HOMELAND INSECURITY

Documentaries from the New Israeli Foundation for Cinema and Television

[continued from March]

March 30 - April 12

You might see images from Israel and Palestine on television news every day, but these are just traces of the rich diversity of documentary filmmaking coming from the region. Every year, numerous powerful feature-length and television-length documentaries emerge. Certainly, some are big-topic, white-elephant, thesis-heavy films overflowing with the filmmakers' political agendas. However, there are also the films that may at first appear more modest, based around people, situations, and particular problems in filmmaking rather than political agendas. However, these latter films often ultimately emerge as the more powerful films – even politically, with politics entering through the back door rather than the front.

Since 1993, the New Israeli Foundation for Cinema Television has been a major force supporting superb documentaries. Founded by the Ministry of Arts, but operating as an independent entity, the foundation has supported a wide range of films from conception through post-production, then beyond into marketing both domestically and internationally. Films from the foundation have become major and regular features in major showcases, such as the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam and the Berlin Film Festival, and also some of New York City’s leading events like the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art’s New Directors / New Films, the Jewish Film Festival at the Walter Reade Theater, and, more recently, the TriBeCa Film Festival.

To celebrate the Foundation’s achievements, the Pioneer Theater is very proud to present HOMELAND INSECURITY: DOCUMENTARIES FROM THE NEW ISRAELI FOUNDATION FOR CINEMA AND TELEVISION. The title itself hopefully suggests how daring the foundation’s films often are. Too often Israel is presented as a monolithic entity, where all citizens and public entities are in lockstep solidarity with every aspect of the ruling government there. However, not every Israeli and every Israeli film adheres to a coherent, closed, "security" of the state and of the individual. There is doubt, uncertainty - and insecurity. Insecurity about emotional and intellectual boundaries as well as physical boundaries. Such insecurity is part of Israeli culture, too, and to deny it is foolish. Much to their credit, many films from the foundation explore such insecurities, and the results of that exploration are poignant, beautiful, painful, shocking, humanizing, sometimes frightening, and occasionally humorous.

We are very proud to share these films with New York City, and look forward to welcoming many filmmakers and special guests to the Pioneer to present their films.

Presented in association with the New Israeli Foundation for Cinema and Television, with special thanks to David Fisher and Irit Shimrat, as well as Ruth Diskin, Jim Browne, and Gabriele Caroti. Supported through the resourcefulness and generosity of the Consulate of Israel to New York City, particularly Ravit Turjeman. Thanks are also due to Hermann Barth of Dokfest in Munich, Germany.

On Monday, March 28, the Makor Center will host a panel discussion featuring several luminaries involved with this program. Click here for more information.

Visit the Foundation's website - Read article in The Jewish Week

special advance screenings

ODESSA. . .
ODESSA!

(dir. Michale Boganim, 90 mins, 2005)

Tues Apr 5 5pm - buy tickets
Tues Apr 5 9pm - buy tickets
Wed April 6 5pm - buy tickets
Wed April 6 10:30pm - buy tickets
Thurs April 7 5pm - buy tickets
Thurs April 7 10:30pm - buy tickets
Fri April 8 3:15pm - buy tickets
Sat April 9 1pm - buy tickets
Sun April 10 12:30pm - buy tickets
Mon April 11 5pm - buy tickets
Tues April 12 5pm - buy tickets
Weds April 13 5pm - buy tickets
Thurs April 14 5pm - buy tickets

fresh from festival screenings at Sundance 2005 and Berlin 2005

a mesmerizing, probing, and deeply moving portrait of a Jewish community scattered to the ends of the earth

"a lyrical poem to the lost places in our past and our heritage"
- Jeremy Mathews, FILM THREAT

"a beautiful film poem. . .sculpts time in the style of Tarkovsky"
- Jerome Cornette, LIBERATION

ODESSA. . .ODESSA embarks upon a journey from the Ukrainian city of Odessa to the "Little Odessas" in Brooklyn, New York and Ashdod, Israel. The film brings together the story of a Jewish community, today spread around three continents, that once populated the city. It follows a few exuberant characters, and portrays their hopes, illusions, dreams and wanderings. Traveling through time and place around the community, the film speaks the story of all the Diasporas.

PURITY

(dir. Anat Zuria, 63 mins, year)

MY TERRORIST

(dir. Yulie Cohen Gerstel, 60 mins, year)

Thurs Mar 31 5pm - buy tickets

PURITY:

A rare and special look into the world of Jewish religious married life and sexuality. A subtle female rebellion within the religious world, expressed through the personal point of view of the director and her women friends. Their openness to the camera breaks a profound taboo of silence rooted in two thousand-year-old laws and contemporary social pressures.

MY TERRORIST:

This is the story of a girl who, back in the 70's, dreamt of being an officer in the IDF, and was shot and wounded in a terrorist attack, on an El Al flight crew in London. Patriotism, to her, now means trying to reconcile with the terrorist who shot her twenty-two years earlier, and who is still in a U.K. prison.

CHECKPOINT

(dir. Yoav Shamir,
78 mins, 2003)

Fri Apr 1 7pm - buy tickets

"It's Kafkaesque bureaucracy meets martial law, where one hour you're allowed to go to work, the next you're not allowed to go home, and toddlers stand sobbing in the rain. Shamir remains largely a mute offscreen presence, but both the soldiers and the humiliated Arabs seem relieved to have their absurd struggle documented. A knockout!"
- Mike Atkinson, VILLAGE VOICE

Checkpoints are the first points of contact between Palestinians, living under Israeli occupation, and the Israelis, and have an enormous significance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This stunning film, which scored a vast array of prizes at festivals around the world, quietly documents the tensions, outrages, and ironies of life at the checkpoints - as well as, occasionally, the humor. The VILLAGE VOICE says it best: CHECKPOINT is, quite simply, "a knockout."

