Saturday, August 11, 2018

Lil’s + Lils - Films for Kids 

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

The Mini Microcinema presents a selection of short animated films for children. The screening, which is appropriate for all ages, includes work from all over the world! Arrive early to enjoy free Lil’s Bagels and coffee from Iris Book Cafe. (30 minutes) Free with $5 suggested donation.

Thursday, August 9th, 2018

The Cockettes (2002)

Directed by Bill Weber & David Weissman

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

The rise and fall of San Francisco's legendary theatrical troupe of hippies and drag queens, 1969 - 1972.

Free with $5 suggested donation.

Tuesday, August 7th, 2018

The Heartbreak Kid (1972)

Directed by Elaine May

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

Elaine May provides a counterpoint to Mike Nichols' The Graduate (1968) in this much lauded dark comedy. A young schmuck (Charles Grodin),having just arrived to Miami Beach on his honeymoon, eyes a young wealthy WASP (Cybil Shepherd) and bets that maybe he has a shot at a whole different life. Superlative. (106 minutes) Free with $5 suggested donation.

Sunday, August 5th, 2018

Homage To A Sound And Other Short Films about Jazz

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

Homage To A Sound: And Other Short Films about Jazz explores jazz through varying genres of the moving image medium. The program includes Homage to a Sound, a short documentary by filmmaker Matthew Davis about photographer Melvin Grier's passion for shooting the musicians who night after night play his favorite style of music. The screening will also include The Cry of Jazz, a 1959 film by director Ed Bland that connects jazz to African-American history. In 2010, the Library of Congress selected The Cry of Jazz for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.  The shorts program will also include work by Kent Lambert, Norman McLaren, and Evelyn Lambart. Curated by C. Jacqueline Wood. (66 minutes)

Thursday, August 2nd, 2018

FC Roma (2016)

Directed by Tomáš Bojar & Rozálie Kohoutová 

Presented by the UC Center for Film and Media Studies

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

This unique documentary with scripted elements chronicles the Czech “FC Roma” football club, whose members have to persuade the other teams in the third league to play against them. The film transforms into an excursion through the various types of everyday Czech xenophobia. The filmmakers’ inconspicuous, observational approach gives a voice to the charismatic coaches, who, with a healthy ironic worldview, comment on a society that gives them virtually no chance. The dialogue of the various protagonists is the most prominent feature of this stirring, yet hopeless sounding documentary. Racism proves to be absurd, often unintentionally comical, but often also chilling. Kohoutová and Bojar’s collaborative project represents a new wave of cinema coming from graduates of Prague’s famous FAMU film school. This “New Czech Cinema” turns a critical yet often (darkly) humorous eye towards contemporary society.  (76 minutes + Preceded by Selected Shorts) Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Tuesday, July 31st, 2018

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

After killing a pedestrian with his car and then dumping the remains, a Tokyo salaryman (Tomorowo Taguchi) falls ill with mysterious symptoms: cold sweats, delirium, a metal spike protruding from his cheek that prevents him from shaving. More patches of metal appear until steadily, limb by limb, he is transformed into Iron Man -- a man-machine hybrid driven by an insatiable appetite for destruction. Thus begins Shinya Tsukamoto’s cryptic, hallucinatory, formally daring Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Produced on a shoestring budget and released to little fanfare, the film has since become an object of cult worship, inviting comparisons to the works of David Lynch and David Cronenberg and influencing generations of anime artists. Equal parts Freudian allegory, cyberpunk social commentary and body horror fever dream, it shows modern man in extremis, destroyed from within by a merciless techno-capitalist social order -- or perhaps, simply, his own desire. (67 minutes) Free with $5 suggested donation.

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

Ellen Burstyn personally recruited upstart Martin Scorsese to direct this spirited plunge into the life of Alice - a young widow who needs to get out of town and find a new life. She and her son land in Arizona, where she works as a waitress in a (very entertaining) diner, moonlights as a (less than great) lounge singer, and finds relief in the sensitive embrace of Kris Kristofferson. Life is tough. (112 minutes)

Free with $5 suggested donation.

