Spinning Plates – Nov. 30

Nov. 30    Spinning Plates
Dir: Joseph Levy    93 mins USA 
Documentary      2013

    This is about three extraordinary restaurants and the incredible people who bring them to life. A world-renowned chef competes for the ultimate restaurant prize in Chicago, while privately battling a life-threatening condition. A 150-year-old restaurant in Iowa is still standing only because of an unbreakable bond with the community. And a fledgling Mexican restaurant in Tucson struggles as its owners risk everything to survive. Their unforgettable stories of family, legacy, passion and survival come together to reveal how meaningful food can be, and the power it has to connect us to one another.
    “Two years after opening Alinea, it was named best restaurant in the nation. Two years after that, Grant got the diagnosis that thrust him into a fight for his life,” says Levy.   
    He hadn’t heard of Breitbach’s Country Dining prior to 2010. “I knew the basic blueprint I was looking for - a place where everybody seemed to know everyone else and the color of your collar didn’t matter. It was a place where community just happened around food.”
    La Cocina de Gabby, was difficult to find and took Levy months of searching. “I knew the story I wanted,” described the director, “a
restaurant run by owners who came to the U.S. in search of the American Dream. I also knew that I wanted the drama driving their story to be completely true.”

Showtimes: 7 + 9:30
all screenings in room 1-306 at the College of New Caledonia

The Trailer:

Good Ol' Freda – Nov. 23

Nov 23    Good Ol’ Freda
Dir: Ryan White    USA, 2013
Documentary         86 minutes

    Good Ol’ Freda is a unique and personal portrait of one modest woman at the heart of an international phenomenon.
    The newspapers of the 1960s called her the “luckiest girl in the world.” As a Liverpool teenager working in a typing pool, Freda Kelly was plucked from her desk and taken to local music club The Cavern, where an up- and-coming hometown group, The Beatles, were playing. From that fateful trip down the road, Freda fell into a job as personal secre- tary and fan-club manager for the biggest rock band in history.
    Though Freda was a trusted member of The Beatles’ inner circle for a decade, this documentary by director Ryan White marks the first time she has ever gone on record to speak about her integral role in Beatlemania. Still working as a secretary today, she opens up for the first time in fifty years to paint a vivid portrait of the Fab Four she came to know so well.
    White gives Freda a well-deserved moment in the spotlight and reveals a dedicated, hum- ble and charming woman who was loved and respected by John, Paul, George and Ringo.
    "A slyly humorous and insightful portrait…of a participant in one of popular culture's most pivotal moments."- Filmmaker Magazine

Showtimes: 7 + 9:30
all screenings in room 1-306 at the College of New  Caledonia

The Trailer:

Blackfish – Nov. 16

Nov.16    Blackfish
Dir: Gabriela Cowperthwaite   USA, 2013
English, Spanish with subtitles 90 minutes

    Orcas are intelligent mammals, thought by the scientific community to have a deep capacity for emotion and social interaction that’s equal, if not superior, to that of humans. There are no known instances of an orca ever harming a human in the wild... Blackfish sets out to reveal why captivity is different.
    Unfolding with the tone and pace of a thriller, this documentary reveals that SeaWorld is not only inhumane in its treatment of orcas, but also knowingly puts human lives at risk. The film opens with a 911 call made by a SeaWorld employee, reporting that a whale has attacked one of its trainers. This moment is contrasted with underwater footage of an orca dramatically launching a trainer out of the water during a choreo- graphed stunt. As they break the surface, the crowd erupts into a chilling roar of applause. The death in question occurred  in 2010, when an experienced trainer was dragged into the water and drowned by an orca named Tilikum. The incident was covered up by SeaWorld publicists, who attributed the death to “trainer error.” As it turns out, however, Tilikum was already responsible for two human deaths before this tragedy—a fact known to managers at SeaWorld but withheld from young trainers recruited to work with the whale.
    A powerful piece of journalistic filmmaking, Blackfish has the power to change people’s minds about animal captivity.

Showtimes: 7 + 9:30

All screenings in room 1-306 at the College of New Caledonia


The Trailer:

Love Is All You Need – Nov. 9

Nov. 9        Love Is All You Need
Dir: Susanne Bier    Denmark, 2012
English, Danish with subtitles 110 minutes
Principal Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Trine Dyrholm, Paprika Steen, Kim Bodnia.

