FALL 2013
events O cto b er Tuesday, October 1 at 7pm CETRA LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS The Church of Dauphine Street Wednesday, October 2 at 7pm Tube Time! Friday, October 4 at 7pm Oldboy – Special screening! Saturday, October 5 at 7pm EUROPEAN CINEMA UNCOVERED The Albanian Cinema Project presents Nëntori i dytë – New restoration! Tuesday, October 8 at 7pm SCRIBE PRODUCERS’ FORUM No Más Bebés Por Vida Wednesday, October 9 at 7pm ARCHIVE FEVER! 5.0 This is Not a Film Thursday, October 10 at 7pm FULL EXPOSURE Mekong Hotel Friday, October 11 at 7pm Our Nixon – Special screening! Saturday, October 12 at 2pm FAMILY MATINEE The Illusionist Saturday, October 12 at 7pm THE JANUS COLLECTION Revanche Sunday, October 13 at 8pm Mark Hosler / Thomas Dimuzio / Wobbly / M.C. Schmidt Wednesday, October 16 at 6pm Aubrie Costello: Silk Graffiti Wednesday, October 16 at 7pm An Evening with Knut Åsdam Filter City / Oblique / Abyss / Tripoli Saturday, October 19 at 2pm, 3:30pm, 8:30pm Directors in Focus: Peter Kubelka The Films of Peter Kubelka Fragments of Kubelka
Monday, October 21 at 7pm ECHOSYSTEMS: 16mm films by Robert Todd Tuesday, October 22 at 7pm An Evening with Beatriz Santiago Muñoz La Cueva Negra / Farmacopea / Folc-Industrial / Inventario / Esto es un mensaje explosivo Friday, October 25 at 10pm Halloween Party Saturday, October 26 at 12pm EXHUMED FILMS 24 Hour Horror-Thon, Part 7! Tuesday, October 29 – Saturday, November 2 New Middle East Cinema
Wednesday, November 20 at 7pm BIRDWATCHING Of a Far-Off Sky
Saturday, December 14 at 7pm MOTION PICTURES (Adaptation) Don Quixote
(Curated by Rebecca Meyers)
Thursday, November 21 at 7pm BIRDWATCHING The Birdpeople / Migration / A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist Friday, November 22 at 7pm BIRDWATCHING The Birds Saturday, November 23 at 2pm Family matinee Eleanor’s Secret Saturday, November 23 at 5pm BIRDWATCHING Kes
Tuesday, December 17 at 7pm SCRIBE PRODUCERS’ FORUM The Trials of Muhammad Ali Wednesday, December 18 at 7pm ARCHIVE FEVER! 5.0 – Twenty Years After, Il Maestro Fellini Satyricon Thursday, December 19 at 7pm FULL EXPOSURE Post Tenebras Lux Friday, December 20 at 7pm EUROPEAN CINEMA UNCOVERED Alternative Film/Video Belgrade: Award Winners 2012
Saturday, November 23 at 8pm THE JANUS COLLECTION Journey to Italy (Viaggio in Italia)
Friday, December 20 at 9:30pm EUROPEAN CINEMA UNCOVERED Academic Film Center: Alternative amateur cinema, 50 + 5 years
Wednesday, November 6 at 7pm FULL EXPOSURE Caesar Must Die
Tuesday, November 26 at 7pm SCRIBE PRODUCERS FORUM Free Angela and All Political Prisoners
Saturday, December 21 at 7pm THE JANUS COLLECTION Three Colors: Blue
Thursday, November 7 at 7pm DIRECTORS IN FOCUS: JEAN ROUCH The Lion Hunters / Les maîtres fous
December
November Tuesday, November 5 at 6pm Diwali Celebration
Friday, November 8 at 7pm DIRECTORS IN FOCUS: JEAN ROUCH Moi, un noir / Mammy Water Saturday, November 9 at 5pm DIRECTORS IN FOCUS: JEAN ROUCH Jaguar Saturday, November 9 at 8pm DIRECTORS IN FOCUS: JEAN ROUCH Little by Little (Petit à petit) Tuesday, November 12 at 7pm Medora – Special screening! Wednesday, November 13 – Sunday, November 17 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival
Tuesday, December 3 at 7pm CETRA LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS Traduire Wednesday, December 4 at 7pm Northern Lights – New restoration! Thursday, December 5 – Sunday, December 8 New Authors of Italian Cinema Friday, December 13 at 6pm Holiday Party Friday, December 13 at 7:30pm EXHUMED FILMS Double Feature
tickets/box office: Tickets are available at www.ihousephilly.org + 215.387.5125
Saturday, December 14 at 2pm FAMILY MATINEE The Nightmare Before Christmas
IHP’s Box Office is now open from 1pm – 8pm, Tuesday – Saturday. Purchase your tickets in person or with IHP over the phone during these hours and save the processing fee. Cover: The Birds
Dear Readers, This summer, we kept you entertained with various outdoor movie nights and the first few screenings of our new family matinee series! We are delighted to report that these were big successes. The outdoor movie nights will be back again starting next summer, and look for a family matinee one Saturday every month for the foreseeable future! We’re also excited to announce that we have launched our brand new website. Check it out at www.ihousephilly.org! It has a totally refreshed look and feel, and should make your experience much more simple. From purchasing tickets and membership online, to signing up for housing, IHP’s website is your new one-stop-shop. Finally, we’ve earned bragging rights…the arts program at IHP was awarded a coveted ‘Best of Philly’ for Film Fun in 2013. Thanks to Philadelphia Magazine for recognizing our recent retrospectives on Rivette and Parajanov, as well as giving a shout-out to our outdoor screenings, family matinees, and more—we’re honored! To read the full listing, pick up a copy of Philadelphia Magazine or check out their website.
table of contents 3 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Aubrie costello: Silk graffiti 5 featured programs: Diwali: A cultural celebration 7 programs 8 partner programs 9 october 23 november 31 december
As if there wasn’t reason enough already to visit International House, now you’re spoiled for choice!
The Nightmare Before Christmas (p. 33) 2
A RT I ST S P O T L I G H T We are proud to present local artist Aubrie Costello’s solo-show titled Silk Graffiti on show from October 7 – December 31, 2013 in IHP’s East Alcove. Silk Graffiti is a one-of-a-kind, site-specific fiber installation. With Silk Graffiti, Aubrie intuitively responds to the environment which the work is being created for and ultimately housed in, pairing particular places with thought-provoking text to facilitate dialogue. Aubrie often works with words of significance according to whom, what, or where she is collaborating with as inspiration for the piece itself. As Aubrie writes in her artist statement: “I’m most interested in the stark juxtaposition between my materials: luxurious, often feminine, silk, and rough-and-tough nails. I choose to work in Dupioni silk, a sparkly, luxe material commonly used in dress makings and interior textiles. I shred the silk, letting it deconstruct, and hand-form the letters directly onto a wall, much like how a street artist throws a tag up on a crumbling exterior wall. The process of creating my Silk Graffiti installations is one of push and pull, of light and dark. It is a commentary on a hyper masculine graffiti culture. It is a feminine twist on a malecentric act. Imperfect layers of the tangled silk strings, pieced silk letters, and scattered wire nail heads help to further the narrative and tone of the text. Lighting can transform the piece too, bringing out all the nubby iridescence of the silk and the glittery metallic nails. Natural elements, like the breeze from an open window running through the silk strands, and the passing of time help to further deconstruct the Silk Grafitti into a more dripping, tangled web of silk and nails as it matures.” Aubrie Costello is an installation artist and draftswoman from the Philadelphia area. She studied fine arts at Moore College of Art and Design, and upon graduating with honors, co-founded The Other Woman (a ladies’ art collective). She has shown in numerous galleries throughout the city of Philadelphia and at The Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy. Her current body of work is entitled Silk Graffiti, a series of site-specific fiber art installations. www.aubriecostello.com Please join us at IHP on Wednesday, October 16 from 6 to 7:30pm to open Aubrie Costello: Silk Graffiti. Light hors d’oeuvres and refreshments will be served. The exhibit will be on display until December 31, 2013.
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F E A T U RE D P R O G R A MS
Diwali: A cultUral celebration International House serves as a meeting point for not only residents from around the world, but also thousands of people from the Greater Philadelphia community. Part of the way in which International House fulfills its mission is by introducing its global residents to the American experience, and for more than 100 years, IHP has also introduced its resident’s national cultures and traditions to the general public. Each year, IHP opens its doors to Philadelphia and invites members of the community to participate in various cultural journeys, such as Diwali – popularly known as the ‘festival of lights’ – the five day Hindu festival that falls between mid-October and mid-November. Diwali is considered one of the most important holidays for Hindus, and is celebrated in families by performing various traditional activities together in their homes. The celebration of Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. The lamps are kept on throughout the night while one’s house is cleaned, with both being done to make the Hindu goddess Lakshmi feel welcome. Firecrackers are used to drive away evil spirits. During Diwali, celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends, and in the streets one finds beautiful, multi-colored paper lanterns known as kandils – an integral part of Diwali decorations.
ihousephilly.org
While Diwali is popularly known as the ‘Festival of Lights’, the most significant spiritual meaning behind it is ‘the awareness of the inner light’. Central to Hindu mythology is the belief that there is something beyond the physical body and mind, which is pure, infinite, and eternal, called the Atman. The celebration of Diwali as the ‘victory of good over evil’ refers to the light of higher knowledge dispelling all ignorance, the ignorance that masks one’s true nature, not as the body, but as the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality. With this awakening comes compassion and the awareness of the oneness of all things, or a higher knowledge. This brings ‘anand’, or joyful peace. Just as one celebrates the birth of a physical being, Diwali is the celebration of the birth of one’s inner light. While the story behind Diwali and the manner of celebration varies from region to region (festive fireworks, worship, lights, sharing of sweets, etc), the essence remains the same: to rejoice in and celebrate one’s inner light. This is but one of many international holidays that is celebrated at IHP, and just one way that culture is shared with the larger Philadelphia community. International House invites you to join us on Tuesday, November 5 at 6pm to celebrate this beautiful and reflective cultural holiday. The evening will include various colors, candles, and lights, with traditional food, music, and dance, bringing this important Indian holiday to the Philadelphia region.
