GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER
(GSFC)
OF THE SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO (SAIC)
SCREENINGS AND EVENTS, JANUARY 3-FEBRUARY
6, 2014
Series
Stranger Than Fiction: Documentary
Premieres (January 4-February 6)
reflects the fact that Chicago is a powerhouse city of documentary filmmaking
as more than half of the movies in the series have ties to the city, including
Chicago as a subject or a location or is by a local director. Chicago premieres are of The Harvey
Girls: Opportunity Bound, centering on young women who boldly worked as
waitresses for the chain of Harvey restaurants along the transcontinental
railroad long before the feminist movement came into existence; Kiss
the Water, a look at the exquisite artistry of Scottish fly fisher
spinster Megan Boyd; Mortified Nation, live stage shows
featuring people reading teenage-angst-filled diaries; mockumentary Propaganda,
a satirical treatise on the consumerist and moral excesses of Western culture; I Am
Breathing, the story of Scottish architect Neil Platt and how he
maintains his sense of humor, intellect, and resolve while facing a declining
body wracked by ALS aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease; and Fire in the Blood which
exposes how Big Pharma protects its patents and profits as an estimated 10
million in Africa alone are left to die of HIV/AIDS for lack of treatment. World premieres of Spilled
Water, May May Tchao’s journey back to Chicago to chart the progress of
hard-won gender equality in her native China; A Song for You by
co-directors Silvia Malagrino and Sharon Karp, the latter of whom with her
sisters trace their parents 1943 trek to safety from the Nazis across multiple
European borders and through the Pyrénées; An Honest Living profiles four Chicago-based
artists with day jobs and after-hours careers, including fine arts painter
George Soto and drummer Rick Neuhaus. Also presented will be a sneak preview of
Be
Known, the complicated life of Chicago musician Kahil El’Zabar, often
called modern jazz’s “best-kept secret.” http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/strangerthanfiction2014
The American New Wave (January 24-May 6), the winter/spring film/lecture series
examines how the “American New Wave” or “Off-Hollywood” resulted from the
French, Czech, Polish, and Japanese New Wave cinema of the 1950s and 1960s as artists
and filmmakers like John Cassavetes and Shirley Clarke paved the way and laid
the groundwork for the next generation of “New Hollywood” of the 1970s and the
American independents of the 1980s. Lectures will presented on Tuesdays. Films
kicking off the series will be Lionel Rogosin’s quasi-documentary On
the Bowery, about three days in the life of a man on skid row, and
Cassavetes’ Shadows, the director’s landmark feature about interracial
relations. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/american-new-wave
One- and two-week runs
Spinning Plates (January 3-16) profiles three completely different
restaurants that all share a passion for food which serves as a vehicle for
dreams: Grant Achatz’s innovative molecular menu at Chicago’s Alinea; Cindy
Breitbach’s pies at Breitbach’s Country Dining in Dubuque, Iowa; and Gabby Martinez’s
Mexican family fare at Cocina de Gabby in Tucson, AZ. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/spinningplates
First Chicago run! Frederick
Wiseman’s 39th film At Berkeley (January 3-9; January 15, 22, 29; February 5) looks
at the noted institution that finds itself in the midst of massive budget cuts
in the face of multicultural expansion and economic downsizing. Slices of life
on all levels of university life are provided from policy meetings to the
school’s lawnmower to debates on diversity to the analysis of a John Donne poem
to student protests to football rallies. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/berkeley
Chicago premiere! Whimsical coming-of-age
tale Breakfast
with Curtis (January 3-9) brings to life one idyllic summer in a
rambling Victorian house in Providence where Syd, a cranky blowhard bookseller,
lords over an equally eccentric clutch of tenants and holds a bizarre grudge
against reclusive 14-year-old Curtis. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/breakfast-with-curtis
Chicago premiere! Liv
& Ingmar (January 4–8) looks at the long personal and working
relationship that Liv Ullmann had with Ingmar Bergman, from their intense love
affair during the filming of Persona through break-up,
reconciliation, and hard-won friendship illustrated by in-depth interviews with
Ullmann, excerpts, and on-set footage. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/liv-and-ingmar
The Cannes Palme d’Or winner
Blue
is the Warmest Color (January 10-16) concerns the tumultuous relationship
of young working class Adèle and twenty-something artist Emma by positioning
the camera to focus on on the eyes and mouths of the two protagonists,
enhancing the intensity of their intimate relationship. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/blue-is-the-warmest-color