    Returning from her final, successful chemotherapy treatment, Ida arrives home only to find her boorish husband Leif in a compromising position with a ditzy co-worker. Stricken, she takes off to Sorrento alone to attend the wedding of her daughter Astrid to Patrick in a beautiful Italian villa, where lemon groves and cypress trees form the perfect backdrop for a young couple who appear to be blissfully in love.
    Unexpectedly, Leif arrives with his new paramour in tow. Ida’s reaction does little to impress Patrick’s no-nonsense father Philip, a dashing but brooding widower who seems less than pleased with his life, his son, and his soon-to-be in-laws. When the young couple’s future happiness is suddenly jeopardized, Ida and Philip are brought together to try to set things right—and find that life might have a second chance in store for them as well.
    Bier’s films have always been marked by their outstanding ensemble casts, and this is no exception, being alternately Hilarious, touching and inspiring. Dyrholm invests Ida with energy, warmth and humour. Brosnan delivers a delightful performance as the staid Philip, while Paprika Steen is simply uproarious as Philip’s lustful sister-in-law.

The Trailer:

Hannah Arendt – November 2

Nov. 2        Hannah Arendt
Dir: Margarethe von Trotta   Germany, 2012
German with subtitles 113 minutes
Principal Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Janet McTeer, Axel Milberg, Klaus Pohl

    Margarethe von Trotta has long been fascinated by history’s great women, from twelfth-century mystic Hildegard von Bingen to Marxist firebrand Rosa Luxemburg. Here, she tackles the life of another icon: the German-Jewish philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt, as incarnated by von Trotta’s frequent collaborator, Barbara Sukowa.
    A former prize pupil (and lover) of philosopher Martin Heidegger, Arendt was already famous for her books when she was assigned by The New Yorker in 1961 to travel to Jerusalem to cover the trial of Adolph Eichmann. Following the testimony from concentration camp survivors and of Eichmann himself, von Trotta dramatizes the process by which Arendt formulated her most lasting, controversial contribution to contemporary political thought: the “banality of evil”—evil not as diabolical intent but as unthinking, almost offhanded ignorance of the consequences of one’s actions.
    Hannah Arendt is a stunning historical and human drama. Using footage from the actual Eichmann trial and weaving together an involving narrative that spans three countries, von Trotta turns the often invisible passion of thought into immersive, dramatic cinema.

Showtimes: 7 + 9:30
in room 1-306 at the College of New Caledonia

The Trailer:

Five Films For November

Cinema CNC presents... FIVE FILMS FOR NOVEMBER.

Showtimes: 7 + 9:30
All screenings in room 1-306 at the College of New Caledonia

Passes: [five films] $35
Available at Books and Company and at the CNC Bookstore

Tickets:
$8 regular
$7 students, seniors, unemployed
Available at the door.

Nov. 2: Hannah Arendt
Nov. 9: Love Is All You Need
Nov. 16: Blackfish
Nov. 23: Good Ol' Freda
Nov. 30: Spinning Plates

Twenty Feet from Stardom        October 19, 7 + 9:30 pm
Dir: Morgan Neville
USA
2013 
89 minutes

Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville returns with his compelling new documentary, Twenty Feet from Stardom, an Official Selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. In his latest foray into the subject of rock ’n’ roll history, Neville shines a spotlight on the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of the late 20th century, taking an unprecedented look at the moving personal journeys of these normally uncelebrated artists and paying tribute to their indelible role in popular music.

Although few, if any, of these singers become household names, their work has defined countless songs and records that remain hallowed in rock’s collective memory. Helping to set the record straight, Neville juxtaposes interviews with industry legends (Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Sting, and Bette Midler) with the relative unknowns who support them—a list that includes such talents as Merry Clayton (who sang on The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”), Táta Vega (notable for her duets with Michael Jackson and Lou Rawls), and Darlene Love (a discovery by producer Phil Spector). As each backup singer demonstrates their unquestionable talent, and the unique blend of intuition and skill needed to support lead vocals, they also reveal their own struggles to find careers as solo artists, and their disappointment in a music industry that has only propelled them so far.

Triumphant and heartbreaking, Twenty Feet from Stardom is a tribute to the unsung voices that changed the sound of popular music, and a reflection on the conflicts, sacrifices, and rewards of a career spent harmonizing with others and standing next to the spotlight.

Their voices are powerful enough to tear you apart and put you back together again, and their stories will do the same.
—Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Showtime: 7 + 9:30 pm
Place: room 1-306 at the College of New Caledonia
Tickets: $8 regular; $7 student, senior, unemployed

The trailer: