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SPRING 2008 Lineup     

Cineculture continues to be a film series provided as a service to the Fresno State campus students, faculty, and staff at no charge. However, anyone interested in taking Cineculture for academic credit for the Fall semester, please sign up through Continuing and Global Education: tel. 278-0333

 

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January 18

American Pastime (2007)

Director: Desmond Nakano. Unrated. 106 min. English.

"American Pastime" uses the iconic sport of baseball (and to a lesser extent, jazz) to illustrate both the frustration and humiliation experienced by Japanese Americans during their internment in World War II, as well as an expression of their patriotism and heroism. Set at Topaz Relocation Center near Abraham, Utah, the film focuses on two families on opposite sides of the fence dealing with the sacrifices and prejudices triggered by the war effort.

Kevin Crust, LA Times

Post-screening discussant: Kerry Yo Nakagawa (project director for the non-profit Nisei Baseball Research Project (NBRP), curator of the Diamonds in the Rough: Japanese Americans in Baseball exhibition which was displayed at the National Museum in the summer of 2000, and an independent producer/filmmaker, actor, researcher, and writer)

January 25

Citizen King (2004)

Directors: Orlando Bagwell and Noland Walker. 120 min. Not rated. English

A documentary that draws on input from a broad cross-section of people to examine to last five years of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life. It includes insight from King's closest colleagues along with commentary from journalists, historians, and scholars, as well as employees of the U.S. government.

Post-screening panel discussants: Francine Oputa (Director of Central Valley Cultural Heritage Institute), Dr. Meta Schettler (Assoc. Professor, Africana Studies), Dr. Matthew Jendian (Assoc. Professor, Sociology)

 February 1

Celebrating African Peoples' History Month

 Do the Right Thing (1989)

 Director: Spike Lee . USA. 120 min. English. Rated R.

An exposé of racial tensions in a New York City neighborhood one scorching summer day. “Do The Right Thing was a cause celebre, more breathlessly (and fearfully) awaited than any American film of its time. Director Spike Lee appeared on the cover of Newsweek, and Oprah and Nightline each devoted an entire show to the film. Behind all the stories was the concern that the film would ignite the very kind of violence it was made to deplore. As Ed Guerrero has noted, this fear has straight-jacketed films of social criticism since the turn of the last century.

Kevin Hagopian, Penn State University

In 1999, the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Post-screening discussant: Dr. Meta Schettler (Asso. Professor, Africana Studies)

February 8

Celebrating African Peoples' History Month

TBA

Fresno Filmworks at the Tower Theater

5:30PM and 8:00 PM

February 11 (Invisible Children Fundraiser)

Sunday; The Story of a Displaced Child

Producers: Invisible Children, Inc. 60 min. English. Not rated.

Meet Sunday. Only 15 years old, there isn’t a part of his life that hasn’t been affected by the war in Uganda. But a life that has been marked by tragedy is defined by resilience, and despite reasons to lose hope, Sunday perseveres. This is the story of faith that overcomes suffering.

Post-screening discussants: representative from Invisible Children and Lance Omeje (from Uganda, teacher at Yokomi Elementary School)

February 15

Celebrating African Peoples' History Month

Wrapped in Pride: The Story of Kente in America

Director:  Kindra Orr. USA. 30 min. English. Not Rated.

"Once reserved for African royalty, kente cloth has become a familiar pattern in American culture. [This] half-hour documentary ... looks at how this tradition textile crossed the Atlantic from the West African Republic of Ghana and made its way into everyday American life."—Container.

Post-screening discussant: Dr. Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi ( Professor, Africana Studies)

February 22

Celebrating African Peoples' History Month

Talk to Me (2007)

Director: Kasi Lemmons. USA. 118 min. English. Rated R for pervasive language and some sexual content.

A film about Washington, D.C. radio personality Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist, and Dewey Hughes, his friend and manager. The movie spans the time period May 1966 to January 1984, ending with the late Greene's memorial service.

Post-screening discussant: Dr. Malik Simba (Professor, History)

February 29

Special engagement! International Experimental Film Festival from France: Eight videos of the Image Contre Nature 2007 selection - 91mn

http://surlaroute.p-silo.org/120raisonsdedisparaitreA.php

These are all experimental short films. Not rated.