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P R O G R A MS Archive Fever! 5.0
Central to our visual culture, the archive is a repository for any personal memories, shared histories, objects, and documents through which we revisit the history of our time. In this series, we explore the myriad ways in which the archive, archival, and found materials are central to the works of film and video artists who are discovering the dynamic possibilities within archives. Wednesday, October 9 at 7pm This is Not a Film
Wednesday, December 18 at 7pm Fellini Satyricon
Birdwatching
A celluloid salute to our mysterious and majestic winged friends in the sky, Birdwatching is a chance to study wildlife from the comfort of your theater seat. From the menacing swarms in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, to the serene beauty of Peter Greenaway’s soaring subjects in A Walk Through H, birds clearly occupy a special place in film history. Leave the binoculars at home and flock to IHP for four feather-filled days of ornithological films. Wednesday, November 20 at 7pm Of a Far-Off Sky (Curated by Rebecca Meyers)
Thursday, November 21 at 7pm The Birdpeople / Migration / A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist
Friday, November 22 at 7pm The Birds / The Canaries
Saturday, November 23 at 5pm Kes
European Cinema Uncovered
Programs of recently-restored classics from European countries lesser-known worldwide for their cinematic history help us understand what cinema means to a people, a country, and a heritage. The Embassy of Lithuania, the Albanian Cinema Project, the Academic Film Center Belgrade and Alternative Film/Video Festival Belgrade each present projects that allow us to discover and uncover a cinematic legacy we might not have otherwise been privy to. As more and more state governments realize and evaluate the importance of the preservation of, and access to moving images, we will begin to rediscover many histories that otherwise might have been lost. Saturday, October 5 at 7pm Nëntori i dytë – New restoration! Friday, December 20 at 7pm Alternative Film/Video Belgrade: Award Winners 2012 Friday, December 20 at 9:30pm Academic Film Center: Alternative amateur cinema, 50 + 5 Years
Family Matinees
All year long, International House Philadelphia will be entertaining families when we open the doors to all ages for our new series of family friendly matinee one Saturday every month at 2pm. The series aims to bring the big screen to children, inspiring their imaginations, and yours, too! Take this opportunity to encourage a love of film and art from a young age – filmgoers of all ages will delight in this carefully curated selection of inspired cinema from around the world. These films will bring the best of both worlds – education and entertainment. With a diverse line-up of programming geared towards children, teens, parents, and grandparents – there is no reason to leave anyone at home! Special discounted ticket price of $5; free to members Saturday, October 12 at 2pm The Illusionist
Saturday, November 23 at 2pm Eleanor’s Secret
Saturday, December 14 at 2pm The Nightmare Before Christmas
Full Exposure
Full Exposure is a series dedicated to recent works by innovative film and video makers from around the world, and is a snapshot of the current state of moving image production and it’s constantly evolving practice. Thursday, October 10 at 7pm Mekong Hotel
Wednesday, November 6 at 7pm Caesar Must Die
Thursday, December 19 at 7pm Post Tenebras Lux
Motion Pictures
Motion Pictures is a monthly series that focuses on different movements in film culture such as science fiction, city symphonies, and New German Cinema. It has previously featured the films of Georges Méliès, John Ford, Preston Sturges, and Andrei Tarkovsky. Saturday, December 14 at 7pm Don Quixote
The Janus Collection
Truly one of our national treasures, Janus Films is a vital part of American film culture. International House continues the Janus Collection with titles from their library, all in brand new or restored 35mm prints. Saturday, October 12 at 7pm Revanche Saturday, December 21 at 7pm Three Colors: Blue
Saturday, November 23 at 8pm Journey to Italy (Viaggio in Italia)
P A RT N ER P R O G R A MS Directors in Focus: Jean Rouch Program will be introduced by Sam DiOrio, professor at Hunter College, NYC Jean Rouch’s (1917 - 2004) breakthrough work in cinéma vérité in the 1960s helped inspire the direct cinema movement in the United States and the nouvelle vague (New Wave) in France where he was a key figure in the Cinémathèque Française and the founding director of the Comité du film ethnographique at the Musée de l’Homme. Far in advance of contemporary rethinking of both anthropology and filmmaking, Rouch was developing an entirely new kind of documentary film practice that blurred the boundaries between producer and subject, as well as fiction and reality. His African work, characterized by innovations such as “shared anthropology” and “ethno-fiction,” is noted for its embrace of both the daily life and imagination of a new generation of Africans. His works capture the emergence of Africa in transformation, and the worlds of displaced migrants in Accra, Ghana (Jaguar) and in Treichville and Abidjan, Ivory Coast (Moi, Un Noir, La Pyramide Humaine); the adventures of three friends in the Niger bush (Cocorico, Monsieur Poulet); and the sensibilities and observations of Africans migrating to Paris and back, what some have called reverse ethnography (Petit a Petit, Madame L’Eau). He also played an active role in helping to launch African cinema. According to stories widely reported, Rouch adopted the hand-held style after losing his tripod in a river in Niger. In the landmark Chronicle of a Summer (1961), Rouch and his co-director Edgar Morin asked Parisians the simple question, “Are you happy?” The answers created a stunning document of contemporary life in the city. “Rejecting both the idealism of Robert Flaherty and the didacticism of Joris Ivens and John Grierson, Rouch aimed for the immediacy of television, without its superficiality,” wrote Ronald Bergan in The Guardian, in one of the many obituaries about the filmmaker. “He believed that the camera’s intervention stimulated people to greater spontaneity, expression and truth without asking them, as in the American Direct Cinema, to act as though the camera was not there.”
CETRA Language Solutions
IHP’s Language Program and CETRA Language Solutions presents a series of international language films. They range from drama to documentaries, a variety of foreign languages to sign language, and are both thought provoking and entertaining. Learn more about the world around you through these fabulous films being screened throughout the year. We are delighted to offer these films free of charge to the public. Tuesday, October 1 at 7pm The Church of Dauphine Street
Tuesday, December 3 at 7pm Traduire
EXHUMED FILMS
Formed in 1997, Exhumed Films was created to provide a theatrical venue for a much beloved art form that had all but disappeared in the 1990s and is in further decline in the early 21st Century: the cult horror movie. Saturday, October 26 at 12pm 24 Hour Horror-Thon, Part 7!
Friday, December 13 at 7:30pm Double feature
Scribe Video Center Producers’ Forum
The Producers’ Forum in-person screening series is a lecture discussion program, that allows Scribe to invite important nationally and internationally recognized media makers to Philadelphia to share their work and talk about their process of creating. Tuesday, October 8 at 7pm No Más Bebés Por Vida
Tuesday, November 26 at 7pm Free Angela and All Political Prisoners
Tuesday, December 17 at 7pm The Trials of Muhammad Ali
Continuing with a quote attributed to the director, the paper added, “The camera eye is more perspicacious and more accurate than the human eye,” he said. “The camera eye has an infallible memory, and the filmmaker’s eye is divided.” Thursday, November 7 at 7pm Friday, November 8 at 7pm The Lion Hunters / Les maîtres fous Moi, un noir / Mammy Water Saturday, November 9 at 5pm Jaguar
Saturday, November 9 at 8pm Little by Little (Petit à petit)
Unless noted, all IHP screenings are free admission for IHP members; $7 students + seniors; $9 general admission.
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October Tuesday, October 1 at 7pm CETRA LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS The Church oN Dauphine Street dir. Ann Hedreen & Rustin Thompson, US, 2007, digital, 83 min.
The Church of Dauphine Street explores a miracle after tragedy struck in New Orleans. This is a story about Father Joseph Benson, a Northern Irish-man, and Arthine Vicks, an ex-Marine fluent in American Sign Language: two unlikely allies working to reunite one of New Orleans’ most unusual, most independent congregations. Their church is home to the city’s deaf Catholics and many Spanishspeaking immigrants, making it tri-lingual. But more than anything this is a story about home and the mysterious, powerful allure of New Orleans. Free screening.
Wednesday, October 2 at 7pm Tube Time! IHP presents a night of videos straight from YouTube through our 2K Barco digital cinema projector and onto the big screen. Since 2005, YouTube has been a rapidly-growing user-generated resource that many use for diverse functions, research, personal expression, and piracy among them. Tube Time! has been a feature in past editions of the Migrating Forms Festival (formerly the New York Underground Film Festival) and it feels strangely appropriate to appropriate it here. We’ve simply asked participants to introduce a 20-minute thematic playlist comprised of videos of their choosing. We expect the results to delight, shock, excite, and horrify! Participants include: Kelsey Halliday Johnson: artist/Events and Programs Coordinator, Vox Populi; Jesse Pires: Program Curator, International House Philadelphia; Chip Schwartz: writer, Knight Arts Philadelphia; Ted Passon: filmmaker; Matt Suib: video artist Running time approximately 100 minutes. Please see website for more information. Free screening.
Tube Time! ihousephilly.org
Saturday, October 5 at 7pm EUROPEAN CINEMA UNCOVERED The Albanian Cinema Project presents Nëntori i dytë – New restoration! dir. Viktor Gjika, Albania, 1982, HD, Albanian with English subtitles, 84 min.
Introduction and Q+A with Albanian cinema scholar Bruce Williams.
Oldboy Friday, October 4 at 7pm Oldboy – Special screening! dir. Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2003, 35mm, Korean with English subtitles, 120 min.
Oh Dae-su is an ordinary Seoul businessman with a wife and little daughter who, after a drunken night on the town, is locked up in a strange, private “prison” for 15 years. No one will tell him why he’s there and who his jailer is, but he is kept in reasonably comfortable quarters and has a TV to keep him company. Watching TV though, he discovers he has been framed for his wife’s murder and realizes that, during one of the occasions in which he’s knocked out by gas, someone has drawn blood from him and left it at the scene of the crime. The imprisonment lasts for 15 years until one day when Dae-su finds himself unexpectedly deposited on a grass-covered high-rise roof. He’s determined to discover the mysterious enemy who had him locked up. While he’s eating in a Japanese restaurant, his cell phone rings and a voice dares him to figure out why he was imprisoned. Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, Oldboy put South Korean Park Chan-wook (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Thirst, Stoker) into a prominent position as one of the most popular and critically-acclaimed contemporary Asian filmmakers. Spike Lee’s American remake of the film is due later in the fall but we are happy to present a rare screening of the original Oldboy from a 35mm print!