LOVE
INVENTORY

(dir. David Fisher,
90 mins, 2000)

Sat Apr 2 3pm - buy tickets

"Riveting. . .a gem that does the Israeli cinema proud."
-Emanuel Levy, VARIETY

The search for their lost sister brings the director and his four siblings closer.

Winner of the Best Documentary Award – Jerusalem Film Festival 2000.

FAMILY
MATTERS

(dir. David Noy,
65 mins, 2004)

Sat Apr 2 5pm - buy tickets

Two men, one woman and a baby constitute the formula for the alternative family documented in FAMILY MATTERS. Dafna, a single straight musician, was fed up with waiting for her prince charming. She decided to team up with Itamar, a homosexual lawyer and actor, in order to have a baby. The third side of the dramatic triangle is Kai, a German flight attendant and Itamar’s partner for the past ten years.

After a few attempts, Dafna becomes pregnant. The relationship between the three rollercoasters throughout the pregnancy. Towards the end, Itamar and Kai get married in Germany, and shortly afterwards Dafna gives birth to a baby boy in Israel. The tensions that had been festering beneath the surface eventually erupt and cause confrontation and separation.

BLOOD
ENGAGEMENT

(dir. Ada Ushpiz,
94 mins, 2004)

Sat Apr 2 7pm - buy tickets

THE SKIES
ARE CLOSER
IN HOMESH

(dir. Menora Hazani,
53 mins, 2004)

screening with

PARADISE
LOST

(dir. Ebtisam Mara'ana,
60 mins, 2003)

Sun Apr 3 12:30pm - buy tickets

THE SKIES ARE CLOSER IN HOMESH:

“On our wedding day everyone urged us not to go to Homesh. But when the wedding was over and all the guests left something pulled us there. . .“

STATEMENT BY MENORA HAZANI: When I started filming, I had no idea that this will be the most significant year of my life. We moved to Homesh, a distant community in Samaria that was hurt and injured by the Palestinian “Intifada.” I started filming everything. At first nothing happened but soon after everything changed and reality took over our lives. This movie is about a young couple in a lonely, distant community in a time which life at the settlements is a survival test.

PARADISE LOST:

Paradise ("Faradis," in Arabic), a picturesque fishermen's village overlooking the Mediterranean, is a Palestinian enclave inside the state of Israel, with a history that echoes with stories of massacres and deportation. When the director investigates the secret past of her village, she learns more than she expects, and as she uncovers the story of the village’s mythic “bad girl,” her troubles begin. A film diary, which recreates a lost history, and re-defines modern womanhood, within traditional Arab village life.

CHANNELS
OF RAGE

(dir. Anat Halachmi,
70 mins, 2003)

Sun Apr 3 3pm - buy tickets

GOOD
MORNING
JERUSALEM

(dir. Suha Araaf,
52 mins, 2004)

screening with

HOW I LEARNED
TO OVERCOME MY FEAR AND LOVE
ARIK SHARON

(dir. Avi Mograbi, 61 mins,
1997)

Sun Apr 3 6:30pm - buy tickets

GOOD MORNING JERUSALEM:

In the Sheik Jarah Neighborhood in East Jerusalem, a beautiful building was allocated for a theatre and cultural center. But rather then fulfill its original purpose, the building has become home to Palestinian families who’ve found themselves with no roof over their heads. Some, natives of Jerusalem, have lost their resident status. Some Jordanians who married women from Jerusalem are fighting for status under the law. Some have lost their homes to municipality bulldozers. All are poor and struggling. They are a reflection of the cruel reality faced by Palestinians in Jerusalem.

HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE ARIK SHARON:

As the elections approach, director Avi Mograbi sets out to make a documentary film about Israel's most maligned politician, who is also admired by many - Arik Sharon, a legendary warrior and officer, and a Minister in the former Likud government. Mograbi, who was a conscientious objector to the Lebanon War, has personal qualms about Sharon, the mastermind of that war. Nevertheless, while making the film he discovers a person he hardly foresaw meeting. To his surprise, Mograbi finds Sharon to be warm and friendly, nothing at all like his public image. As the elections fast approach, Mograbi sets aside his left-wing sentiments, and becomes unexpectedly close to Sharon. In a surrealistic scene in the final days of the campaign, he suddenly finds himself dancing with the ultra-Orthodox Breslaver hassidim and singing his support for Bibi Netanyahu. This is the story of an impossible encounter between right and left in the reality of contemporary Israel.

IN SATMAR
CUSTODY

(dir. Nitzan Gilady,
70 mins, 2003)

Wed Apr 6 9pm - buy tickets
Thurs Apr 7 9pm - buy tickets
Fri Apr 8 9pm - buy tickets
Sat Apr 9 9pm - buy tickets
Sun Apr 10 9pm - buy tickets
Mon Apr 11 9pm - buy tickets
Tues Apr 12 9pm - buy tickets
Tues Apr 19 5:15pm

The story exposes a deep cultural gap between the Yemeni families and the Yiddish Satmar Community, which led to tragedy for the families who have traveled thousands of miles to an entirely different place, with strange rules, norms, morals, and lifestyles.

