Slamdance presents

THE OTHER AMERICA

Tues Nov 1 7pm - buy tix

(dir. Eugene Martin, 83 mins, 2005)

A Tuesdays@7 program. Every Tuesday at 7pm features special guests presenting their film, and is followed by a beer and pizza reception for ticket holders, sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery.

The Slamdance Film Festival presents a highlight from their 2005 festival.

The director and Slamdance staff will attend the screening.

The story is centered on Ari, a homeless urban teenager. It is a coming of age story in the context of poverty, disillusionment, and the failure of the American dream to embrace perceived outsiders. This story is about the real hopes and dreams of American kids' lives. A budding graffiti artist, Ari secretly calls himself Shelter Boy. At the same time that Ari is dealing with being homeless, he writes to another school boy who he dubs Rural Boy. Through their interactions, Ari discovers that Rural Boy wants to bring a gun to school, and that he too, feels isolated and ashamed of who he is.

Ari’s closest friend at school, Jackie, discovers she is attracted to Ari and wants to become closer to him. Ari is attracted to Cassie, another girl at school who wants to become an actor. Ari sees Cassie in an audition, and copies her telephone number from a sign up sheet. This starts a series of events that leads to all three characters realizing they are keeping their most personal secrets from one another.

DREAMING OF TIBET

(dir. Will Parrinello, 2005)

Tues Nov 1 9pm - buy tix

featuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama

*Amnesty International Film Festival Audience Award Winner

*2005 Screening for the Congressional Human Rights Caucus

"...a moving documentary." - OAKLAND TRIBUNE

"...an intimate portrait." - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

featuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Author/Climber Jon Krakauer, with appearances by actors Richard Gere and Goldie Hawn.

In isolated communities around the world, Tibetan exiles have created a 'virtual Tibet,' where they have endured and even flourished in the face of overwhelming adversity. DREAMING OF TIBET follows their arduous journeys from Tibet into exile over a 19,000 foot Himalayan pass. It's a flight that the Dalai Lama took in 1958 and over 150,000 of his followers have taken since then. This intimate documentary is about the resilience of the human spirit under the most dire circumstances. The film looks at the lives of three extraordinary Tibetan exiles who have survived in exile and are deeply involved in working for the survival of their culture.

VISIONING TIBET

(dir. Isaac Solotaroff 2005)

Weds Nov 2 9pm - buy tix

"Vividly portrays a miraculous project in Tibet...a tremendously worthwhile film..."
-the Dalai Lama

VISIONING TIBET chronicles the passion of ophthalmologist Marc Lieberman, the founder of the Tibet Vision Project. His mission: to end preventable blindness in Tibet — which has the highest rate of untreated cataract blindness in the world — by 2020. Bringing light where there was once darkness, Lieberman's work has been recognized by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, which named him 2003 Humanitarian of the Year. The film is built around the stories of two of Tibetans — Karma (a farmer from a small village in Northern Tibet) and Lhasang (patriarch of a nomadic family from the Tibetan plains) — who make the arduous journey to a remote clinic in the hopes of having their sight restored by Tibetan doctors trained by Lieberman.

LGBT Wednesday

Newfest presents

MR. LEATHER

(dir. Jason Garrett, 70 mins, 2004)

preceded by
ROLLS RAZOR GARDEN

(dir. Scott Westphal-Solary, 5 mins, 2004)

Weds Nov 2 7pm - buy tix

An LGBT Wednesdays program. At 7pm on the First Two Wednesdays of every month, NewFest presents highlights from their festival. Other Wednesdays at 7pm often also feature LGBT programming.

NewFest LGBT Film Festival presents highlights from their 2005 festival.

ROLLS RAZOR GARDEN:
The fetishization of a grooming ritual.

MR. LEATHER:
Films about the leather community are few and far between – especially ones as engaging and enjoyable as Mr Leather. Jason Garrett’s debut feature documentary is an in-depth look at the lives of today’s leathermen and the world of Leather Contests. Mr Leather goes behind the scenes of the largest leather event on the West Coast, Mr LA Leather, following nine contestants in their quest to win the title and to represent the LA leather community. The diversity of the hopefuls underscores the inclusive nature of the often-misunderstood subculture, united in their love of leather, kink, and community.

Doors Art Foundation presents films from Croatia

A WONDERFUL NIGHT IN SPLIT

(dir. Arsen-Anton Ostojic, 100 mins, 2004)
Croatian with English subtitles
35mm print

Thurs Nov 3 7pm - buy tix

At 7pm on the First Thursday of the month, the Doors Art Foundation presents a film from Croatia. Other Thursdays at 7pm often feature programming presented with other ethnic and cultural groups.