Produced for the 70th anniversary of Albanian independence in 1982, Nëntori i dytë (The Second November) is a sweeping historical drama centering on the country’s early 20th century fight for freedom from the Ottoman Turkish empire. Made during one of the darkest periods of Albania’s Marxist regime, director Viktor Gjika’s film features the revered actor Alexsander ‘Sander’ Prosi as the grey-bearded patriot Ismail Qemali. The story follows the quietly courageous Qemali as he crisscrosses his chaotic homeland, dodging the advancing Turks while racing to raise the flag of freedom in the port city of Vlora. Colorlab Film Corp’s restored and remastered version of Nëntori i dytë triumphantly screened in last year’s 13th Festival of Albanian Film, thirty years after the film’s initial premiere and on the 100th anniversary of Albania’s independence. – Thomas Logoreci Presented by the Albanian Cinema Project, an organization dedicated to preserving, restoring, and promoting Albanian film heritage. Holding a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles, Dr. Bruce Williams is Professor and Graduate Director in the Department of Languages and Cultures and Co-coordinator of the program in International Cinema at the William Paterson University of New Jersey. He has published extensively in the areas of cinema history; film theory; Latin American and European cinemas, and language and cinema. His current research interests include Albanian cinema; film criticism as a tool for nation-building in North Korea and Albania; cinematic ties between Brazil and the Soviet Union; radical cinema and reception; celebrity studies, and the sociolinguistics of the cinema. Thanks to the Albanian Cinema Project and Albanian Central State Film Archive.
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No Más Bebés Por Vida
This is Not a Film
Tuesday, October 8 at 7pm SCRIBE PRODUCERS’ FORUM An Evening with Filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña No Más Bebés Por Vida (a work-in-progress)
Wednesday, October 9 at 7pm ARCHIVE FEVER! 5.0 This is Not a Film
Director Renee Tajima-Peña in person
This clandestine documentary, shot partially on an iPhone and smuggled into France in a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, depicts the day-to-day life of acclaimed director Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon, The Circle) during house arrest in his Tehran apartment. While appealing his sentence—six years in prison and a 20 year ban from filmmaking for being convicted of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic”—Panahi is seen talking to his family and lawyer on the phone, discussing his plight with Mirtahmasb and reflecting on the meaning of the art of filmmaking.
dir. Renee Tajima-Peña, US, 2013, digital, 76 min.
Co-sponsored by Cinema Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Please join award-winning documentarian Renee Tajima-Peña (Who Killed Vincent Chin, Calavera Highway) as she talks about her films. Her work-in-progress No Más Bebés Por Vida uncovers the contested history of sterilizations of Mexican American women during the 1960s and ‘70s, and how a group of mothers, young lawyers and activists, and a whistle-blowing doctor stood up in the name of justice. Award-winning film director and producer Renee Tajima-Peña’s works address Asian American and immigrant/diaspora themes. Her films have screened at the Cannes, Sundance, and Toronto film festivals. She is a Professor of Asian American Studies and the Alumni and Friends of Japanese American Ancestry Endowed Chair at UCLA, where she directs the Center for EthnoCommunications. Free admission Penn Students, Staff + Faculty with ID; $5 Scribe + IHP members; $7 Students + Seniors; $10 General Admission. ihousephilly.org
dir. Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Iran, 2011, 35mm, Persian with English subtitles, 75 min.
“Jafar Panahi, forbidden by the Iranian authorities from practicing as a filmmaker, responded with this brave and witty video diary, an essay on the struggle between political tyranny and the creative imagination.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Mekong Hotel Thursday, October 10 at 7pm FULL EXPOSURE Mekong Hotel dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/UK, 2012, 35mm, Thai with English subtitles, 61 min.
Mekong Hotel is a self-reflexive portrait of a hotel near the Mekong River in Thailand. In the bedrooms and terraces, director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) holds a rehearsal with his crew for a movie he wrote years ago entitled Ecstasy Garden. The film blends fact and fiction, expressing the bonds between a vampirelike mother and her daughter, the young lovers and the river, while exploring themes of recollection, politics, Thai folklore, and the modern world’s undeniable connection to its spiritual roots.
preceded by The Anthem dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/UK, 2006, digital, Thai with English subtitles, 6 min.
The Anthem is a celebration of filmmaking and the viewing experience. In Thailand, before every cinema film screening, there will be a Royal Anthem before the feature presentation. The purpose is to honor the King. It is one of the rituals imbedded in Thai society to give a blessing to something or someone before certain ceremonies. The Anthem presents a ‘Cinema Anthem’ that praises and blesses the approaching feature for each screening. This audio-visual purification process is performed by three old ladies. They also channel energy to the audience in order to give them a clear mind. 12
Our Nixon Friday, October 11 at 7pm Our Nixon – Special screening! dir. Penny Lane, US, 2013, HD, 84 min.
Throughout Richard Nixon’s presidency, three of his top White House aides obsessively documented their experiences with Super 8 home movie cameras. Young, idealistic, and dedicated, they had no idea that a few years later they’d all be in prison. This unique and personal visual record, created by H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and Dwight Chapin, was seized by the FBI during the Watergate investigation, then filed away at the National Archives, and forgotten for almost 40 years. Our Nixon is an all-archival documentary presenting those home movies for the first time, along with other rare footage (period news, pop culture footage, and excerpts from the Nixon tapes), creating an intimate and complex portrait of the Nixon presidency as never seen before. ihousephilly.org
Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Chapin filmed over 500 reels of home movies from 1969 to 1973, capturing the prosaic and the profound. They filmed big events: the Apollo moon landing, historic anti-war protests, the Republican National Convention, Tricia Nixon’s White House wedding, and Nixon’s world-changing trip to China. They filmed world leaders and celebrities: Nicolae Ceausescu, Chou En-lai, Barbara Walters. But they also filmed each other and everyday life: Ehrlichman eating dinner off a tray on Air Force One, Chapin’s wife and kids meeting the Easter Bunny on the White House lawn, Haldeman riding a bicycle at Camp David. Ehrlichman was especially fond of filming hummingbirds. They filmed to have something to show their grandchildren. They filmed because they thought that Nixon’s presidency would change the world forever. The tragedy is that they were right.
Saturday, October 12 at 2pm FAMILY MATINEE The Illusionist dir. Sylvain Chomet, France, 2010, 35mm, English, 80 min.
A down-on-his-luck illusionist befriends a pretty admirer, and finds that his constant quest to impress her may be his ultimate downfall in this animated fable based on an original screenplay by Jacques Tati and directed by Sylvain Chomet (his first film following the 2003 art-house smash The Triplets of Belleville). Now that the theaters and large performance venues have been taken over by rock bands and pop singers, the illusionist has been forced to ply his trade at small gatherings in bars, cafÊs, and basements in order earn a living. One day, while performing in a small Scottish pub located on a remote island that has only recently been wired for electricity, the illusionist encounters a young girl named Alice, who is captivated by his otherworldly abilities. Alice believes that the downtrodden performer possesses genuine supernatural powers, and agrees to accompany him on a trip to Edinburgh, where he’s scheduled to perform at a modest, out-ofthe-way theater. Her affection and enthusiasm inspire the illusionist, who in turn uses his talent to lavish her with a series of extravagant gifts. Unable to muster the courage to tell his starry-eyed admirer the truth about his trade, the illusionist continues giving until he’s got nothing more to offer. Special discounted ticket price: $5 for everyone!
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Revanche Saturday, October 12 at 7pm THE JANUS COLLECTION Revanche dir. Götz Spielmann, Austria, 2008, 35mm, German with English subtitles, 122 min.
A gripping thriller and a tragic drama of nearly Greek proportions, Revanche is the stunning, Oscar-nominated international breakthrough of Austrian filmmaker Götz Spielmann. In a ragged section of Vienna, hardened ex-con Alex (the mesmerizing Johannes Krisch) works in a brothel, where he falls for Ukrainian hooker Tamara. Their desperate plans for escape unexpectedly intersect with the lives of a rural cop and his seemingly content wife. With meticulous, elegant direction, Spielmann creates a tense, existential, and surprising portrait of vengeance and redemption, and a journey into the darkest forest of human nature, in which violence and beauty exist side by side. Sunday, October 13 at 8pm Mark Hosler / Thomas Dimuzio / Wobbly / M.C. Schmidt Presented in quadrophonic sound, this stellar evening promises to rattle all four corners of the room as a distinguished cast of sonic explorers range promiscuously across the outer space of experimental sound, plunderphonic collage, free improvisation, ihousephilly.org
composed pieces, and noise. Modular synths, circuit bent instruments, obsessive compulsive sample banks, and all manner of percussive oddities will be wielded in solo and duo sets recombining Mark Hosler (a founding member of Negativland), Thomas Dimuzio (drone and modular synth guru), Wobbly (cut-up impresario), and M.C. Schmidt (one half of electronic duo Matmos) into impossible shapes. No laptops! All hands on deck! $5 IHP members; $8 students + seniors; $10 general admission.
Wednesday, October 16 at 6pm Exhibit Opening Aubrie costello: Silk graffiti Silk Graffiti is a one-of-a-kind, site-specific fiber installation. With Silk Graffiti, Aubrie intuitively responds to the environment which the work is being created for and ultimately housed in, pairing particular places with thought-provoking text to facilitate dialogue. Aubrie often works with words of significance according to whom, what, or where she is collaborating with as inspiration for the piece itself. Please join us for an opening reception, including light hors d’oeuvres and refreshments.
Wednesday, October 16 at 7pm An Evening with Knut Åsdam
Abyss
Introduced by Kaja Silverman, followed by a discussion between Åsdam and Homay King.
The film portrays an urban reality characterized by migration and change – the movement of people, the movement of money and power, and the drift of the imagination. The 43 min. experimental film and installation work is set within spaces of the modern city – markets, gyms, parking lots, parks, squares, streets, and stores. The main character, O, negotiates her material world; the city’s economic, political, and social demands appear to have been absorbed into her movements, speech, and psychology. The urban sprawl that takes in the Olympic site and the Thames Gateway features the sorts of “composite architectures” that often provide the backdrop to Åsdam’s films. In Abyss, the cityscape is the other main protagonist of the film, one that the other protagonists are subjected to.
