Twice a year, the Arts & Education Council offers a series of twelve independent films to the Chattanooga community, films that would otherwise be unavailable on the city's big screen.
Shown each fall and spring at the downtown Bijou Theatre, the films are chosen carefully to create a diverse series of thought-provoking and award-winning independent films, reported officials.
A discount card may be purchased for this spring series for $5 and will entitle cardholders to discounted prices on evening shows. All proceeds from discount cards benefit the Arts & Education Council. Cards will be sold at the Bijou Theatre or by calling 267-1218.
The following films will be show for one week each starting Jan. 24. Call the Bijou Theatre at (423) 265-5220 for times.
Roger Dodger
Jan. 24 – Jan. 30
Director: Dylan Kidd, USA
Set against the bright lights of Manhattan, this comic, urbane look at the modern male ego at war in the singles scene trenches was recognized as Best Feature Film at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. The film tells the story of a womanizing, man-around-the-town ad executive named Roger (Campbell Scott), who hates women because they hate him.
When Roger's teenage nephew (Jesse Eisenberg) asks for advice on how to get along with women, what follows is a raucous 24-hour adventure staged at practical locations in New York City, with the unexpected outcome being Roger's newly earned respect for women.
The strong script also attracted such talents as Isabella Rossellini, Jennifer Beals, and Elizabeth Berkley, who play women the pair encounter during the night.
Bowling for Columbine
Jan. 31 – Feb. 6
Director: Michael Moore, USA
With his trademark charm and wit, Michael Moore sets off on a journey to the heart of the country hoping to discover why the American pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence in this riveting, chilling, hilarious and absolutely incredible documentary.
From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with "The Anarchist's Cookbook" to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old, this is an alternately humorous and horrifying look at firearms abuse, destined to leave audiences dreading - but expecting - the next breaking news report about a homegrown assassin with a constitutionally-protected Uzi.
Evelyn
Feb. 7 – Feb. 13
Director: Bruce Beresford, Ireland
Based on a true story about the Irish orphanage gulag of the 1950's (complete with slave labor), this film focuses on Desmond Doyle (Pierce Brosnan), who is devastated when his philandering wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the three children make it clear to the authorities that his is an untenable situation.
The Catholic Church and the Irish courts order the Doyle children put into Church-run orphanages, established partly so that Church and State could attempt to exist as a country without divorce or abortion.
Although a sympathetic judge assures Desmond the return of his children once his financial situation reverses, money is hard to come by. During that time, Evelyn and her brothers suffer the abuses of living in orphanages while Desmond struggles to secure finances. Now he must battle the courts to get his children back.
Directed
by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Last Dance).
The Pianist
Feb. 14 – Feb. 20
Director: Roman Polanski, UK, France, Germany, Poland, Netherlands
Winner of Best Picture at the Cannes Film Festival, The Pianist is the most personal statement from Polanski, the one he has waited four decades to make, a testament to the belief that the triumph of the human spirit is wedded to the transforming power of art.
The film is adapted from the autobiography of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew who detailed his survival during World War II. A celebrated composer and a pianist, he played the last live music heard over Polish radio airwaves before Nazi artillery hit.
During the brutal occupation, he eluded deportation and remained in the devastated Warsaw ghetto. There, he struggled to stay alive even when cast away from those he loved. He would eventually reclaim his artistic gifts and confront his fears, with aid from the unlikeliest of sources, a German officer who helped him hide in the final days of the war.
Nicholas Nickleby
Feb. 21 – Feb. 27
Director: Douglas McGrath, UK, USA
Adapted from a Charles Dickens novel, this is a story of young Nicholas and his family, who have enjoyed a comfortable life. That is, until Nicholas' father dies, the family is left penniless, and Nicholas, his sister and mother venture to London to seek help from their Uncle Ralph.
Unfortunately, Ralph's only intentions are to break up the family and exploit them, and Nicholas is sent to a school run by the cruel, abusive and horridly entertaining Wackford Squeers. Eventually, Nicholas runs away with schoolmate Smike, and the two set off to reunite the Nickleby family.
This Golden Globe nominee is a treat for Dickens fans, showing Victorian London with all the contrasts of rich and poor, of good and evil, and of comfortable and wretched.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown
Feb. 28 - March 6
Director: Paul Justman, USA
Their music is famous around the world, though their names are not. Known as the Funk Brothers, they put the back beat - the soul – into the hits of Motown Records, for such legendary performers as Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and many others.