Featuring the European acting debut of American rapper Coolio
with Dino Dvornik, Mladen Vulic, Marinko Prga, Marija Skaricic, Vicko Bilandzic, Nives Ivankovic, Ivana Roscic

2005 Venice Film Festival Special Screening
Award-winner at the Black Sea Int'l Film Festival, Romania, August 2005

Official Croatian entry for the Best Foreign Language Fim at the 78th Annual Academy Awards

Artfully photographed in black-and-white, this low budget film narrates the last two hours in the lives of three couples before the New-Years-Eve fireworks in Split. The smalltime drug dealer Nike has just abandoned his mother and widow Maria to go to Germany with a shipment of drugs – a plan that fatally backfires. Maja, who urgently needs money for her next fix, is supposed to prostitute herself with the dejected US-Marine Franky (played by Coolio). And the teenagers Luka and Angela want to lose their virginity under the influence of LSD before midnight. A smart screenplay ties all three stories into an expertly made film noir.

Feature Presentation

DERAILROADED:
Inside the Mind of Wild Man Fischer

(dir. Josh Rubin, 86 mins, 2005)

Thurs Nov 3 9pm - buy tix
Fri Nov 4 9pm - buy tix
Sat Nov 5 9pm - buy tix
Sun Nov 6 9pm - buy tix
Mon Nov 7 9pm - buy tix
Tues Nov 8 9pm - buy tix
Weds Nov 9 9pm - buy tix
Thurs Nov 10 7pm - buy tix

Starring: Wild Man Fischer, Frank Zappa, Weird Al Yankovic, Barnes and Barnes, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, Dr. Demento, Solomon Burke, Gail Zappa.

"As discomfortingly fascinating as listening to a couple's heated argument at a table near yours in a restaurant."
- Variety

"Brilliantly reflects the warped, fractured chapters of Fischer's unique life story. . .one of the best documentaries of recent years. . .an unusually intimate look at how we use art to channel our darkest, most disturbing human tendencies. 4 1/2 Stars."
- Film Threat

de·rail·road·ed (di ral’rod ed) pt., a neologism; one man’s psycholinguistic and schizo-musical metaphor for derailed, to have caused a train, mind or life to go off the tracks

A shocking and sensitive 86-minute journey through the mind of paranoid-schizophrenic musician Larry “Wild Man” Fischer, an underground club and concert favorite discovered by Frank Zappa. Institutionalized at 16 after attacking his mother with a knife, Fischer busked on the streets of L.A. until he was discovered by Zappa, with whom he cut his first record album – though they later parted ways quite violently. Over the course of 40 years, he appeared on national television (Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in) and the Top 50 music charts in England, was the subject of his own comic book, was the first artist to be recorded on Rhino Records, and sang a duet with the late Rosemary Clooney. Get to know the man who became known as “godfather of outsider music” through extensive archival footage from Fischer’s early days and interviews with those close to him, including including Frank and Gail Zappa, Weird Al Yankovic, Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, Solomon Burke, Dr. Demento, and Billy Mumy. Original music by Wild Man Fischer.

BOWERY DISH

(dir. Kevin R. Frech, 60 mins, 2004)

Fri Nov 4 7pm - buy tix

“It’s a great story, and a fascinating look, for New Yorkers, at the process of eroding middle-income housing in New York.”
- www.aint-it-cool-news.com

Once infamous for dirty flophouses, addicted men, armed gangs, and violent bars, the Bowery has become a neighborhood of hip restaurants and million dollar lofts. BOWERY DISH captures this volatile transformation in a lively and entertaining, as well as informative, manner.

“. . .[H]old out instead for BOWERY DISH, a documentary by Kevin Frech, and watch the gentrification of New York’s Skid Row neighborhood. Wax nostaglic about the pre-Giuliani days of drug infested flophouses and violent bars. Then go out for a $12 martini and complain about soaring rent prices in Manhattan.”
- NY OBSERVER

Pioneer Late Nights

NIGHT OF THE DAY OF THE DAWN OF THE SON OF THE BRIDE OF THE RETURN OF THE REVENGE OF THE TERROR OF THE ATTACK OF THE EVIL, MUTANT, ALIEN, FLESH-EATING, HELLBOUND, ZOMBIFIED LIVING DEAD PART 2: IN SHOCKING 2-D

(dir. Jim Riffel, etc., 90 mins, 1991, etc.)

Fri Nov 4 10:45pm - buy tix
Fri Nov 11 10:45pm - buy tix
Fri Nov 18 10:45pm - buy tix

Coming Up Short:
Young Women

Presented by the NYC Women in Media Coalition

Sat Nov 5 6:30pm - buy tix

Pioneer Late Nights

SONG OF THE DEAD

(dir. Chip Gubera, 96 mins, 2005)

Sat Nov 5 10:45pm - buy tix

Zombie Parade, the Pioneer's multicultural Zombie retrospective, continues!

“Gilbert and Sullivan meet Romero and Argento in the zombie musical SONG OF THE DEAD. The filmmakers do a fantastic job of weaving and intertwining the traditional elements of the zombie film and the musical.”
- Joe Hodes, Playback STL Magazine

". . .like the bastard child of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and CATS.”
- Brenden Clawson, VOX MAGAZINE

Zombie-Musical! Horror and Camp-Comedy! Yes - where dancing undead finally meet a rock-opera score. Across America, the accidentally released Jihad Resurrection Virus seeps into the pores of the dead, transforming corpses into flesh-devouring zombies. The network news reports and government officials are vague about the circumstances, and the President (REGGIE BANNISTER, of Phantasm films and Bubba Ho-Tep) calls upon Americans to unite and resist this treacherous “terrorist attack.” One family struggles to cope while battling these bloody, malevolent zombie terrorists! Song and dance numbers come together with gore, humor, and political satire in SONG OF THE DEAD.

