Metro Cinema Guide Feb 2015

metroguide cinema

FEBRUARY 2015

Mike Nichols’ The Graduate

African History Month The Great Human Odyssey World Premiere

Zvyagintsev’s

Leviathan

Hollywood Osc-travaganza Valentine’s Day Special

J-Mania: Extreme Japanese Cinema Awake: The Life

of Yogananda

dear white people Sincerely, Justin Simien

metrocinema at the Garneau 8712 - 109 Street, Edm AB T6G 1E9 www.metrocinema.org

And the Winner Is… metro cinema .org metrocinema at the Garneau 8712 - 109 Street, Edm AB T6G 1E9 TEL 780 425 9212 FACEBOOK /metrocinema TWITTER @themetrocinema

Admission

Adult $12 (Matinee $10) Student/Senior $9 (Matinee $6) Children 12 & Under $6

February is an important month in Hollywood. Akin to December for the toy industry, an entire year of production, marketing, and attempts to predict pop-culture proclivities leads inexorably to one extraordinary annual event, the effects of which reverberate throughout the rest of the year. Since the first Academy Awards were held in 1929, their opulence and influence has intensified annually, along with public – and industry – anticipation. The Oscars represent a glittering array of some of the best cinema produced internationally every year. And although you may wonder about all the motivations and machinations behind the Awards, their impact on both popular opinion and the box office is undeniable. Besides, it’s all about the stars anyway. Metro Cinema will be hobnobbing with Hollywood luminaries all month, as Metro’s dedication to presenting high caliber cinema means that February is (as were recent months) choc full of past Academy Award winners and this year’s contenders, especially in the categories of Best Documentary and Foreign Language films. And for the pièce de résistance, on the big night of February 22nd the Shadow and ACME Theatres in partnership with Metro take over the Garneau for the Hollywood Osc-travaganza, an annual Oscar Night fundraising party. Get the details in our program’s Special Screenings & Events section.

Throughout February, Metro Cinema is also celebrating another auspicious occasion, African History Month, with a cornucopia of thematically unified film programming and special multi-media content representing Edmonton’s African-Canadian communities.

We’re also hosting the World Premiere of The Great Human Odyssey, anthropologist and filmmaker Niobe Thompson’s epic three-part documentary exploring human evolutionary history, which will include artist talks with the filmmakers. And then, at the end of the month, Metro is partnering with folkwaysAlive! and Peter North for Winter Roots Roundup VI to screen three music documentaries as part of the festival’s programming. See the Special Screenings & Events section, and while you’re at it, flip through the whole program to see everything we have in store.

Passes

Adult Six Pack $60 Student/Senior Six Pack $50 Silver Screen $250

*please note that Friends of Metro has been phased out.

Metro Operations/// Jennifer Jenkins: President David Cheoros: Executive Director Pete Harris: Programming Manager Sam Sheplawy: Special Programming / Production Manager Dan Smith: Operations Manager Katie Sowden: Communications Manager Beth Mackey: Marketing Coordinator Allan Mulholland: Facility Brad Sime: Booth Manager/ Projectionist Maggie Hardy: House Manager/ Projectionist Joseph Hartfeil: Projectionist Tola Adeshina, Ryn Climenhaga, Talicia Dutchin, Caitlin Richards: House Manager Tim Rechner, Olesya Komarnytska, Fia Friskie, David Bruce, Shania Taylor, Jonathan Stonehouse, Erica Livsey, Bailey Richards, Marcia Brodhagen : Front of House Lauren Busheikin: Financial Officer

Metro Cinema is a community-based non-profit society. We believe that film, video, and digital media are significant art forms and means of communication, and that many innovative films, videos, and digital media are overlooked by conventional theatres, including Canadian, international, and independent film, video, and digital media. We are devoted to the exhibition and promotion of this work in Edmonton. To this end, Metro exhibits an eclectic blend of film, video, and digital media that are not screened anywhere else in the city. Metro’s focus is on presenting a broad selection of educational, cultural, and innovative works. The Society operates with the ongoing assistance of a large volunteer base. We regularly distribute a program, facilitate discussion, and bring in artists to enhance the experience and understanding of film, video, and digital media.

Metro Cinema is grateful for the support of these funders

Metro is also grateful for the support of the following: Alberta Media Arts Alliance, CJSR, The Tomato, and VUE Weekly

whether it’s the fashionable iconoclasts of legally Blonde, or the hopeless romantics of Dead Poets Society, each iteration of the Campus Misfit Movie with a Conscious – that venerable subgenre of north american cinema – features a similar motley group of privileged undergrads. as representatives of a particular socio-cultural minority, they chafe against the prejudices and conventions inherent in their institutional circumstances – emblematic of the bourgeois american socio-economic system in general – while contending with their group’s own internal pressures. the african-american student population of fictional ivy league establishment, winchester university, is the discriminated group in question in writer-director Justin Simien’s recent rendition of the formula.

Specifically, Dear white People examines the social issues and identity politics african-american students face within academia’s symbolic halls, here a microcosm of multicultural interaction in a supposedly “post-racial” america – albeit, a very narrow, rarefied fragment of america. the film’s limited scope is largely a result of being inspired by Simien’s own experiences as an african-american college student. it would have been rather disingenuous for him to attempt to represent the authentic struggles of another socioeconomic subset with which he had no familiarity. in Dear white People he’s writing – and filming – what he knows.

Films that self-consciously focus on this kind of serious and/or controversial material can quickly fall into tedious didacticism, but Dear white People avoids the preachy pitfall by maintaining levity in its approach, reflecting Simien’s familiarity with his subject and characters, as well as his ability to poke fun at stubborn realities, and, as Justin Chang commented in his Variety review, “ask hard questions without pretending to know any of the answers.” the talented ensemble cast also contributes to the humanity of characters that could easily have become mere ciphers for the minorities they represent, which go beyond racial binaries to encompass a spectrum of cultural, sexual, and social differences.

Dear white People struck a chord with both the public and the film industry from the outset; after collecting some $40,000 of initial production financing through a crowd-sourcing campaign, the film was nominated indiewire’s Project of the year, and Simien was later invited to the 2013 tribeca Film festival to participate in Filmmaker/industry meetings to help get the production off the ground. Both film and filmmaker have continued to garner positive critical attention since premiering at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where Simien won the u.S. Dramatic Special Jury award for Breakthrough talent. as an exploration of multicultural relations, Dear white People also belongs to a category of films defined by their depiction of interactions between african-north american communities and their predominantly white socio-cultural environments. Combined with its focus on overcoming prejudicial boundaries through understanding, Dear white People makes an ideal centerpiece in Metro Cinema’s commemoration of african History Month,

which celebrates the impact of african civilizations, people, and histories on north american culture, past and present. throughout February, Metro will be exploring cinematic representations of multicultural, boundary-defying collaboration as a unifying theme connecting diverse programming, starting with african History Month’s opening night screening of a Dry white Season, presented with the short film, Pumzi, on Saturday, February 7th, guest-curated by acclaimed local author, radio personality, and member of Edmonton’s african-Canadian community, Minister Faust. Our african History Month programming will also feature special multi-media content provided by members of Edmonton’s african-Canadian communities. See the african History Month listing in the SPECiAL SCREEninGS & EVEnTS section of the program for more information and look for the AFRiCAn HiSTORY MOnTH label in the nEW RELEASES and SERiES & REPERTORY sections.

february 2015 SCHEDULE new releases

Last Days in Vietnam USA 2014, 98 min, Dir: Rory Kennedy 1 @ 7PM, 3 @ 9PM

Vividly annotating one of the most haunting images of the Vietnam War, that of dozens of South Vietnamese struggling to climb the steps to a rooftop helicopter as Saigon fell, Rory Kennedy’s documentary focuses on the taut 24-hour period in which thousands of U.S. and South Vietnamese military personnel, along with a small number of civilians were evacuated from Saigon. Combining astonishing footage from April 1975 with the contemporary recollections of some who were there, Last Days in Vietnam makes a worthy addition to the historical record. (Rob Nelson, Variety)

Force Majeure (Turist) Sweden 2014, 120 min, Dir: Ruben Östtlund, Swedish w/ subtitles 8 @ 4PM, 9 @ 9:30PM

A critical favourite at Cannes and Sweden’s official entry for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, this wickedly funny and precisely observed psychodrama tells the story of a model Swedish family on a skiing holiday in the French Alps. The sun is shining and the slopes are spectacular but during a lunch at a mountainside restaurant an avalanche suddenly bears down on the happy diners. With people fleeing in all directions and his wife and children in state of panic, Tomas makes a decision that will shake his marriage to its core and leave him struggling to reclaim his role as family patriarch.

J-Mania: Extreme Japanese Cinema

Leviathan Russia 2014, 140 min, Dir: Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russian w/subtitles 6, 8 & 12 @ 6:45PM, 7 @ 4PM, 7 @ 9:30PM, 8 @ 1PM, 10 @ 9PM

Russia’s official entry for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Leviathan is a compelling tragic drama of corruption and intimidation in contemporary Russia. The film revolves around Kolia, a poor man who finds himself at the centre of a perfect storm of poisoned destiny. Although he seems to have it all: a beautiful wife and a handsome property, he is at the focus of Russia’s most dangerous forces: smart lawyers, gangsterrich politicians, and arrogant priests. The title refers partly to Hobbes’s Leviathan, the classic work about the implications of relinquishing some of your natural liberty to a central sovereign so society may be peaceful and orderly. But Leviathan also means the whale – a grim analogue to Kolia and the myriad Russians he represents.

(Peter Bradshaw, Guardian) Russian Essentials

Outrageous violence, intense horror, bizarre crime, über-outré sex, splatter, gore, and much more. Since the beginning of the new millennium a new “New Wave” of East Asian genre films has been flooding onto Western screens. Japan has taken a hardcore hand in the phenomenon with early contributions like the psycho-drama Audition and English remakes of J-horror classics like Ringu (The Ring) taking “Asia Extreme” from the margins to the main screen. Japan’s boundarydecimating films continue to infect Western pop culture consciousness with their radical stories and shock aesthetics. Welcome to J-Mania: a two-film sampling of recent developments in the eye-popping, brain-bursting world of Extreme Japanese Cinema.

Why Don’t You Play In Hell?

(Jigoku de naze warui) Japan 2013, 129 min, Dir: Shion Sono, Japanese w/ subtitles 1 & 4 @ 9:30PM

In Shion Sono’s latest film, Hirata is an aspiring director intent on making a masterpiece with his film club. That dream isn’t realized until 10 years after the story’s start, following a lengthy set up involving a feud between rival clans of yakuza bosses, Muto and Ikegami, the incarceration and release of Muto’s wife, Shizue, and the rise and fall of Muto’s daughter, Mitsuko, to and from pop-culture stardom. “Boasting an aesthetic insanity to match its uninhibited narrative … [and] indulging in wild violence, [the film] also concerns itself with issues of cinematic representation, history, and preservation…. It’s an ode to filmmaking as orgiastic gonzo spectacle.” (Nick Schager)

Provincial Archives Pre-show/// The Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA), in partnership with Metro, is pleased to present short films and excerpts taken from their extensive holdings. This content from the PAA vaults highlights the recent digitization work and is carefully selected from more than 50,000 film, video and audio recordings, including home movies, government productions, feature length films, advertising and commercial materials, and television broadcasts. To learn more visit: provincialarchives.alberta.ca.

Awake: The Life Of Yogananda USA 2014, 87 min, Dirs: Paola di Florio & Lisa Leeman 13 @ 7PM, 15 @ 1PM, 16 @ 4PM

Today in the United States yoga is pretty much about health and fitness; almost a century ago, it was presented to Americans as a religion and rapt attention was paid to its prophet, Paramahansa Yogananda. He was invited to the White House and his activities were reported with amiable newspaper headlines until a yellow-journalism campaign painted yoga as a “love cult.” Although no evidence was found, the damage was done. But Yogananda staged a comeback before his death in 1952, and today his legacy resonates throughout North America’s yoga culture – even if most don’t realize it. This film will help change that.