Saturday, July 28th, 2018

Lil’s + Lils - Films for Kids 

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

The Mini Microcinema presents a selection of short animated films for children. The screening, which is appropriate for all ages, includes work from all over the world! Arrive early to enjoy free Lil’s Bagels and coffee from Iris Book Cafe. (30 minutes) Free with $5 suggested donation.

Thursday, July 26th, 2018

La Selva Negra (The Modern Jungle) (2016)

Directed by Charles Fairbanks and Saul Kak

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

The Modern Jungle is a portrait of globalization filtered through the fever dream of a Mexican shaman, don Juan, who falls under the spell of a pyramid-scheme-marketed nutritional supplement. Juan’s neighbor Carmen lives simply, in harmony with the land her martyred husband paid for with his life. The Modern Jungle documents their struggles and encounters with outside forces: from capitalism and commodity fetish, to the culture of cinema, and the directors of this film. The Modern Jungle is made by Charles Fairbanks (USA) and Saul Kak (Mexico). Kak is an internationally acclaimed painter, poet, native speaker of Zoque and activist for his people. Fairbanks's short films have been awarded at Ann Arbor, Atlanta, and CPH:DOX, and have shown on POV and at Anthology Film Archives, Slamdance, Visions du Réel, and over 100 other festivals. For this project Fairbanks received support from the Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell Colony, and the Wexner Art Center's Film/Video Studio Program. (71 minutes)

Filmmaker Charles Fairbanks in attendance!

Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Tuesday, July 24th, 2018

Claiming Open Spaces (1995)

Directed by Austin Allen

Co-presented with VIBE (Voices in the Built Environment)

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

Claiming Open Spaces explores African-American culture as it clashes with the design of the modern American city. The film includes a comprehensive section on New Orleans--the vital place of historical significance that this city holds, and its role in continuing African American tradition and culture. The film is both a critical examination of the design and histories of American urban open space, as well as a celebration of leisure, recreation and resistance. "A celebration of Black culture, the sort of positive portrait that Blacks deserve and seldom receive… a compelling, thoroughly researched production."

(Columbus Dispatch) "Austin Allen's documentary takes a controversial stance: that African American's conception of open space is different from that of the mostly white civic authorities who have closed public parks in recent years, denying blacks a vital gathering place… In building his case, Allen creates a fascinating history of Black America.” (The East Bay Express)

(87 minutes) Free with $5 suggested donation. Discussion to follow.

Sunday, July 22nd, 2018

Personal Problems (1980)

Directed by Bill Gunn

Co-Presented with Black Folks Make Movies

Doors at 6:00 PM, Screening at 6:30 PM

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

Personal Problems is an entirely African American-conceived and produced ensemble drama. The film is a collaboration of a pair of pioneering Black artists: writer Ishmael Reed and filmmaker Bill Gunn, who wrote and directed the underground classic Ganja & Hess and wrote the screenplay for Hal Ashby's The Landlord. Originally intended to air on public television in 1980, Personal Problems went unseen for many years, but has recently been restored from the original tapes.

(165 minutes) Free with $5 suggested donation.

Thursday, July 19th, 2018

House and Home

A Series of Short Films About Architecture and Place

Doors at 6:30, Screening at 7:00 PM

@ The Contemporary Arts Center (44 E. 6th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202)

The Mini Microcinema has teamed up with the Contemporary Arts Center to present House and Home: A Series of Short Films About Architecture and Place. The screening, which will take place in the CAC's Black Box performance space, is curated by The Mini’s Director C. Jacqueline Wood. The program includes short films of varying genres that examine architecture's relationship to the meaning of home.  House and Home includes moving image work by Peter Greenaway, Kara Blake, Ezra Wube, John Smith, and Rhayne Vermette(70 minutes) 