Still in Yemen, Yemeni Jewish families are inculcated by skillful missionaries, and have difficulty defending themselves. The film follows the life of Yahia and Lauza Jaradi, who were brought from Yemen into the New York Satmar Community. It starts on the day that the Jaradi couple received an urgent phone call notifying that their two and a half year old daughter, Hadia, died in a hospital in Paterson, N.J. Through their search for their daughter's body, they come closer and closer to some very painful truths about their faith, and their community.

THINK
POPCORN

(dir. Dan Geva,
60 mins, 2004)

Thurs Apr 7 7pm - buy tickets

• An experiment in cinema to bring the truth to the screen, with the assistance of three cameras and a stage, challenging the boundaries of documentary cinema
• A tribute to the classic MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (USSR 1929)
• A tender, yet self-ironic love poem, to documentary cinema, reveling in its power to change the world

RAGING
DOVE

(dir. Duki Dror,
70 mins, 2002)

Fri Apr 8 7pm - buy tickets
Wed Apr 13 9pm - buy tickets
Thurs Apr 14 9pm - buy tickets
Fri Apr 15 9pm - buy tickets
Sat Apr 16 9pm - buy tickets
Sun Apr 17 9pm - buy tickets
Mon Apr 18 9pm - buy tickets
Tues Apr 19 9pm - buy tickets

THE LAST ACT

(dir. Eliezer Shapiro,
50 mins)

screening with

THE ARENA

(dir. Moish Goldberg, Jonathan Gurfinkel, 48 mins)

Sat Apr 9 3:00pm - buy tickets

THE LAST ACT:

Menucha, a woman in her seventies, sets off on a quest to direct a movie that will relive a defining moment in her life: the separation from her sister Mindel at the train station in Warsaw in 1935. The film documents the often traumatic process of recreating the scenes of the past and examines Menucha's obsession to memorialize her sister and separate reality from memory and fantasy in order to cope with the truth.

THE ARENA:

A group of citizens whose lives have been affected by Rabin Square (previously named the Kings of Israel Square), set out to change the Municipal plan to demolish and reconstruct the square. What makes this giant, somewhat broken and neglected spot in the center of Tel-Aviv such an important place in the lives of these people and others? This place is the Arena, the town square which still draws people by the thousands to celebrate, protest, and mourn.

DO THEY CATCH CHILDREN, TOO?

(dir. Hedva Galili,
49 mins)

screening with

LIVING IN BOXES

(dir. Simha Lev, 60 mins)

Sat Apr 9 5:00pm - purchase tickets at theater

DO THEY CATCH CHILDREN, TOO?

The film focuses on the world of the foreign workers in Israel, through the eyes of their children; their dreams, their games and their yearnings. In addition to typical childhood experiences, these children are forced to deal with a complex reality that includes difficult questions regarding their identity.

LIVING IN BOXES:

These are the last days of a poor rundown neighborhood in Tel Aviv, which the municipality has always tried to erase from the map. The land was sold to a contractor who plans to evict the residents and settle them in a couple of seven-story towers to be constructed on the same site.

AVIV:
Fucked-Up
Generation

(dir. Tomer Heymann,
75 mins, 2002)

Sat Apr 9 7:15pm - buy tickets

With just his outrageous make up, ambiguous sexual identity, and wildly popular glam pop music, Aviv Geffen would be an outrageous and popular figure on the Israeli cultural landscape. But then there is the fact that he is the nephew of General Moshe Dayan. And also that he was present at the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

In an effort to understand the special status on the local cultural scene enjoyed by Aviv Geffen, the director follows him on his concert tour of Israel. How can this hero worship, by young fans, be explained? How big is the gap between the private Aviv, distant from all expected manifestations of stardom, and the man who walks on stage to become the object of adoration by crowds of fans?

Pioneer Late Nights

PRIMER

(dir. Shane Carruth, 78 mins, 2004)

Fri Apr 1 10:40pm - buy tickets
Fri Apr 8 10:40pm - buy tickets
Fri Apr 15 10:40pm - buy tickets
Fri Apr 22 10:40pm - buy tickets
Fri Apr 29 10:40pm - buy tickets

"PRIMER is the headiest, most singular science-fiction movie since Kubrick made 2001."
(ESQUIRE)

"An ingenious movie about the perils of ingenuity. . .Invigorating. . .Like PI or MEMENTO, PRIMER is the kind of movie likely to inspire both imitators and cultists. . .Carruth has invented something fascinating."
(A.O. Scott, NY TIMES)

* Grand Jury Prize - Sundance Film Festival *

PRIMER is set in the industrial park/suburban tract-home fringes of an unnamed contemporary city where two young engineers, Abe and Aaron, are members of a small group of men who work by day for a large corporation while conducting extracurricular experiments on their own time in a garage. While tweaking their current project, a device that reduces the apparent mass of any object placed inside it by blocking gravitational pull, they accidentally discover that it has some highly unexpected capabilities--ones that could enable them to do and to have seemingly anything they want. Taking advantage of this unique opportunity is the first challenge they face. Dealing with the consequences is the next.

A ThinkFilm release.

