1st Screening - Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM

2nd Screening - Doors at 9:30 PM, Screening at 10:00 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Everything Beautiful Is Far Away (2017)

An unlikely trio - a lonely man, his robot-head companion, and a determined young woman - team up to navigate the harsh desert in search of a mythical lake that could be their key to survival on an otherwise barren planet.

Winner of the U.S. Fiction Cinematography Award at the 2017 LA Film Festival

Starring Julia Garner & Joseph Cross

Written & Directed by Pete Ohs

Co-Directed by Andrea Sisson

Distributed by The Orchard

FREE with $5 suggested donation

PETE OHS is a swiss-army-knife of filmmaking; he writes, directs, shoots, and edits. His debut feature, I SEND YOU THIS PLACE, premiered in 2012 at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival - co-directed with partner, Andrea Sisson. In 2013, he was named to Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film”. He is the winner of four regional Emmy awards, and a published writer of comics. He is also an Ohio native and began his career in video production in Cincinnati.

ANDREA SISSON is an interdisciplinary artist. She works in film, imagery, performance, writing, and conceptual art. She’s a J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR, a 2013 Filmmaker Magazine “25 New Face of Independent Film,” and has been shown at São Paulo Museum of Image and Sound and Palais de Tokyo Paris. In 2012, she co-directed the hybrid and experimental documentary I SEND YOU THIS PLACE -- garnering praise from the New York Times. Sisson has an undergraduate degree in conceptual fashion design and will be entering graduate school for an MFA in contemporary studies and fine art at MICA. She is also a Cincinnati native.

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM

@ The Mini 1329 Main St

Selections from the Kentucky Amateur Film Archives

Katrina M. Dixon and Brian L. Frye present a collection of holiday-themed films from the collection of the Kentucky Amateur Film Archives, in a variety of film formats, accompanied by holiday music. The Kentucky Amateur Film Archives is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Lexington, Kentucky. It's mission is to collect, preserve, and provide access to home movies and amateur films, with a focus on films made in Kentucky and its surrounding states, or by people from those states.

Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM

@ The Mini 1329 Main St

Agnès Varda is often associated with the French New Wave, but this paradoxical filmmaker, tough-minded yet whimsical, is more a one-woman vanguard. Eccentricity is her norm. Still active at 89, Ms. Varda began as a photographer and remains one at heart. Her fiction films, documentaries and first-person film essays share a fascination with the fleeting and serendipitous. - New York Times

The Mini presents three short films by Agnès Varda!

Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Presented by Black Folks Make Movies

A rare blaxploitation classic starring Vonette McGee & Max Julien, Thomasine & Bushrod was intended as a counterpart to Bonnie and Clyde. This pair of thieves, who operate in the American south between 1911 and 1915, pattern themselves after Robin Hood and hold the White Establishment as (a 'modern-day') Sheriff of Nottingham. Here's the clincher-- Thomasine and Bushrod steal from rich, white capitalists, then give to Mexicans, Native Americans and poor whites.

~ Ratiera L. Harrison, IMDb

Free with $5 suggested donation.

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Presented by the UC Center for Film and Media Studies

As a part of the Series: Cities in Motion - Documentaries about Places of Transit

Claire Simon is accomplished filmmaker whose work encompasses both fiction and documentary. In Human Geography, she traces the true stories of some of the thousands of travelers that arrive or depart from the eponymous train station each day. Bound for the suburbs of Paris, the provinces of France, or other European capitals, the trajectories of her subjects intersect in fascinating, mysterious, and ultimately fleeting ways. The film offers compelling and touching insights into a station that is a veritable city within one of the world’s great cities and a key node in a global network of points of contact and missed connections.

Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Thursday, December 14th, 2017

“Keep on Truckin’ - The "Best" of The Mini Microcinema"

THIS SCREENING IS AT: People’s Liberty - 1805 Elm St, Cincinnati, OH 45202

Doors at 7:00PM, Screening at 7:30PM

FREE! Come early to enjoy beers and cupcakes!

The Mini Microcinema, which debuted at People’s Liberty in 2015, now has a permanent home on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine. For one evening only, join The Mini Microcinema as they return to People’s Liberty for a throwback screening of “The Best of The Mini Microcinema.” 

