Greetings everyone!
Alice and I are back from London and had a terrific time watching theater
and sightseeing. We even got to take in some movies at the London Film
Festival, but now it is time to resume work on CINEMA EXPLORATIONS 2017. Our
meeting is scheduled for tomorrow Tuesday, October 25th at 10:00 am at
Railroad Square Cinema. I would like to know who is or is not going to be
able to be there and hope that you will be able to make some contribution to
our discussion even if you can't make the meeting by responding to this
e-mail.
Upon returning over the weekend, I noted that Railroad Square had released
its printed "schedule" of upcoming films. Times and actual dates can
sometimes be fluid, but a couple of films that we had or have on our list
have upcoming appearances. Ken had previously informed us of his intention
to find a spot for "AQUARIUS" in the Railroad Square regular schedule and
that has happened. A documentary "EVA HESSE" that I had added prior to our
last meeting has a one-time screening scheduled for November 9th. I will
remove "EVA HESSE" from my printed and online lists ("AQUARIUS" had
previously been removed). Please note attachments to this e-mail.
After the last meeting, I asked everyone to look at the overall list that we
have and make a shortlist of five to ten films that you would like to see as
part of the series. I haven't seen any e-mail traffic for a while about
this. As a way of generating some thought and discussion on this, let me
give my shortlist:
Foreign-language films
"IXCANUL" (AKA "VOLCANO")
"AS I OPEN MY EYES"
"THE PEOPLE VS. FRITZ BAUER"
"AFTER THE STORM"
"DON'T CALL ME SON"
Documentary films
"HARRY & SNOWMAN" (Assuming Ken decides against scheduling it for RRSQ)
"STARVING THE BEAST"
"WE ARE X"
"GHOSTLAND: THE VIEW OF THE JU'HOANSI"
"DISTURBING THE PEACE"
Classic films
"HOWARD'S END"
"GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL" or another film with Kirk Douglas
You may note that I can't count too well or that I just can't limit myself
to only 10 films. While a couple of the foreign-language films come close to
120 minutes, my two classics both exceed that number of minutes. Should we
choose these films, we may have to adjust our start time for these films and
having a discussion afterward might be problematic. There have been a couple
of other suggestions from people in our group that warrant consideration:
the documentary "THE LOVERS AND THE DESPOT" and the Chinese language film
"OLD STONE." I hope I haven't overlooked any other films that people
suggested. There are many other documentaries for which a good case could be
made for including them in our series, but I tried to come up with a balance
of serious and more light-hearted subjects. While there are several
outstanding films on our classic list, the combination of very long running
times and/or relatively high cost for Rialto films (who have provided
several of our past classic films) has made their inclusion in our series
somewhat problematic.
I look forward to hearing your own shortlists.
Bill, do you have anything to report about the New Hampshire Film Festival?
There were a few films that were showing there that were added to the list.
Thanks.
Ken, if there are any updates on any of the films on our list that would be
helpful to our discussion. Thanks.
Hope to see you tomorrow.
Joel
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CIMEMA EXPLORATIONS 2017 FILM SERIES AGENDA 102516.docx
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CINEMA EXPLORATIONS POSSIBILITIES Draft 4.docx
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