Knut Åsdam is one of the most internationally recognized Norwegian artists today, having represented his country at the Venice Biennale in 1999. Åsdam makes films, installations, and photographs that question our degree of conditioning through urban space and incite us to live in a more conscious manner. In his photographs, his principal subject is architecture that he considers to be at the “conjunction of the social, of the personal, of the paranoiac, and of the public.” Recent exhibitions include: Tate Modern, London (2011); The Depo, Istanbul (2011); Kunsthalle de Bergen, Norway (2010); Museum Boijmans, Rotterdam (2007); Tate Britain, Glasgow (2000); Biennale de Venise (1999). Homay King is Associate Professor of History of Art, and Director of the Program in Film Studies at Bryn Mawr College. She is the author of Lost in Translation: Orientalism, Cinema, and the Enigmatic Signifier (Duke UP, 2010). Her essays on film and contemporary art have appeared in Afterall, Discourse, Film Quarterly, October, and elsewhere. She is a member of the Camera Obscura editorial collective, and is currently working on a book entitled Virtual Memory: Time-based Art and the Dream of Digitality. Filter City dir. Knut Åsdam, Norway, 2003, digital, 23 min.
Filter City focuses on two women, their relation to each other and to a city that is in transformation–architectonically, politically, and socially. Oblique dir. Knut Åsdam, Norway, 2008, digital, 13 min.
An articulation of identity in transition. The entire film was shot on a train moving through a continuous mass built from cities and their adjoining regions. The characters are traveling in the suspended generic space of the train through regions composed of old and new economies and old and new social realities. On the train itself, a targeted but sometimes absurd narrative plays itself out as a linguistic reaction to the time and place.
dir. Knut Åsdam, Norway/UK, 2010, digital, 43 min.
Tripoli dir. Knut Åsdam, Norway/Lebanon, 2011, digital, 24 min.
Tripoli emphasizes the political history and architectural traces through the preserved relics of our recent past. It also emphasizes psychological and traumatic dimension of a place reflecting political history. In the city of Tripoli in Northern Lebanon one finds the remains of one of the world’s most distinctive and ambitious construction projects, a stranded vision in the form of an international fairground and conference center designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1966. The project started in an optimistic period when Lebanon was a success story of the Middle East. However, a few years later, in 1975, the civil war broke out and all the work on the extensive project ceased. The complex was never completed, and was instead used for ammunition storage, a landing place for helicopters and other military uses, or it was simply closed to the public for long periods. The film is part architectural documentary and part incoherent and fragmented theatrical drama. The fragments of stories mirror the ambiguous and schizoid nature of the site, and attempt to leave space for a story of violence, disjunction, and the uncanny. This program is made possible by the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, the Slought Foundation, International House Philadelphia, Penn Design, the Department of History of Art, and the Department of Cinema Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Free screening.
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Peter Kubelka Saturday, October 19 Directors in Focus: Peter Kubelka Peter Kubelka is the legendary Austrian filmmaker, theorist, lecturer, and cook, not to mention co-founder of Anthology Film Archives in NYC. He is also a founder-member and curator of the Oesterreichisches Filmmuseum since 1963. He was born March 23, 1934 in Vienna, Austria. Kubelka has been an independent filmmaker since 1952. Alongside the Philadelphia premiere of the documentary Fragments of Kubelka, we will be presenting an expanded program of the films of Peter Kubelka. Program: 2:00PM: The Films of Peter Kubelka 3:30PM: Fragments of Kubelka 8:30PM: The Films of Peter Kubelka (repeat screening)
The Films of Peter Kubelka Peter Kubelka‘s films are often divided in two categories: the metric films in which Kubelka has taken Soviet montage, structurally, one step further as well as preceded the international movement of structural cinema; and the metaphoric films, which define a purely cinematographic language, articulated between the elements of sound and image. Kubelka’s radical and pioneering body of films is a highly condensed work of little more than an hour, but that is not the sum of his work. Kubelka is also known as a non-writing theorist, using non-verbal elements in his lectures, such as music, food, objects, tools, and facial expressions. “Peter Kubelka is the perfectionist of the film medium: and, as I honor that quality above all others at this time (finding such a lack of it now elsewhere), I would simply like to say: Peter Kubelka is the world’s greatest filmmaker—which is to say, simply: see his films! ... by all means/above all else ... et cetera.” -- Stan Brakhage
Mosaik Im Vertrauen (Mosaic in Confidence) dir. Peter Kubelka, Austria, 1955, 16mm, 17 min.
Adebar (5x) dir. Peter Kubelka, Austria, 1957, 16mm, 7 min.
Schwechater dir. Peter Kubelka, Austria, 1958, 16mm, 2 min.
Arnulf Ranier dir. Peter Kubelka, Austria, 1960, 16mm, 7 min.
Unsere Afrikareise (Our Trip to Africa) dir. Peter Kubelka, Austria, 1966, 16mm, 12 min.
Pause! dir. Peter Kubelka, Austria, 1977, 16mm, 12 min.
Fragments of Kubelka dir. Martina Kudlácek, Austria, 2012, digital, 233 min. (15 min. intermission)
This epic documentary subtly introduces the complex world view of iconic filmmaker and theoretician Peter Kubelka. While Kubelka‘s radical and pioneering body of films is a highly condensed work of about an hour focusing on the essence of cinema, his legendary lectures often unfold over many hours. These lectures on “what is cinema” and “cooking as an art form” are frequently illuminated by presentation of archaeological objects from Kubelka‘s eclectic collection. He considers his ongoing collecting to be an expanded film practice which explores the evolution of humanity. Martina Kudlácek has carefully woven an open-ended portrait which goes beyond the biographical to reveal fresh insights into the phenomenon of film. “How do you portray a Renaissance man? With the perseverance of a skilled Nature filmmaker, Martina Kudlácek observed Peter Kubelka for many years with her hand-held camera and gave him all the time in the world to expose us to his unfolding vision. As a result she presents a four-hour masterpiece about one of the most influential artists in film history and one of the most original thinkers and critics of our times.” –Peter Tscherkassky
Monday, October 21 at 7pm ECHOSYSTEMS: 16mm films by Robert Todd A lyrical filmmaker as well as a sound and visual artist, Robert Todd continually produces short works that resist categorization. His visually stunning body of work, which comes from a deeply personal place, takes a variety of poetic approaches to looking at the personal, political, and social ways in which we choose to live. In the past twenty years he has produced a large body of short-to-medium format films that have been exhibited internationally at a wide variety of venues and festivals including the Media City Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Le Rencontres Internationale, Curtas Vilo do Conde, Indie Lisboa, Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, Cinématheque Ontario, the Harvard Film Archive, Pacific Film Archive, the Paris Biennial, Slamdance Film Festival, and others. His films have won numerous festival prizes, grants, and artist’s awards. Currently a professor at Emerson College, he has been exhibiting paintings and films while teaching and editing in the Boston area since 1985. “Drawing from the resultant archive of near-constant filming, Robert Todd assembles his own footage into temporal moods which then fracture and multiply through careful editing. Todd’s extensive body of work comprises a library of emotions and observations and reveals a life dedicated to careful looking.” –Rachael Rakes After Morning dir. Robert Todd, USA, 2010, 16mm, 3 min. silent
21 Alleys dir. Robert Todd, USA, 2007, 16mm, 8 min.
Groundplay dir. Robert Todd, USA, 2009, 16mm, 12 min.
Summer Light (silent series) dir. Robert Todd, USA, 2012, 16mm, 16 min.
Missing Boy dir. Robert Todd, USA, 2012, 16mm, 14 min.
Echosystems dir. Robert Todd, USA, 2013, 16mm, 9 min.
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La Cueva Negra
Folc-Industrial
Tuesday, October 22 at 7pm An Evening with Beatriz Santiago Muñoz
La Cueva Negra
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz’s errant cinema composes a visual love of signifying Puerto Rico and other “disappearing landscape[s].” It poeticizes a radical dance with images that breach the fascisms of the everyday and make life from a polluted world and reckless economic system.
La Cueva Negra is a moving image project and photo series which explores the Paso del Indio site as a layered repository of symbolic and material histories. The site is well known in the archaeological community. Twenty years ago, during the construction of a multilane highway, a complex (possibly Archaic, definitely Pre-Taíno and Taíno) indigenous burial site was discovered and many objects and remains recovered. But the site was paved over for the construction of the expressway. Paso del Indio visibly holds many conflicting histories, embodied in the landscape and built environment.
Santiago Muñoz instead proposes that, “A radical artwork can move thought forward, rather than simply replicating the political analysis. Art is a way of thinking through forms, of working through forms” (Radical Form, 2008). In distinction to what history says did happen, or dogma says should happen, art is defined as an intensely subjunctive “unreasonable hopefulness”: form looking for other forms of thought. Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, who has screened at the Tate, CCA Wattis Institute, and Museo Rufino Tamayo, among other venues in the Americas and Europe, will be present for conversation, and will be introduced by the filmmaker and scholar, Franklin Cason Jr. Curated by Mary Ebeling and Rachel Ellis Neyra. This program is presented by The Penn Cinema Studies Program, The College of Arts and Sciences, The Department Latin American and Latina/o Studies, and The Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. ihousephilly.org
dir. Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, 2012, digital, 20 min.
Farmacopea dir. Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, 2012, 16mm, 6 min.
Farmacopeas are catalogs of plants and their uses. Farmacopea is a visual and text-based work on the relationship between historical processes and the natural landscape of Puerto Rico.
Folc-Industrial dir. Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, 2011, digital, 8 min.
Friday, October 25 at 10pm Halloween Celebration
In Caxias do Sul, mega-factories with 4,000 workers in one site have changed and re-structured the image of work, the worker, and lately, that imagined threshold in which a worker leaves the factory, and becomes an individual subject in public space among other workers. Commissioned by the Bienal do Mercosul in Porto Alegre, two public events were organized in which musicians with experimental affinities improvised a live soundtrack to images of workers leaving the factory.
IHP is throwing a hair-raising Halloween bash this year! Gather with Young Friends, residents, and the best-masked and costumed partygoers in Philadelphia for a scary, spooky, and riotous night filled with ghoulish themed snacks and drinks, a costume competition, an MC that will have your jaw dropping, and a DJ worth travelling for. Don’t miss it!