Pioneer Late Nights

TARNATION

(dir. Jonathan Caouette, 88 mins, 2003)

Fri Apr 1 Midnight - buy tickets
Fri Apr 8 Midnight - buy tickets
Fri Apr 15 Midnight - buy tickets
Fri Apr 22 Midnight - buy tickets
Fri Apr 29 Midnight - buy tickets

"Watching it, you feel a new possibility opening up, an artistic direction at once unexpected and obvious."
- A.O. Scott, NY TIMES

"An unqualified masterpiece."
- Lou Lumenick, NY POST

"A daunting blend of head trip, cinéma verite, music video, and auto-therapy."
- Anthony Lane, NEW YORKER

"Caouette lifts his story clear out of the victimized whine that bogs down so many confessional memoirs and offers the viewer instead an intimate look inside his ravaged yet loving head, at once street-smart and haloed by the naiveté of a young saint."
- Ella Taylor, LA WEEKLY

Jonathan Caouette's spellbinding debut TARNATION reimagines the whole idea of what a documentary can be. Caouette has been documenting his life since he was eleven years old. With TARNATION, he weaves a psychedelic whirlwind of snapshots, Super-8 home movies, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, snippets of 80s pop culture and dramatic reenactments to create an epic portrait of an American family torn apart by dysfunction and reunited through the power of love. TARNATION begins in 2003 as Caouette learns of his mother’s lithium overdose in his native Texas. Faced with the haunting remnants of his past, including a family legacy of mental illness, abuse, and neglect, Caouette returns home to aid in his mother¹s recovery. Slipping back into the archives of his youth, we watch Caouette grow up on camera, seeking escape from family trauma through musical theater, grade-B horror flicks and the forging of his identity through popular culture.

A Wellspring release.

week-long opening

CRAZY LEGS CONTI:
Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating

(dir. Danielle Franco and Chris Kenneally, 75 mins, 2004)

Sat Apr 2 10:40pm - buy tickets

One Man, One Dream, One Stomach

"Everyone eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
They're just not eating it on the professional level."
- Crazy Legs Conti

When Crazy Legs Conti, eccentric New York window washer, nude model and sperm donor, casually breaks the world oyster eating record in New Orleans, he decides to dedicate himself to fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a professional competitive eater.

Crazy Legs shares his hilarious and poignant insights into professional eating as he travels the United States following the circuit in an effort to get signed by the I.F.O.C.E. (International Federation Of Competitive Eating). His goal is to earn a place at the table amongst his heroes at the Coney Island 4th of July hotdog eating contest. In a sport traditionally dominated by corpulent gluttons, Crazy Legs finds his inspiration in the new wave of smaller, athletic eaters. He works on his technique by studying the tapes and consumption methods of his idols and strives to attain the Zen-like focus and capacity of the great Japanese eating masters. Throughout his journey he is challenged by the likes of the 400 lb. eating machine Ed "Cookie" Jarvis, exciting newcomers such as Ray "the Bison" Meduna and wily veterans like Mo "Ribs" Molinsky and "Crawfish Nick." Crazy Legs’ journey from aficionado to professional takes him from New York to New Orleans, Seattle to Boston, and even to his hometown Belmont, Massachusetts where his food fixations began.

Crazy Legs has the tenacity and desire, but does he have the athletic ability and eating prowess to earn a spot at the table amongst the greatest eaters in the world? Can he match up dog for dog, bun for bun, against the likes of Badlands Booker, Cookie Jarvis and the demi-god of eating Takeru Kobayashi, at “the Super Bowl of Competitive Eating” – Nathan’s Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest?

www.crazylegsconti.com

ETERNAL
SUNSHINE
OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

(dir. Michel Gondry,
108 mins, 2004)

Saturdays in April at midnight!

Sat Apr 2 midnight - buy tickets
Sat Apr 9 midnight - buy tickets
Sat Apr 16 midnight - buy tickets
Sat Apr 23 midnight - buy tickets
Sat Apr 30 midnight - buy tickets

"[a] uniquely funny, unpredictably tender and unapologetically twisted romance."
- ROLLING STONE

One of the most acclaimed - and romantic - films of 2004 ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is an unconventional romance told in the abstract, inventive, and comedic storytelling style of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Like his scripts for ADAPTATION and BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, this plot works off of a relatively complex idea that is easier explained through language of film than through words. In its most basic description, Joel (Jim Carrey) is undergoing a medical procedure to erase the memory of his ex-girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet). However, while he is unconscious and the procedure is underway, he takes a journey through his mind, reliving moments with Clementine for fear of losing her forever. Using disjointed sound and action, foggy periods indicating Joel's confusion, and flashbacks to childhood where objects appear much bigger than they are to adult eyes, the cinematography communicates Joel's dilemma with visual hilarity. Only occasionally is the film laugh-out-loud funny; instead it is much more deeply and darkly amusing as the absurdity of the situation grows. ETERNAL SUNSHINE is nothing short of brilliant--a credit to director Michel Gondry (who has a topnotch reputation for his aesthetic music videos by artists such as Bjork). Carrey is wonderfully understated in the role of a simpleminded nice guy, and his signature goofiness is used only a handful of times. Winslet lights up the screen with her blue hair and orange sweatshirt, playing a lively free spirit and loose cannon. There are also strong supporting performances by Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, and Mark Ruffalo, along with an excellent score by Jon Brion and a peppy soundtrack including songs by E.L.O. and The Polyphonic Spree. The film's conclusion promises to satisfy viewers; it offers a beautiful metaphor for the end of a love affair that brings perfect closure to this excellent film.

Monster Mondays program!

Fangoria presents

SKINNED DEEP

(dir. Gabriel Bartalos, 97 mins, 2004)

Mon Apr 4 7pm - buy tickets

This is a "Bizarro Monday" program. Every Monday at 7pm the Pioneer presents the finest (and trashiest) in horror, sci-fi, exploitation, martial arts, genre, b-movies, and z-movies.

