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Cinema Studies

Cinema Studies

GRAY STATE, A

Director: Erik Nelson

In 2010 David Crowley, an Iraq veteran, aspiring filmmaker and charismatic up-and-coming voice in fringe politics, began production on his film Gray State. Set in a dystopian near-future where civil liberties are trampled by an unrestrained federal government, the film's crowd-funded trailer was enthusiastically received by the burgeoning online community of libertarians, Tea Party activists and members of the nascent alt-right.

In January 2015, Crowley was found dead with his family in their suburban Minnesota home. Their shocking deaths quickly become a cause celebre for conspiracy theorists who speculate that Crowley was assassinated by a shadowy government concerned about a film and filmmaker that was getting too close to the truth about their aims.

A Gray State combs through Crowley's archive of 13,000 photographs, hundreds of hours of home video, and exhaustive behind-the-scenes footage of Crowley's work in progress to reveal what happens when a paranoid view of the government turns inward - blurring the lines of what is real and what people want to believe.

DVD / 2017 / 93 minutes

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GIRL FROM GOD'S COUNTRY: THE HISTORY OF WOMEN IN FILM AND OTHER WAR STORIES

By Karen Day

GIRL FROM GOD'S COUNTRY is the untold story of the first female independent filmmaker and action-adventure heroine, Nell Shipman (1892-1970), who left Hollywood to make her films in Idaho. An unadulterated, undiscovered adventure tale of a pioneering woman who rewrote the rules of filmmaking, and, in so doing, paved the way for independent voices-especially prominent female voices in today's film industry. Her storylines of self-reliant women overcoming physical challenges in the wilderness and often, rescuing the male lead, shattered the predictable cinematic formulas of large studio productions. Featuring rare archival footage by early pioneers, including minority filmmakers, Zora Neale Hurston and Miriam Wong, the first Chinese-American filmmaker in 1914 and present day interviews with Geena Davis and the Director of Women in Film, GIRL FROM GOD'S COUNTRY discuss how gender-inequities that Shipman and her counterparts faced perpetuate in today's film industry. Emblematic of an entire lost generation of female producers and directors in silent film, Nell Shipman's legacy has remained a buried treasure in film history for nearly 100 years.

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 66 minutes

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NAPLES '44

Director: Francesco Patierno

Benedict Cumberbatch gives life to the words of British soldier Norman Lewis, whose remarkable memoir of post-World War II Naples form the basis for this haunting evocation of a ravaged land, and later a city of infinite charm. Lewis entered Naples as part of an invasion of Nazi-occupied Italy. His memories of a ravaged land and his return many years later are recalled with magnificent warmth and wit. Filmmaker Francesco Patierno combines riveting archival war footage with clips from movies set in Naples from the 1950s and 60s (featuring Marcello Mastroianni, Alan Arkin, Ernest Borgnine) to evoke a city that was as much a victim of the war as any individual, but that has come back to life with all the charisma of Vesuvius, its very own volcano.

DVD (English and Italian with English subtitles) / 2016 / 85 minutes

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STEFAN ZWEIG: FAREWELL TO EUROPE

Director: Maria Schrader

The official Austrian entry for Foreign Language Feature at 2016 Oscars, Stefan Zweig: Farewell To Europe tells the story of the Austrian writer and his life in exile from 1936 to 1942. Zweig was one of the most famous writers of his time, but as a Jewish intellectual he struggled to find the right stance towards the events in Nazi Germany. Driven to emigrate to South America at the peak of his worldwide fame, Zweig fell into despair at the sight of Europe's downfall.

This visually stunning and emotionally powerful film explores what it means to be a refugee, and exposes the difficult decision to speak out or remain silent in the face of tyranny.

DVD (German, English, Portuguese, French & Spanish with English Subtitles) / 2016 / 106 minutes

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WHAT HAPPENED TO HER

By Kristy Guevara-Flanagan

WHAT HAPPENED TO HER is a forensic exploration of our cultural obsession with images of the dead woman on screen. Interspersing found footage from films and police procedural television shows and one actor's experience of playing the part of a corpse, the film offers a meditative critique on the trope of the dead female body.

