Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Brazilian Movie - Simonal (2009)


Tonight there will be a special showing of the documentary film Simonal(2009) from Brazil.
This is a documentary about Simonal's musical career and his downfall as his involvement with the
dictatorship ignited a process of deleting him from national memory.

Free. In Portuguese, with English subtitles
Time: Tuesday, November 9 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:UVU Library Auditorium (LI120)
Check out the Trailer here.

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Hurt Locker Discussion Points

Thanks to all show came out and supported the film screening of The Hurt Locker and also to those who stayed to participate in the discussion. There was a great turnout!

Here are some discussion points to consider- Feel free to express any thoughts in the comment section of the blog.

1. In certain sequences, the camera almost becomes your eyes, as though there is no camera and no cameraman. A little like Errol Morris's style in Fog of War. Do you agree?

2. In the opening scene is a quote from Chris Hedges=s War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning: I've put more of it here (from p. 3 of his book):

The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug, one I ingested for many years. It is peddled by mythmakers ... It dominates culture, distorts memory, corrupts language, and infects everything around

it ...

The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its destruction and carnage it can give us what we long for in life. It can give us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.

What characters and scenes from the film confirm this idea in your mind (if any do)?

Perhaps compare this idea (maybe in James=s character?) with ...

Anthony Swofford in the book Jarhead, a Marine sniper whose entire training comes down to wanting to fulfill his duty, but when toward the end of the book he asks for permission to complete his duty (AI request permission to take shots. The men in the tower are perfect targets.) he is told that he cannot (ANegative on permission to shoot ... If their buddies next to them start taking rounds in the head ... they won=t surrender ...).

He completes the thought at the end of the book with, To be a marine, a true marine, you must kill. With all of your training, all of your expertise, if you don't kill, you're not a combatant, even if you have been fired at, and so you are not a marine: receiving fire is easy ... You will receive the Combat Action Ribbon, and if unlucky enough to have been hit but not fatally, a Purple Heart, or if you are hit fatally, your mother will receive your Purple Heart, but whether you are dead or not, you haven=t, with your own hands, killed a hostile enemy soldier. This means everything ... During the darkest nights you=d even offer your life to go back in time, back to the Desert for the chance to kill.

Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July, who, although paralyzed and mistreated in a VA hospital, has an extremely difficult time readjusting to his family and home in Massapequa, NY

Mary Anne Bell, a character in The Things They Carried, by Tim O=Brien, who comes to visit her boyfriend in Vietnam, and finds herself losing her innocence to the seduction of war, to the point where she says, Sometimes I want to eat this place. Vietnam. I want to swallow the whole country - the dirt, the death - I just want to eat it and have it there inside me.... When I=m out there at night, I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving ... You can't feel like that anywhere else.

3. Is the film about war or about the human condition in a war setting?

4. This film was made while the Iraq war was still in play. Could that have been done during the American war in Vietnam?

5. Is this an antiwar film? Does it make any sort of political statement?

6. The film was criticized by some veterans/groups for inaccuracies. If this is the case, do they interfere with your opinion of the film?

7. What does the title mean to you?

8. Morris Dickstein (Professor of English at CUNY) wrote in Dissent this summer:

Hurt Locker Aneither glorified the war as a scene of heroism nor condemned it for the political deception, wretched planning, and wanton loss of life that made those years so disastrous ... Instead. like the best WWII films, it focused on the tensions within a small group of men doing a dangerous but essential job. Do you agree with this, after having watched the film?

9. If war is a drug, as Hedges asserts, then how do we account for the difference between James and JT? JT is not interested in the Adrug@ of war, but only in staying alive and going home. And Eldridge himself, close to the end, seems quite fed up with James=s risky behavior.

10. Does the war-is-a-drug comment really apply to a character in the movie, or to the United States? To President George W. Bush?

11. Staying with that theme, Erasmus wrote Asweet is war to those who do not know it. Does this movie encourage us to add, maybe after seeing what James does at the end of the film, A... and sweeter still to those who do?

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Hurt Locker (2008)


The Inagural History Department Film Night is presenting the award winning film The Hurt Locker (2008) rated R for war violence and language.

Professor Bill Cobb will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterward.

This film will be screened on Wednesday October 20th in the Pope Science Building-Room 202 @ 7:00 pm


Synopsis:
An intense portrayal of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge, by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat. James behaves as if he's indifferent to death. As the men struggle to control their wild new leader, the city explodes into chaos, and James' true character reveals itself in a way that will change each man forever.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Motorcycle Diaries


To kick off the International film series this year we begin with a fantastic film from Argentina, The Motorcycle Diaries (2004).

