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 All movies at 8:00pm, unless otherwise noted | |
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Saturday, March 6th @ 2:00pm - MATINEE THE KARATE KID SOLD OUT! A fatherless teenager faces his moment of truth in The Karate Kid. Daniel (Ralph Macchio) arrives in Los Angeles from the east coast and faces the difficult task of making new friends. However, he becomes the object of bullying by the Cobras, a menacing gang of karate students, when he strikes up a relationship with Ali (Elisabeth Shue), the Cobra leader's ex-girlfriend. Eager to fight back and impress his new girlfriend but afraid to confront the dangerous gang, Daniel asks his handyman Miyagi (Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita), whom he learns is a master of the martial arts, to teach him karate. Miyagi teaches Daniel that karate is a mastery over the self, mind, and body and that fighting is always the last answer to a problem. Under Miyagi's guidance, Daniel develops not only physical skills but also the faith and self-confidence to compete despite tremendous odds as he encounters the fight of his life in the exciting finale to this entertaining film. |
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March 5th and 6th DEPARTURES Departures is surely the gentlest, sweetest movie about death that you will ever see. A cellist named Diago (Masahiro Motoki) comes to the rueful conclusion that he’s not talented enough to make a career as a musician; having just returned to his hometown with his wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue, Wasabi), he answers a job ad for what he thinks must be a travel agency... only to discover that company prepares bodies to be placed in coffins. Fearful of his wife’s response, he hides his new job--but as he grows to appreciate his boss (Tsutomu Yamazaki, Tampopo) and the affect that the humbling ceremony of cleaning and dressing the deceased has on their families, Diago discovers that he might have a calling. Departures won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and it’s easy to understand why. Though it starts out quietly and even seems slight, it gradually builds in emotional power, layer by layer, until scene after scene at the end is richly moving. Particularly affecting is the performance of Kimiko Yo, the secretary of the company, who harbors a troubling secret. A few moments of overt symbolism push the movie from compassion to sentimentality--but every time Departures seems to have lost its footing, a scene follows that strikes all the right notes so deftly it resonates like a bell. A truly marvelous movie. |
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March 12th and 13th THEY CAME TO PLAY directed by Alex Rotaru: THEY CAME TO PLAY chronicles the Fifth International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, hosted by The Van Cliburn Foundation. Players from all over the world, ranging from self-taught to classically-trained, aged thirty-five to almost eighty, convene in Fort Worth, Texas for a week of intense competition, music and camaraderie. The film the film provides an intimate look into the lives of these colorful, multi-faceted competitors as they strive to balance the demands of work and family with their love of music. Years of dedicated preparation culminate in critical performances before a professional jury and discerning audience during three nerve-wracking elimination rounds. Running Time: 91 Minutes http://www.theycametoplay.com |
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Thursday, March 18th @ 7:00pm FREE SYRFILM - Sneak Peak at SYRFILMFEST '10 The Syracuse International Film Festival continues its 2010 season of year-round programming with its first prescreening evening. A team of local writers, actors, producers and film critics will make up a professional prescreening team who will watch a handful of the hundreds of entries received by the festival organizers. The general public is also invited to join the prescreening sessions and give their impressions of the films. The Syracuse International Film Festival will be celebrating its 7th year with SYRFILMFEST’10 from October 13th through 17th. The festival will play host to filmmakers from around the world featuring over 125 films from 30 countries. The festival will pay homage to the films of Alfred Hitchcock with screenings of The Lodger, Rope, 39 Steps and The Birds, as well as international competition screenings, special events and free seminars with visiting filmmakers. The SYRFILMFEST’10 is open to the general public. For more information, call 315-443-8826 or email:kc@syrfilm.com. www.syrfilmfest.com |
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March 19th and 20th THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA 2010 Academy Award Nominee The story of what happens when a former Pentagon insider, armed only with his conscience, steadfast determination, and a file cabinet full of classified documents, decides to challenge an "Imperial" Presidency-answerable to neither Congress, the press, nor the people-in order to help end the Vietnam War. In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg shook America to its foundations when he smuggled a top-secret Pentagon study to the New York Times that showed how five Presidents consistently lied to the American people about the Vietnam War that was killing millions and tearing America apart. President Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger called Ellsberg "the most dangerous man in America," who "had to be stopped at all costs." But Ellsberg wasn't stopped. Facing 115 years in prison on espionage and conspiracy charges, he fought back. Ensuing events surrounding the so-called Pentagon Papers led directly to Watergate and the downfall of President Nixon, and hastened the end of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg's relentless telling of truth to power, which exposed the secret deeds of an "Imperial Presidency," inspired Americans of all walks of life to forever question the previously-unchallenged pronouncements of its leaders. "The Most Dangerous Man in America" tells the inside story, for the first time on film, of this pivotal event that changed history and transformed our nation's political discourse. |
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March 26th and 27th THE STONING OF SOROYA M From a producer of THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST comes this chilling true story. Academy Award® nominee Shorheh Aghdashloo stars as Zahra, a woman with a burning secret. When a journalist (Jim Caviezel) is stranded in her remote village, Zahra takes a bold chance to reveal what the villagers will stop at nothing to hide. Thus begins the story of Soraya (Mozhan Marnò), a kind woman whose cruel, divorce- seeking husband trumps up false charges of infidelity against her, which carry an unimaginable penalty. Soraya and Zahra attempt to navigate the villagers’ scheming, lies and deceit to prove her innocence. But when all else fails, Zahra must risk everything to use the only weapon she has left – her voice – to share Soraya's shocking story with the world. |
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Thursdays: 3/25, 4/1, 4/15, 4/22 & 4/29 @ 7:30pm MAKING MOVIES FILM SERIES Admission: $5. Making Movies is curated by Terry Cuddy who is a media artist, teacher and independent curator. He recently received his MFA in Media Arts Production from SUNY at the University of Buffalo(UB) and teaches Graphic Design and New Media at Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES. All screenings will conclude with a discussion guided by Cuddy and the presenting artist. Making Movies is co-sponsored by the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, Experimental Television Center and Everett Charitable Trust. The Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds program is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. LEARN MORE: PDF |
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April 2nd and 3rd @ 8:00pm JULIE AND JULIA Julie & Julia is a film that should be relished with gusto--accompanied by the freshest and best ingredients, pounds of butter, and bottles of the very best wine. It lovingly celebrates the life of one of American food's most influential and beloved figureheads: Julia Child--played here with zest, humor, and a sweet, subtle respect by Meryl Streep, whose performance is spectacular. Julie & Julia is based on the book by Julie Powell, a frustrated New York bureaucrat who wants to be a writer. "But you're not a writer until someone publishes you," she moans. So she gives herself a challenge: to cook her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year, and to blog about it. As Powell (played with chirpy determination by Amy Adams), begins to find her groove as a cook, and her voice as a writer, the project takes on a life of its own--and in the end it does provide the struggling young woman with her life's purpose, to her very pleasant surprise. Nora Ephron directs with deftness and a light touch, though she seems at times to be encouraging some of Meg Ryan's onscreen tics in Adams (the self-conscious head tilt, for one). But mostly she simply allows Streep to channel Child and her love of food, her husband, and 1950s Paris. And that is a recipe for something truly sublime. |