Inventario
Saturday, October 26 at 12pm EXHUMED FILMS presents 24 Hour Horror-Thon, Part 7!
dir. Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, 2006, digital, 18 min.
The town of Frontera Corozal was created in the ‘70s as a modernization and urbanization project in Mexico. 601 Chol families were relocated to identical plots of land by the Usumacinta River. Citizens of the town were asked to physically draw in space the contours of an imagined natural landscape or of their own constructed space. Muñoz worked with the community council (18 comuneros, all men) to make an inventory of all that exists within the town. The inventory was then narrated by a town council member through the makeshift speaker system that serves as the town’s preferred method of public communication. Esto es un mensaje explosivo dir. Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, 2006, digital, 16 min.
A film in two parts, about the construction and meaning of an event which persists in unofficial and rumored histories of art in Puerto Rico. In 1979 Carlos Irizarry, a Puerto Rican artist, boarded an American Airlines plane and threatened to blow it up in support of the liberation of Puerto Rican political prisoners. The event is sometimes referred to as a work of art, as a political-symbolic action, or as terrorism, and at yet other times the event is stretched around the hazy figure of national hero, or artiste maudite. Free screenings.
Tickets on sale soon!
To celebrate the joyous Halloween season, Exhumed Films proudly presents the seventh annual 24 Hour Horror-thon: a full 24 hour marathon of nonstop horror mayhem! As always, the lineup of films is being kept secret–people who come to the show will only find out what the features are as they unspool onto the screen. The show will feature some of the biggest horror titles of the last 30 years mixed with some really rare gems. Plus, we’ll run tons of classic trailers, shorts, and other oddities, all projected on 16mm or 35mm film. Sold out! Follow us on Facebook and sign up for our emails to get up-to-date info on special events and on-sales.
Tuesday, October 29 – Saturday, November 2 New Middle East Cinema The Cinema Studies Program, the Jewish Studies Program, the Middle East Center, and the Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations Department at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival and International House Philadelphia, present the 2013 edition of New Middle East Cinema. Recently released feature films, which represent a large number of countries in the region, have been selected as the best to be presented and discussed to further the understanding of current Middle Eastern societies and cultures through cinema. Free admission.
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Where Philadelphia meets the world! Support from individuals, corporations, the community, and educational organizations has been integral to the success of IHP’s mission. These gifts are an investment in the lives of IHP residents and alumni, the greater Philadelphia community, and every person that walks through the doors of International House. Today’s Residents – Tomorrow’s Leaders The residents of International House, students and scholars, who come from all over the world including the US, learn more than the curriculum that they study. · Residents come to understand and appreciate the American experience through exposure to the complexity of contemporary American academia, business, and government
· Residents explore American culture and the cultures of the world through personal and social interactions
· Residents live in a diverse, open, and safe atmosphere that allows them to experience the richness and depth of the global mosaic
· Residents participate in programs and activities that expose them to global perspectives and impact them as future leaders in the Greater Philadelphia region, the US, and the world The World is on Our Stage Programs at International House introduce the region to compelling and thought-provoking arts and culture from all over the world.
· International House, often in partnership with many collaborators, presents a tremendously diverse range of arts and cultural events
· Over 30,000 Greater Philadelphia residents attend hundreds of public programs and are exposed to differing global perspectives
· World-class artists, authors, filmmakers, musicians and audience participate in a critically important and thought provoking dialog of cultural pluralism and inclusion Please help to advance the mission of International House Please include your monetary gift in the accompanying envelope, which has many options for giving, as well as membership. Matching Gifts are a wonderful way to increase your support of IHP. Planned Gifts to International House are an expression of your commitment to this great institution. Your gift ensures our continuing ability to enrich and positively transform lives. Please remember International House as you consider your designation for United Way. Our donor option number is 1517. Please call Tanya Steinberg, President & CEO at 215.895.6527 or e-mail Tanya@ihphilly.org to make your gift or for further information. Thank you for your support!
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Become a Member at IHP! As a member supported organization, IHP depends upon member contributions to present our signature contemporary arts and cultural programs, and to continue providing a warm and welcoming environment for the thousands of people who come from around the world and call IHP home year after year. Please help IHP continue to serve our century-long mission by becoming a member today! Flip back through the pages of this magazine, look at all the events taking place at IHP, and consider the variety of subjects covered, the ensuing conversations and dialogue inspired by them, and the way in which this unique programming engages the local and international community. It only happens at International House Philadelphia. MEMBERSHIP AT INTERNATIONAL HOUSE PHILADELPHIA Household: $1!0 annually Individual: $60 annually Young Friend: $50 annually Student: $35 annually
With your membership, you will receive free admission to most IHP films in International House’s Ibrahim Theater, as well as free and discounted admission to concerts, language classes and other events and programs presented at IHP. To discover the full benefits of IHP Membership, please call 215.387.5125 x2, or visit our website: www.ihousephilly.org/membership. Join today!
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N O VEMBER
Caesar Must Die Tuesday, November 5 at 6pm Diwali Celebration Be a part of our Indian Cultural Festival when International House Philadelphia brings together various colors, candles, and lights, with traditional food, music, and dance, in observance of Diwali! Featuring live dance and musical performances, embrace the spirit of India in the heart of Philadelphia. Free IHP residents; $8 IHP members; $10 general admission.
Wednesday, November 6 at 7pm FULL EXPOSURE Caesar Must Die dir. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Italy, 2012, 35mm, Italian with English subtitles, 76 min.
The theater in Rome’s Rebibbia Prison: a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar has just ended amidst much applause. The lights dim on the actors and they become prisoners once again as they are accompanied back to their cells. Six months earlier: the warden and a theater director speak to the inmates about a new project, the staging of Julius Caesar in the prison. The first step is casting, a process both vivid and energetic. The second step is exploration of the text. Shakespeare’s universal language helps the inmate-actors to identify with their characters. Caesar Must Die was the winner of the Golden Bear at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival and was also selected as the Italian entry for Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards. ihousephilly.org
The Lion Hunters Thursday, November 7 at 7pm DIRECTORS IN FOCUS: JEAN ROUCH The Lion Hunters dir. Jean Rouch, France, 1967, digital, color, French w/ English subtitles, 77 min.
Shot on the border between Niger and Mali over a period of seven years, The Lion Hunters (La Chasse au lion à l’arc) is Jean Rouch’s documentation of the lion hunt performed by the gow hunters of the Songhay people. Opening on the Niger River, the film travels north to “the bush that is farther than far:” the desert region populated by the Fulani cattle herders, who have requested the help of the gow in eliminating a lion, nicknamed “The American” for his cruel cunning, who has been killing their cows. As the Songhay society’s designated hunters, the gow have developed a series of elaborate rituals to precede the hunt. We see them fashioning their bow and arrows from tree branches, and preparing the Boto poison with which they will coat the arrows, a process accompanied by an astonishing series of dances and incantations. The gow lay traps, and test the poison on a hyena and a civet cat, but even these measures are not enough to prepare us for their confrontation with the ferocious “American.”
Moi, un noir preceded by: Les maîtres fous dir. Jean Rouch, France, 1955, digital, French with English subtitles, 36 min.
The Mad Masters (Les maîtres fous), the most controversial and also the most widely celebrated work by ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch, depicts a possession ritual of the Hauka religious sect using the delirious techniques of “ciné-trance.” The film opens on the bustling streets of Accra, the capital of the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana), a major colonial port city that serves as a stage for the collision of the traditional and the modern. Among the diverse groups who populate the city are members of the Hauka religious movement, which began in Niger among the Songhay people, and migrated with them to The Gold Coast. Friday, November 8 at 7pm DIRECTORS IN FOCUS: JEAN ROUCH Moi, un noir dir. Jean Rouch, France, 1958, digital, French with English subtitles, 70 min.
Winner of the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc in 1958, Moi, un noir marked Jean Rouch’s break with traditional ethnography and his embrace of the collaborative and improvisatory strategies he called “shared ethnography” and “ethnofiction.” The film depicts an ordinary week in the lives of men and women from Niger who have migrated to Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire for work. After a short introduction by Rouch, “Edward G. Robinson”—
Omarou Ganda, who like the film’s other subject-collaborators plays himself under the name of a Western movie star—takes over the film’s narration, recreating dialogue and providing freewheeling commentary on his experiences. Moi, un noir captures both the sorrows and the occasional joys of these migrants’ experience in all their psychological complexity. preceded by: Mammy Water
dir. Jean Rouch, France, 1953, digital, French with English subtitles, 19 min.
On the coast of Ghana, in the shadows of the Portuguese slave forts, lies the Gulf of Guinea. This sea is home to the “surf boys”, teams of expert fisherman who paddle into the ocean in large canoes, sometimes staying at sea for one or even two nights. In Mammy Water, Jean Rouch depicts the surf boys of the coastal village of Shama, at the foot of the Pra River. Their success is governed by water spirits (‘Mammy Water’). When the catch is bad, villagers must honor the spirits with a ceremony if they wish to change their fortunes. The film captures one such ceremony: The Festival of the King of Shama. The whole village takes part in a procession that concludes with a series of offerings to the sea. Afterwards, surf boys pile into their canoes and head back into the ocean. Will their luck be better?
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Jaguar
Little by Little
Saturday, November 9 at 5pm DIRECTORS IN FOCUS: JEAN ROUCH Jaguar
Saturday, November 9 at 8pm DIRECTORS IN FOCUS: JEAN ROUCH Little by Little (Petit à petit)
dir. Jean Rouch, France, 1967, digital, French with English subtitles, 110 min.
dir. Jean Rouch, France, 1970, digital, French with English subtitles, 92 min.
One of Jean Rouch’s classic ethnofictions, Jaguar follows three young Songhay men from Niger—Lam Ibrahim, Illo Goudel’ize, and the legendary performer Damouré Zika—on a journey to the Gold Coast (modern day Ghana). Drawing from his own fieldwork on intra-African migration, the results of which he published in the 1956 book Migrations au Ghana, Rouch collaborated with his three subjects on an improvisational narrative. The four filmed the trip in mid-1950s, and reunited a few years later to record the sound, the participants remembering dialogue and making up commentary. The result is a playful film that finds three African men performing ethnography of their own culture.
