Strawberry Fields

presented by filmmaker Rea Tajiri

Thur Mar 27 @ 7:00, WSH

Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, director Rea Tajiri's film tackles the minefield between cultural history and personal memory, charting a young Japanese-American woman’s struggles in the countercultural early 70s. Shown with Tajiri’s short film Little Murders (19 mins).

I’m Not There

presented by filmmaker Todd Haynes
interviewed afterward on stage by Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman

Sat Mar 29 @ 7:00, WSH (FREE)*
tickets required; available beginning March 24 at Willard Straight Ticket Desk and the Ticket Center at the Clinton House (limit 2 per person)

The Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There explores the outsized persona of this American icon through six different avatars (none with the same name, all played by very different actors, including an 11-year-old African-American boy and a woman). Event made possible with the generous support of the Atkinson Forum in American Studies

Salata Baladi

presented by filmmaker Nadia Kamel

Sun Mar 30 @ 7:30, WSH (FREE)

Salata Baladi is the personal history of filmmaker Nadia Kamel’s grandmother, Mary, as told to her grandson, Nabeel. Like many Egyptians, born at the end of a century filled with multiple waves of immigration, religious conversions, and mixed marriages, Nabeel is a mix of Egyptian, Italian, Palestinian, and Lebanese, with some Russian, Caucasian, Turk, and Spanish, all from his Muslim, Christian and Jewish ancestors.

Passion & Power: The Technology of Orgasm

presented by filmmaker Wendy Slick and author Rachel P. Maines

Thur Apr 3 @ 7:00, WSH

This documentary is based on the book The Technology of Orgasm: ‘Hysteria,’ the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction by Maines, Visiting Scholar in Cornell’s Science and Technology Program. The history of the vibrator and its medical use had virtually vanished until Maines, researching needlework patterns in early 20th century women’s magazines, ran across ads for electric vibrators. Under the guise of a medical treatment, Victorian doctors had used vibrators to relieve women of symptoms of hysteria by masturbating them to orgasm.

What the Future Sounded Like (shown with Passion and Power)

presented by Professor Trevor Pinch (Science & Technology)

Thur Apr 3 @ 7:00, WSH

This short about the electronic music scene in 1960s London includes appearances by Prof. Pinch.

The Little Heart

presented by director Nguyen Thanh Van, actress Hong Anh and cinematographer Nguyen Huu Tuan

Tues Apr 8 @ 7:00, WSH (FREE)

The lure of high paying jobs in an embroidery factory in Saigon is a compelling reason for young girls to leave their villages, and 17-year-old Mai considers herself lucky when the local broker sets her up with such a job. Soon she discovers she’s landed inside a very subtle web of brothel operations. When she learns that her younger sister is planning to join her, she rushes back to her village to stop her sister. Winner of a Global Film Initiative Award in 2007.

an evening with experimental filmmaker Marie Losier

Tues Apr 8 @ 7:15, SCPA Film Forum ($4)

French filmmaker and film programmer Marie Losier specializes in unique short 16mm film portraits of artists she knows, such as underground filmmakers Mike & George Kuchar, theatre innovator Richard Foreman and Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin and video artist and musician/composer Tony Conrad. Also showing: the playful Eat My Makeup! featuring Ithaca’s own Jason Livingston in a very pretty pink dress.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

with a live soundtrack performed by The Valerie Project

Thur Apr 10 @ 7:30, WSH ($12 general, $10 students)

This rare Czech new wave classic by Jaromil Jires is a surreal tale in which love, fear, sex and religion merge into one fantastic world, re-interpreted through a live soundtrack by The Valerie Project, a ten-piece touring ensemble made up of Philly's finest underground musicians from the bands Espers, Grass, Fern Night, Rake and others. The tone is lush, orchestral and acid-charged. No passes, discount cards or comps.

Today the Hawk Takes One Chick

presented by filmmaker Jane Gillooly

Fri Apr 11 @ 7:15, WSH

The Lubombo region of Swaziland suffers from the world's highest prevalence of HIV and the lowest life expectancy. Gillooly’s observational film highlights the lives of three grandmothers or “gogos” who have become instrumental in defining a new world order dictated by HIV/AIDS.

Chatila and Still Life

presented by filmmaker Diana Allan

Sun Apr 13 @ 7:00, WSH (FREE)

Chatila was produced collaboratively with a group of children living in a Palestinian refugee camp in the suburbs of Beirut, and explores everyday camp life through their eyes. Still Life is a triptych of video portraits with three generations of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon.

The Eye of the Day

presented by filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich

Thur Apr 17 @ 7:00, WSH

Promised Paradise

presented by filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich

Fri Apr 18 @ 5:00, WSH ($4)

Banned in Indonesia, the film follows the quest of an Indonesian puppeteer to meet three men convicted of the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali.

The Shape of the Moon

presented by filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich

Fri Apr 18 @ 7:15, WSH

Best Documentary in the World Docs Competition at Sundance in 2005 as well as at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2004 (Joris Ivens Award.)

The 27th Annual Black Maria Film & Video Festival

introduced by festival juror and Cornell Cinema director Mary Fessenden

Tues Apr 22 @ 7:00, WSH

This touring festival features cutting edge films from prominent avant-garde, documentary and animation film and videomakers world-wide.

an evening with experimental filmmaker Karl Kels

Thur Apr 24 @ 7:00, WSH

Educated at the arts academy in Frankfurt, Germany, Kels is interested in the unstaged world, yet studies the reality he finds in a way which questions both its authenticity and the fictional character of our perception of that same reality. Four short films will be shown.