It is a compelling story supported by interviews with devotees like Ravi Shankar, Deepak Chopra, and George Harrison, as well as discussions with contemporary scientists and anecdotes from business moguls like Steve Jobs. “That’s enough to make a modern soul look inward.” (Anita Gate, New York Times)

R100 Japan 2013, 100 min, Dir: Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japanese w/ subtitles 6, 8 & 12 @ 9:30PM

Japanese writer-director Hitoshi Matsumoto gets a kick out of tantalizing and torturing the viewer with his tale of a meek department store salesman, Takafumi Katayama (Nao Ohmori), whose contract for a year’s worth of sexual masochism at the hands (or heels) of the wicked dominatrices of the Bondage gentlemen’s club proves unbreakable — and painful to boot.

Matsumoto tips the meta scale with intermittent scenes of censors screening a movie called R100, directed by a century-old man in a long white beard. Crowned with a score by Shuichi Sakamoto that shifts from gentle piano music to jazzy pop and ’70s-style disco, and sound work that periodically breaks total silence with David Lynchian blasts of noise, the result is a whacky and surreal film that could become a cult fetish.

(Rob Nelson, Variety)

ACTION ADVENTURE COMEDY COURTROOM DRAMA CRIME FAMILY MYSTERY EXPERIENCE A VARIETY OF THESE GENRES EVERY SHIFT.

NOW HIRING

february 2015 SCHEDULE sunday

monday

tuesday

1

2

3

1:30Pm Mommy 4:15Pm Russian Ark – RUSSIAN ESSENTIALS 7Pm Last Days In Vietnam 9:30Pm Why Don’t You Play In Hell?

– J-MANIA

7Pm Groundhog Day 9Pm Corbo – CANADA’S TOP TEN

7Pm - Nas: Time Is Illmatic – MUSIC DOCS / AFRICAN HISTORY MONTH 9Pm Last Days In Vietnam

8

9

1Pm Leviathan – RUSSIAN ESSENTIALS 4Pm Force Majeure 6:45Pm Leviathan – RUSSIAN ESSENTIALS 9:30Pm R100 – J-MANIA

15 1Pm Awake: The Life of Yogananda 3:30Pm The Theory Of Everything 6:15Pm TBA – EDMONTON MOVIE CLUB 9:30Pm Whiplash

22 1Pm Boyhood 5Pm Hollywood Osc-travaganza

march 1 2Pm TBA 4Pm The Ballad Of Shovels and Rope - WINTER ROOTS ROUNDUP VI 7Pm TBA 9Pm TBA

4

10

7Pm See No Evil, Hear No Evil – STAFF PICS / AFRICAN HISTORY MONTH 9:30Pm Force Majeure

16

7Pm John Wick – GATEWAY 9Pm Leviathan – RUSSIAN ESSENTIALS

17

1Pm Wall-E – SCIENCE IN THE CINEMA 4Pm Awake: The Life of Yogananda 7Pm Dear White People - AFRICAN HISTORY MONTH 9:15Pm The Theory of Everything

6:30Pm The Shawshank Redemption – CRIME WATCH / AFRICAN HISTORY MONTH 9:30Pm Citizenfour

24

23 7Pm The Graduate 9:15Pm Citizenfour

march 2 7Pm TBA 9Pm TBA

Wednesday

6:30Pm Boyhood 9:30Pm Love Streams – CULT CINEMA

march 3 7Pm Heaven Adores You - MUSIC DOCS / WINTER ROOTS ROUNDUP VI 9:30Pm TBA

7Pm Russian Ark - RUSSIAN ESSENTIALS 9:30Pm Why Don’t You Play In Hell?

– J-MANIA

11 7Pm The Great Human Odyssey: Parts I & II

18 7Pm Left Behind – TURKEY SHOOT 9:30Pm Black Mama, White Mama – METRO BIZARRO / AFRICAN HISTORY MONTH

25 7Pm FAVA Video Kitchen 9:30Pm Whiplash

thursday

5 7Pm Still The Enemy Within – LABOUR FILM NIGHT 9:30Pm Pride – LABOUR FILM NIGHT

12 6:45Pm Leviathan – RUSSIAN ESSENTIALS 9:30Pm R100 – J-MANIA

19 7Pm Metro Shorts – MOSTLY WATER 9Pm The Theory Of Everything

26 7Pm Keep On Keepin’ On – WINTER ROOTS ROUNDUP VI / AFRICAN HISTORY MONTH 9Pm The Graduate

the Ballad of shovels and rope

friday

6

saturday

7

6:45Pm Leviathan – RUSSIAN ESSENTIALS 9:30Pm R100 – J-MANIA 11:30Pm The Room

13

2Pm Happy Feet – REEL FAMILY CINEMA 4Pm Leviathan – RUSSIAN ESSENTIALS 7Pm A Dry White Season w/ Pumzi – AFRICAN HISTORY MONTH OPENING 9:30Pm Leviathan – RUSSIAN ESSENTIALS

14

7Pm Awake: The Life of Yogananda 9:15Pm Dear White People – AFRICAN HISTORY MONTH 11:30Pm It Follows – DEDFEST

20

2Pm The Princess Bride – REEL FAMILY CINEMA 4:15Pm Dear White People – AFRICAN HISTORY MONTH 7Pm The Theory Of Everything – VALENTINE’S SPECIAL 9:30Pm The Graduate – VALENTINE’S SPECIAL

21

7Pm The Theory Of Everything 9:30Pm Citizenfour

27

1Pm The Lego Movie - REEL FAMILY CINEMA 3:30Pm The Great Human Odyssey: Part III 7:15Pm Citizenfour 9:30Pm Whiplash

28 7Pm TBA 9Pm TBA

2Pm Fantastic Mr. Fox – REEL FAMILY CINEMA 4Pm TBA 7Pm Spring Surprise Screening – GLOBAL VISIONS FILM FESTIVAL 9:30Pm TBA

the Great human odyssey

Whiplash

Series & Repertory

USA 2014, 107 min, Dir: Damien Chazelle 15, 21, & 25 @ 9:30PM

Dear White People USA 2014, 108 min, Dir: Justin Simien 13 @ 9:15PM, 14 @ 4:15PM, 16 @ 7PM