The Mini Microcinema will present a selection of previously programmed short films of varying genres and lengths - curated by Director of The Mini, C. Jacqueline Wood. The 60 minute program includes work by Roger Beebe, Tony Buba, Kelly Gallagher, Marc Governanti, Terence Nance, Terri Sarris and Frank Pahl, Mónica Savirón, and Charles Woodman!

The event is part of People's Liberty INTERMISSION - a multi-week celebration to mark their halfway point, reflect on what has been accomplished so far and to begin a conversation about what’s to come. More info here: https://www.peoplesliberty.org/

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Directed by Nicholas Ray

Johnny Guitar stars Oscar winner Joan Crawford (Best Actress, Mildred Pierce) as Vienna, a saloon owner with a sordid past. Persecuted by the townspeople, Vienna must protect her life and property when a lynch mob led by her sexually repressed rival, Emma Small (Oscar winner Mercedes McCambridge, Best Actress, All the King’s Men), attempts to frame her for a string of robberies she did not commit. Enter Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), a guitar-strumming ex-gunfighter, who once was — and perhaps still is — in love with Vienna. With the leads at their operatic best, the table is now set for an epic showdown in this one-of-a-kind western from director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause). A bizarrely veiled allegory for the McCarthy-era Red Scare, Johnny Guitar was misunderstood upon its initial release. One of the most original takes on the western genre — the women are far tougher than the men — Johnny Guitar is praised by fans, filmmakers, and critics alike as groundbreaking. Boasting superb supporting performances, Johnny Guitar features Ernest Borgnine (Marty), Scott Brady (The China Syndrome), Ward Bond (The Searchers), Paul Fix (To Kill a Mockingbird), Royal Dano (The Outlaw Josey Wales) and John Carradine (Stagecoach). Notably, Johnny Guitar’s indelible title song was a collaboration between the Academy Award-winning composer Victor Young (Around the World in Eighty Days), and co-writer and songstress Peggy Lee. - Olive Films

Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Directed by Toshio Matsumoto

Long unavailable in the U.S., director Toshio Matsumoto’s shattering, kaleidoscopic masterpiece is one of the most subversive and intoxicating films of the late 1960s: a headlong dive into a dazzling, unseen Tokyo night-world of drag queen bars and fabulous divas, fueled by booze, drugs, fuzz guitars, performance art and black mascara. No less than Stanley Kubrick cited the film as a direct influence on his own dystopian classic A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.

An unknown club dancer at the time, transgender actor Peter (from Kurosawa’s RAN) gives an astonishing Edie Sedgwick/Warhol superstar-like performance as hot young thing Eddie, hostess at Bar Genet — where she’s ignited a violent love-triangle with reigning drag queen Leda (Osamu Ogasawara) for the attentions of club owner Gonda (played by Kurosawa regular Yoshio Tsuchiya, from SEVEN SAMURAI and YOJIMBO).

One of Japan’s leading experimental filmmakers, Matsumoto bends and distorts time here like Resnais in LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, freely mixing documentary interviews, Brechtian film-within-a-film asides, Oedipal premonitions of disaster, his own avant-garde shorts, and even on-screen cartoon balloons, into a dizzying whirl of image + sound. Featuring breathtaking black-and-white cinematography by Tatsuo Suzuki that rivals the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe, FUNERAL PARADE offers a frank, openly erotic and unapologetic portrait of an underground community of drag queens. Whether laughing with drunken businessmen, eating ice cream with her girlfriends, or fighting in the streets with a local girl gang, Peter’s ravishing Eddie is something to behold.

“She has bad manners, all she knows is coquetry,” complains her rival Leda – but in fact, Eddie’s bad manners are simply being too gorgeous for this world. Her stunning presence, in bell-bottom pants, black leather jacket and Brian Jones hair-do, is a direct threat to the social order, both in the Bar Genet and in the streets of Tokyo.