The Motorcycle Diaries is an adaptation of a journal written by Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna when he was 23 years old. He and his friend, Alberto Granado are typical college students who, seeking fun and adventure before graduation, decide to travel across Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela in order to do their medical residency at a leper colony. Beginning as a buddy/road movie in which Ernesto and Alberto are looking for chicks, fun and adventure before they must grow up and have a more serious life. As is said in the film itself, it's about "two lives running parallel for a while." The two best friends start off with the same goals and aspirations, but by the time the film is over, it's clear what each man's destiny has become.



Come and watch this film with fellow film lovers on Friday October 1st in the UVU library Auditorium at 7:00 pm. This film is rater 'R" for language and will be shown in Spanish with English subtitles.

Kick Off Fall Semester with International Short Film

Welcome to fall semester club members! We want to start off our club activities this year by attending an event hosted by the Salt Lake Film Society on Thursday September 30th- The Manhattan Short Film Festival featuring 10 international short films.

Audiences in 204 Cities Spanning 6 Continents Unite for One Week for One Cause . . . to Judge the 10 Finalists in the 12th Annual MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival

Finalists Film Titles 2010:
-WATCHING (UK)
-PUSH BIKE (AUSTRALIA)
-UNDERGROUND (MEXICO)
-LITTLE INCONVENIENCE (CANADA)
-PARTY (CROATIA)
-ECHO (POLAND)
-MADAGASCAR (FRANCE)
-12 YEARS (GERMANY)
-THE POOL (IRELAND)
-WAR (ITALY)


Salt Lake City- You Be the Judge! Filmgoers in Salt Lake City will unite with audiences around the globe in a unique opportunity to view and judge a new generation of filmmakers in the 12th Annual MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival. In one week, over 100,000 people from as far north as St. Petersburg, Russia to as far south as Buenos Aires, Argentina, as far east as Katmandu, Nepal and as far west as Perth, Australia will come together to view and vote on the 10 films in the program.. One night only in our city at Salt Lake Film Society’s Tower Theatre, 876 East 900 South on Thursday, September 30 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets will be $8. More information can be found at www.ManhattanShort.com

We will be attending this event as club members, please contact club president Rikki Carter at uvurikki@gmail.com if you would like to join the car pool for this film showing.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Richard Dutcher to Present FALLING (2008)


Cinema Studies club is pleased to sponsor a very special screening event.
Richard Dutcher, the arguable "father" of LDS film will be on campus to screen his film Falling (2008) and to have a discussion with viewers following the film.

Dutcher is the acclaimed director, writer, producer and actor of various LDS films such as God's Army (2000), Brigham City (2001), and States of Grace (2005). In 2007 Dutcher left the LDS church yet he continues to prove that he is not only an influential LDS filmmaker but a talented filmmaker period.

Falling (2008) Rated R for Violence and Language
April 8th 2010 @ 7:00 pm in the UVU library Auditorium (LI 120)


Synopsis:
A Hollywood videographer, Eric Boyle, stumbles across a gang murder and makes a small fortune selling the footage to a Los Angeles news station. Eric's life descends into chaos when the exposed gang members savagely hunt down anyone with a connection to the incriminating footage.

To view a trailer for this film please visit
http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi677576729

We hope to see you all there!

Maps and directions can be found by visiting http://www.uvu.edu/library/about/maps.html

Parking
will be available free for the public from 6:00 pm onward in student lots R,S,T,Q,N, and P. A map to these lots can be found at this link: http://www.uvu.edu/parking/permits/maps.html

This Event is Free and Open to the Public

Monday, March 22, 2010

Whale Rider (2002-New Zealand)

We have a couple films coming up in the next few weeks!!

First, this Thursday 3.25 at 7:00 pm in the UVU Library Auditorium, we continue our International Film Screenings with

Whale Rider (2002-New Zealand) Rated PG-13


Synopsis:
On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs, always the first-born, always male, have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai loves Koro more than anyone in the world, but she must fight him and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny

Then beginning next week 3.29-4.2 UVU will be hosting the Animal Allies Club's Animal Ethics Conference. The Cinema Studies Club will be sponcering 2 film screenings during the conference

Monday March 29th- 6 p.m. Earthlings introduced by director Shaun Monson followed by a Q&A with Shaun Monson in the UVU Library Auditoirum





Wednesday March 31-1 p.m. Skintrade introduced by director/producer Shannon Keith
Panel discussion following Skintrade in the UVU Library Auditorium



There are many great events being brought to campus for this conference, for a full list of schedule events visit their blog at
http://uvuanimalethicsconference.blogspot.com
or find them on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=301389496047&ref=ts

We hope you can make it to these screenings and events!