The depressing number of race-mocking frat parties in recent years becomes the jumping-off point for a snarky but good-humored cultural debate in Dear White People. Bolstered by an excellent cast, the film takes satirical aim at a rarefied sphere of African-American experience, unfolding on a fictitious Ivy League campus that becomes a sort of elite microcosm of present-day race relations. The African-American students at Winchester U. have no shortage of influence, opportunity, and social/intellectual mobility, but they’re still forced to deal with outsider assumptions and, no less important, their own preconceptions of how they should behave. Bristling with arguments about the complexities of African-American identity in a supposedly post-racial America, this lively and articulate campus-set comedy … heralds a fresh and funny new voice on the scene in writer-director Justin Simien and expounds the thesis that a person’s identity is far too fluid and contradictory to squeeze into a narrow mould. (Justin Chang, Variety) Presented by Marker Magazine African History Month

The Theory Of Everything

Andrew Neyman is an ambitious young jazz drummer plagued by the failed writing career of his father and single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite east coast music conservatory. Terence Fletcher, an instructor known for teaching through terror, leads the school’s top jazz ensemble. When Fletcher discovers Andrew he transfers him into his band and forever changes the aspiring musician’s life. But as Fletcher’s relentlessly brutal instruction pushes Andrew to the edge, his passion to achieve perfection spirals into obsession. Director Damien Chazelle has taken a relatively staid subject – the relationship between a music student and his teacher – and turned it into a thriller built on a brilliant undercurrent of social commentary about what it takes to make it in an increasingly competitive and cutthroat world. (Brian Tallerico, rogerebert.com)

Citizenfour Germany / USA 2014, 114 min, Dir: Laura Poitras 17 & 20 @ 9:30PM, 21 @ 7:15PM, 23 @ 9:15PM

Citizenfour, Laura Poitras’ exciting and newsworthy portrait-of-a-whistleblower documentary, is something all too rare: a movie about a seismic event that seems to take place right at the centre of the earthquake. For most of the film, we’re inside the anonymous, white-walled confines of a Hong Kong hotel room in June 2013, where Edward Snowden, the former CIA system administrator, discusses his decision to leak thousands of classified documents that revealed the US National Security Agency’s vast surveillance apparatus. The interview with Snowden, which takes place over eight days, is conducted by Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first broke the story….To borrow Woodrow Wilson’s line about The Birth of a Nation, it’s like seeing history written with lightning. (Owen Gleiberman, BBC)

Groundhog Day USA 1993, 101 min, Dir: Harold Ramis 2 @ 7PM

Every February 2nd, a collective breath is held across North America as the people of Punxsutawney watch for that cute little rodent to pop his head out of his burrow to let us know whether or not spring is on the way. It’s inevitable. It happens every year. Again and again. Until you just want to scream – or watch Bill Murray scream in a classic comedy directed by the late, great Harold Ramis. A cynical weatherman, Phil Connors (Murray), is forced to continuously re-live the worst day of his life – which just happens to be Groundhog Day – until he learns to become a better person. The story – one that has received innumerable film treatments – is played expertly

by Ramis and Co. for laughs as well as philosophy. It’s “a grand pastiche of ‘Capraesque’ fables (by way of Dickens’ Scrooge) with a cynical old sot having to locate his humanity to free himself from the conundrum of endlessly repeating the same day.” (Ian Nathan, Empire)

Music Docs A monthly series featuring music documentaries, from classic to contemporary. Curated by Tim Rechner, and co-presented with CJSR and Blackbyrd Myoozik.

UK 2014, 123 min, Dir: James Marsh

14 & 20 @ 7PM, 15 @ 3:30PM, 16 @ 9:15PM, 19 @ 9PM

Challenged by a progressive neurological disease that robs him of movement and speech, British theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking nonetheless carries on, his mind racing to solve the mysteries of the universe. He’s just 21 when he’s diagnosed and given two years to live. It’s Jane Wilde, his first wife, who kicks him out of depression and into a marriage that will last 25 years, produce three children, and ultimately end in divorce. Jane’s book, Traveling to Infinity: My Life With Stephen, serves as source material for this witty, well-observed story of the untidy, ornery humanity of a thinking, feeling, sexual being caged by his own body, as well as an unlikely romance forged under the weight of tragic reality.

FEB 14 @ 7PM: Valentine’s Double Date – 2 for 1 Admission. See the Special Screenings & Events Section for details.

Boyhood USA 2014, 165 min, Dir: Richard Linklater 22 @ 1PM, 24 @ 6:30PM

Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Boyhood is a ground-breaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes.

Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason’s parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister, Boyhood charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence, from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations, and all the moments in between, become transcendent. Set to a soundtrack spanning the years, the film is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting. It’s impossible to watch Mason and his family without thinking about our own journey.

Nas: Time is Illmatic USA 2014, 74 min, Digital, Dir: One9 3 @ 7PM

In his recent film, documentary filmmaker One9 delves deep into the making of Nas’ 1994 debut album, Illmatic, and the social conditions that influenced its creation. Twenty years after its release, Illmatic has become a hip-hop benchmark that encapsulates the socio-political outlook, enduring spirit, and collective angst of a generation of young African-American men searching for their voice.

With Live Performance by Canadian hip-hop artist, K-Riz. Music at 6:30PM. Film at 7PM. African History Month

Reel Family Cinema Metro Cinema offers family friendly classic and contemporary movies most Saturday afternoons. Come early and enjoy themed lobby activities before films. FREE ADMISSION FOR CHILDREN 12 AND UNDER!