By 1969, Jean Rouch had spent more than two decades documenting West Africa as an ethnographer, and in 1961 had co-directed Chronicle of a Summer, an anthropological investigation of Parisian life. In Little by Little, Rouch’s Nigerien collaborators Damouré Zika and Lam Ibrahim travel to Paris and end up performing a reverse ethnography of French culture.
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When we re-join Zika and Ibrahim in Ayorou, Niger, the Little By Little company they had formed at the conclusion of Jaguar has become a large import-export company. Hearing that a competitor is building a multistory building in Niamey, the directors of the company decide they must construct their own in Ayorou. The most cutting of Rouch’s collaborative ethno-fictions, Little by Little playfully satirizes the history of European-African relations.
Medora Tuesday, November 12 at 7pm Medora – Special screening! dir. Andrew Cohn, Davy Rothbart, US, 2013, digital, 100 min.
Filmmakers Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart in person with member of the Medora Hornets. Years ago, Medora, Indiana was a booming rural community with prosperous farms, an automotive parts factory, a brick plant, and a thriving middle class. The factories have since closed, crippling Medora’s economy and its pride. The population has slowly dwindled to around 500 people. Drug use is common, the school faces consolidation, and as one resident put it, “This town’s on the ropes.” Medora follows the down-but-not-out Medora Hornets varsity basketball team over the course of the 2011 season, capturing the players’ stories both on and off the court. The Hornets were riding an epic losing streak when we arrived, and the team’s struggle to compete bears eerie resonance with the town’s fight for survival. Medora is an in-depth, deeply personal look at small-town life, a thrilling, underdog basketball story, and an inspiring tale of a community refusing to give up hope despite the brutal odds stacked against them. On a grander scale, it’s a film about America, and the thousands of small towns across the country facing the same fight.
Wednesday, November 13 – Sunday, November 17 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival Philadelphia Asian American Film & Filmmakers is a nonprofit organization founded in 2008 to showcase films by and about Asian Americans for the Philadelphia area. PAAFF aims to present captivating programs that engage, inspire, and connect the community. PAAFF’s marquee celebration is the annual Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, the first and only event of its kind in Philadelphia. The festival brings in audience members from all over the region and Asian American filmmakers, actors, and leaders from around the world. PAAFF also offer numerous smaller film screenings throughout the year. PAAFF’s sixth annual festival promises to be the most successful yet. Hosted over 7 days at International House and elsewhere in Philadelphia, PAAFF’13 will feature over 30 film screenings, speaker panels, receptions, and special events. Many of these events are highlighted by guest appearances from today’s most popular AsianAmerican filmmakers, actors, and directors.
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Starlings Wednesday, November 20 at 7pm BIRDWATCHING Of a Far-Off Sky - curated by Rebecca Meyers BIRDS OF A FAR-OFF SEA dir. Thomas Edison, US, 1917, 16mm b/w, silent, 5 min.
TRUT! (SEA HAWK) dir. Arne Sucksdorff, Sweden, 1944, 16mm, b/w, 18 min.
STARLINGS dir. Karl Kels, Germany, 1991, 16mm, 9 min.
THE COMMONERS dir. Penny Lane, US, 2009, digital, 13 min.
BIRD dir. Stan Brakhage, US, 1978, 16mm, 4 min.
The Birdpeople downtown Lewisburg. She recently moved to Pennsylvania from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she taught filmmaking and was the Director of Film Programs for ArtsEmerson at Emerson College. Since 2009 she has served as Associate Director of Studio7Arts, a non-profit organization founded by filmmaker Robert Gardner that produces and promotes his and other artists work. Prior to that she worked at The Harvard Film Archive and was also the co-director of the Onion City Film and Video Festival in Chicago. In addition to her curatorial work, she is also a 16mm filmmaker whose works have screened at venues including Anthology Film Archives in New York and the London, Edinburgh, San Francisco, Toronto, and New York International Film Festivals. Thursday, November 21 at 7pm BIRDWATCHING The Birdpeople
TUNEFUL WINGS
dir. Michael Gitlin, US, 2004, 16mm, 61 min.
dir. Dorothy Orr & Othel G. “Ott” Goff, US, 1974, 16mm, 6 min.
A loosely-knit community of birdwatchers in New York’s Central Park; ornithologists with their specimen collections at a dozen different natural history museums; bird banders gingerly extracting birds from mist nets and collecting data in upstate New York; six people searching for a nearly extinct bird in a Louisiana bayou: these are the strands that are woven together by The Birdpeople
GLIMPSE OF THE GARDEN dir. Marie Menken, US, 1957, 16mm, 5 min.
Rebecca Meyers is the new Film Programmer for Bucknell University’s screenings at the historic Campus Theatre in ihousephilly.org
A Walk Through H as it documents a passionate fixation. Part cultural history, part self-reflexive anthropology, by turns humorous and elegiac, The Birdpeople examines the pleasures and problems of looking and naming, and investigates the social construction of nature, centered on ornithology and its amateur counterpart, bird watching. Migration dir. David Rimmer, US, 1969, 16mm, 12 min.
An experimental film haunted by a ghostly seagull, Rimmer’s film is a meditation on natural decay and the instability of the image. A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist dir. Peter Greenaway, UK, 1979, 16mm, 41 min.
One man’s Hell is another man’s Heaven in what has been described by film critic Tony Rayns as “one of the best British movies of the 1970s.” A Walk Through H traverses a series of 92 maps—painted by Greenaway himself—that guide a deceased ornithologist into the afterlife. Reoccurring motifs of meticulous detail, the desire for flight, and Greenaway’s notorious alter-ego Tulse Luper culminate in one of the experimental maestro’s most fascinating and memorable journeys.
The Birds Friday, November 22 at 7pm BIRDWATCHING The Birds dir. Alfred Hitchcock, US, 1963, 35mm, 119 min.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller about a small town terrorized by a series of bird attacks is the quintessential bird film, though bird enthusiasts might take issue with its less than flattering depiction of the generally harmless creatures. The film was inspired by real life events that occurred in Monterey Bay, California. The Birds remains one of Hitchcock’s finest works, inspiring a whole genre of animal attack films over the years. The Canaries dir. Jerome Hill, US, 1969, 16mm, 4 min.
Jerome Hill employs a direct animation technique in a delightful homage to songbirds (and lovebirds).
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Eleanor’s Secret
Kes
Saturday, November 23 at 2pm Family matinee Eleanor’s Secret
Saturday, November 23 at 5pm BIRDWATCHING Kes
dir. Dominique Monféry, France, 2009, digital, 80 min.
dir. Ken Loach, UK, 1969, 35mm, 110 min.
From Academy Award nominated director Dominique Monféry comes Eleanor’s Secret, a beautifully designed, rollicking adventure in which a boy’s new found ability to read not only sets his imagination free, but saves the day!
Director Ken Loach received international acclaim for this enormously moving tale of a lonely working-class Yorkshire boy, who turns from a life of comic books and shoplifting when he finds a baby kestrel and decides to raise and train it.
Nat has fond memories of his eccentric Aunt Eleanor reading to him from her enormous collection of storybooks but is frustrated by his inability to read the books himself. So he is less than thrilled when he learns that his aunt has left him the keys to her attic library as a gift. However, just as Nat’s parents are selling the collection to a shady antiques dealer, Nat discovers that the library is magical – the books are all original first editions of history’s most popular fairy tales, and the famous characters come to life! Now with the help of Alice in Wonderland, the Ogre, Peter Pan and others, he must find a way to get back the books and learn to read an ancient spell to keep the characters alive for future generations of children.
Aviary dir. Rudy Burckhardt/Joseph Cornell, US, 1955, 16mm, 5 min.
Special discounted ticket price: $5 for everyone!
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“Rudy Burckhardt photographed this impression of New York’s Union Square under Joseph Cornell’s direction. This location held a particular fascination for Cornell who wanted to establish a foundation for artists and art therapy there. In the film he treats the park as an outdoor aviary.” –P. Adams Sitney
Journey to Italy
Free Angela
Saturday, November 23 at 8pm THE JANUS COLLECTION Journey to Italy (Viaggio in Italia)
Tuesday, November 26 at 7:30pm SCRIBE PRODUCERS FORUM Free Angela and All Political Prisoners
dir. Roberto Rossellini, Italy, 1954, HD, English, 85 min.
dir. Shola Lynch, US/France, 2012, digital, 102 min.
Among the most influential films of the postwar era, Roberto Rossellini’s Journey to Italy (Viaggio in Italia) charts the declining marriage of a couple from England (Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders) on a trip in the countryside near Naples. More than just the anatomy of a relationship, Rossellini’s masterpiece is a heartrending work of emotion and spirituality. Considered a predecessor to the existentialist works of Michelangelo Antonioni and hailed as a groundbreaking modernist work by the legendary film journal Cahiers du cinéma, Journey to Italy is a breathtaking cinematic benchmark.
Director Shola Lynch in person Shola Lynch in Philadelphia is made possible thanks to the generous support of University of Pennsylvania’s Cinema Studies Program and Scribe Video Center. Free Angela is a gripping historic account of the events that catapulted a young University of California philosophy professor into a controversial political icon in the turbulent late 1960’s. Angela Davis joins the Communist Party, protests with the Black Panthers, and becomes a principle spokesperson for the burgeoning prison reform movement. As a result, she finds herself fighting to keep her job, and in the national media spotlight characterized by her many detractors as a dangerous subversive menace, and by her supporters as a strong leader challenging authority and boldly advocating for “Power to All People.” Free admission Penn Students, Staff + Faculty with ID; $5 Scribe + IHP members; $7 Students + Seniors; $10 General Admission.
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december
Traduire Tuesday, December 3 at 7pm CETRA LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS Traduire dir. Nurith Aviv, France, 2011, digital, 70 min.
Translation is the focus in the final part of Nurith Aviv’s documentary trilogy exploring language and linguistics. People from all backgrounds have been sharing and disseminating knowledge for ages. Without translations, such exchanges could not happen. In her latest film, Nurith Aviv focuses on these passionate bridge-builders; men and women who shun the limelight to spread the written word. Aviv was born in Israel and started working as a lead camera operator in 1969. Since 1989, she has devoted all her time to documentaries and in the last 10 years she has concentrated on written and spoken Hebrew, and it’s involvement beyond the reach of linguistics. The first part of this project, completed in 2004, was Misafa Lesafa: From Language to Language. –Jaques Mandelbaum, Guardian Weekly UK
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Northern Lights Wednesday, December 4 at 7pm Northern Lights – New 35mm print! dir. John Hanson/Rob Nilsson, US, 1978, 35mm, 95 min.