A key work of the Japanese New Wave and of queer cinema, FUNERAL PARADE is being beautifully restored in 4k from the original 35mm camera negative and sound elements for re-release in 2017. - Cinelicious

Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Directed by Gianfranco Rosi

Presented by the UC Center for Film and Media Studies

As a part of the Series: Cities in Motion - Documentaries about Places of Transit

Gianfranco Rosi, who most recently directed Fire at Sea, turns his attention to capturing the rhythm and quirks of life on Rome’s “GRA” (Grande Raccordo Anulare), the ring road that encircles the Italian capital. Rosi spent two years exploring the approximately 40 miles that loop around the city, in the process documenting with insight and empathy the daily lives of the people who help make the famous city hum.  

Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Presented with No Response Festival

 Join us for a shorts program to supplement the documentary “Completely in the Present.” The specific lineup will be released closer to the screening! Stay tuned.

Free with $5 suggested donation.

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Presented with No Response Festival

A film about the pioneering life and works of the legendary artist, musician, and educator. 

Sometimes referred to as the Bill Murray of the Avant Garde, Tony Conrad is one the great American artists of our time, yet to the world at large he remains virtually unknown. Since the early 1960s, Conrad’s films and musical compositions have been the stuff of legend. Conrad was an early member of the Velvet Underground; he toured with Sonic Youth in the ’90s; collaborated with contemporary artists such as Tony Oursler and Mike Kelley; and has spent decades re-wiring generations of young minds as a professor and media personality in Buffalo, New York. His vast conceptual multimedia repertoire has challenged the very foundations of art, film and music and questioned entire belief systems. This definitive film will place Tony Conrad’s fifty years of influence at the forefront and explore his profound impact on generations of artists. Combining intimate footage of Tony and his collaborators shot over the last twenty years, his own archive of recordings and films, and interviews with fans and colleagues, the film will reveal not only a playful approach to life and art making but one that is motivated by a deep sense of powerful, political radicalism. 

Free with $5 suggested donation.

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Directed by John Woo

Presented by tt stern-enzi

So often, audiences come to recognize a particularly fruitful collaboration between a director and an actor or actress who seems to serve as a muse or stand-in. Such would seem to be the case with Chinese writer-director John Woo and Yun-Fat Chow. This dynamic duo teamed up for a string of action-packed thrillers from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, before Woo headed to Hollywood. Yun-Fat proved capable of playing either side of the cops and robbers divide in Woo's films, mainly because as a writer, Woo never subscribed to the notion that his characters were ever completely black or white; everyone operated in morally gray areas. Which accounts for why Yun-Fat's protagonist in The Killer is an assassin taking on one last job in order to pay the medical expenses of a blind singer's attempt to regain her sight. This "Killer" has a secret heart of gold that will get tested when he must face off against his boss. Come watch The Killer and join a lively debate about where the film ranks in the Woo filmography. Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 10:30 AM ... Screening at 11:00 AM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Enjoy a selection of short films for children. All films either in English or without dialogue. 30 min. Plus enjoy free bagels from Lil’s Bagels, and free coffee from Iris Book Cafe. Free with $5 suggested donation.

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Directed by Jacques Tati

Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in an age of high technology reached their apotheosis with PlayTime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati thrust the lovably old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a baffling modern world, this time Paris. With every inch of its superwide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, PlayTime is a lasting record of a modern era tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion. 

PlayTime contains not one story but a million, all happening at once. In Tati’s hands, plotlessness isn’t just the absence of narrative; it’s a positive tool in the same way that a three-act structure would be for most other filmmakers. - Criterion 

Delightfully ambitious, pure visual magic -- not to be missed! Free with $5 suggested donation.

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Directed by Harun Farocki

Presented by the UC Center for Film and Media Studies

With Introduction by Svea Braeunert

In 1991, when images of the Gulf War flooded the international media, it was virtually impossible to distinguish between real pictures and those generated on computer. This loss of bearings was to change forever our way of deciphering what we see.

The image is no longer used only as testimony, but also as an indispensable link in a process of production and destruction. This is the central premise of War at a Distance, which continues the deconstruction of claims to visual objectivity Harun Farocki developed in his earlier work.