Happy Feet USA 2006, 108 min, Dirs: George Miller, Warren Coleman, & Judy Morris 7 @ 2PM

Mumble isn’t fitting in with the rest of his Emperor penguin colony. His father, Memphis, mother, Norma Jean, and the commanding elders are bemused by the misfit chick’s propensity for tap-dancing when in fact he should be breaking into song. But Mumble’s first attempt at singing is a tuneless disaster and the forlorn penguin is soon ostracised for bringing a curse upon the colony. Seems the penguins’ fish supplies have dwindled alarmingly and Mumble’s taking the rap. A short adventure later, he chances upon a troupe of rhythmic Adelie penguins fronted by rockhopper Lovelace, sporting a plastic six-pack ring around his neck which he believes was bestowed on him by aliens. Winner of 2007’s Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, Happy Feet expresses an effective, soul-stirring environmental message and has raised the benchmark of animated filmmaking to a whole new level, both visually and conceptually. (Derek Adams, Time Out)

The Room USA 2003, 99 min, Digital, Dir: Tommy Wiseau 6 @ 11:30PM

The film widely considered to be the “Citizen Kane of bad movies” is back! Be sure to catch Tommy and his friends the first Friday of every month for a late night screening of this classic piece of so-bad-it’s-good cinema. You’re my favourite customer. Thanks a lot! Bye. Audience participation is encouraged. Please respect the theatre and fellow patrons, and refrain from using profane language.

Gateway to Cinema Presented by The Gateway, official student newspaper at the University of Alberta.

John Wick USA/Canada/China 2014, 101 min, Dir: Chad Stahelski 10 @ 7PM

It’s the tried-and-true formula of one last job/ heist/assignment. A longtime bad guy leaves the life of crime in pursuit of peace and quiet, but naturally gets dragged back to his old haunts and habits to settle a final score and get revenge on those who have stolen all he held dear. But John Wick breathes exhilarating life into this tired premise, thanks to some dazzling action choreography, stylish visuals, and – most importantly – a vintage anti-hero performance from Keanu Reeves. Beyond the exquisite brutality, there’s artistry and an ominous sense of underworld suspense. (Christy Lemire, rogerebert.com) Admission is free for students with valid ID.

The Princess Bride USA 1987, 98 min, Dir: Rob Reiner 14 @ 2PM

This sincerely whimsical send-up of classic fairy tales follows Buttercup and Wesley as they battle pirates, sea monsters, and an evil prince. Along the way they’re joined by a flamboyant Spaniard, his slow-witted giant friend, and a burned-out wizard named Miracle Max who help the couple defeat their enemies and win the battle for true love. As Peter Falk says in the opening sequences, “fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles” - this story has it all. The Princess Bride is a veritable movie monument to the enduring charms of children’s fantasy literature. It’s also the perfect swashbuckling romance for a Reel Family Valentine’s Day.

The Lego Movie USA 2014, 100 min, Dirs: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller 21 @ 1PM

Emmet is an ordinary, rules-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world.

He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared.

Staff Pics Have you ever wondered what your favourite cinema’s staff watch when they’re not at work?

Staff Pics is the series that better acquaints you with Metro’s team by revealing their unique film tastes. From the front of house to behind the scenes, each month one Metro staff member will present their must see film!

See No Evil, Hear No Evil USA 1989, 103 min, Dir: Arthur Hiller 9 @ 7PM

Tola Adeshina has been a fixture at Metro Cinema since long before our Garneau era, first as an enthusiastic Volunteer, then as a dedicated member of Metro Cinema’s Front of House staff, and always as an advocate of the Metro way of life. When not caught in a whirlwind of work and family, he can be found in a corner of the theatre indulging in the movie magic.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Canadian director Arthur Hiller’s comic illustration of what happens when the deaf lead the blind, is a testament to the power of cooperation to transcend limitations.

With horseplay and charisma, Wally (Richard Pryor) and Dave (Gene Wilder) demonstrate that great relationships can defy differences. Pryor and Wilder were pioneers in the subgenre of multi-cultural team ups, leaving a legacy for future films and actors that have followed.

Tola’s Pic will be introduced by the incisive, boundary-defying poetry of local African-Canadian poet and spoken word artist, Roylin Picou.

Performance at 6:45PM. Film at 7PM African History Month

Fantastic Mr. Fox USA 2009, 87 min, Dir: Wes Anderson 28 @ 2PM

Mr. Fox used to be a chicken-stealing rebel and the scourge of the private farmland, but after a decade of abstinence and quiet family life with his wife, their son Ash, and his long-term houseguest nephew Kristofferson, he suffers a woodland midlife crisis and is drawn back into poultry pilfering. He thus succeeds in drawing the ire of three malicious farmers – Boggis, Bunce, and the formidable Bean – who are determined to destroy their foxy foe. With endless invention and visual verve, the adventure circulates through tunnels, burrows, and catacombs as our hero and his cohorts try to escape the bombardment of the three ‘B’s. Based on Roald Dahl’s 1970 novel, Fantastic Mr. Fox is an idiosyncratic comic escapade, rendered with a stylistic flourish and nostalgic patina only Wes Anderson could muster.

dedfest

crime watch

turkey shoot

DEDfest’s monthly DEDsploitation series. Learn more at DEDfest.com.

From thriller to comedy and classic to contemporary, Crime Watch offers a diverse and provocative glimpse into the cinematic criminal world.

Curated by Laura O’Connor and Sam Sheplawy.

A monthly celebration of aesthetically challenged films, hosted by Dave Clarke and Jeff Page, and featuring live comedic commentary.

It Follows USA 2015, 100 min, Dir: David Robert Mitchell 13 @ 11:30PM

“Something scary is stalking the young people in this WASP-y Detroit suburb…. The malevolent shape-shifter can take the form of anyone.

The only certainty is that it won’t stop until you’re dead. And once you’re dead, it will go after the person who ‘gave’ it to you.” (Peter DeBruge, Variety) It Follows, which premiered at Cannes this year, is a “haunting evocation of adolescent anxiety and yearning,” and, more importantly, it’s just plain creepy.

The Graduate USA 1967, 103 min, Dir: Mike Nichols 14 @ 9:30PM, 23 @ 7PM, 26 @ 9PM

Love is in the air, and so is existential angst in director Mike Nichols’ (1931 – 2014) sexually daring adaptation of Charles Webb’s novel. Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is “a veritable standard-bearer for smart, disaffected, pained youth, a representative of his alienated times and yet somehow orphaned by them as well…. He is the spoiled brat with the college degree, floating around all summer in his parents’ swimming pool, embarking on a jaded affair with his neighbour (Anne Bancroft), and realising almost too late that he has fallen in love with her daughter (Katherine Ross)” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian). With The Graduate having won Nichols his Best Director Academy Award, he will always be remembered for creating one of the most iconic love triangles in cinema history – and making the name Mrs. Robinson notorious in the process.

