late fall 2009 series

Bring the kids! Each year, on Saturdays in the late fall and early spring, Cornell Cinema and the Ithaca Youth Bureau bring to town the IthaKid Film Fest, a series of unusual children's programming, most offered at the low price of just $3 for adults and only $2 for kids 12 and younger. The shows start at 2pm and all happen in the beautiful Willard Straight Theatre. It starts with a trip to the moon in For All Mankind, the Oscar-nominated documentary about the Apollo missions to the moon, compiled from thousands of hours of NASA footage, and featuring spectacular views of the earth, moon, and the vastness of space, juxtaposed with the less awesome spectacle of astronauts stumbling around like drunken toddlers, trying to collect moon rocks. They will also show a fun collection of short films from the New York International Children's Film Festival, Kids Flix Mix, and a charming animated Estonian film, with an English soundtrack, Lotte from Gadgetville, that also premiered at that festival. The Fest has introduced many children to the joys of live music performed with silent film, and on November 21 Dr. Philip Carli will play piano along with the very first screen adaptation of Peter Pan. The Late Fall screenings end on December 12 with The Neverending Story, Wolfgang Petersen's timeless adaptation of the novel about a young boy who discovers a dying world living in a book, and through his own imagination discovers he has the power to save it. Cosponsored with the Family Reading Partnership.