Events Calendar 2009
| Saturday, January 31, 2009 |
6th
Italian Film & Food Festival
Plant Zero Art Center
0 East 4th Street @ Hull Street
Combine
classic and groundbreaking Italian films with classic and mouthwatering Italian
food to experience a feast for the
all the senses.
Admission $15 per person includes a movie and genuine Italian fare!
All-day passes $45 (available in advance starting January 10, at Video Fan, 403 N. Strawberry St. – includes all four movies with food, beverages sold separately.)
Tickets for individual films are only available for purchase the day of the event. Tickets to any of the four films (as well as all day passes) may be purchased anytime after the box office opens at 10:30 a.m.
The 6th Italian Food & Film Festival is co-sponsored by Mamma 'Zu, Edo's Squid and 8 1/2 restaurants.
| The
following 4 films will be screened: |
11 am
Antony and Cleopatra
(Director: Enrico Guazzoni, 1913, 85 min., silent)
 With live piano score by Dr. James Doering, Department of Music, Randolph-Macon College
The classic tale of passion and tragedy on an epic scale – shot on location in Egypt and Italy, with stunning sets and a cast of thousands, from the director of Quo Vadis – Antony and Cleopatra is a bona fide superspectacle. In 1914 an American distributor commissioned George Colburn to score the film’s Chicago premiere, and though it was only performed live in selected venues, the composer’s achievement ranks as one of the earliest examples of thematic scoring for a feature film. Mr. Doering has reconstructed the score from surviving sources in the Library of Congress so you can experience it just as American audiences may have in 1914! (Piano courtesy of Richmond Piano) |
 2 pm
Ossessione
(Director: Luchino Visconti, 1943, 135 min.)
Banned for years in and outside of Italy, and based on American writer James M. Cain’s Postman Always Rings Twice, Ossessione is generally credited as the film that anticipated the ensuing Italian Neorealist films of 1944-51. With the armistice of 1943 signed, Fascist control of the industry relaxed, and director Visconti’s bleak vision of sexual passion and murder set against the stark landscapes of Ferrara was given the OK, but upon its completion was cut by censors to half its running length. Even in its abridged form Ossessione’s importance was assured, announcing the coming of a new kind of Italian cinema – one that would leave the studios for locations in the streets and countrysides to probe the lives of working class Italians in the post-WWII years. Note: this is the restored version! |
5 pm
The Icicle Thief / Ladri di Saponette
(Director: Maurizio Nichetti, 1989, 85 min.)
 A major art-house hit here in the U.S. on its release in 1990, The Icicle Thief is one of the funniest comedies ever to come out of Italy. Not merely a parody of DeSica’s masterpiece, The Bicycle Thief, this hilarious loving tribute to Neo-realism, fantasy and vaudeville slapstick careens across the screen like a chandelier balanced on the handlebars of a runaway bicycle. Starring Nichetti as a director forced to enter the fictional screen world to save his creation from crass commercial interests, this gem from the maker of Volere, Volare evokes comparisons to Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo and Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. |
 8 pm
The Orange Thief
(Director: Boogie Dean, Vinnie Angel, Artie Wilinski, 2007, 84 min.; with co-director Vinnie Angel!)
Audacious, dark comic tale of cocky, penniless orange thief who dreams someday of owning a piece of his beloved Sicily – to be a landowner he would do almost anything. When he ends up in jail, his dream gets a breath of opportunity--he’s offered a deal he can’t refuse by his bellicose and philosophical cellmate, Turrido the Smooth Blade. The San Francisco Chronicle called it a “Surprise hit”; “Wildly original”, said the Woodstock Film Festival; the Philadelphia Film Festival pronounced it “Best Film”. Co-director Angel will introduce the film and do a Q & A after the screening. |
| Sunday, February 15, 2009 |
 James River Filmmakers Forum
7:30 pm, Location: Carver Healing Arts Gallery, 1208 West Marshall Street, Richmond , VA
Admission $3
The Filmmakers Forum is RMIC's new program designed to bring together area filmmakers and others interested in independent filmmaking for an evening of film screenings and discussion.
The first forum features the following filmmakers and their films:
- Fabian Rush - Clip from Pantheon Black
- Corry Chapman - XXX
- Jeff Roll - Open Space Vol. 3
- Alfred Shapiro - Canal Boat
- Jere Kittle - untitled
- Michael Jones - Les Taches de Souvenir
- Matt Siegel - Three Nights at Ground Zero
More information on these filmmakers and how to submit your films to the forum >>
 16th Annual
James River Film Festival
The 16th annual James River Film Festival—Virginia’s Festival for the Independent-minded—will be held April 12-19, 2009 in Richmond. A simultaneous celebration and examination of independent cinema, the James River Film Festival is produced by the Richmond Moving Image Co-op and is co-sponsored by WRIR 97.3 LPFM, the Virginia Film Office, the Virginia Production Alliance and Friends of the Festival.
More about the James River Film Festival |
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