Trailers and Reviews and Bears, Oh My!

So we've been at this for a little over six months now, and you've probably figured out that a lot of our programming can tend to be on the less than commercial side, and you sometimes have to do some digging to find out more about the films. Part of the fun of the movie experience if you ask me. However, we're trying to be full service here, so we've been toying with the idea of a weekly blog post that posts trailers for upcoming films, as well as a review or two, for when we can't get a screener to our good friend Mark Burger (he did get Micmacs in time - check out his review here). And while your curator has been pushing the Jeunet film (understandable, since she has a giant Amelie poster in the office) due to its limited run, we also have a Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner opening up on Friday, Winter's Bone.

One of my starting places for movie reviews is rottentomatoes.com, which has given Winter's Bone a score of 95%, better than Inception, the number one movie in America. If I had listened to my own advice, I probably wouldn't be watching the alleged Jennifer Aniston/Gerard Butler rom-com The Bounty Hunter (8%) right now. At least that gave me the opportunity to catch up on some blogging. Peter Travers was a big fan of Winter's Bone, saying "It means to shake you, and it does". One of our own patrons, discussing the book this movie was based on, told me he finished the book, and immediately started reading it again. Hopefully he and a few other people will do the same thing after our showings.

You've gotten a Micmacs review already, so I'll just leave you with the trailer.

In between reading this blog and checking out the films, feel free to give us your feedback on whether you would like this to be a weekly thing or not.

/I guess we can share/

Another quarter end behind me, I can get back to the job that pays me the no-bucks - attempted blogger. While I'm not monetarily compensated to entertain you, one of the perks of this gig is getting to meet people who actually know a thing about keeping your attention for more than five minutes. We've been able to bring in filmmakers such as John Jackman of Wesley and Eric Merola of Burzynski, and now we get to add John Schwert to that list. Writer/Producer/Director/Editor of In/Significant Others, John has been based in Charlotte for some time now and used the Queen City as his backdrop for the film, a story about a group of people all somehow connected to a homicide investigation.


Aside from being able to showcase another NC based film, we're extremely excited to open our doors to a movie that makes such wonderful use of our shared "/". Seriously, In/Significant Others has ties to our fine city as well from actors to crew, and has been blazing the festival circuit since last year, racking up multiple awards along the way. Check out the website, http://www.4wproductions.com/in-significant-others/, which has way more info than I can fit here, including a trailer. And while you're out on the interwebs, visit their Facebook page and tell your friends about it by sharing the a/perture event page

Did I mention that John will be here? How ridiculously cool is that, being able to watch a movie and then ask the brains behind it all those nagging questions you have*? Alas, that honor is only reserved for the Friday (5:15 and 7:45) and Saturday (2:45, 7:45, and 10:15) showings. Don't miss out on the chance to catch this fine movie and support NC films all at once.

* - (I would have given up my DVR to talk to Banksy after watching Exit through the Gift Shop, but I digress)

lo sono l'amore

So we are keeping our promise and bringing back our first film from this year's RiverRun Intl. Film Festival - I Am Love.

For those of you who missed it at the festival or for those of you who loved it as much as I did...now is your chance to see it for the first (or second) time. I could give you my own opinion on what a lovely film it is, but I'll let an expert do that (without giving away too much of the film):

I Am Love is the first film to use compositions by the great, Pulitzer Prize-winning John Adams (Nixon in China, On the Transmigration of Souls) as a score, and the symphonic, sometimes discordant music considerably adds to the grandness and sweep of what is essentially an intimate character study. Right from the opening credits, in which the titles fill the screen in curly script over snowy vistas of Milan in winter, you know I Am Love is going to be something special. And the picture gets better as it goes along, culminating in a rapturous ending that exhilarates in a manner I've never felt in a movie. I Am Love isn't perfect, but what love is, really? Attention all movie buffs: Get ready to have your minds blown. [Rene Rodriguez - Miami Herald]

Okay now check out the trailer:

One more thing...the film features a lot of delicious looking food, so you might want to plan to eat a nice meal out downtown afterwards.

Buon appetito!

Point and Shoot

In the age of cameraphones, sometimes we forget we actually have a nice camera we can use to take pictures. We dusted the thing off, and amid some pictures Jake took that could be considered art (maybe by Mr. Brainwash - go see Exit through the Gift Shop, it'll all make sense), we found our evening with Steve Childs, where we were fortunate enough to present his art along with his film, And We Will Dance as well as when Eric Merola visited after presenting his documentary Burzynski. Enjoy.

And We Will Dance

The stars and director

an art exhibit in s/tudio 2

the merch table

Steve Childs

Burzynski

Director Eric Merola after a q&a