The visual narrative of the genre, one reinforced through its intense and pervasive repetition, is revealed as a highly structured pageant. The experience of physical invasion and exploitation voiced by the actor pierce the fabric of the screened fantasy. The result is recurring and magnetic film cliche laid bare. Essential viewing for Pop Culture, Women's and Cinema Studies classes.

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 15 minutes

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ALAIN DELON, A UNIQUE PORTRAIT

This fascinating portrait is for anyone who has ever been captivated by Alain Delon's dashing good looks, and for anyone who wants to know more about the man behind the mask. By the end of the film they will view this famous French icon in a totally different light.

A portrait of Alain Delon that sets out to remove the masks of this defence-ridden, international icon - for the very first time.The portrait focuses entirely on its main subject - it is "pure Delon", with no other interviewees. Via numerous film excerpts, it follows the actor's path right from the start. Delon speaks in a series of surprising interviews, spanning nearly 50 years. At the end of this breathtaking journey, a new vision emerges: Alain Delon, the man of 87 movies and the most handsome face in French cinema, remains a mystery.

DVD / 2015 / 52 minutes

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CHET ZAR: I LIKE TO PAINT MONSTERS

Director: Mike Correll

Enter the dark and foreboding world of Chet Zar, where apocalyptic industrial landscapes are inhabited by disturbing yet beautiful monstrosities. Sometimes gruesome, periodically funny, but always thought-provoking, Zar's art is as enigmatic as it is frightening. But who is Chet Zar, and why does he like to paint monsters? These are the questions at the heart of Chet Zar: I Like to Paint Monsters.

Zar is an influential figure in the Dark Art Movement, and, given his chosen moniker "Painter of Dark," this is no surprise. Born in 1967 in San Pedro, California, Zar was well known as the family prankster. With a passion for horror films, an innate urge to create bizarre artwork, and a superhuman work ethic, Zar seemed to be made for the special effects industry. During his time with the film industry, he designed and created creatures and make-up effects for such films as Darkman, The Ring, Hellboy I & II, and Planet of the Apes. Even more well-known is his work with the band Tool, contributing to both their music videos and their on-stage theatrical animations.

Despite his success in the film industry, Zar became disenchanted by the many artistic compromises required of him. With the support of his family and horror author Clive Barker, Zar decided in early 2000 to pursue his passion for monsters by painting them. In this new arena, he has flourished and found the much-needed freedom to explore his internal world and all of the oddities created by his brush strokes.

Chet Zar: I Like to Paint Monsters is your opportunity to take a journey into the mind and life of Zar. Become acquainted with his thoughts, motivations, and reflections of the past as well as his projections of the future. Delve into his experiences in the film industry, his transition from early special effects into the world of computer animation, and, ultimately, his evolution into the distinctive artist he is today.

This unique opportunity will allow you unprecedented access into the Dark Art movement, including the studios where it is being forged and the galleries where this cataclysmic work is being shown. Take part in this dynamic endeavor to explore the life and work of Chet Zar, "Painter of Dark"!

DVD / 2015 / 80 minutes

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DYING OF THE LIGHT, THE

Director: Peter Flynn

The Dying of the Light explores the history and craft of motion picture presentation through the lives and stories of the last generation of career projectionists. By turns humorous and melancholic, their candid reflections on life in the booth reveal a world that has largely gone unnoticed and is now at an end. The result is a loving tribute to the art and romance of the movies - and to the unseen people who brought the light to our screens.

DVD / 2015 / 94 minutes

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LAST CAB TO DARWIN

Director: Jeremy Sims

Rex is a cab driver who has never left the mining town of Broken Hill in his life. When he discovers he doesn't have long to live, he decides to drive through the heart of the country to Darwin, where he's heard he will be able to die on his own terms; but along the way he discovers that before you can end your life you've got to live it, and to live it you've got to learn to share it...