Starring Warwick Davis (WILLOW, LEPRECHAUN)

"SKINNED DEEP is an impressively berserk horror comedy. . .this is the stuff cult followings are made of."
- VARIETY

"Sweet, oozing, slippery, ingenious and perverted. This is a tale of love, motorbikes and gastronomy."
- The San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Festival

A family driving through the desert meets the ultimate clan of lunatics when their car is disabled. SKINNED DEEP introduces audiences to the Surgeon General, an imposing and frightening figure whose flesh is tightly stretched over a disfigured skull framed by black goggles and an evil bear trap for a mouth. Wielding his trademark blade, the Surgeon General is the most unapologetic of killers and is destined to become a new horror icon.

Slamdance Presents

IN A NUTSHELL:

A Portrait of Elizabeth Tashjian

Tues Apr 5 7pm - buy tickets

Followed by beer and pizza reception, sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery.

Shot over the course of three years, IN A NUTSHELL documents the goings-on of the Nut Museum and its curator, Elizabeth Yegsa Tashjian (aka, The Nut Lady). Tashjian, a first generation American of aristocratic Armenian immigrants, has led a unique life. At age nine she was already a concert pianist, at 22, an award-winning artist studying at the National Academy of Design in New York. At age 47, she was a devoted Christian Science healer and, at the youthful age of 60, creator and curator of the one-and-only Nut Museum in Old Lyme, CT. Today, at 92-years-old, Tashjian has found herself immersed in a strange new chapter: Ward of the State. Once a late-night TV talk show favorite on Carson and Letterman, she is now penniless and confined to a nursing home against her will. After a series of unfortunate events with her health and finances, the contents of the Nut Museum have been permanently removed and her beloved 18-room Victorian mansion has been sold to the highest bidder. Declared insane by her state-appointed conservators, the notorious Nut Lady is fighting to preserve her identity and regain the life she has built.

www.mimeticmedia.com

NewFest presents

LOCAL BOYS:
Shorts Program

Wed Apr 6 7pm

First Breath:
An unexpected discovery in the trash makes for an odd couple on prom night.

Brighter Days:
When a teen runaway is reunited with his brother, he realizes home may be worse than the streets.

Hideola:
A creative examination of key moments in a gay couple’s relationship.

horseyboy:
When his world starts to fall apart around him, Tommy realizes freedom is only a gallop away.

Beneath the Surface:
Narcissus is re-envisioned in this modern day fantasy.

Fairies:
A boy facing homophobia from his classmates imagines a world of music, glitter, and acceptance.

Celebrating Morris Engel

The Pioneer commemorates the recent passing of our great friend, Mr. Morris Engel, through a celebration of his filmmaking, with screenings throughout April and May.

LITTLE FUGITIVE

(dir. Ray Ashley & Morris Engel, 80 mins, 1953)

Fri Apr 8 5:15pm - buy tickets
Sun May 1 3pm - buy tickets
Sun May 8 3pm - buy tickets
Sun May 15 3pm - buy tickets
Sun May 22 3pm - buy tickets
Sun May 29 3pm - buy tickets

LOVERS AND LOLLIPOPS

(dir. Morris Engel & Ruth Orkin, 82 mins, 1956)

Sun Apr 10 2:30pm - buy tickets

WEDDINGS AND BABIES

(dir. Morris Engel, 81 mins, 1958)

Sun Apr 17 3pm - buy tickets

EASY
RIDER

(dir. Dennis Hopper, 90 mins, 1969)

Sat Apr 9 10:20pm - buy tickets

Starring Peter Fonda as Wyatt (alias Captain America) and Hopper as Billy, it traces the hippie duo's adventures as they mount their seriously chopped hogs on a journey to find the real America en route to Mardi Gras. In Arizona, they visit a commune whose members are having a tough time, and in a small Texas town they're jailed for joining a parade. But they're quickly sprung by an ACLU lawyer, the quirky, hard-drinking George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), who accepts their offer to join them on the trip to New Orleans, eager to visit the best whorehouse in the South. EASY RIDER accurately reflects the tensions and hostilities of the period, Laszlo Kovacs's photography is superb, Nicholson is exceptional in his breakthrough role--and the startling, stunning ending is a shocker.

New York City Women in Media Coalition Presents

Coming Up Short:
Short Films by Women Filmmakers

Sun Apr 10 4pm - buy tickets

Ladyfesto (50 mins)
Director: Anne Cremieux
Ladyfesto was shot during Ladyfest Philly, a women’s arts festival, in March 2003. The main organizers are interviewed as well as artists and attendees. They talk about the war in Iraq that broke out when the festival started, feminism, arts and crafts, consensus-based organizing, inclusion, and the sisterly city of Philadelphia. Both an account of the festival and a guide to DIY political and artistic organizing, Ladyfesto is both compelling and fun to watch.

Don’t Let the System Get You Down… Cheer Up! (13 mins)
Directors: Mary Christmas and Jen Nedbalsky
Cheer Up! documents the vibrant movement of radical cheerleading at one of its most exciting moments during the radical pro-choice cheerbloc contingent to the April 25, 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C. Part DIY dance video and part herstory lesson, Cheer Up! documents a historic moment for the radical cheerleading movement at the largest march in US history. This remarkable radical cheerleading convergence assembled more than 300 Radical Cheerleaders from around the country and from Canada. The video looks at the growing movement of Radical Cheerleading, its roots and its future and the means by which it organizes. The video is a landmark for the Radical Cheerleading movement which up until now has been poorly documented from within the movement itself and mostly covered by corporate and male-dominated media groups.