Tuesday, July 17th, 2018

Heavy Laughter in Lean Years

Hal Roach Studios’ Depression-Era Comedy Shorts

Curated by Adam Williams

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

Producer Hal Roach’s life was the quintessential American success story, a restless youth who winded his way from sea to shining sea taking on numerous odd jobs, including prospecting for gold and working as an extra in cowboy movies, before ultimately setting up shop as an independent producer at the ripe old age of 23. His entrepreneurial spirit and freedom from the burgeoning major studios shines brightest in his two-reel comedies spanning the tail end of the silent era and into the early days of the talkies, concurrent to the harshest years of the Great Depression. In this time at The Lot of Fun, as his Culver City studio was known, Laurel was paired with Hardy, there was no rival to Our Gang, and hapless Charley Chase embarrassed himself in every conceivable situation. Lesser known to today’s audiences, but equally delightful, was the Jewish comedy of Max Davidson (and his feckless “son” Spec O’Donnell) and the female comedians Thelma Todd, Anita Garvin, ZaSu Pitts, Patsy Kelly, and Dayton, Ohio-born Marion “Peanuts” Byron. This mad cast provided the funhouse mirror reflection to a nation in despair and left an indelible impression on the American cultural landscape. Just for laughs, we present a carefully-curated collection of Roach’s cockamamie canon made between 1929 and 1932. (90 minutes)

Free with $5 suggested donation.

Sunday, July 15th, 2018

Open Screen

Like open mic night but with movies...

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

Join us as we host our fourth “Open Screen” event, highlighting work by local film and video makers. The program will include a mix of short films from varying genres. All filmmakers will be in attendance to present their work. Interested in screening your work? For more information visit our website: mini-cinema.org/open-screen. Program details will be announced one week prior to the screening.(80 minutes) Free with $5 suggested donation. 

PRESENTING WORK BY:

Mark Borison

Ann Driscoll

Jonathan Hancock

Laura Herman

Kevin Lewis

Brian McCabe

H. Michael Sanders

Matthew Williams

Saturday, July 14th, 2018

Lil’s + Lils

Films for Kids 

Doors at 10:30 AM, Screening at 11:00 AM

@ The Mini 1329 Main St. 

The Mini Microcinema presents a selection of short animated films for children. The screening, which is appropriate for all ages, includes work from all over the world! Arrive early to enjoy free Lil’s Bagels and coffee from Iris Book Cafe. (30 minutes)

Free with $5 suggested donation.

Thursday, July 12th, 2018

Casa de Lava (1994)

Directed by Pedro Costa

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St.

In only his second feature, Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa (Horse Money, In Vanda’s Room) brilliantly reworked Jacques Tourneur’s classic, I Walked with a Zombie, into a reflection on his country’s colonial legacy. A nurse, Mariana, accompanies Leão to his home on the volcanic islands of Cape Verde after an accident leaves him in a coma — but he goes unrecognized by fellow denizens, leaving Mariana trapped with and eventually entranced by a mysterious community. Never before released in the U.S. and now beautifully restored, Casa de Lava foreshadows the masterful films that would follow, yet is an extraordinary, ravishing work in its own right. Johnathan Rosenbaum writes: ”The cinema of Pedro Costa is populated not so much by characters in the literary sense as by raw, human essences — souls, if you will. This is a trait he shares with other masters of portraiture, including Robert Bresson, Charlie Chaplin, Jacques Demy, Alexander Dovzhenko, Carl Dreyer, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, and Jacques Tourneur. It’s not a religious predilection but rather a humanist, spiritual, and aesthetic tendency. What carries these mysterious souls, and us along with them, isn’t stories — though untold or partially told stories pervade all of Costa’s features. It’s fully realized moments, secular epiphanies.” (105 minutes)

Free with $5 suggested donation. 

Tuesday, July 10th, 2018

Stop Making Sense (1984)

Directed by Jonathan Demme

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

@ The Mini Microcinema - 1329 Main St. 

Universally acclaimed as one of the best concert films ever made, Stop Making Sense, documents the groundbreaking Talking Heads at their peak in the early 1980’s. "A rock concert film that looks and sounds like no other.”(Janet Maslin, New York Times) "A dose of happiness from beginning to end. Stop Making Sense is close to perfection." (Pauline Kael, New Yorker Magazine) "The Talking Heads put on a tremendous show -- erudite, funny, funky...Stop Making Sense is a dynamic rock film, as suited to its place in history, musically and visually, as 'Woodstock' was to the 60’s." (Rita Kempley, Washington Post)

(88 minutes) Free with $5 suggested donation.