Creating music that helped to define the era of the 1960s and has remained a vital influence to this day, these musicians played on more #1 records than the Beatles, the Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley combined.
Now the new documentary Standing In The Shadows Of Motown tells their story, combining exclusive interviews, archival footage, re-enactments, reminiscences, and thrilling new performances by the reunited Funk Brothers.
Intacto
March 7 - March 13
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Spanish with English subtitles
There are those among us who are preternaturally lucky. They are the survivors of the plane crash that kills everyone else, the ones who escape being victims of war and terror, the gamblers who win high-stake games and even life itself.
Their gift is not only being lucky, however; it includes the power to rob others of their luck and leave them helpless in the face of misfortune.
Frederico has been robbed of his luck and believes that Tomas, the survivor of a plane crash, will be the instrument of his vengeance. The two men embark on a voyage of initiation, a series of trials challenging others that will lead them to the summit of chance, but they must avoid the scrutiny of policewoman Sara, herself a survivor, to finally meet Sam, the master of the domain from which only one person will emerge intact.
All or Nothing
March 14 - March 20
Director: Mike Leigh, UK
A group of inhabitants of a Southeast London housing estate lead directionless lives and diminishing expectations until a family crisis brings them together. There's Phil, a gentle, philosophical taxi driver, and Penny, who works on the checkout at a supermarket. Their daughter Rachel cleans a home for elderly people, and their son Rory is unemployed and aggressive.
The joy has gone out of Phil and Penny's life, but when an unexpected tragedy occurs, they are brought together to rediscover their love.
Director Mike Leigh's films focus on these down and out people without condescension or pity. Their follies and crises are seen with wry detachment, and the drama that develops finally moves toward reunion and reconciliation.
Spirited Away
March 21 - March 27
Director: Hayao Miyazaki, Japan
Legendary animation director Miyazaki follows the fanciful adventures of a ten-year-old girl named Chihiro, who discovers a secret world when she and her family get lost through a hillside tunnel. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, Chihiro must fend for herself as she encounters strange spirits, assorted creatures and a grumpy sorceress who seeks to prevent her from returning to the human world.
One of the most successful films in Japanese cinematic history, this film comes to domestic audiences in a newly dubbed English version that was executive produced by Pixar Animation Studios' John Lasseter (Toy Story, A Bug's Life) and directed by Disney veteran Kirk Wise (Beauty and the Beast).
Personal Velocity
March 28 - April 3
Director: Rebecca Miller, USA
Written and directed by Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis, Personal Velocity is a triptych of three women at turning points in their lives.
As a teenager, Delia (Kyra Sedgwick) was a tough girl from a small New York town who had survived an abusive father and found power amongst her peers through her sexuality. How did she end up a battered wife and mother of three?
Greta (Parker Posey) is a sharp, spunky Ivy League editor who, to spite the hated infidel ways of her father, has settled into a complacent relationship with a blond, blue-eyed grad student. Sudden success leads her to confront her own issues of fidelity. Paula (Fairuza Balk) ran away from home only to find herself pregnant and in a relationship she doesn't want.
When she narrowly escapes death's grip, what will she do with her second chance at life? As each of the three stories unfold, the film follows its characters as circumstances force them into an awakening of their inner selves and an emergence on their own life's paths.
Rabbit Proof Fence
April 4 - April 10Director: Phillip Noyce, Australia
Based on the book by Doris Pilkington Garimara, this film tells the 1931 true story of Molly Craig, one of the "stolen generation" of half-white Aborigine-Australian children abducted and sent to a government camp intended to train them as domestic workers and integrate them into white society.
The children are denied their very identity and forced to adapt to new worlds, but decide to attempt the impossible. Molly leads her younger sister and cousin in an escape from their captors and begin the long walk home across the Outback.
With only tenacity, determination, ingenuity, and each other, they follow the 1,500 miles of a fence bisecting the continent to stop the spread of the rabbit population, the "rabbit proof fence" that will take them home.
Ararat
April 11 - April 17
Director: Atom Egoyan, Canada
This film-within-a-film follows the production of a historical epic about the holocaust (1915-1923) of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, focusing on how it changes the life of a young man (David Alpay) working as a driver on the set.
The estranged members of a contemporary Armenia family are faced both with Turkey's denial of their catastrophic past and with their own complicated present: a mother who only wants peace, a young woman who wants nothing but retribution, and a young man whose journey to uncover his roots is jeopardizing his future.
Told in Egoyan's trademark elliptical style, Ararat is at once a mysterious and powerful story about demanding truth, and may be his most provocative film yet.