Northern Lights dramatizes the story of the North Dakota farmers who founded the Nonpartisan League in the early 1900s. The League (one of the most successful, yet little known, Populist movements in US history) was organized by immigrant Scandinavian homesteaders. It was not aligned with Democrat or Republican parties, and existed on a platform of Socialist values in opposition to the monopolization and control exerted over their labor by bankers and suppliers. Framed as the reminiscences of the 94 year old (at the time of filming) real-life Nonpartisan League labor leader Henry Martinson, Northern Lights illustrates the forgotten history of the pioneer workers of the prairies - men and women who organized (in the American tradition) for their rights and fair practices. Directors Rob Nilsson and John Hanson, who share North Dakota heritage, filmed in the actual locations of the events, capturing the distinct beauty and harsh reality of the prairies. Northern Lights, in its production and release, was a landmark of American Independent Cinema. Made with professional and non-professional actors and produced by the collective Cine Manifest, Northern Lights was released completely grassroots in North Dakota and
Exhumed Films Minnesota before going to the Cannes Film Festival, then touring the rest of the United States. As both a history of the Nonpartisan League, and nascent example of the American Independent Cinema movement of the late 1970’s, Northern Lights is full of parallels between the story of the League and the making of the film. It is also, of course, as relevant now as it ever was. Thursday, December 5 – Sunday, December 8 New Authors of Italian Cinema The Cinema Studies Program and the Center for Italian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia, N.I.C.E. New Italian Cinema Events, and International House Philadelphia present the 2013 edition of New Authors of Italian Cinema. This four-day festival has been curated by Nicola M. Gentili (Penn, Cinema Studies) and aims at promoting new Italian Cinema abroad. Recently released feature films directed in the past two years by Italy’s most promising filmmakers will be presented and discussed by our Penn’s Italian Ph.D. students. The final remarks will be addressed by Stefania Benini, Professor of Italian Cinema at the University of Pennsylvania. Free admission.
Friday, December 13 at 6pm Holiday Party It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Celebrate holidays from around the world with the IHP community, including residents, members, and the general public while sharing in the joy of the season. Our holiday gathering will culminate with the traditional lighting of the holiday tree, holiday treats, seasonal drinks, and festive music. Free IHP residents; $8 IHP members; $10 general admission.
Friday, December 13 at 7:30pm EXHUMED FILMS Formed in 1997, Exhumed Films was created to provide a theatrical venue for a much beloved art form that had all but disappeared in the 1990s and is in further decline in the early 21st Century: the B-grade horror movie. From the late-1960s through the mid-1980s, low-budget horror films prospered by playing drive-in movie theaters and single-screen movie houses across the country. Some of these movies – such as Night of the Living Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween and Evil Dead – are now thought by many critics to be minor classics. As well, several of today’s most respected filmmakers cut their teeth on low budget horror. 32
Saturday, December 14 at 2pm FAMILY MATINEE The Nightmare Before Christmas dir. Harry Selick, US, 1993, 35mm, 76 min.
Bored with the same old scare-and-scream routine, Pumpkin King Jack Skellington longs to spread the joy of Christmas. But his merry mission puts Santa in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for good little boys and girls everywhere. The Nightmare Before Christmas originated as a poem by producer/ co-writer Tim Burton in 1982. Following the success of films like Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands, Disney and Burton teamed up to develop a feature film version of the project. Featuring original music by Danny Elfman, the HalloweenChristmas hybrid is an audience favorite. Special discounted ticket price: $5 for everyone!
Don Quixote
The Trials of Muhammad Ali
Saturday, December 14 at 7pm MOTION PICTURES (Adaptation) Don Quixote
Tuesday, December 17 at 7pm SCRIBE PRODUCERS’ FORUM The Trials of Muhammad Ali
dir. Grigori Kozintsev, Soviet Union, 1957, 35mm, Russian with English subtitles, 106 min.
dir. Bill Siegel, US, 2013, digital, 86 min.
This is a most satisfying adaptation of Spanish novelist Cervantes’ landmark work. It is a successful rendering of the legendary Don Quixote largely because of the splendid performance by the great Russian actor, Nikolai Cherkassov, in the title role. He is the perfect likeness to the old Spaniard, who has read so much literature on the Age of Chivalry that he dons armor and sets forth with his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, to fight for the oppressed of the world. Unfortunately, for all the good he tries to do, the results are usually the reverse of his intentions. He saves a boy from a whipping, only to have the boy get a worse beating when Quixote leaves him to move on to other “do good” endeavors. However, as portrayed with such finesse and dignity by Cherkassov, he makes Cervantes’s protagonist’s idealism believable and his character lovable. Quixote rises above the people who make fun of him, particularly the Duke and Duchess’s cruel scheme to use Quixote as the butt of their jokes, and make them come off as fools for being so vacuous.
Producer Rachel Pikelny in person The Trials of Muhammad Ali explores Ali’s lifelong journey of spiritual transformation. From his Louisville roots, through his years in exile, to receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Trials traces Ali’s path from poet to pariah to global ambassador for peace. At each stage, the challenges Ali faces go far beyond the boxing ring and ultimately encompass the issues of power, race, faith, and identity that confront us all. Not a boxing film and not a highlight reel, The Trials of Muhammad Ali focuses on Ali’s toughest bouts: his decision to join a controversial religious group, his battle to overturn a five-year prison sentence for refusing US military service, sacrificing fame and fortune on faith and conscience, and his struggle with Parkinson’s disease. $5 Scribe & IHP members; $7 Students & Seniors; $10 General Admission
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Fellini Satyricon Wednesday, December 18 at 7pm ARCHIVE FEVER! 5.0 – Twenty Years After, Il Maestro Fellini Satyricon
dir. Federico Fellini, Italy, 1969, 35mm, Italian with English subtitles, 138 min.
A place that might be ancient Rome is recreated and torn down over a couple of delirious hours by Federico Fellini. The Latin text that provides a spring board, a fragmentary account of debauchery, dissolution, and sexual adventure during the reign of Nero, is shaken and poured out as the most intoxicating cinematic cocktail the world has ever seen. Bizarre, jarring, angular, operatic, sordid, stunningly beautiful. Superficially it is a historical pageant in full sail, but also a dream of the past, buffeted by modernist strategies. “Petronious’ Satyricon is a mysterious text, first of all because it is fragmentary. But this fragmentary character symbolizes the very fragmentary nature of the Ancient World as we conceive it today. This is why the text and the world it represents are so fascinating. During the shootings I was faced with an unknown landscape, the fog was so thick that only for few seconds it dissolved and allowed me to see the landscape. The Ancient World is to me like a lost and unknown world. The only way I can approach it is through creativity and imagination, without resorting to any historical background or information.” – Federico Fellini, Un regista a Cinecittà ihousephilly.org
Post Tenebras Lux Thursday, December 19 at 7pm FULL EXPOSURE Post Tenebras Lux dir. Carlos Reygadas, Mexico, 2012, 35mm, Spanish with English subtitles, 115 min.
Post Tenebras Lux (“light after darkness”), ostensibly the story of an upscale, urban family whose move to the Mexican countryside results in domestic crises and class friction, is a stunningly photographed, impressionistic psychological portrait of a family and their place within the sublime, unforgiving natural world. Director Carlos Reygadas conjures a host of unforgettable, ominous images: a haunting sequence at dusk as Reygadas’s real-life daughter wanders a muddy field and farm animals loudly circle and thunder and lightning threaten; a glowing-red demon gliding through the rooms of a home; a husband and wife visiting a swingers’ bathhouse with rooms named after famous philosophers. By turns entrancing and mystifying, Post Tenebras Lux palpably explores the primal conflicts of the human condition. — Mike Maggiore, Film Forum
Tudor Village
Infinity
Friday, December 20 at 7pm EUROPEAN CINEMA UNCOVERED Alternative Film/Video Belgrade: Award Winners 2012
The Swimmer
Introduction by curator Greg DeCuir, Jr.
Tudor Village: A One Shot Deal
In 2012 Alternative Film/Video Belgrade (Serbia) celebrated its 30th anniversary as the oldest international festival of avant-garde film and video in Europe. The festival was founded within Academic Film Center in Belgrade, which has a rich tradition of over 50 years of non-commercial moving image production and related activities. Every year Alternative Film/Video Belgrade invites a distinguished and diverse three-member jury with the task of creating a list of significant achievements from among the regional and international competition programs at the festival. This list, the size and shape of which is constructed according to the wishes of the jury, represents the dynamic and pioneering spirit of the festival and those visionary films and videos that compose it. Each of the artists on this list are awarded a residency at Academic Film Center and full production support in order to realize their newest work. This program presents the films and videos on the list of significant achievements from 2012, which will be remembered as a very important year in the history of Alternative Film/Video Belgrade.
dir. Rhayne Vermette, Canada, 2012, 5 min.
dir. Salise Hughes, United States, 2010, 4 min.
Gradually dir. Benjamin Ramirez Pérez, Germany, 2011, 6 min.
Square Dance Hypnotist dir. Allan Brown, Canada, 2012, 17 min.
Infinity dir. Milan Zuli, Serbia, 2012, 3 min.
Pigs dir. Konstantina Kotzamani, Greece, 2012, 13 min.
Miss Candace Hilligoss’ Flickering Halo dir. Fabio Scacchioli & Vicenzo Core, Italy, 2011, 14 min.
From To dir. Miranda Herceg, Croatia, 2012, 10 min.
What You Don’t Put Into the Soup Goes Down the Loo dir. Kirsten Burger & Laura Vogel, Switzerland, 2011, 24 min.
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Blue Friday, December 20 at 9:30pm EUROPEAN CINEMA UNCOVERED Academic Film Center: Alternative amateur cinema, 50 + 5 years
Saturday, December 21 at 7pm THE JANUS COLLECTION Three Colors: Blue ´ dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski, France, 1993, 35mm,
Introduction by curator Greg DeCuir, Jr.