DVD / 2015 / 123 minutes

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GOLDEN GATE GIRLS

By S. Louisa Wei

In GOLDEN GATE GIRLS author and professor S. Louisa Wei tells the story of filmmaker Esther Eng, the first woman to direct Chinese-language film in the US, and the most prominent woman director in Hong Kong in the 1930's. A San Francisco native and open lesbian, her contribution to film history is sadly overlooked - her 11 feature films mostly lost. After the retirement of director Dorothy Arzner in 1943 and before Ida Lupino began directing in 1949, Eng was the only woman directing feature length films in the US.

Wei's documentary paints a fascinating picture of how Eng's career in filmmaking broke through gender and racial boundaries in Hollywood and Hong Kong, at a time when opportunities for Chinese women in the industry were few and far between. With a captivating archive of newly discovered images and interviews with those who knew her, Wei uncovers a rich chapter of film history that challenges both gender hierarchies and national narratives. Essential viewing for Cinema Studies and Asian American Studies.

DVD (Chinese, Color) / 2014 / 90 minutes

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ONE CUT, ONE LIFE

Director: Lucia Small and Ed Pincus

When seminal documentarian Ed Pincus, considered the father of first person non-fiction film, is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he and collaborator Lucia Small team up to make one last film, much to the chagrin of Jane, Ed's wife of 50 years. Told from two filmmakers' points of view, One Cut, One Life challenges the form of first person documentary. Ed and Lucia's unique approach to filming offers a vulnerability and intimacy rarely seen in non- fiction, questioning whether some things might be too private to be made public. The film is an intense, raw, and sometimes humorous exploration of the human condition which invites the viewer to contemplate for themselves what is important, not only at the end of life, but also during.

DVD / 2014 / 105 minutes

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THANHOUSER STUDIO AND THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN CINEMA

The Thanhouser Company was a trail-blazing studio based in New Rochelle, New York. From 1910 to 1917 it released over 1,000 films that were seen by audiences around the globe.

This 53-minute documentary reconstructs the relatively unknown story of the studio and its founders, technicians, and stars as they entered the nascent motion picture industry to compete with Thomas Edison and the companies aligned with his Motion Pictures Patents Corporation (MPPC).

Ned Thanhouser, grandson of studio founders Edwin and Gertrude Thanhouser, narrates this compelling tale, recounting a saga of bold entrepreneurship, financial successes, cinematic innovations, tragic events, the launching of Hollywood careers, and the transition of the movie industry from the East Coast to the West and Hollywood.

DVD / 2014 / 53 minutes

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TOKYO FIANCEE

Director: Stefan Liberski

Based on Amelie Nothomb's bestselling novel, Tokyo Fiancee is an entertaining romantic comedy that will appeal to fans of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation.

The young, pixie-like Amelie is in love with all things Japanese, which prompts her to buy a one-way ticket to Tokyo in order to completely immerse herself in Japanese culture. She offers to work as a French tutor, and soon finds herself enjoying a passionate relationship with her only student, the charming Rinri. As the two explore the joys (and awkwardness) of their first real romance and the colorful city around them, many cultural barriers fall...but some still remain.

This utterly charming romantic comedy played in the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and seduced audiences in Europe with its whimsical style and its playful look at misunderstandings, complications and the problems that arise from cultural stereotypes. Pauline Etienne, as Amelie, is winsome and wonderful as the enthusiastic young woman on a cross-cultural adventure of the heart.

DVD (English, French and Japanese, with English subtitles) / 2014 / 100 minutes

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BIRTH OF THE LIVING DEAD

Director: Rob Kuhns

In 1968 a young college drop-out named George A. Romero directed "Night of the Living Dead," a low budget horror film that shocked the world, became an icon of the counterculture, and spawned a zombie industry worth billions of dollars that continues to this day.

Birth of the Living Dead shows how Romero gathered an unlikely team of Pittsburghers - policemen, iron workers, teachers, ad-men, housewives and a roller-rink owner - to shoot a revolutionary guerrilla style film that went on to become a cinematic landmark, offering a profound insight into how our society worked in a singular time in American history.