For Sore Eyes de-by  Anders Weberg

2mn17   couleur-color   stéréo-stereo   2006   Suède-Sweden

For Sore Eyes is another exploration of the ambivalence of the male gaze and gendered (dis)order. It is a suggestive reflection of life in the pyrotechnic, in sanatarium of consumerism freedom. But what is really freedom ?

Sönemböör de-by  Samuel Bester

14mn30   couleur-color   stéréo-stereo 2006   France

Fifth volet of a work started in 1996 on the island Sylt (North Germany) to evoke by image and sound the fragility of the landscape and the feelings we can have regarding a place which disappearance is announced

Body of war II de-by Isabelle Schneider

4mn37   couleur-color   stéréo-stereo   2007   France

War on all tv's. I keep you in mind.

Infinite Trajectory  de-by Christin Bolewski

12mn23   couleur & n/b-color & b/w   stéréo-stereo   2005   Allemagne-Germany

Infinite Trajectory is an audiovisual essay inspired by a text of the French Philosopher Jean Baudrillard dealing with topics of  a post-modern society: Electronic mass media collapse space and time barriers in human communication, enabling us to interact and live on a global scale, where we are losing the identity of ourselves and the concept of space.

Un gars, une fille... et Dieu ! de-by Yves-Marie Mahe

5mn   couleur-color   mono 2005   France

Oh! my god (miché!)

Psycho(s) de-by Yuk-Yiu Ip & ST

12mn   couleur & n/b-color & b/w   stéréo-stereo   2005   Chine-China

Psycho(s) is a live remix of Alfred Hitchcok’s Psycho and Gus Van Sant’s remake in 1998. Running on custom software that edits the films in real-time, Psycho(s) juxtaposes and condenses the two films that were made almost 40 years apart into a hypnotic stream of mirror images. The images and sounds, drifting in and out of sync, create a perpetual state of cinematic déjà vu that haunts and confuses both the original and its double. Psycho(s) recycles the original narratives, forming new poetic associations in an endless cycle of parallel edits.

Mini-series de-by Kara Hearn

11mn47   couleur-color  stéréo-stereo   2007   USA

Mini-series is a chain of events drawn from stories, dreams, first-hand experiences, and fantasies. Each scene utilizes the techniques of cinema the simplest possible ways to create narratives that are stripped of everything but the pathos inherent in the medium. The artist worked alone, playing every role and using whatever props and costumes were on hand.

A year de-by Mark Street

26mn   couleur-color   stéréo-stereo   2006   USA

A tattered diary film. Middle age concerns swirl around me in Brooklyn and follow to North Carolina, and New Orleans (before the storm) and back home again. Video journal entries mix with 35mm abstract film images, sublime and inviting, suggesting and elegy for celluloid. As friends drift away I retreat into myself. Solipsism beckons, and I stave it off, barely. I contemplate my body falling apart, my kids growing up, changes and disappearances.

Post-screening discussant: Dan Nadaner (CSUF professor, Department of Art and Design)

March 7

Celebrating Women’s Herstory Month

Charisse Shumate: Fighting for Our Lives (2005)

Freedom Archives (Editor) and California Coalition for Women Prisoners (Contributor).

 35 min. USA. Not rated.

The story of women prisoners -- many of them domestic violence survivors -- who stood up to the CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to demand quality health care for imprisoned women.  Charisse Shumate and dozens of other women filed a lawsuit against the state of California (Shumate v. Wilson) to fight this medical neglect and the systemic violence they endure on a daily basis. 

A panel discussion follows the film, featuring formerly incarcerated women -- including a plaintiff and attorney involved in the Shumate v. Wilson lawsuit -- and other activists who are challenging inhumane prison conditions and the prison industrial complex.

Light snacks provided and extra credit possible for students.

