LACIS Presents the Return of IDENTIFYING FEATURES!

Thursday, February 18th, 2021
Posted by Jim Healy

Thanks to the support of UW Madison’s Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program (LACIS), we are pleased to announce a return view-at-home engagement of the acclaimed and award-winning Mexican movie Identifying Features.

IDENTIFYING FEATURES (SIN SEÑAS PARTICULARES, Mexico, 2020, 94 min., Spanish with English subtitles) tells the story of Magdalena, (Mercedes Hernández), who hasn’t heard from her son Jesús in the two months since he left their small village to cross the border into the U.S. Joined by the recently deported Miguel (David Illescas), Magdalena leads a desperate search for her son, whom the authorities believe to be dead, into some of the most violent and remote territories of present-day Mexico. Crossing rugged landscapes by foot and trying to elude countless armed bandits, Magdalena and Miguel’s odyssey offers an unflinching view of a current, harrowing crisis. Identifying Features is a chilling and artfully told thriller that marks the auspicious feature-length directorial debut of Fernanda Valadez, whose boldly pronounced style includes suspenseful and fluid long takes, a thought-provoking use of focus, and a precision eye for point-of-view and composition. Valadez' co-screenwriter, co-producer, and co-editor is Astrid Rondero, and the filmmakers' talents also include a humanistic touch that bestows characters with an inner life, allowing us to believe they exist beyond the frames of the movie.

“Impressive in many ways, from its strong naturalistic performances to the vivid sense of dislocation and vulnerability felt by the principal characters in dangerous or unfamiliar surroundings” (Variety).

"Signals an exciting arrival by a much-needed voice" (Hollywood Reporter).

Beginning February 18, the Cinematheque is providing limited opportunities to view Identifying Features at home for free. To receive access, send an email to info@cinema.wisc.edu and simply include the code LACIS in the subject line. No further message is necessary. This view-at-home presentation is presented with the support of UW Madison's Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program (LACIS).

On a recently recorded episode of our Cinematalk podcast, special guests Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero talk with the Cinematheque’s Jim Healy about Identifying Features. The filmmaking duo won the Special Jury Award for Best Screenplay at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival where Identifying Features also captured the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category. Listen below or subscribe to Cinematalk on Apple Podcasts.

See Sundance Prize-winning YALDA for Free!

Thursday, February 11th, 2021
Posted by Jim Healy

UPDATE: Our view-at-home licensing period for Yalda has expired. Please visit our blog to see which new movies are currently on offer.

The Cinematheque-at-Home series continues this week with Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness, a provocative and suspenseful drama that won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

YALDA, A NIGHT FOR FORGIVENESS (Iran | 2020 | 89 minutes | Farsi with subtitles)

Director: Massoud Bakhshi | Cast: Sadaf Asgari, Behnaz Jafari, Babak Karimi

Live from Tehran, a young woman who has been sentenced to death for murdering her husband recalls the details leading up to her crime on the nation’s most popular TV reality show. Since Iranian law allows for the victim’s family to forgive her and spare her life, the fate of Maryam (Sadaf Asgari) will be decided by Mona (Behnaz Jafari), her husband’s daughter from a previous marriage. In front of millions of viewers during Yalda, the winter solstice celebration, Maryam and Mona discover that forgiveness can be difficult as they relive the past.

Unfolding almost entirely within the confines of a TV studio during the live broadcast, writer/director Massoud Bahkshi demonstrates an exciting and rigorous control over his material that yields a breathtaking series of intense and provocative moments. Yalda is Bahkhsi’s second feature film and the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

A clever, suspenseful exposé of Sharia law. There is really much to enjoy in this paradoxical but grippingly paced film” (Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter)

For a limited time, the Cinematheque has a limited number of opportunities to view Yalda at home for free. To receive access, send an email to info@cinema.wisc.edu and simply remember to include the word YALDA. No further message is necessary.

Stay healthy and safe. We value your support for the Cinematheque and we look forward to being able to watch movies with you soon in the proper cinematic settings of 4070 Vilas Hall and the Chazen Museum of Art.

Cinematalk Podcast #30: A GLITCH IN THE MATRIX, with Rodney Ascher

Thursday, February 4th, 2021
Posted by Jim Healy

Our first episode of Cinematalk for 2021 makes a great supplement to the Cinematheque's showcasing of A Glitch in the MatrixGlitch director Rodney Ascher talks with the Cinematheque's Jim Healy about how he put his new movie together and simulation theory’s relationship to cinema history and sci-fi literature. Rodney joined us in person at the 2013 Wisconsin Film Festival to present a program of his unique short movies and the Madison Premiere of Room 237, his much-acclaimed exploration of fan theories attempting to decode the hidden meanings of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. He spoke with us from his home in Los Angeles during a busy time when his movie has its online premiere and is opening in virtual cinemas around the country. Listen below, or subscribe to Cinematalk through Apple Podcasts or anywhere you get your podcasts.