FIRST SUNDAYS
Comedy Film Festival

Sun Apr 10 7pm - buy tickets

First Sundays is a monthly festival featuring the best in short comedy films from around the world. Each screening features new films, audience and judges awards, and an after party sponsored by Stella Artois.

Visit the First Sundays website

Bizarro Mondays program

FearsMag presents

One Dark and Stormy Night

Mon Apr 11 7pm - buy tickets

This is a "Bizarro Monday" program. Every Monday at 7pm the Pioneer presents the finest (and trashiest) in horror, sci-fi, exploitation, martial arts, genre, b-movies, and z-movies.

IFP
BUZZCUTS

Tues Apr 12 7pm - buy tickets

Followed by beer and pizza reception, sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery.

A series of short films from filmmakers working with the Independent Feature Project.

Lower East Side Stories
(2004, 38 minutes)
Writer/Director: Liselle Mei

A day in the lives of four women of differing ages, each at an emotional transition, set in the same lower east side neighborhood on the same afternoon.

Extreme Mom
(2004, 17 minutes)
Writer/Director/Editor: Joyce Dragonosky

A woman struggling to take care of both her child and her Alzheimer-stricken mother is pushed to an emotional brink - and a decision.

Summer of the Serpent
(2004, 27 minutes)
Writer/Director/Producer: Kimi Takesue

A bored eight-year-old girl, spending the day at the local pool, is intrigued by a newcomer - a mysterious Japanese man – and her afternoon is transformed into an imaginative adventure.

NewFest presents

TURNED OUT:
Sexual Assault
Behind Bars

(dir. Jonathan Schwartz, 56 mins, 2004)

Wed Apr 13 7pm

WINNING GIRLS THROUGH PSYCHIC MIND CONTROL

(dir. Barry Alexander Brown, 93 mins, 2001)

Join us for "Mind Control Thursdays!"

Thurs Apr 14 7pm - sold out!
Thurs Apr 21 7pm - buy tickets
Thurs Apr 28 7pm - buy tickets
Thurs May 5 7pm - buy tickets
Thurs May 12 7pm - buy tickets

Stuck together in Holiday Inn hell, womanizing drummer Samuel Menendez and uptight loner/keyboard player Devon Sharpe are opposites that do not attract. But when Sam sends away for an audiotape that's supposed to teach him how to control women and instead begins to channel an enigmatic entity known as the Conductor, Devon sees an opportunity to advance their cause by working up a mentalist act. Unfortunately his attempts to pull the new act together are constantly disrupted by Sam and the Conductor, who have agendas of their own.

Butting heads at every turn, Devon and Sam reach for a piece of the pie and, along the way, are coerced into facing their true feelings about women, love and life. Alternately comic and tragic, WINNING GIRLS THROUGH PSYCHIC MIND CONTROL is the story of two people who, in reaching for success, stumble upon what it really means.

an afternoon with
RITA HAYWORTH

GILDA

(dir. Charles Vidor,
110 mins, 1946)

Sat Apr 16 5pm - buy tickets

"The sickest and weirdest bout of repressed love and hatred
(both hetero- and bisexual) you ever saw!"
- Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER

". . .has been known to provoke impure thoughts."
- Dave Kehr

GILDA is the film that gave the world the indelible image of Rita Hayworth in that tight gown, lovingly removing that long glove as she sings, "Put the Blame on Mame." That's enough to justify a viewing, but the film has more, including a bewitched, bothered, etc., performance by a never-better Glenn Ford. GILDA is an intricate noir in which Hayworth, as the titular femme fatale, is placed by her mobster club-owner husband in the care of Ford, a small-time hood who also happens to be her ex-lover.

an afternoon with
RITA HAYWORTH

LADY
FROM
SHANGHAI

(dir. Orson Welles, 87 mins, 1947)

Sat Apr 16 7:15pm - buy tickets

starring Rita Hayworth

also starring Orson Welles

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, an atmospheric film noir based on Sherwood King's novel IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE, features Orson Welles as producer, director, co-screenwriter, and star. Welles plays rogue seaman Michael O'Hara, complete with Irish brogue. After saving beautiful Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth) from thieves in Central Park, O'Hara is requested to serve on the yacht owned by Elsa's husband, Arthur (Welles veteran Everett Sloane), an older man who needs special crutches in order to walk. A fiery passion lurks underneath the relationship between Michael and Elsa; in actuality, the marriage between Welles and Hayworth was ending at the time the film was shot. Enter George Grisby (the eerie-sounding Glenn Anders), one of Bannister's associates and a man with a very special offer for O'Hara, luring him into a web of lies and murder.

Although Welles claimed he made THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI just to finance other projects and the film does not show off his typical Wellesian flair, it still plays like a classic noir that draws the viewer in and never lets go. The characters are complex and fascinating, and the tension runs high and hot as the truth behind all the lies starts to come out. The film is most famous for its thrilling climax, which takes place in a hall of mirrors. Welles might have considered THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI workmanlike, but this noir thriller is only as workmanlike as any Welles film can be.

BLANK
GENERATION

(dir. Amos Poe & Ivan Kral, 56 mins, 1976)

Sat Apr 16 10:40pm - buy tickets

IN COLD BLOOD

(dir. Richard Brooks, 134 mins, 1967)

Sun Apr 17 6:30pm - buy tickets
Sun Apr 24 6:30pm - buy tickets

Starring Robert Blake

"Sends shivers down the spine. . ."
- NY TIMES

Two young men are ineffectual individually, but when together become violent criminals. They break into a wealthy farmer's home only to find that there is nearly no money at the home and murder the entire family to avoid identification. The first part of the film details the search for them, the second, their trial and execution. Taken from the actual events chronicled by Truman Capote in his book.

