the footsteps of British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, who led a famously treacherous journey to the Antarctic in the first decade of the nineteenth century aboard the aptly named Discovery. In a bit of serendipitous luck, on a cruise ship he’s essentially hitchhiking on, Naveen meets Angie Butler, the biographer of Shackleton’s right-hand man, Frank Wild, who is transporting Wild’s ashes to South Georgia so they can be buried next to Shackleton’s remains, and Naveen joins her on her mission. Naveen, the founder and president of Oceanites, is gathering information for the Antarctic Site Inventory project, which has been detailing the plight of oceanic birds and the ecosystem for more than twenty years. “We’re not explorers, climbers, or athletes,” Naveen explains in a message about the film. “The weather we face is grueling. The terrain is hostile, and we’re only kitted out with golf-ball-sized tally-whackers and waterproof spiral notebooks. But our data has been instrumental in the formation of policies among polar scientists and the fifty member nations of the Antarctic Treaty Organization.”

Documentary reveals effects climate change is having on the penguin population

“Penguins are my passion!” Naveen declares at the start of the film. “And why? Because penguins are indicators of ocean health, and they’re ultimately going to be sentinels of change.” Of course, penguins are also simply adorable, so the film is loaded with heartwarming shots of the flightless birds, as well as gorgeous panoramas of the Antarctic, lovingly photographed by Getzels and Erik Osterholm. And yes, there are scenes of his dedicated team counting nests in spectacular locations. A former government lawyer, Naveen’s cheerfulness about what he does is infectious, even in the face of dwindling numbers of penguins and the onslaught of climate change. But still, they’re just so darn cute. . . . After screening at film festivals all over the globe, The Penguin Counters opens April 21 at Cinema Village, with Getzels, Gordon, and Naveen participating in Q&As following the 7:15 shows April 21–26.

SPEED SISTERS

SPEED SISTERS follows first all-woman racecar team in Middle East

SPEED SISTERS (Amber Fares, 2016)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, February 10
212-529-6799
www.cinemavillage.com
speedsisters.tv

Documentarians are always in search of unusual stories, and producer-director Amber Fares has found a real winner in Speed Sisters. The Lebanese Canadian cofounder of SocDoc Studios heads to the Middle East to share the tale of five brave and ambitious Palestinians who have formed the region’s first all-women racecar driving team. Noor Dauod, Marah Zahalka, Betty Saadeh, Mona Ali, and captain Maysoon Jayyusi defy gender stereotypes by participating in professional races driving heavily modified regular cars. Competing against men, they roar around makeshift tracks in Ramallah, Jenin, Jericho, and other locations, racing against the clock to put up the fastest time as they follow complicated courses with very specific rules. The film is photographed by Fares and Lucy Martens (Out of the Ashes, Voices from Inside: Israelis Speak) and edited by Rabab Haj Yahya (Bed and Breakfast, Beyond Blue and Gray) for maximum impact, putting viewers right in the middle of the exciting action. Rather than being shunned by their patriarchal society, the women are cheered on by fans and their male colleagues, led by Palestinian Motor Sport and Motorcycle Federation founder Khaled Qaddoura, as well as most, though not all, of their family members. Each of the women feels the need for speed, but they also have different motivations. “I don’t race for the trophies; I do it for the release,” Mona explains, while Noor says, “In the car, everything I need to feel is there. The car completes me.”

Marah Zahalka gets ready for action in Amber Fares’s high-octane SPEED SISTERS

The five women discuss their hopes and dreams in addition to their fears, often concerned for their safety as they go through Israeli checkpoints monitored by armed military guards; at one point, Betty gets hit in the lower back by a tear-gas canister, leaving a scary bruise, a sharp contrast to scenes in which she carefully applies nail polish and puts on lipstick right before a race. Fares doesn’t delve too deeply into Mideast politics, but she doesn’t let it take a backseat either; the powderkeg that is the never-ending battle over settlements in the West Bank and the ongoing troubled relationship between Israel and Palestine is ever present, always bubbling under the surface, as the women burn rubber and the soundtrack pulsates with songs by Palestinian indie bands. “How much will we let the occupation affect our lives?” Marah says. “What are we supposed to do, stop living?” Speed Sisters opens February 10 at Cinema Village, with Fares and producer Jessica Devaney (My Neighbourhood, Home Front) participating in Q&As following the 7:15 screenings February 10, 11, and 12.