In the devastating first film of the Three Colors trilogy, Juliette Binoche gives a tour de force performance as Julie, a woman reeling from the tragic death of her husband and young daughter. But Blue is more than just a blistering study of grief; it’s also a tale of liberation, as Julie attempts to free herself from the past while confronting truths about the life of her late husband, a composer. Shot in sapphire tones by cinematographer Sławomir Idziak, and set to an extraordinary operatic score by Zbigniew Preisner, Blue is an overwhelming sensory experience.
Academic Ciné-club was founded in 1958 in Belgrade (Serbia, then Yugoslavia) as an alternative to a thriving postwar institutional ciné-amateur culture that was quickly becoming an impenetrable hierarchy. It offered an open space for experimentation and welcomed cineastes of all types. Very quickly a number of exciting young personalities – many of who would later be counted among the greatest of filmmakers in the history of Yugoslav cinema – flocked to the club and began producing innovative work, including examples of proto-structuralism, poetic documentaries, and lyrical evocations of reality and sur-reality. This program presents some of the groundbreaking films from the history of the club (later re-named Academic Film Center), much of which has not been screened in international settings in a number of decades, providing a glimpse into an invisible history of avant-garde ciné-club culture from a forgotten region. *Please see our website for an updated program and more details.
French with English subtitles, 94 min.
Language Programs
Our Language Programs offer the opportunity to study a foreign language or improve English conversation skills. At our friendly and affordable sessions, the small class settings will allow you to quickly learn how to communicate clearly outside of the classroom and enhance skills that assist with future goals. To learn more, contact us at 215.895.6592 or languages@ihphilly.org and visit www.ihousephilly.org
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International House Philadelphia:
A Unique Location for Your Next Event or Meeting! Whether you are planning a business conference, an intimate soiree, an executive meeting, or a large social event, International House Philadelphia has the space and services to meet your needs and make your event a success. Located in the heart of Philadelphia’s University City, IHP has over 8,500 square feet of available space with the capacity to meet the needs of groups as small as 10, or as large as 600. IHP’s Ibrahim Theater The Ibrahim Theater is a fully-equipped, multipurpose theater facility. Featuring a state-of-the-art concert sound-system, we can accommodate a variety of music presentations from small acoustic ensembles to fully amplified 10+ piece bands. The Ibrahim Theater is ideal for film and video screenings, with the capability to project 16mm and 35mm film as well as most video formats including DigiBeta, BetaSP, DVD, Blu-ray and miniDV. Additional devices can be incorporated into our system. There is also access from the stage, which is perfect for PowerPoint lectures and other visual presentations. Our lighting system is equipped with a digital lighting board. With a knowledgeable staff able to assist you, we can provide a complete package for most events. South America Room At almost 2,000 square feet, with a capacity of up to 150, South America is our most versatile space with a great view and an outdoor balcony. It is ideal for large seminars and classes, as well as receptions. Australia Lounge A uniquely designed atrium space, the Australia Lounge is an attractive setting for receptions, breakfasts, and as a breakout space for conferences, accommodating up to 100 for stand-up events and 50 for a seated gathering or meeting. Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America Rooms These rooms, which accommodate 10 to 60 people, are ideal for small board meetings, seminars, retreats, classes and conference breakout space. The Asia and Africa Rooms can be combined to form a larger meeting space. To inquire about hosting your event in IHP’s Ibrahim Theater or any of our other wonderful event spaces, please email events@ihphilly.org or call 215.895.6539.
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Great reasons to live at ihp • Free & Discounted admission to events • Convenient location • 24-hour security staff • Computer lab with web access • Resident cafÉ on premises • Leadership development programs • tv lounge + recreation center • discounted gYM membership • long And short term housing • laundry facilities & utilities included If you are a student, scholar, or professional trainee looking for an apartment or room in Philadelphia, consider International House. IHP is a multicultural residential center, and a source of distinctive arts and cultural programming. We are a warm and friendly living environment; a home for nearly 1,000 people from as many as 95 different countries around the world annually, including the US, who attend area colleges and universities. As a resident of International House, you’ll not only enjoy the privacy and quiet of our apartments and single rooms, you’ll also develop relationships while making friends with others from around the world, and become part of a unique community where all cultures are celebrated and shared. Our residents enjoy the benefits of IHP membership, and get free admission and access to films, concerts, cultural events, art exhibits, leadership seminars, executive networking events and more throughout the year. Inquire today and start enjoying life at the intersection of Philadelphia and the World! housing@ihphilly.org, 215.895.6540, www.ihousephilly.org/student-housing
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I H P A lu m ni R e la t ion s The Alumni Relations office at IHP engages former residents both in Philadelphia and abroad, and demonstrates IHP’s strong commitment to serving its evergrowing international community – fostering bonds of friendship for years to come. Known as the iWorld community, please consider how IHP can contribute to your own success! Think of iWorld as your gateway to a professional network of fellow alumni who can serve as collaborators, mentors, clients, and even potential employers and employees. If you used to live at International House Philadelphia, find out more about upcoming alumni events and learn more about the iWorld community by contacting the Alumni Relations office at 215.895.6598, or e-mail iworldihp@ihphilly.org.
getting here International House Philadelphia is located at 3701 Chestnut Street, in the University City neighborhood, one block south of Market Street and one block north of Walnut Street. Public Transportation: It’s a short walk from either of the Green Line’s 36th Street stops or the Market-Frankford El’s 34th Street stop. From Center City, take the 21 bus west on Walnut Street to 37th Street. From West Philly, take the 21 bus east on Chestnut to 37th. Parking: It’s easy to park in University City! Discounted parking for International House patrons is available at the Science Center Parking Garage, 3665 Market Street. A special rate of $5 per vehicle is effective after 4pm until 7am, Monday through Friday plus all day Saturday & Sunday. Please bring your parking stub to IHP’s Front Desk to be stamped when attending events. Plenty of street parking, free after 8pm, is available on Chestnut and Market Streets and throughout the neighborhood. Contact Us: General Information 215.387.5125 or info@ihphilly.org
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Executive Office Tanya Steinberg, President + CEO Clara Fomich, Executive Assistant + Office Manager Institutional Advancement Development Elina Cher, Manager of Individual Engagement Jessamyn Falcone, Development Services Manager Lauren Fenimore, Foundations Research Manager Arts, Communications + Events William Parker, Director of Arts, Communications + Events Sasha Dages, Marketing + Communications Manager Patrick DiGiacomo, Box Office + Membership Manager Justin Miller, Graphic Designer Robert Cargni-Mitchell, Programs Curator + Projectionist Roshni Patel, Conference Center Manager Jesse Pires, Programs Curator Herb Shellenberger, Programs Office Manager Farah Siah, Language Program Manager Admissions, Resident + Alumni Services Glenn D. Martin, Admissions + Resident Life Director Michael T. Beachem IV, Associate Director of Resident Life Edwin Garcia, Admissions Coordinator Emily Martin, Admissions Coordinator Yun Joon Park, Front Desk Coordinator Marlon Patton, Cashier + Front Desk Manager Sarvelia N. Peralta-Duran, Alumni Relations Director Business office Lina Yankelevich, Finance + HR Director Angela Bachman, Finance Manager Anna Wang, HR Coordinator Building Services, Operations + public safety Moshe Caspi, Security Services + Systems Manager Deborah Sara Houda, Customer Service + Facilities Manager Larry Moore, Lead Security Guard Raj Persad, Building Operations Manager Alexander Rivkin, Information Systems + Technology Manager Althelson Towns, Facilities Supervisor Facilities, MAINTENANCE + SECURITY Services Sylvie Hoeto Sheldon Peters Reginald Brown Mirjana Janic Ronald Smith Melvin Caranda Yefim Klurfeld Linda Stanton Phillip Carter Vipin Maxwell Adrian Stephen Joseph Clinton Jr. Lulzim Myrtaj Robert Wooten Moifee Dorley Amar Persad Semere Dugassa Ronald Persaud David Kodzo Gasonu
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3701 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
IHP is an independent, member supported non-profit. JOIN TODAY! International House Philadelphia is a multicultural residential center, a source of distinctive programming, and the embodiment of an ideal. It has a critical three-fold mission: to maintain a diverse and welcoming community for scholars from around the world, while introducing them to the American experience; to broaden the horizons of its residents and the Greater Philadelphia community through high quality international arts and humanities programs; and to encourage understanding, respect, and cooperation among the people of all nations. www.ihousephilly.org International House Philadelphia: THE NEXUS BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL CULTURE AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS The generous support of our Members, Friends and Benefactors allows International House Philadelphia to continue the tradition of offering lifelong learning through the Arts, Culture and Humanities to an increasing number of people each year. 1st Advantage Abstract, LLC, Alpin W Cameron Foundation, Arcadia University, Audrey Allen Immigration Law, LLC, Bartlett Foundation, Cetra Language Solutions, Citibank, City of Philadelphia, City Tap House, Compass Group, North America, Connelly Foundation, Dentex Dental Group, Ltd, Dole Fresh Fruit Company, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, Drexel University, Elliott Lewis Corporation, Epam Systems, Inc., Exude Benefits Group, Inc., Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, Gap International, GMI Contractors, Graboyes Commercial Window, Greenfield Intercultural Center, HSBC Bank USA, The Jerome M. and Anne Zaslow Family Fund, Laura Solomon and Associates, Levon Nazarian Foundation, Masterpieces Fine Art & Custom Framing, Inc, Max Hansen Caterer, Mole Street, Momentum Partners, LLC, Oliver Fire Protection & Security, Penn Cleaning, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, Philadelphia Foundation, Philadelphia University, Philip Rosenau Co., Inc., PNC Bank, Progressive Business Publications, Prometrics, Inc., RBS Citizens Bank, Real Property Solutions LLC, Rittenhouse Foundation, Scribe Video Center, Shelly Electric Company, Sheraton University City Hotel, Shox Surgical, South Jersey Periodontics & Dental Implants, LLC, Stelmakh & Associates, Stephen Philibosian Foundation, Stradley Ronson Attorneys at Law, Studio @620, Inc., Temple University, Tiagha & Associates Ltd., University City Science Center, University of Pennsylvania, University of the Sciences, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Zipcar, Zoll, LLC We are also thankful for the support of our in-kind donors and the many generous members and annual donors.