FEB 14 @ 9:30PM: Valentine’s Double Date – 2 for 1 Admission. See the Special Screenings & Events Section for details.

science in cinema

Wall-E USA 2008, 98 min, Dir: Andrew Stanton 16 @ 1PM

Look no further for a FREE, fun, and educational activity you can do with your kids as you wind down on the last day of Family Day weekend.

AIberta Innovates – Health Solutions’ Science in the Cinema will be screening Wall-E. Science in the Cinema combines a popular film with an engaging speaker on a health-related topic so you leave the theatre knowing a bit more than when you came in. Winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Animate Feature Film, Wall-E reminds kids (and grown-ups) how important it is to be active and choose wisely what we put in our bodies. Speaker TBA. ADMISSION IS FREE & INCLUDES A SMALL POPCORN.

Left Behind USA 2014, 110 min, Dir: Vic Armstrong 18 @ 7PM

Shawshank Redemption USA 1994, 142 min, Dir: Frank Darabont 17 @ 6:30PM

The multiracial Buddy Cop movie is a veritable cottage industry in the crime genre, with versions of multiracial odd-couples proliferating past and present. But not all of these duos are on the enforcement side of the law. Crime Watch delves into the diversity of multiracial team-ups with the unconventional prison drama, The Shawshank Redemption. Based on a story by Stephen King, this prison film is unlike formulaic staples of the subgenre; it’s not about violence, riots, or melodrama, it’s about the unusual friendship forged between two men that transcends boundaries and defies despair. The story’s narrator, “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman), is a longtime inmate and the leading entrepreneur at Shawshank prison.

Andy (Tim Robbins) is a new arrival convicted of murder. Against a brutal penitential landscape, their partnership is crucial to the gradually unfolding secret at the heart of the story and the final, glorious redemption.

African History Month

The Turkey Shoot guys believe in Nicholas Cage. An Oscar winner with a resume of superb performances, he is also at the forefront of some serious stinkers, including The Wicker Man, previously celebrated here. This direct to DVD masterpiece places our man Nic in the midst of the Rapture, another Turkey Shoot favourite.

Before one can say, “I hope I’m wearing clean underwear,” people are vanishing out of their pants, and Nic is giving a master-class in crisis acting.

Mostly Water: Metro Shorts Canada 2015, Dirs: Various 19 @ 7PM

Metro Shorts is an adjudicated short film event hosted by Mostly Water Theatre and produced by Metro. It gives local filmmakers an opportunity to screen their work for a live audience and industry professionals, and the chance to be renewed.

Filmmakers whose films are selected for inclusion receive a $50 CARFAC screening fee, with an additional $100 cash prize given to the winner of each event. A grand prize is presented at the end of the season. Films must be no longer than 4 minutes and all submissions done by an online file transfer site.

Submission Deadline: February 13. For more info: trentwilkie@gmail.com

cult cinema A monthly series of eccentric classics curated by Jeff Noel.

Metro Bizarro A monthly foray into the weird, wild, and wonderful world of fringe cinema. Curated by Maggie Hardy.

Black Mama, White Mama USA/Philippines 1973, 87 min, Dir: Eddie Romero 18 @ 9:30PM

Bizarro is proud to present Black Mama, White Mama (a.k.a.Women in Chains, Chained Women, and Hot, Hard and Mean), a fun subversion of The Defiant Ones. A prostitute in jail on a bum rap (Pam Grier) teams up with an imprisoned revolutionary (Margaret Markov) in attempt to escape their sadistic lesbian warden. Can they overcome their differences in order to save each other? Before Coffy and Foxy Brown, Pam Grier got her start in Women in Prison films, and Black Mama, White Mama is a prime example of both Women in Prison and early Blaxploitation. Shot on location in the Philippines by award-winning director Eddie Romero, it also features fellow future star, Sid Haig.

African History Month

Love Streams USA 1984, 141 min, Dir: John Cassavetes 24 @ 9:30PM

The electric filmmaking genius, John Cassavetes, and his brilliant wife and collaborator, Gena Rowlands, give luminous, fragile performances as two closely bound, emotionally wounded souls who reunite after years apart. Exhilarating and risky, mixing sober realism with surreal flourishes, Love Streams is a remarkable film that comes at the viewer in a torrent of beautiful, erratic feeling. This inquiry into the nature of love in all its forms was Cassavete’s last truly personal work.

(Criterion)

SPECIAL SCREENINGS AND EVENTS Labour Film Night Labour Film Night is co-hosted by the Edmonton and District Labour Council (EDLC), which is comprised of 57 union locals representing 45,000 members from Edmonton and surrounding communities, and the Alberta Labour History Institute (ALHI), which is committed to preserving and telling the stories of working people in Alberta.

Labour Film Night is open to the public. Admission is free. For more information, see www.labourhistory.ca.

Still the Enemy Within UK 2014, 112 min, Dir: Owen Gower 5 @ 7PM

Owen Gower’s documentary about the striking miners of 1984 and 85 is as gripping as any thriller. Thirty years on, the strike looks like a civil war that turned into a siege, during which the insurgents were starved into submission by a ruthlessly strategic government, able to mobilise well-trained, well-paid unformed battalions, the support of the press, and the backing of the banks to abolish the domestic coal industry. Gower’s film is a heartfelt tribute to the communities who were hammered by political, not economic, forces. They look bloodied, but unbowed. (Peter Bradshaw, Guardian)

Pride UK 2014, 120 min, Dir: Matthew Warchus 5 @ 9:30PM

In 1984 a small group of gay activists travel from London to rural South Wales on a mission to lend their support to a beleaguered village during the town’s miners’ strike, a struggle they do not see as so different to their own. With joy and pain, awkward meetings blossom into unlikely friendships and personal breakthroughs, and the powers of solidarity, friendship, and empathy are unabashedly proclaimed. Pride is a story with something to say about our world, while also being shamelessly entertaining, moving, and funny.

(Dave Calhoun, Time Out).

