Tag: Crosstown Arthouse Film Series

Crosstown Arthouse Presents Women Pioneers of Cinema — BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features. This week: BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

Narrated by Jodie Foster, BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ is a documentary about the first female filmmaker, Alice Guy-Blaché, which explores the heights of fame and financial success she achieved before she was shut out from the very industry she helped create.

Guy-Blaché started her career as a secretary to Léon Gaumont and, at 23, was inspired to make her own film called La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy), one of the first narrative films ever made. After her filmmaking career at Gaumont (1896-1907), she had a second decade-long career in the U.S., where she built and ran her own studio in Fort Lee, N.J.

Over the span of her career, she wrote, produced, or directed 1,000 films, including 150 with synchronized sound during the silent film era. Her work includes comedies, westerns, and dramas, as well as films with groundbreaking subject matter such as child abuse, immigration, Planned Parenthood, and female empowerment. She also etched a place in history by making the earliest known surviving narrative film with an all-black cast.

Green has dedicated more than eight years of research in order to discover the real story of Alice Guy-Blaché (1873-1968), not only highlighting her pioneering contributions to the birth of cinema but also her acclaim as a creative force and entrepreneur in the earliest years of movie-making. Green interviewed Patty Jenkins, Diablo Cody, Ben Kingsley, Geena Davis, Ava DuVernay, Michel Hazanavicius, and Julie Delpy  to name a few. Green discovered rare footage of televised interviews and long-archived audio interviews which can be heard for the first time in Be Natural, which affords Alice Guy-Blaché to tell her own story.

Crosstown Arthouse Presents Anniversary Screenings: 30th Anniversary of DO THE RIGHT THING

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features. This week: DO THE RIGHT THING

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

Come celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Spike Lee’s powerful DO THE RIGHT THING at Crosstown Theater. Mookie is the pizza delivery man for Salvatore. Salvatore has owned his pizzeria for 25 years and seen a change from being a neighborhood made of Italian immigrants to one mostly inhabited by African American and Puerto Rican residents.  Salvatore loves the community but is rooted in his own traditions. The pizzeria features a Wall of Fame that only highlights Italians. The film really begins when neighborhood activist Buggin’ Out questions Salvatore as to why there are no pictures of black celebrities in a neighborhood made up almost entirely of black and brown people. Often cited as one of the greatest films ever made, preserved by the Library of Congress in the National Film Registry, DO THE RIGHT THING features Spike Lee himself as Mookie, Rosie Perez, Danny Aiello, John Turturro, and OSSIE DAVIS AND RUBY DEE!

Crosstown Arthouse Presents Contemporary Classics: PARIS, TEXAS

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features. This week: PARIS, TEXAS

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

Another Wim Wenders road movie, PARIS, TEXAS is the story of an amnesiac named Travis Henderson who wanders out of the desert and only remembers one thing — his brother’s telephone number.  Walt Henderson, Travis’ brother, agrees to come get Travis. Travis has no idea that his son, Hunter, has been adopted by Walt and his wife Anne.  Also Travis has a missing wife, Jane. Jane is not too missing however, because she makes regular deposits of money in a bank account set aside for Hunter.  When Travis discovers where Jane may be, Travis and Hunter take a road trip to find her.  Alcoholism, abuse, mom’s in a strip club, child abandonment, PARIS, TEXAS HAS IT ALL!  With HARRY DEAN STANTON (AVENGE ME!), DEAN STOCKWELL (QUANTUM LEAP!!) AND STAR OF CAT PEOPLE NASTASSJA KINSKI!!

Crosstown Arthouse Presents Delinquency in Cinema: FREDERICK WISEMAN’S JUVENILE COURT

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features. This week: JUVENILE COURT

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

Originally released in 1973 and made by acclaimed documentary film maker Frederick Wiseman, JUVENILE COURT shows the complex variety of cases before the Memphis Juvenile Court: foster home placement, drug abuse, armed robbery, child abuse, and sexual offenses. The sequences illustrate such issues as community protection vs. the desire for rehabilitation, the range and the limits of the choices available to the court, the psychology of the offender, and the constitutional and procedural questions involved in administering a juvenile court. Come see how horrible the Memphis juvenile “justice” system was in the 1970s, and then lament how absolutely nothing has changed!

Film makers Joann Self Selvidge and Sarah Fleming will be at the screening to share information about their currently in-production documentary Juvenile, which tells the stories of people who’s lives have been touched by the juvenile justice system. Learn more: juvenilefilm.com

Crosstown Arthouse Presents Retrospectives in Auteur Cinema: BOYZ N THE HOOD

BOYZ N THE HOOD, Morris Chestnut, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube (aka O'Shea Jackson), 1991

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features. This week: BOYZ N THE HOOD.

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

The late, great John Singleton’s debut masterpiece, BOYZ N THE HOOD is a brilliant ode to childhood allegiances, the cyclical nature of crime, violence, and poverty and South Central Los Angeles.  BOYZ N THE HOOD is the story of a boy, Tre, being sent to stay with his father in South Central Los Angles. Tre’s father Furious Styles, a Vietnam War veteran, helps teach him right from wrong in an environment where gang life sometimes trumps solid ethical values. Tre’s friends run the gamut from a future athletic superstar to his religiously devout girlfriend and friends who fall into a life of crime and gangs. Nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, BOYZ N THE HOOD launched John Singelton’s career, along with his actors including Cuba Gooding Jr., Angela Bassett (in her first film role), Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long, and LEGENDARY ICE CUBE AS DARRIN “DOUGHBOY” BAKER!!!  CAN’T MISS!!!!!!!!

Crosstown Arts Weekly Film Series: Head

The Crosstown Arts Weekly Film Series is an arthouse-style film series showcasing a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

HEAD (NARRATIVE, 1968)

Considering the most recent passing of Monkee Peter Tork, Crosstown Arts is proud to screen the 1968 surrealist, musical nightmare that is the Monkees’ HEAD. HEAD was written by Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson and based on an drug-fueled brainstorming session with The Monkees. With Tim Carey, Annette Funicello, boxer Sonny Liston, Frank Zappa, Victor Mature, Toni “Hey Mickey” Basil, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, rescuing mermaids, attempted suicide (which was what The Monkees were literally doing with their career by making this film), the Nguyen Van Lem execution footage, a swami, and a lot of analogies about how The Monkees felt trapped.

Watch the trailer