Chicago premiere! Dominating
Italy’s Oscar-equivalent Donatello Awards, including Best Picture and Best
Director, The Best Offer (January 17-30) has been hailed as Giuseppe
Tornatore’s best film since Cinema
Paradiso. This grandly stylized romance-cum-mystery features a powerful
performance by Geoffrey Rush as a fastidious art auctioneer who prefers to keep
life and love at an aesthetic distance. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/best-offer
Chicago premiere! Shortlisted
for an Oscar nomination and winner of the audience award at both the Sundance
and Toronto film festivals, The Square (January 17-23) is a
uniquely immersive experience that sizzles with the energy and danger of
history in the making as it was filmed at street level in Tahrir Square,
thrillingly chronicling the chaos of the Egyptian revolution. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/the-square
Chicago premiere! Maidentrip
(January 24-30) is the first-person documentary account of New Zealand-born,
Dutch-raised Laura Dekker, who at age 16 became the youngest person to sail
around the world solo. Not only does the photogenic Dekker hold the screen well
in the making of her video diary, she also faces down storms, loneliness, the
struggles of self-discovery, and issues with her divorced parents, as well as
changes her nationality and makes time for her boyfriend. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/maidentrip
2 Autumns, 3 Winters (January 31-February 6) is a dazzlingly prismatic
dramedy shifting among the points of view of some half-a-dozen characters, all
hovering around the big three-oh. The focus is primarily on the relationship of
Arman and Amélie, as they experience the highs and lows of a romance which
brings best friends, siblings, and ex-lovers into the fold, all the while
navigating the path from youth to maturity. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/2-autumns-3-winters
Called “a beautifully
eloquent panorama of modern China” by Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, A Touch of Sin (January
31-February 6) finds director Jia Zhangke (24
City, Still Life) fashioning four brutal stories of over-the-top payback
for real and imagined wrongs, set in the provincial hinterlands where the gap
between the working poor and the newly rich yawns wide.
Repertory
Bergman & Ullmann: Persona (January 12 & 13) stars
Liv Ullmann in a tour-de-force performance as an stage actress left mute and
her symbiotic relationship with her nurse while Cries and Whispers
(January 12 & 15), nominated for five Oscars, centers on three sisters, one
of whom is dying, and their devoted woman servant.
Extreme Adjani: Isabelle Adjani stars in cult film Possession (January 19 & 23), a
mind-bending art film, a political parable, and a ferocious account of a
disintegrating marriage, while The Story of Adele H. (January 19
& 20) is the true story of Adèle, the younger daughter of Victor Hugo, and
her pursuit of a British lieutenant, and the folly and magnificence of her obsession
with the man.
Kids on the Run: The Night of the Hunter (January 26
& 30) stars Robert Mitchum as a murderous preacher in this extraordinary
fusion of fairy tale, Gothic horror film, and Huckleberry Finn while Ken
Loach’s uncharacteristic 18th century adventure Black Jack (January 26
& 27) finds a 12-year-old boy who falls in with a hulking, recently hanged
thief and a fugitive girl whose upwardly mobile parents want to stash her in an
insane asylum.
Dawn of Wong: This pairing of Wong Kar-wai films are director’s the debut gangster
saga As
Tears Go By (February 2 & 3), in which a country girl is sent to
stay with her big-city cousin, a small-time hood fatally bonded to his loose-cannon
protégé, and Days of Being Wild (February 2 & 6,) the director’s first
full-fledged example of atmospheric romanticism in which a homme fatal seduces two women but ditches them both to search for
his mother in the Philippines.
Special events
Celebrating the upcoming
Academy Awards® celebration at the Gene Siskel Film Center, Hollywood
on State: A Red Carpet Celebration (March 2), is the happy hour Oscar®
Nominations Panel Discussion (January 16, 4:30-5:30 pm), featuring a
panel of Chicago film critics: Alison Cuddy (WBEZ 91.5), J.R. Jones (Chicago Reader), Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune), Steve Prokopy (Ain’t It Cool News), and Ignatiy
Vishnevetsky (MUBI and Rogerebert.com), who will discuss this
year’s nominees, led by moderator Betsy Steinberg of the Illinois Film Office. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/hollywoodonstate2014
Papadopoulos & Sons (January 16), the Opening Night movie of the Greek Film Fest Chicago, is a
riches-to-rag tale centering on London high-roller entrepreneur and seasoned
jerk George Papadopoulos (Stephen Dillane of Game of Thrones). When he loses it all in a bank crash, he has to
reconcile with estranged brother Spiros in order to make a go of the family’s
long-abandoned fish-and-chips shop.