DVD / 2013 / 76 minutes

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CASTING BY

Director: Tom Donahue

Casting By places the spotlight on one of filmmaking's unsung heroes - casting director Marion Dougherty - and takes us on a journey through 50 years of Hollywood history from an entirely new perspective. Relying of her exquisite taste and gut instincts, Dougherty helped usher in the 'New Hollywood' with movies like Midnight Cowboy, The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Bonnie and Clyde, and in the process launched the careers of iconic actors including James Dean, Robert Duvall, Warren Beatty, Christopher Plummer, Glenn Close, John Travolta, Jeff Bridges, Bette Midler and countless others. Breaking away from tradition studio typecasting, Dougherty started the first independent casting agency and quickly became a favorite for directors, producers, and studio chiefs. Over the next 35 years, Dougherty became an indispensable ally to some of the best filmmakers in Hollywood.

In Tom Donahue's entertaining and illuminated documentary, directors and actors including Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Jeff Bridges, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Diane Lane, Jon Voight, Bette Midler and John Travolta reveal insights into their early careers and share fond memories of Doughery, all interwoven with rarely seen clips as well as scenes from classic films The Sting, Goodfellas, Annie Hall, The Great Escape and West Side Story.

DVD / 2013 / 89 minutes

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HANS RICHTER: EVERYTHING TURNS - EVERYTHING REVOLVES

Director: Dave Davidson

HANS RICHTER: Everything Turns - Everything Revolves celebrates the life of the Dadaist, abstract painter and experimental filmmaker who was a major force in redefining art in the 20th century. In collaboration with friends including Marcel Duchamp, Sergei Eisenstein, Tristan Tzara, Mies Van Der Rohe and Hans Arp, Richter was at the leading edge of the European Avant Garde. His 1920s experimental films "Rhythmus 21" and "Ghosts Before Breakfast" established film as a unique art form, liberated from the theatrical conventions of script and actors.

After being forced out of Europe by the Nazis in 1941, Richter escaped to the U.S. where he became a prophet of modernism for a generation of young American artist/filmmakers, who would galvanize into the New American Cinema movement.

DVD / 2013 / 57 minutes

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THROUGH A LENS DARKLY

Director: Thomas Allen Harris

The first documentary to explore the role of photography in shaping the identity, aspirations and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present, Through a Lens Darkly probes the recesses of American history by discovering images that have been suppressed, forgotten and lost.

Bringing to light the hidden and unknown photos shot by both professional and vernacular African American photographers, the film opens a window into lives, experiences and perspectives of black families that is absent from the traditional historical canon. These images show a much more complex and nuanced view of American culture and society and its founding ideals.

Inspired by Deborah Willis's book Reflections in Black and featuring the works of Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Anthony Barboza, Hank Willis Thomas, Coco Fusco, Clarissa Sligh and many others, Through a Lens Darkly introduces the viewer to a diverse yet focused community of storytellers who transform singular experiences into a communal journey of discovery - and a call to action.

DVD / 2013 / 92 minutes

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WALKING DEAD GIRLS, THE

An intriguing rarity for those seeking to study and understand a sub-genre of horror filmmaking, The Walking Dead Girls! is a behind the scenes look into zombie culture in the United States and the obsession with sexy female zombies. What is it about zombie bimbos, or "zimbies", that are starting to gain the world's interest? Why are zombies now in mainstream culture and seen in advertising from JCPenney to Sears?

With interviews with zombie master maker George Romero, cult filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman, scream queen Linnea Quigley and cult movie star Bruce Campbell.

Includes a rare look into the making of a zombie pinup calendar and behind the scenes of "Stripperland", The Walking Dead Girls! is a look into the zombie phenomenon created by Romero that is 40 years in the making.

DVD / 2011 / 90 minutes

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SUFFRAGETTES IN THE SILENT CINEMA

By Kay Sloan

In the days before movies could talk, silent films spoke clearly of sexual politics, and in Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema, historian and writer Kay Sloan has assembled rare and wonderful footage that opens a historic window onto how women's suffrage was represented in early American cinema.