Our Voices Within: Out of the Shadows

The stories of domestic violence survivors incarcerated in state prison for crimes related to their experiences of being abused.  The film features interviews with six domestic violence survivors released from prison and their connections to Free Battered Women, a grassroots coalition working for justice and freedom for abuse survivors who are incarcerated.  Footage from Free Battered Women’s community event celebrating these and other survivors’ freedom links their remarkable journey to freedom with the larger movement to end domestic violence.  Our Voices Within: Out of the Shadows explores hope in the face of injustice; resistance to state violence; struggles for freedom; and the power of solidarity.

Presented by Free Battered Women, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, the California Prison Moratorium Project

Post-screening discussants: representatives from Free Battered Women and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners

March 14

Honeydripper (2007)

Fresno Filmworks

At the Tower Theater

5:30PM and 8:00PM

Students and seniors: $8

General admission: $10

Director: John Sayles. USA. 123 min. PG-13.

A musical drama film set in Alabama, the film stars Danny Glover as the owner of a blues club that is failing until he hires a young electric guitarist (Gary Clark, Jr.). “John Sayles the storyteller and John Sayles the political progressive haven't always played well together, but, in the endearing musical time-piece Honeydripper, the indie icon lets his narrative gifts take the lead and the social issues follow like a tight bass line. The result is one of Sayles' best films. The music, a mix of blues, seminal rock and newcomer Gary Clark Jr.'s performance, will be an obvious draw, as will the performances by some leading African-American actors.”  John Anderson, Variety

March 28

Celebrating César Chávez

The New Haven Raids/ Las Redadas de New Haven

Director: David Koff.  10 min. USA. Not rated.

Early on the morning of June 6, 2007, Fugitive Operations Teams of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security conducted a series of raids in New Haven's largely immigrant neighborhood of Fair Haven. Five of those detained speak out on their experiences.

I Want My Parents Back

Teen Producers. 10 min. USA. Not rated

In the film a group of San Diego teens explore the issue of immigration and the effects of recent ICE raids on the community and specifically, the Munoz family.

Post-screening discussants: film director, David Koff

April 4

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002)

5:15 PM
Friday, April 4, 2008
McLane 121 @ Fresno State
admission is free
open to the public

Directors: Omar Al-Qattan & Michael Schwarz. 116 min. English. Tells the story of the seventh century prophet who changed world history in 23 years, and continues to shapes the lives of more than 1.2 billion people. The film takes viewers not only to ancient Middle Eastern sites where Muhammad's story unfolds, but into the homes, mosques and workplaces of some of America's estimated seven million Muslims to discover the many ways in which they follow Muhammad's example.

Post-screening discussant(s): Members from the Muslim Student Association

April 11

TBA

Fresno Filmworks

Tower Theater

5:30PM and 8:00PM

Students and seniors: $8

General admission: $10

April 18

Bombies (2001)

Director: Jack Silberman. 57 min. Between 1964 and 1973 the United States conducted a secret air war, dropping over 2 million tons of bombs and making tiny Laos the most heavily bombed country in history. Millions of these 'cluster bombs' did not explode when dropped, leaving the country massively contaminated with 'bombies' as dangerous now as when they fell 30 years ago. Bombies examines the problem of unexploded cluster bombs through the personal experiences of a group of Laotians and foreigners and argues for their elimination as a weapon of war. Unfortunately they are still a standard part of the US arsenal and were dropped in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
 Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival.

Post-screening discussants: Lao Student Association

April 25

Fuerza y Coraje (Strength and Courage) (2003)

Director: Federico Velasco. 52 min. Spanish w/English subtitles.

A film that centers around disability and the Olympics in Mexico.

Post screening discussant: director, Federico Velasco

May 2

Machuca  (2004)

Director: Andrés Wood. 121 min. France, Spain, Chile

Andrés Wood’s film examines the events leading up to the September 1973 military coup in Chile through the eyes of a soft, sensitive 11-year-old boy named Gonzalo, who comes from a rich, unhappy Santiago family and attends an exclusive private school. There, he meets Pedro Machuca, one of a number of poor boys granted scholarships by the headmaster, a priest flush with the egalitarian spirit of the times. The friendship of the two boys whose frequent companion is Silvana, a spirited girl from the shantytown where Pedro lives develops as the country slides into political turmoil.

 A. O. Scott, The New York Times

Cineculture Club promotes cultural awareness through film and post-screening discussion.
 

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