African History Month In 1925, African American educator, Carter G. Woodson (author of The Miseducation of the Negro) founded Negro History Week to popularize knowledge of African American culture, pioneers, struggles, and victories.

Since then, Africans of numerous backgrounds have expanded the length and scope of the commemoration. Throughout February, African History Month celebrates African civilizations, cultures, histories, and heroes for the enrichment of all.

Throughout February, Metro Cinema will explore cinematic representations of multiracial collaboration and communication as a unifying programming theme. Look for the African History Month label in the New Releases, Series & Repertory, and Special Screenings & Events sections to identify participating films.

African History Month Opening To launch our month-long cinematic celebration of global African histories, Metro Cinema has invited Minister Faust, a distinguished member of Edmonton’s Kenyan-Canadian community, to guest curate and host the opening screening.

Minister Faust is an award-winning novelist and broadcaster. He’s best know for his novels The Coyote Kings and The Alchemists of Kush, both of which take place in Edmonton and feature Sudanese-, Somali-, Ethiopian-, Trinidadian-, and other African-Canadian characters and cultures. He’s currently the Writer in Residence for the University of Alberta’s Department of English and Film Studies.

Listen to his podcast at mfgalaxy.org.

Find his books, videos, and more at ministerfaust.com

A Dry White Season USA 1989, 97 min, Dir: Euzhan Palcy 7 @ 7PM

Starring Donald Sutherland, Zakes Mokae, Marlon Brando, and Susan Sarandon, A Dry White Season is a searing portrayal of the final days of settler dictatorship in South Africa before neoapartheid. Ben du Toit (Sutherland) is a clueless Boer swept into activism when the regime kills his groundskeeper’s son. Stanley (Zakes Mokae) is his world-weary, cunning political mentor on the path to the film’s lethal climax.

With

Pumzi South Africa/Kenya 2009, 21 min, Dir: Wanuri Kahiu

Kenyan writer-director Kahiu delivers an unforgettable science fiction short film about a techno-futuristic Kenya where water is priceless and one woman risks her life for liberty. High production values mark Pumzi as emblematic of the new Kenya, dubbed the “silicon Savannah.”

World Premiere

The Great Human Odyssey, in Three Parts Canada 2014, 129 min, Dir: Niobe Thompson Produced by Niobe Thompson, Clearwater Documentary (CBC/PBS/Servus) Parts I & II – 11 @ 7PM; Part III – 21 @ 3:30PM

Take a journey of discovery in the footsteps of our human ancestors, as anthropologist Niobe Thompson unlocks the mystery of our unlikely survival and miraculous emergence as the world’s only global species. This groundbreaking, three-part documentary, part of the acclaimed CBC series, The Nature of Things, was filmed over two years across five continents, and features stunning cinematography and a rare live-recorded orchestral score. “Awash

in fresh insights, scientists have had to revise virtually every chapter of the human story.”

(Scientific American, 2014) For more information, visit www.humandoc.ca

Part I & II Canada 2014, 86 min, Dir: Niobe Thompson 11 @ 7PM Part I Like the many other kinds of humans who once shared our world, Homo sapiens should have died away. Discover how our species faced near extinction in Africa, and then found a place to rebuild. Explore what scientists are now calling “the cradle of the human mind,” and encounter the birth of language and art.

Part II

From a tiny population in Africa, how did humans become the planet’s only global species,

at home in every environment? Learn how our ancestors found a way through the deserts and out of Africa. Explore the meeting of Neanderthals and humans. And discover how we survived the Ice Age. Filmmaker in attendance.

Part III Canada 2014, 43 min, Dir: Niobe Thompson 21 @ 3:30PM

The final chapter in the human journey brought humans to Australia, the South Pacific, and the Americas. But how did we master the oceans? Learn about new discoveries in ancient DNA research and the origins of sailing that are now rewriting our understanding of the earliest sea voyages, from Easter Island to the Bering Strait. Artist Talk with Filmmakers, sponsored

by FAVA (Film and Video Arts Society – Alberta) and Clearwater Media.

WHAT’S ON AT UALBERTA? The Threepenny Opera

Darian Stahl

U of A Studio Theatre Timms Centre for the Arts

Feb 24 - Mar 21

Feb 5 - 14 at 7:30 p.m.

(MFA Printmaking)

FAB Gallery

Beethoven Sonatas for Violin & Piano, Part III Friday, Feb 6 at 8 p.m.

From China to Canada Friday, Feb 27 at 8 p.m.

Convocation Hall

Convocation Hall

The Music of Michael Colgrass

Eine Kleine Night Serenade

Winspear Centre

Winspear Centre

Sunday, Mar 15 at 3 p.m.

ualberta.ca/artshows

winterroots.ca

facebook.com/ smithsonianfolkwaysrecordings

@FolkwaysAlive #winterrootsroundup

Sunday, Mar 29 at 3 p.m.

ValEntinE’S DOuBlE DatE SPECial

FaVa

SPring SurPriSE SCrEEning

2 FOR 1 ADMiSSiOn Paired with a meal. Parked under the stars.

Popcorn for two. whatever your fancy, the movie date is a venerable romantic tradition. this Valentine’s Day spread the cinematic love at Metro Cinema with our Double Date Special. On February 14th you and your loved one – a romantic partner, a dear friend, or a beloved family member, whomever they may be – can both enjoy romantic film fare for the price of one regular admission to each of the participating films.

FAVA Video Kitchen

SPRinG SURPRiSE screening

The Theory Of Everything UK 2014, 123 min, Dir: James Marsh 14 @ 7PM

The Graduate USA 1967, 103 min, Dir: Mike nichols 14 @ 9:30PM For more information on the films included in the 2 for 1 admission special, see their listings in the nEW RELEASES and SERiES & REPERTORY sections, respectively. look for the VALEnTinE’S DOUBLE DATE – 2 FOR 1 ADMiSSiOn label.