See Rodney Ascher's A GLITCH IN THE MATRIX For Free!

Thursday, February 4th, 2021
Posted by Jim Healy

UPDATE: We have reached our limit of free views of A Glitch in the Matrix that were licensed from the movie's distributor, Magnolia Pictures. Thank you for making this presentation such a success! The movie is available for a rental price here. 50% of the proceeds from rentals go to support future free Cinematheque programming. And our podcast with Rodney Ascher is still available for free listening here!

While the Cinematheque’s theatrical venues remained closed, our free Cinematheque-at-home series resumes on Friday, February 5 with an exciting new release fresh from its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this week!

A GLITCH IN THE MATRIX (USA | 2021 | 105 min.)

Director: Rodney Ascher 

Are we all just characters in someone else’s video game? Could it be that we are living in a computer-simulated universe? Swallow the red pill and take a deep and fascinating dive into the rabbit hole that is simulation theory in the new feature-length movie from Rodney Ascher, director of Room 237 and The Nightmare., A Glitch in the Matrix provides the compelling testimonials of several avatar-shrouded real people, along with commentary from more established experts like Nick Bostrom, Emily Pothast, and cartoonist Chris Ware, to explore existential questions of personal identity and free will. With his own singular style, Ascher launches his investigation with a 1977 lecture from legendary sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick and playfully mixes in game footage and movie clips (from The Matrix and several other Hollywood products) to further illustrate how and why so many have come to doubt their everyday reality. Glitch ultimately ventures into serious, sometimes disturbing territory, to examine morality and social responsibility in a present-day world where even basic human interactions have become poisoned by media consumption and conspiracy theories.

A Glitch in the Matrix adapts to the internal logic of its echo chamber until it starts to sound pretty convincing on its own terms. If you’re not already one of the diehards convinced we’re living in a simulation, this movie might actually get you there” (Eric Kohn, Indiewire).

Beginning Friday, February 5, the Cinematheque has a limited number of opportunities to view A Glitch in the Matrix at home for free. To receive access, send an email to info@cinema.wisc.edu and simply remember to include the word GLITCH in the subject line. No further message is necessary.

Our Cinematalk podcast has also returned with a brand new episode featuring acclaimed director Rodney Ascher, director of A Glitch in the Matrix and Room 237, in conversation with the Cinematheque’s Jim Healy. You can listen here on our blog or subscribe to Cinematalk on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Cinematalk Podcast #29: DETERMINED

Thursday, December 10th, 2020
Posted by Jim Healy

In conjunction with the Cinematheque's presentation of the powerful new documentary Determined, this episode of Cinematalk features our own Ben Reiser moderating a lively panel of five women who together have spent the past seven years determined to tell the story of Determined. Producers Therese Barry-Tanner, and Eileen Littig, Director Melissa Godoy, Sound person Shawndra Jones, and one of the subjects of the film, Karen McElwee, all sat down to talk with Ben via Zoom for an engaging and informative discussion about the making of this remarkable film.

Listen to this episode of Cinematalk below or subscribe through Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Cinematalk Podcast #28: THE RABBI GOES WEST, with Amy Geller and Gerald Peary

Thursday, December 10th, 2020
Posted by Jim Healy

As a bonus to the Cinematheque's presentation of The Rabbi Goes West, this episode of Cinematalk features the Cinematheque's Ben Reiser in discussion with the husband and wife filmmaking team behind the compelling new documentary. 

Gerald Peary is the director of the documentary features For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009) and Archie's Betty (2015). He also appeared in the cast of Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess and he has frequently appeared in person at the Wisconsin Film Festival to present his work. Gerry received a Ph.D. in Communications from the UW Madison in 1977 and in addition to being a filmmaker has had a long career in film criticism and journalism with his work appearing in The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications.

Amy Geller’s award-winning productions include PBS's The War That Made America (2005), For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009), and The Guys Next Door (2016), which she co-directed. Her work has been broadcast on television and screened at prestigious film festivals around the world. She served as the Artistic Director of the Boston Jewish Film Festival and teaches production courses at Boston University.

Listen to Cinematalk below, or subscribe through Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

See THE RABBI GOES WEST and DETERMINED for Free!

Thursday, December 10th, 2020
Posted by Jim Healy

While the Cinematheque's theatrical venues remain closed, our view-at-home series continues this week with two powerful new documentaries that were originally scheduled to screen as part of the 2020 Wisconsin Film Festival.