Bizarro Mondays program

THE
HONEYMOON
KILLERS

(dir. Leonard Kastle, 108 mins, 1970)

Mon Apr 18 7pm - buy tickets

This is a "Bizarro Monday" program. Every Monday at 7pm the Pioneer presents the finest (and trashiest) in horror, sci-fi, exploitation, martial arts, genre, b-movies, and z-movies.

lovers! killers! siblings?

In this stark film based on the true-life Lonely Hearts murders of the late 1940s, handsome gigolo Ray Fernandez cons lonely women out of money with the promise of marriage. When he meets lonely nurse Martha Beck, the two find themselves actually falling in love. Posing as brother and sister, the duo cross the country swindling needy women and, when necessary, killing them. As their passions become more inflamed, their crime spree grows bloodier. A stark film featuring truly unique characters and fine performances.

Woodstock Film Festival
presents

LIBERIA

THE LOVE OF LIBERTY BROUGHT US HERE

(dir. Gerald K. Barclay, 90 mins, 2004)

Tues Apr 19 7pm - buy tickets

LOLA

(dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder,
113 mins, 1981)

Wed Apr 20 6:45pm - buy tickets

directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Germany in the autumn of 1957: Lola, a seductive cabaret singer-prostitute (Barbara Sukowa) exults in her power as a temptress of men, but she wants out—she wants money, property, and love. Pitting a corrupt building contractor (Mario Adorf) against the new straight-arrow building commissioner (Armin Mueller-Stahl), Lola launches an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything, and everyone, is for sale. (Janus Films / Criterion Collection)

DEAD AND BREAKFAST

(dir. Matthew Leutwyler, 88 mins, 2004)

Wed Apr 20 9pm - buy tickets
Thurs Apr 21 9pm - buy tickets
Fri Apr 22 9pm - buy tickets
Sat Apr 23 9pm - buy tickets
Sun Apr 24 9pm - buy tickets
Mon Apr 25 9pm - buy tickets
Tues Apr 26 9pm - buy tickets

An Anchor Bay Entertainment Release.

featuring
David Carradine

“Could be the US answer to SHAUN OF THE DEAD.”
- AIN’T IT COOL NEWS

“The work of die-hard horror fans... A horror movie that every horror fan should see.”
- RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE

“The blood and guts of ‘Dead & Breakfast’ conjure memories of Peter Jackson’s earlier works. . .It’s a bloody good time.”
- FILM THREAT MAGAZINE

"A way-over-the-top parody that aims to be as comically direct as a homemade shotgun."
- BOSTON GLOBE

Six friends on their way to a wedding stop for the night at a quaint bed and breakfast. But when the bed and breakfast's owner, and his chef, wind up dead, the local sheriff suspects our gang of friends. The mystery quickly unravels, as evil spirits come out to play, and our friends defend themselves with a rusty chainsaw, a can of gasoline, and a half box of shotgun shells.

THE CRIMSON KIMONO

(dir. Samuel Fuller, 82 mins, 1959)

Fri Apr 22 7pm - buy tickets
Fri Apr 29 7pm - buy tickets

week-long opening

AFTER THE
APOCALYPSE

(dir. Yasuaki Nakajima,
72 mins, 2004)

Sat Apr 23 4:45pm - buy tickets

"Gorgeous, conveying a world similar to that of Lynch’s ERASERHEAD."
- Eric Campos, FILM THREAT

"A surprisingly engaging ride. . . The virtuoso cinematography evokes a stark, perpetual dawn. . . as an experiment in regressive playfulness, it delivers nicely, with inspiration coming from Aki Kaurismäki's JUHA."
- David Ng, VILLAGE VOICE (read the full review here)

"Despite its spasms of brutality and a swerve into the macabre, AFTER THE APOCALYPSE is, by comparison with more recent films of this type (the "Mad Max" series), gentle at heart and terribly sincere."
- Manohla Dargis, NY TIMES

Official Selection of over 30 film festivals around the globe

AFTER THE APOCALYPSE is a futuristic fable about five survivors trying to make sense of a New World after a devastating urban catastrophe challenges all their human needs.

The film is set in a bleak, post-urban landscape in the aftermath of the Third World War. It is a strangely limited environment where a single woman and four men are forced to communicate without words as a result of the destructive gasses from the war. Their pasts were erased by the war, they must recreate their lives individually and collectively.

Co-sponsored by Asian CineVision (ACV). ACV is a New York-based non-profit media arts organization established in 1976. ACV is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Asian and Asian American media expressions. www.asiancinevision.org.

View the trailer - Visit the film's website

HUSBANDS

(dir. John Cassavetes, 154 mins, 1970)

Sat Apr 23 6pm - buy tickets
Sat Apr 30 3pm - buy tickets

THE EVIL DEAD

(dir. Sam Raimi, 85 mins, 1981)

Sat Apr 23 10:30pm - buy tickets

Bizarro Mondays program

DISAVOWAL

(dir. Matt Maniac, 78 mins, 2004)

Mon Apr 25 7pm - buy tickets

This is a "Bizarro Monday" program. Every Monday at 7pm the Pioneer presents the finest (and trashiest) in horror, sci-fi, exploitation, martial arts, genre, b-movies, and z-movies.

When Renee, an attractive classmate, asks him to participate in a group project things start to change.

George finds himself embarking on an empty quest to which he intends to find the answers to many questions; one of which being, why are we so disillusioned about ourselves?