Taking advantage of the powerful new medium, early filmmakers on both sides of the contentious issue of suffrage used film to create powerful propaganda and images about women. Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema contains clips from many films from the era, including: A Lively Affair (1912); A Busy Day (1914), which stars a young Charlie Chaplin in drag portraying a suffragist; and the pro-suffragist film, What 80 Million Women Want (1913), which includes an eloquent speech from president of the Women's Political Union, Harriet Stanton Blatch.

Silent films may have passed into history, and their representations of feminists abandoning babies or stealing bicycles to attend suffragette meetings may now seem outrageous, but the struggle for gender equality and the issues surrounding representations of women in the media remain as fascinating, engaging, and relevant as ever.

DVD (Color, Black and White) / 2003 / 35 minutes

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SISTERS OF THE SCREEN: AFRICAN WOMEN IN THE CINEMA

By Beti Ellerson

Exploring the extraordinary contributions of women filmmakers from Africa and the diaspora, Beti Ellerson's engaging debut intersperses interviews with such acclaimed women directors as Assia Djebar, Safi Faye, Sarah Maldoror, Anne Mungai, Fanta Regina Nacro and Ngozi Onwurah with footage from their seminal work. With power and nuance, Ellerson also confronts the thorny question of cultural authenticity by revisiting the legendary 1991 FESPACO (Pan-African Festival of Cinema and Television of Ouagadougou), in which diasporian women were asked to leave a meeting intended for African woman only. This film is both a valuable anthology and a fitting homage to the pioneers and new talents of African cinema.

DVD (Color) / 2002 / 73 minutes

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LOST GARDEN, THE: THE LIFE AND CINEMA OF ALICE GUY-BLACHE

By Marquise Lepage

THE LOST GARDEN looks at the life and times of Alice Guy-Blache (1873-1968), arguably, the first narrative filmmaker in the world. Creating her first motion picture in France in the 1890s, Alice Guy-Blache went on to found her own successful production company in the US. Producing and writing more than 700 films. Clips from her films, which were cleverly edited to illustrate events from her personal life, are intercut with revealing excerpts from TV interviews with Guy-Blache, photographs, reminiscences by family members, and interviews with film historians. A fitting tribute to one of cinema's most fearless pioneers.

DVD (Color) / 1995 / 53 minutes

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CINEMAS DE TRAVERSE

Documentary about films and experimental practices in the world.

This journal was compiled between 2005 and 2009 on four continents. This is a subjective journey through the approaches and experimental procedures to show the magnitude of this research and to honor filmmakers who participate in the history of cinema: Jonas Mekas (USA), Peter Kubelka (Austria), Boris Lehman (Belgium), Joseph Morder (France), Peter Tscherkassky (Austria), Guy Sherwin (UK) among others. These byways lead us to the places of production and distribution networks created specifically for experimental films.

2 DVDs (French, English, With French, English Subtitles) / 182 minutes

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DADA CINEMA

Rhythmus 21, Hans Richter
Symphonie Diagonale, Viking Eggeling
Le Retour a la Raison, Man Ray
Entr'acte, Rene Clair & Francis Picabia
Le Ballet Mecanique, Fernand Leger
Filmstudie, Hans Richter
Emak Bakia, Man Ray
Vormittagsspuk, Hans Richter

"The cinematographic universe of Dada is a crossroads of iconographic subversion and abstraction, formal geometry and corporal eroticism, bathed in a general indifference to "making sense" - unless it is making sense of its own deconstruction." - Philippe-Alain Michaud

DVD

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PAUL YEDERBECK ALIAS YEDERBECK - EXPANDED ANIMATION CINEMA

"I was a bourgeois painter, then a progressive painter, and then no longer a painter, but just a worker in the pictures." - Paul Yederbeck (1965-2001)

ALIAS YEDERBECK Virtual Panorama Installation 63'
QUEST-CE QUE MONSIEUR TESTE? 26'
ALIAS YEDERBECK DOCUMENTATION FOOTAGE 16'

DVD (German, With English Subtitles) / 105 minutes

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