MUSCLE SHOALS – FEBRUARY 8

Cinema CNC presents...

February 8: Muscle Shoals        Dir: Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier
USA, 2013        Documentary     111 minutes

An Official Selection of the 2013 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, director Greg “Freddy” Camalier makes his documentary debut with this fascinating look at a legendary site in musical history: FAME Studios.

Tucked along the Tennessee River, the town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, barely registers on a map. But thanks to one visionary record producer and a group of unknown session musicians, this tiny backwater served as a recording capital for rock, pop and rhythm and blues artists throughout the 1960s and seventies.

At the heart of this fascinating history lesson is Rick Hall, a dark horse who overcomes a troubled past to found FAME Studios. Together with a band of buddies know as The Swampers, he developed the deep, soulful “Muscle Shoals Sound” that forged the artistry of legends as varied as Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, and Mick Jagger and Duane Allman.

More inspiring still, Hall and The Swampers created a space where black and white artists worked seamlessly together, just down the road from Alabama’s burning racial crisis.

Featuring engrossing archival footage and in-depth interviews with countless icons, Camalier’s Muscle Shoals serves up one of America’s greatest untold music stories.

THE HUNT – FEBRUARY 1

Cinema CNC presents...

February 1: The Hunt        Dir: Thomas Vinterberg
Denmark, 2012        Danish with subtitles     111 minutes
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp

One of the most controversial films of the past year, The Hunt is an intelligent and disturbing dissection of Danish society, as ferocious as director Thomas Vinterberg’s international breakthrough The Celebration. Mads Mikkelsen stars as Lucas, a divorced daycare worker who is hoping to win custody of his estranged teenage son. Well-liked and easygoing, Lucas is an integral part of this tight-knit community, having lived in the small suburban town all his life and formed lifelong friendships with Theo and Bruun, who regularly organizes the men’s hunting trips.

Beloved by the children under his care, Lucas also has a special bond with Klara, the young daughter of Theo and his wife Agnes. Frequently finding Klara wandering the neighbourhood alone— her only respite from the constant rows between her parents—Lucas takes to escorting her home. When Klara kisses him on the lips one day, a shocked Lucas rebuffs her, telling her that only mommies and daddies should kiss in that way. Hurt and angry, the child tells the incompetent head of the day- care that she has seen things she shouldn’t have, sparking a modern-day witch hunt that targets Lucas and grows progressively uglier. Rumours, innuendo and lies spread through the town like a virus, transforming the once mild-mannered Lucas into a tormented and embittered pariah virtually overnight.

As in The Celebration, Vinterberg mercilessly reveals the hypocrisy behind some of his country’s most cherished social ideals, particularly the close bonds of community, the sanctity of domesticity, and the innocence of childhood. Directed with consummate skill and driven by exceptional performances from a stellar cast, especially Mikkelsen, The Hunt is one of the most troubling and powerful cinematic experiences of the year.

“Beautifully performed and tough as nails, Vinterberg’s social drama could not be any more timely.”    —David Hughes, Empire

KON TIKI – JANUARY 25

Cinema CNC presents... KON TIKI, January 25:


January 25:     Kon-Tiki    Dirs: Joachim Roenning, Espen Sandberg
Norway/Denmark/UK        English 119 minutes
Cast: Pål Sverre Hagen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Gustaf Skarsgard, Odd Magnus Williamson, Jakob Oftebro, Agnes Kittelsen

Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards, Kon-Tiki is an epic retelling of Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 expedition across the Pacific Ocean. It chronicles Heyerdahl’s bold journey from Peru to Polynesia, with breathtaking visual majesty.

A risk-taker since childhood, Heyerdahl is one of the last examples of the scientist as adventurer. Unable to find a publisher to print his thesis that the settlers of Polynesia could have arrived from South America rather than from Asia as commonly believed, he hatches a plan to cross the Pacific on raft, just like the ancient Incas before him. Undeterred by the obstacles he encounters—ridicule at his outlandish hypothesis, dire financial straits, and strained family relationships—Heyerdahl assembles an authentic replica of a balsa wood raft, along with a motley crew to join him on his journey. But the challenges involved in launching the voyage pale in comparison to the harsh conditions they face at sea—violent storms, encounters with sharks, and mounting tensions among the crew.

Roenning and Sandberg’s faithful retelling of Heyerdahl’s expedition is exciting, tense and, ultimately, triumphant. Featuring stunning cinematography of the wide open ocean, Kon-Tiki is an awe-inspiring film that begs to be seen on the big screen. A blockbuster in its home country that was shot simultaneously in Norwegian and English in anticipation of a broad English-language release, it is sure to enthrall audiences.

“A rousing and thoroughly enjoyable Old Hollywood-style adventure.”—Ian Buckwalter, NPR

WINTER FILMS 2014

Cinema CNC presents... WINTER FILMS 2014.

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

Passes: [three films] $21
 Available at Books and Company and at the CNC Bookstore

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

Jan. 25: KON TIKI
Feb. 1:  THE HUNT
Feb. 8: MUSCLE SHOALS