CINEWOMEN NY presents

COMMUNICATION:

It’s Not Always Easy

Tues Apr 26 7pm - buy tickets

Cinewomen NY website

Followed by beer and pizza reception, sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery.

a program of short films from filmmakers working with Cinewomen, New York.

ROOM FOR ONE 14 mins. Ambika Samarthya
A dashing hero, a sleazy cop, and a wet sari , a Bollywood film does not make - or does it? Room for One explores the dynamics of egos and desires on and off set in Bombay, India.

ON THE CLIFFS 15 mins Lisa M. Perry
Best friends Penelope and Dora are the producers, stars of a local cable access show. Devoted to staging classics based on Cliffs Notes, problems arise when interpretating George Orwell's Animal Farm. This mockumentary follows the friends as they deconstruct the plot and each other.

MENAGE a TROIS 15 mins. Kimberly M. Wetherell
Brandon intends to spend a romantic day with his girlfriend, Lindsay, before he leaves for Paris. But his plan backfires, as their final day together becomes one long tussle between Brandon and her cell phone, each vying for Lindsay’s undivided attention.

HOW I LEARNED TO SPEAK TURKISH/ 15 mins. Therese Schechter
Chronicles one American woman's obsession with Turkish men. Her attempts to understand their language, culture and psyche leads to a revealing exploration of cultural cliches, the 'exotic other' and the aphrodisiacal qualities of a potential US visa.

FROZEN RIVER 15 mins Courtney Hunt
America's porous borders are a top priority when it comes to homeland security these days: who's coming in and do we want them. But in this story, which takes place at a little known border crossing through Mohawk territory between New York State and Québec, two women smugglers -- one white and one Mohawk -- are confronted with a different kind of dilemma when, after crossing the border with two Pakistani illegals in the trunk, they realize that they have left behind a bag containing a Pakistani infant.

EVERY DOG'S DAY

(dir. Andy Biscontini, 70 mins, 2004)

Weds Apr 27 7pm - buy tickets

A parable about a group of hustlers vying for action on a green-card scam involving a singing shirt-manufacturing heir frames a loose tumble through the funny side of Brooklyn's waning Bohemian dystopia.

CASUISTRY:
The Art of Killing a Cat

(dir. Zev Asher, 91 mins, 2004)

Wed Apr 27 9pm - buy tickets
Thurs Apr 28 9pm - buy tickets
Fri Apr 29 9pm - buy tickets
Sat Apr 30 9pm - buy tickets
Sun May 1 9pm - buy tickets
Mon May 2 9pm - buy tickets
Tues May 3 9pm - buy tickets

ca·su·ist·ry
noun. plural: ca·sui·ist·ries

1. Specious or excessively subtle reasoning intended to rationalize or mislead.
2. The determination of right and wrong in questions of conduct or conscience by analyzing cases that illustrate general ethical rules.

Artist and former vegetarian Jesse Power attempted to shock his artworld audience with unsettling images intended to make them question his motives. One Friday night in May 2001, Power and friends Reyan Wennekers and Matthew Kaczorowski joined forces to torture and kill a living cat. The intention was to make a video protesting the unthinking killing and consumption of factory-bred animals, by performing similar actions upon a cherished domestic pet, the cat. High on hallucinogens, the trio made a torturous ordeal of the cat's murder while every moment was caught on videotape. Alerted by an outraged roommate, police found the skinned and decapitated cat in the upstairs beer fridge. Power and Wennekers were arrested, while the police seized dozens of videotapes and most of Power's artwork. Although no one had seized the tape, wild rumors quickly spread about an animal serial killer who had skinned a cat alive.

With perspectives conspicuously absent from the media and public outcry, CASUISTRY: THE ART OF KILLING A CAT tells the story of an ill-conceived art project gone dreadfully wrong. The participants discuss what led to the grisly crime, and the aftermath that rippled through their lives. Through a memorial campaign for the cat - posthumously named "Kensington" - animal rights activists doggedly pursue Power. Activists, lawyers, law enforcements officers, and the media present conflicting interpretations of the crime. Excerpts from Power's previous videos provide a further gruesome context to this unsettling documentary portrait of art, justice, and the Canadian way.

Pioneer Late Nights

COWARDS BEND THE KNEE

(dir. Guy Maddin, 60 mins, 2003)

Sat Apr 30 10:40pm - buy tickets

"Maddin’s masterpiece!" (J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE)

“Might be Maddin’s masterwork!” (NY PRESS)

"There is something rather splendid about this extended-play peep show, as if Mr. Maddin had stumbled across a hitherto lost archive of cinema's less-than-innocent past.” (NEW YORK TIMES)

“One of the ten best films of the year! A feverish, hilarious exercise in self-flagellating mythomania.”
(Dennis Lim, THE VILLAGE VOICE)

A masterstroke from goofy Canadian cineaste Guy Maddin, director of THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD and DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN’S DIARY.

Adapted from a ten-part peephole installation, COWARDS BEND THE KNEE is, in the words of Mark Peranson, “jam-packed with enough kinetically photographed action to seem like a never-ending cliffhanger. . .In this twisted and poisoned wish-fulfillment, the mythomaniacal Maddin casts ‘himself’ (actually, Darcy Fehr) as a hockey sniper made lily-livered by mother and daughter femme fatales, and resurrects his father as the team’s radio broadcaster and his own romantic antagonist. Set in a shadow-suffused hockey arena and a Mabuse-like beauty salon-slash-abortion clinic, the plot drips with Grecian formula, as sordid family secrets spawn unintentional murder most foul.”

A Zeitgeist Films Release.