* * *
All screenings and
events are at the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago, located at 164 N. State St.
Tickets
to each screening--unless stated otherwise--are $11/general admission,
$7/students, $6/Film Center members, and $5/Art Institute of Chicago staff and
School of the Art Institute of Chicago faculty, staff, and students. All
tickets may be purchased at the Film Center Box Office. Both general admission
and Film Center member tickets are available through Ticketmaster,
800-982-2787, www.ticketmaster.com
, and all Ticketmaster outlets. The Film Center and
its box office are open 5:00 to 8:30 pm, Monday through Friday; 2:00 to 8:30 pm
Saturday; and 2:00 to 5:30 pm Sunday.
Please note the following special admission prices
and discounts:
Lecture series discount! Gene Siskel Film Center members pay discounted
admission of $5 to any screening in the series The American
New Wave.
Stranger Than
Fiction: Documentary Premieres Saturday Double-Bill Discount! Buy at ticket at our regular prices for the first Stranger
Than Fiction film on any
Saturday this month, and get a ticket for the second Stranger Than Fiction film that day at this discount rate
(tickets must be purchased at the same time): $7/general admission;
$5/students; $4/Film Center members. (This discount rate applies to the second
film only. Discount rate available only at the Film Center box office.)
Liv & Ingmar Discount! Buy a
ticket at our regular prices for any screening of Liv & Ingmar, and get
a ticket to any screening of Persona and/or Cries and Whispers at
this discount rate (tickets must be purchased at the same time): $7/general
admission; $5/students; $4/Film Center members. (This discount rate applies to
the second film only. Discount rate available only at the Film Center box
office.)
Repertory Double-Bill Discount! Buy a ticket at our regular prices for the first Repertory film
on any Saturday in January or February, and get a ticket for the second
Repertory film that day at this discount rate (tickets must be purchased at the
same time): $7/general admission; $5/students; $4/Film Center members. (This
discount rate applies to the second film only. Discount rate available only at
the Film Center box office.)
* * *
A
Gene Siskel Film Center membership is a year-round ticket to great movies for
only $6 per screening. Memberships are $50 (Individual) and $80 (Dual). For
more information, call 312-846-2600 or visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org/content/membership
.
Discounted
parking is available for $16 for 10 hours at the InterPark SELF-PARK at 20 E.
Randolph St. A rebate ticket can be obtained from the Film Center Box Office.
The Film Center is located near
CTA trains and buses. Nearest CTA L stations are Lake (Red line); State/Lake
(Brown, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple lines); and Washington (Blue line). CTA bus
lines serving State St.: 2, 6, 10, 29, 36, 62, 144, and 146.
For
more information about the Film Center, call 312-846-2800 (24-hour movie
hotline) or 312-846-2600 (general information, 9:00 am-5:00 p.m.,
Monday-Friday), or visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org
.
* * *
The
Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
celebrates 42 years of presenting cutting edge programs, independent and
international cinema, premieres, retrospectives, and classic films.
Internationally recognized for its original film programming, the Film Center
is a vibrant cultural destination in Chicago that attracts a diverse and
creative annual audience of over 80,000. www.siskelfilmcenter.org
A leader in educating artists,
designers, and scholars since 1866, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
(SAIC) offers nationally accredited undergraduate, graduate, and
post-baccalaureate programs to nearly 3,200 students from around the globe.
Located in the heart of Chicago, SAIC has an educational philosophy built upon
an interdisciplinary approach to art and design, giving students unparalleled
opportunities to develop their creative and critical abilities, while working
with renowned faculty who include many of the leading practitioners in their
fields. SAIC's resources include the Art Institute of Chicago and its new
Modern Wing; numerous special collections and programming venues provide
students with exceptional exhibitions, screenings, lectures, and performances.
For more information, please visit www.saic.edu