THE RABBI GOES WEST (USA, 2019, 78 min.) Rabbi Chaim Bruk, a self-proclaimed “salesman of God,” proves unwavering in his efforts to make Jews more religious in this disarming, provocative documentary by Gerald Peary (Archie’s Betty, WFF 2016) and Amy Geller. Brooklyn-born Bruk moves to unlikely Bozeman, Montana, placed there by Chabad, a branch of Hasidic Judaism that puts a high value on outreach. Members of the local Reform and Conservative Jewish communities are not entirely receptive to the methods of this charismatic interloper, who has made a pledge to place a mezuzah on the doorpost of every Jew in Montana. That’s less than 2,000 Jews in a state 14 times larger than Israel.  Sparks fly when Rabbi Chaim and Bozeman’s Reform rabbi clash on issues such as support of Israel, women’s rights, and interpretations of the Torah. But there is a real threat to all the Jews of Montana when Neo-Nazis cyberattack the local rabbis.

DETERMINED (USA, 2020, 74 min.) After losing their mothers to Alzheimer’s disease, three Wisconsin women — determined to find a cure — volunteer their bodies and minds to a pathbreaking UW Madison study. Hailing from Milwaukee, Madison, and Washburn County, respectively, Karen, Sigrid, and Barb face strenuous cognitive exams, exercise tests, and neural scans as part of the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP). This clear-eyed documentary secures access not only to the high-stakes inner workings of medical research, but also to the intimate personal lives and families of the participants. Determined examines, in heartbreaking detail, the toll of Alzheimer’s, particularly on the inner lives of caregivers. It also introduces us to three brave women and a team of doctors who, together, give us hope for a brighter future.

Through December 24 only, the Cinematheque has a limited number of opportunities to view both Determined and The Rabbi Goes West at home for free. To receive instructions on how to view both movies, send an email to info@cinema.wisc.edu and remember to include the code WFF in the subject line. No further message is necessary.

Two new episodes of our Cinematalk podcast, this week! First, the Cinematheque's Ben Reiser talks with The Rabbi Goes West filmmakers Amy Geller and Gerald Peary. On a separate episode, Ben talks with the team behind Determined. Listen to both episodes of Cinematalk below or subscribe through Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Cinematalk Podcast #27: RAINING IN THE MOUNTAIN, with David Bordwell

Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
Posted by Jim Healy

This episode of Cinematalk is directly tied to the Cinematheque's presentation of the restored Raining in the Mountain from master filmmaker King Hu. Returning as a guest is David Bordwell, Jacques Ledoux Professor of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Professor Bordwell has written about King Hu in his books Poetics of Cinema and Planet Hong Kong, both of which you can find at his website, davidbordwell.net, along with numerous blog posts about King Hu, and a wealth of scholarship covering every corner of cinema. In 2007, he received a special award for excellence in Asian film scholarship from the Hong Kong Film Festival. Listen below or subscribe to Cinematalk through Apple Podcasts.

King Hu's RAINING IN THE MOUNTAIN - See Restored Version for Free!

Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
Posted by Jim Healy

While the Cinematheque's theatrical venues remain closed, our view-at-home series continues this week with a restoration of an action masterpiece rarely screened in the U.S.

RAINING IN THE MOUNTAIN (KONG SHAN LING YU, Taiwan/Hong Kong, 1979, 122 min., Mandarin with English subtitles) Hailed as “spectacular, exhilarating entertainment” in the New York TimesRaining in the Mountain is one of the final signature achievements of Hong Kong’s original action master, King Hu (Dragon InnA Touch of Zen). In a Ming Dynasty monastery, competing bands of thieves, corrupt monks, and martial artists converge as the temple’s abbot, charged with protecting a sacred scroll, prepares to name his successor. Hu’s aesthetic and technical powers are in full effect in this nimble battle of wits, brought to life through his characteristic finely tuned choreography and balletic action sequences.

“Visually gorgeous and notably abstract… one of his best” (J. Hoberman, New York Review of Books).

For a limited time, the Cinematheque has a limited number of opportunities to view Raining in the Mountain at home for free. To receive instructions on how to view-at-home, send an email to info@cinema.wisc.edu remember to include the word RAINING in the subject line. No further message is necessary.

New on our Cinematalk podcast, the Cinematheque's Mike King talks about King Hu with renowned film scholar and Planet Hong Kong author David Bordwell. Listen to Cinematalk below or subscribe through Apple Podcasts.

Stay healthy and safe. We value your support for the Cinematheque and we look forward to being able to watch movies with you soon in the proper cinematic settings of 4070 Vilas Hall and the Chazen Museum of Art.

Cinematalk Podcast #26: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, with Matthew Rankin

Wednesday, November 25th, 2020
Posted by Jim Healy

As a bonus to the Cinematheque's presentation of The Twentieth Century, Mike King leads a lively conversation with the movie's ingenious creator, Matthew Rankin. Their talk touches on Canadian national identity, the real and fake Mackenzie King, "dollar store" production design, and much more.

The Twentieth Century was an official selection of the 2020 Wisconsin Film Festival and Matthew Rankin's The Tesla World Light screened at the 2018 Wisconsin Film Festival. You can view The Tesla World Light for free here.

Listen below or subscribe to Cinematalk through Apple Podcasts.

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