2015 HOllywOOD OSC-traVaganza

87th Academy Awards USA 2015, Live Telecast

FEB 22

Doors @ 5PM, Fashion Awards @ 6PM, Show @ 6:15PM, Telecast @ 6:30PM

it’s the most glamourous occasion in Hollywood: Oscar night, where the biggest names in moviedom gather to look beautiful and celebrate a year of cinematic achievements. But why should the celebrities have all the fun? On February 22 don your glitziest duds, walk the red carpet, and pose for the paparazzi at Metro Cinema, where the live broadcast of the 87th academy awards will be projected on the big screen during the 7th annual Oscar night fundraiser for Shadow theatre, aCME theatre, and Metro Cinema. Hosted by tom Edwards and Matt alden (resplendent in evening wear from event sponsor, Derks Formals), the dazzling duo will provide live commentary and comic relief while awarding exciting prizes throughout the night. and to top off the on-screen entertainment there will be a superstar raffle, Oscar prediction challenge, and fabulous audience fashion awards. at the Hollywood Osc-travaganza, everyone is a star!

ALL TiCKETS $30 AVAiLABLE AT THE DOOR, OR in ADVAnCE AT METROCinEMA.ORG. nO METRO PASSES. • This event is not sponsored by or affiliated with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Canada 2015 Filmmakers: John Anderson, Ray Bradley, Rebecca Campbell, Max Cox, Joanne David, Patrick Gordon, Linda Ha, Eric Hansen, Lisa Hawkins, Kevin Kowalinski, Joni Sen, & Rudy Zacharias 25 @ 7PM

the Film and Video arts Society - alberta (FaVa) is proud to present new works from their introductory digital film course, Video kitchen. Our students have been hard at work cooking up a fresh batch of short films and are ready to serve them up to an audience hungry for some piping hot, homemade media art. FaVa’s Video kitchen runs twice a year and is taught by accomplished and versatile media artists. with a healthy mix of theory and practice, Video kitchen offers aspiring film and video artists the opportunity to gain new skills and develop their own personal vision within a supportive and collaborative environment. the class culminates with each student shooting and editing their own short film.

ADMiSSiOn BY DOnATiOn. nO METRO PASSES. CALL 780-429-1671 OR ViSiT WWW.FAVA.CA FOR MORE DETAiLS.

wintEr rOOtS rOunDuP Vi folkwaysalive! (university of alberta in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways recordings) and Peter north present winter roots roundup Vi (February 26 – March 1, 2015). this annual festival knits together the best of folk, roots, and blues music through workshops and live performances from local favourites and international legends. this year the music will extend beyond the stage and onto the big screen at Metro Cinema with three documentary films that delve into the art, craft, and lives behind the music.

FOR A FULL SCHEDULE OF FESTiVAL EVEnTS AnD inFORMATiOn On TiCKET PURCHASinG ViSiT WWW.FWALiVE.UALBERTA.CA/HOME/

Keep On Keepin’ On USA 2014, 84 min, Dir: Alan Hicks 26 @ 7PM

Clark terry is more than just a jazz legend who mentored Quincy Jones, and who Dizzy gillespie and Miles Davis thought was the best trumpet player who ever lived. in alan Hicks’ documentary, terry becomes something greater than just a grammy lifetime achievement award winner; he becomes an inspiration, a man who could teach us all a thing or two about craft, dedication, and dealing with life’s tragedies. the film chronicles how the legendary musician continues to inspire young artists to this day, most notably an incredibly talented blind piano player named Justin kauflin. it’s a story that should push masters to pass their wisdom on to another generation, and encourage those in need of guidance to find the men or women they want to be and ask them how they got there. (Brian tallerico, rogerebert.com) AFRiCAn HiSTORY MOnTH

28 @ 7PM

with winter (hopefully) almost over, global Visions would like to cordially invite you to Metro Cinema for a one night only, SurPriSE screening of one of the year’s most anticipated new documentaries. and with the global Visions Festival just over two months away, we’ll also be giving you a ‘sneak peek’ of what to expect at #gVF2015. we’ll announce tonight’s film closer to the screening date, so go to GLOBALViSiOnSFESTiVAL.COM and sign up to become a Friend of the Festival, or follow us on twitter @GLOBALViSiOnSFF. tonight’s screening - the first in our 2015 ‘Quarterly Screening Series’ - is made possible with the continued support of:

advance tickets at

nO METRO PASSES.

The Ballad of Shovels and Rope USA 2014, 72 min, Dir: Jace Freeman MAR 1 @ 4PM

after seeing them live at the winter roots roundup Vi, you can see Shovels and rope on the big screen at Metro Cinema for the Canadian premiere of Jace Freeman’s intimate documentary about the band. the Ballad of Shovels and rope captures the tours and detours of a husband and wife, Michael trent and Cary ann Hearst, from Charleston, South Carolina who comprise the american folk duo as they create and release the critically acclaimed album, O’ Be Joyful. From working for tips to becoming “Emerging artist of the year,” the two-man family band uses ingenuity and hard work to create something out of nothing.

MUSiC DOCS – CO-PRESEnTED WiTH WinTER ROOTS ROUnDUP Vi the cinematic celebration of folk, roots, and blues continues with Metro Cinema’s monthly Music Docs series in March, co-presented by folkwaysalive! and Peter north as an extension of winter roots roundup Vi.

Heaven Adores You USA 2014, 104 min, Dir: nickolas Dylan Rossi MAR 3 @ 7PM

Heaven adores you is an intimate, meditative inquiry into the life and music of Elliott Smith. By threading Smith’s music through the dense, often isolating landscapes of the three major cities in which he lived – Portland, new york City, and los angeles –Heaven adores you presents a visual journey and an earnest review of the singer’s prolific song writing and the impact it continues to have on fans, friends, and fellow musicians. with special live Music Performance by local folk pop phenom, Jessica Jalbert.

MUSiC AT 6:30PM. FiLM AT 7PM.

“a triumph on every artistic level from writing, staging and design to performance...” CALGARY SUN

SHAUN SMYTH IN

Jan 28 - Feb 15/15

BY KIRSTIE M C LELLAN DAY BASED ON THE BOOK PLAYING WITH FIRE: THE THEO FLEURY STORY

BY THEOREN FLEURY AND KIRSTIE M C LELLAN DAY DIRECTED BY RON JENKINS A CO-PRODUCTION WITH PRAIRIE THEATRE EXCHANGE

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30

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