With the help of archival and original material, Farocki sets out in effect to define the relationship between military strategy and industrial production and sheds light on how the technology of war finds applications in everyday life. (Antje Ehmann)

Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Honored with numerous grants and fellowships from such institutions as the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council, Kimberly Burleigh has shown her work in over 200 exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad.  She works with a variety of mediums, including; painting, drawing, collage and computer imaging and 3D animation.  Solo and group exhibitions include “MADATAC06” (Madrid), “the SPIRITUAL MACHINE” Anthology Film Archives (NYC), Mykonos Biennale (Mykonos), “Seattle Transmedia & Independent Film Festival” (Seattle), Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival” (Hawick, Scotland), “8th Rencontres Internationales Sciences et Cinémas” (Marseilles), “Experiments in Cinema Festival v10.T36” (Albuquerque), Australian International Experimental Film Festival; Carnegie Mellon University Miller Gallery (Pittsburgh); SIGGRAPH 2001 (Los Angeles); CEPA Gallery (Buffalo); Galerie Toner (Sens en Bourgogne, France); The Print Club (Philadelphia); Galerie 1900-2000 (Paris); Contemporary Art Center (Cincinnati); Feature (Chicago); Pittsburgh Plan for Art; and the New York City locations of Franklin Furnace Archives, Terry Dintenfass Gallery and Greathouse. She was an artist-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts (Sausalito) and the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA). She is currently Professor of Fine Arts in the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning at the University of Cincinnati.

Free with $5 suggested donation.  

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Directed by Barry Jenkins

Presented by Black Folks Make Movies

Nobody saw this one coming. A film whose major theme is black male identity and its interactions with sexual identity - set on its head. A triptych coming of age story based on Tarell Alvin McRaney’s unfinished play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, for which he received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. 

Free with $5 suggested donation.  

Screenings at 7:30 PM & 9:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Premiering Saturday, November 18, The Wandering Wolf is a 45 min travelogue seen through the eyes of Yoni Wolf (of the band, Why?). Exploring and discovering emerging culture, Yoni delves into the underbelly of Music, Art, Food and Community in Cincinnati. Directed by filmmaker, Scott Fredette, Yoni's unique point of view is artful and raw, thoughtful and personal. Sponsored by a lovely grant from People’s Liberty!

Scott Fredette has produced and created content for...Katy Perry, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Usher, Fleetwood Mac, Blake Shelton and many more artists. His work has been described as charmingly naive and plainly odd. Someone once compared it to Mozart on cough syrup. Though his work is off-kilter in its movement and interpretations, it is thoughtful. Free with $5 suggested donation.

Doors at 7:00 PM, Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Featuring time-based art of: Anthony Antonellis, Johannes Ernst, Danielle Ezzo and Anton Marini, Emily Fuhrman, James Hicks, A. Bill Miller, Fanny Papay, Josh Rigling, Derrick Schultz, Andrea Wolf.

The works selected for this screening are part of an online collection of commissioned art for the now defunct Electric Objects company. Over its four-year run, they commissioned 198 artists, generating over one thousand original works ofexceptional electronic art, effectively advancing the medium in the process. The works included in this program exist through movement compelled by computer systems, evolving frame by frame, in a slightly cinematic, yet non-narrative and sometimes non-objective way. 

Columbus-based artist Galen Tipton provides the soundscape for the program. Galen’s electronically generated and blended melodies mix the texture of field recordings with minimal, alighted beats and synth, creating an exciting pairing of computer-generated sight and sound. Presented by Tess Cortes.

Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 7:00 PM ... Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

With Presentation by Constantin Parvulescu
UC Center for Film and Media Studies
 

Guest Speaker Dr. Constantin Parvulescu, a European film industry specialist from the University of Navarra, Spain, presents the film Capital and will provide a short overview of a presentation he will give at UC on “High Finance and Financiers on the European post-2008 Screen.” The film will be followed by a discussion about European cinema's depiction of finance after the 2008 crisis.
Capital , by veteran filmmaker Costa-Gavras, was inspired by the effects of the 2008 financial crisis on European businesses. The story follows the head of a French bank who attempts to retain control of the company in the face of a takeover bid by an American hedge fund. 

