Films screen on Mondays at 7 p.m.
Turtles Can Fly
26 January/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi, 98 min., 2005.
In a war-scarred village in Kurdistan on the northern Iraq border children invent their own methods of survival and modes of society: digging up landmines to sell for food, rigging satellite radios to follow the advent of the US occupation. A.O. Scott of the New York Times hailed Turtles Can Fly as “a harsh account of war, displacement and deprivation that is saved from utter bleakness by a tough, earthy lyricism.”
The Big Lebowski
23 February/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, 98 min., 2003.
Commenting on the historical impact of ‘Lebowski,’ the cultural critic Luca Caminati has long pondered the following paradox: “The Big Lebowski is the most devastating depiction of post-conflict discombobulation ever attempted by Hollywood, yet audiences have universally refused to acknowledge it as a political indictment of war.” “Instead,” he laments: “they elect to laugh.” Join members of the Lebowski Studies Association for a screening of this rare look at the aftermath of war, and public insensitivity to it. This screening inaugurates P-CON’s “I’ve decided to become a P-CONISTA” concentration declaration event. Follow the P-CON Calendar for more info.
White Light Black Rain
23 March/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Steven Okazaki, 86 min., 2007.
Straightforward interviews with fourteen “hibakusha” —survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—are intermixed with rarely seen footage documenting the destructive power of those attacks. Steven Okazaki’s award-winning film looks directly at the effects of nuclear warfare and the significant threat posed by the enormous nuclear arsenals of today.
Bombies
13 April/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Jack Silberman, 57 min., 2002.
American bombers dropped more than two million tons of explosives on rural Laos during the Vietnam War. As many as 30 million unexploded cluster bombs still litter the country, regularly injuring people despite their cautious cultivation methods. Children are frequent victims of these bright, explosive little balls. Despite global calls for a halt to the use of cluster bombs, the USA has used them extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq. “If you want to know what Afghanistan will be like in twenty years, watch Bombies” (Jury Citation, San Francisco International Film Festival).
Agent Orange: Personal Requiem
20 April/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium 7:00 p.m.
Directed by Masako Sakata, 66 min., 2007.
The filmmaker pays homage to her deceased husband, photographer Greg Davis, an American victim of Agent Orange, by exploring the impact of the dioxin-based defoliant on the environment and children of Vietnam. “A remarkable film… Sakata’s moving film brought back to me memories of the Vietnam War, the war of my generation, with great poignancy and power” (Roger Pulvers, The Japan Times).
Long Night’s Journey Into Day
27 April/105 Little Hall, Golden Auditorium/7:00 p.m.
Directed by Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffman, 95 min., 2000.
Following four hearings from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Committee, this prize-winning film Night’s Journey explores the challenges of truth-telling, forgiveness, and a country’s halting attempts to get beyond decades of racial domination and violence. “…justice can never really be delivered in these circumstances; the ache of racism and its violent aftermath still remain. This is an issue that the film addresses with as much integrity as the committee shows in its own efforts” (Elvis Mitchell, New York Times).
Films screen on Mondays at 7 p.m.