THE DAUGHTER

Three generations of Finches (Ewen Leslie, Odessa Young, and Sam Neill) find themselves in the calm before the storm in THE DAUGHTER

THE DAUGHTER (Simon Stone, 2015)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Through Thursday, February 2
212-529-6799
www.cinemavillage.com
www.kinolorber.com

The Daughter is a taut Australian melodrama from actor, director, and writer Simon Stone, his feature directorial debut, inspired by his 2014 stage adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck for Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre company. The film builds slowly, teasing out the tension, until it gets so wrapped up in itself that the stream of revelations unfolding near the end feels overwrought and anticlimactic, as viewers will have figured out many of the twists much earlier. Still, it’s a compelling tale, well acted by a solid cast, although one overblown character nearly brings it all tumbling down. Ne’er-do-well prodigal son Christian (Paul Schneider) has returned home for the first time in fifteen years, for the wedding of his father, Henry (Geoffrey Rush), to his much younger housekeeper, Anna (Anna Torv). The wealthy local mill owner in a rural New South Wales town, Henry has just announced that his factory is closing. Christian, an alcoholic who is having problems with his girlfriend, Grace (Ivy Mak), and has never gotten over his mother’s death, reconnects with his childhood friend, Oliver (Ewen Leslie), a millworker who is married to Charlotte (Miranda Otto); they have a lovely daughter, teenager Hedvig (Odessa Young), a smart girl who is very close to her grandfather, Walter (Sam Neill), who takes care of a forest on his property as well as a home-made sanctuary for injured animals. Long-held secrets begin to emerge, spinning both families into severe crises as the past refuses to stay hidden.

Odessa Young is outstanding as fourteen-year-old girl whose life is about to be turned upside down in debut feature by Simon Stone

Nominated for ten Australian Oscars and winner of three — Young for Best Lead Actress, Otto for Best Supporting Actress, and Stone for Best Adapted Screenplay — The Daughter can’t break free of its major flaw, though it tries — Christian might be the driving force behind the narrative, but the character, and Schneider’s performance, is too over-the-top in what is otherwise an intriguing and involving story with subtle touches. (For instance, Henry’s wood mill cuts down trees while Walter and Hedvig seek solace in a tree-laden forest.) Rush (Quills, Shine) is staunch as Henry, whose misdeeds trigger everything. Stone regular Leslie (Richard III, Stone’s The Wild Duck) and Otto (Lord of the Rings, The Last Days of Chez Nous) are terrific as a couple very much in love, but rising star Young steals the film as the blossoming fourteen-year-old Hedvig, whether acting with a fine Neill, nursing a wild duck shot down by Henry, or exploring her sexuality with her classmate Adam (Wilson Moore). She is definitely one to watch, as is Stone, who, at least for much of the film, expertly captures an uneasy atmosphere in which love grows ever-more-complicated minute by minute.

VINCE GIORDANO: THERE’S A FUTURE IN THE PAST

Vince Giordano shows off his remarkable collection of Jazz Age arrangements in THERE’S A FUTURE IN THE PAST

VINCE GIORDANO: THERE’S A FUTURE IN THE PAST (Dave Davidson & Amber Edwards, 2016)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Through Thursday, January 26
212-529-6799
www.cinemavillage.com
www.firstrunfeatures.com

Vince Giordano has an infectious glee throughout most of Vince Giordano: There’s a Future in the Past, a lively documentary that celebrates his dedication and passion for keeping the music of the 1920s and 1930s alive. “He’s totally consumed by his mission,” one member of his band, the Nighthawks, explains. “He’s meant to be a bandleader,” another one says. Director-producers Dave Davidson and Amber Edwards follow the youthful Giordano, who will turn sixty-five in March, as the band plays at the Newport Jazz Festival, with Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion, at Sofia’s in the Edison Hotel, at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night’s Swing, and at the New York Hot Jazz Festival at the Players club as well as recording a tune in the studio with David Johansen for Boardwalk Empire. The Grammy-winning Giordano and the Nighthawks have performed music for nearly two dozen films, including several by Woody Allen. But leading a Jazz Age band in the modern era is no easy task; Giordano, who plays the tuba, the string bass, and the bass saxophone and handles the vocals, has no roadies and no agent, so he and partner Carol Hughes are seen lugging equipment around, scrambling for gigs, and getting the orchestrations just right, testing Giordano’s gleeful onstage demeanor. “When I first met him, I thought he was very unusual and a nice person, but I didn’t think he was exceptional and crazy like he is,” Hughes says. The Brooklyn-born Giordano is also a music historian and archivist, having collected some sixty thousand arrangements, with twenty-five hundred brought to any single show, making for a wide range of setlists. Among those singing Giordano’s praises are many members of the eleven-piece Nighthawks, some of them who have been part of the band since the 1970s; sharing fun stories are reed players Mark Lopeman and Dan Levinson, trumpeters Jon-Erik Kellso and Mike Ponella, violinist Andy Stein, pianist Peter Yarin, trombonist Jim Fryer, and guitarist Ken Salvo.

The heart of the film is watching the remarkable band play such songs as “Stampede,” “Shake That Thing,” “The Moon and You,” and a glorious “Rhapsody in Blue” at Town Hall, by such legendary composers and bandleaders as George Gershwin, Fletcher Henderson, Paul Whiteman, Bix Beiderbecke, and Duke Ellington. One of the most poignant parts occurs when Sofia’s, where Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks played every Monday and Tuesday night for five years, closes, so Giordano must find a new home, which he does, at Iguana NYC. (You can also catch them at the “Highlights in Jazz” forty-fourth annual gala on February 9 at BMCC’s Tribeca Performing Arts Center with Ms. Vinnie Knight and Cynthia Sayer & Her Joyride Band.) Vince Giordano: There’s a Future in the Past is a poignant tale of a New York City treasure whose obsession brings great joy to the rest of us.