Free with $5 suggested donation

Screening is in conjunction with the following talk:

November 15, 12 PM

UC Film and Media Studies Brown Bag Lecture: Constantin Parvulescu, Research Fellow, Universidad de Navarra, Instituto Cultura y Sociedad

Title: High Finance and Financiers on the European post-2008 Screen

Location: 701 Old Chemistry

701 Old Chem, UC Campus

Free and open to the UC community and public

Doors at 7:00 PM ... Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Presented by the Cincinnati Preservation Collective

The City was originally conceived for and shown on rotation at the 1939 World's Fair, in New York. Hundreds of thousands would eventually see this short documentary and its vision for a new communal way of living.

Set in three "movements", we follow the American way of life from its pastoral origins, with reliance on the farm, church, and town hall; to the oppressive, congested and dysfunctional urban existence of the industrial age. We then fly (via modern airplane) out into the countryside to witness the new vision of the American city: a well planned, communal and modern utopia where a natural integration of work and home life makes for healthy and productive citizens.

The City is a propaganda film for the ideals and vision of urban planners of the time;  but with Copland's music, its spare and unconventional use of narration, and kinetic editing, the film borders on the experimental.

The film was originally conceived by renowned planner and author Catherine Bauer Wurster, and produced by the American Institute of Planners. It was shot and directed by Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke, and written by planner Lewis Mumford. Aaron Copland composed the score, which would lead him to greater success in motion pictures. 

Come enjoy with us, and learn more about how we have understood the city in the past and how that can inform us into the future. Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 7:00 PM ... Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Showing the work of:  Jonathan Hancock, Matt Gilliam, Caroline Creaghead, Ian Strickland, Jessica Whittington, Barry Rowen, Jackie Switzer, Eric Rhodes, Ekin Erkan, and Jim DaMico!

Join us as we host our first ever “Open Screen” event, highlighting work by local film and video makers.  The program will include a mix of short films from varying genres, with a total screening duration of 80 minutes. All filmmakers will be in attendance to present their work. Please join us for this new bi-monthly celebration of local media makers! 

Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 7:00 PM ... Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Directed by Derek Jarman

Presented by Rommel Wells

Derek Jarman's theatrically irreverent portrayal of the notable 20th century Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is at times thought-provoking, funny, and visually stunning. Touching on many aspects of the philosopher's life and works, including his relationship with other influential 20th century thinkers, the nature of language, and homosexuality. Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 7:00 PM ... Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Presented by Walter E. Langsam

Directed by Robert Bresson

With the simplest of concepts and sparest of techniques, Robert Bresson made one of the most suspenseful jailbreak films of all time in A Man Escaped. Based on the account of an imprisoned French Resistance leader, this unbelievably taut and methodical marvel follows the fictional Fontaine’s single-minded pursuit of freedom, detailing the planning and execution of his escape with gripping precision. But Bresson’s film is not merely about process—it’s also a work of intense spirituality and humanity. - Criterion

Doors at 7:00 PM ... Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Presented by Voyageur Media

"Sacred Spaces of Greater Cincinnati" reveals the architecture and art preserved in the area's churches, temples and mosques. This one-hour documentary, originally released in 2008, combines expert commentary with High Definition video and a beautiful soundtrack for an introductory look at changes in sacred architecture from the prehistoric period through the 1800s to the present day.

"Sacred Spaces of Greater Cincinnati" was written, produced and directed by Meg Hanrahan, owner, Megrahan Media, who is also a Trustee of Voyageur Media Group, Inc. Hanrahan's public television media credits include "Cincinnati Parks: Emeralds in the Crown," and "A Force of Nature: Lucy Braun," a one-hour documentary now in production. She has a BA from the Union Institute and University, and serves as as an adjunct instructor at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College in the Electronic Media Department. Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Doors at 10:30 AM ... Screening at 11:00 AM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

Enjoy a selection of short films for children. All films either in English or without dialogue. 30 min. Plus enjoy free bagels from Lil’s Bagels, and free coffee from Iris Book Cafe.

Free with $5 suggested donation.

Doors at 7:00 PM ... Screening at 7:30 PM
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.

A film by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis

http://www.whosestreets.com/

Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents, artists, and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the national guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, these young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance. Filmmakers Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis know this story because they have lived the story. Whose Streets? is a powerful battle cry from a generation fighting, not for their civil rights, but for the right to live.

Presented by Alexander Shelton