Sunday Shorts

Chicago City Limits First Sundays Comedy Films

First Sundays

Sun Nov 6 7pm - buy tix

filmmakers & special guests will attend!

A Sunday Shorts program. In the early evening on many Sundays, the Pioneer presents programs of short films.

Part stand-up comedy act, part film festival, part party, 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

Monster Monday!
Fangoria presents

BOO!

(dir. Anthony C. Ferrante, 93 mins, 2004)
35mm print!

Mon Nov 7 7pm - buy tix

A Bizarro Monday program. Every Monday at 7pm the Pioneer presents the finest (and trashiest) in horror, sci-fi, freakshow, exploitation, martial arts, genre, b-movies, z-movies, and just plain weird stuff.

IFP BUZZCUTS

Tues Nov 8 7pm - buy tix

A Tuesdays@7 program. Every Tuesday at 7pm features special guests presenting their film, and is followed by a beer and pizza reception for ticket holders, sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery.

The Independent Feature Project presents a program of short films.

LGBT Wednesday

Newfest presents

STRAIGHT ACTING
(dir. Spencer Windes, 56 mins, 2004)

preceded by
MORMOR'S VISIT
(dir. Casper Andreas, 16 mins, 2005)

Weds Nov 9 7pm - buy tix

An LGBT Wednesdays program. At 7pm on the First Two Wednesdays of every month, NewFest presents highlights from their festival. Other Wednesdays at 7pm often also feature LGBT programming.

NewFest LGBT Film Festival presents a highlight from their 2005 festival.

MORMOR'S VISIT:
A young man living in NYC is surprised by a visit from his lovable Swedish grandmother.

STRAIGHT ACTING:
Gay men and contact sports? Two concepts at odds? Director Spencer Windes leaves the closet behind for the rugby pitch, the rodeo circuit, and the hockey rink, meeting other men who defy both gay culture and straight expectations to demonstrate that there’s more that unites us than divides us.

Feature Presentation

LA SIERRA

(dir. Scott Dalton and Margarita Martinez, 84 mins, 2005)

Thurs Nov 10 9pm - buy tix
Fri Nov 11 9pm - buy tix
Sat Nov 12 9pm - buy tix
Sun Nov 13 9pm - buy tix
Mon Nov 14 9pm - buy tix
Tues Nov 15 9pm - buy tix
Weds Nov 16 9pm - buy tix
Thurs Nov 17 7pm - buy tix
Fri Nov 18 7pm - buy tix
Sat Nov 19 4:15pm - buy tix
Sun Nov 20 5:15pm - buy tix
Mon Nov 21 5:15pm - buy tix
Tues Nov 22 5:15pm - buy tix

A First Run/Icarus Films Release
in association with
Cinema Tropical

"An intimate, powerfully disturbing look at the violent barrios of Medellin, Colombia, where baby-faced youths tote guns, commit murder and snort cocaine with a live-fast-die-young abandon. Sobering stuff you'll likely never forget."
- LA WEEKLY

"Two filmmakers have captured the tragic, but human side of Colombia's paramilitary fighters."
- NY TIMES

"Astounding!"
- Toronto EYE

"Essential viewing!"
- VILLAGE VOICE

Slamdance Film Festival * Human Rights Watch International Film Festival

The award-winning documentary LA SIERRA traces a year in the life of a neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia ruled by a paramilitary gang. The film follows the lives of three young people: Edison, the charismatic leader of the gang and playboy who has fathered six children with six different woman; Cielo, a teenage widowed mother with a paramilitary boyfriend in jail, trying to survive without falling into prostitution; and Jesus, a young gang member whose readiness for death fuses with his indulgence for drugs. An intimate, meditative exploration, LA SIERRA captures both startling moments of violence and its aftermath, and the tenderness and faith that enables a community to survive.

The Gary Ray Show

Fri Nov 11 7pm - buy tix

HARLAN COUNTY, USA

Sat Nov 12 4pm

(dir. Barbara Kopple, 103 mins, 1976)

$10 donation requested at the door. Donation goes directly and completely to the 47 East Third Street Tenants' Association.

For the past two years, East Village tenants at 47 East Third Street have been waging a legal battle against mass eviction with a landlord who claims to want to turn their 15 unit apartment building into a mansion for himself. The landlord is using a loophole under the rent stabilization law for “owner use” in an attempt to empty out the entire building. The tenants believe this action is a scam and an illegal assault on affordable housing in New York City. The tenants have so far shouldered the legal costs almost entirely themselves. This screening is in support of their struggle to keep their homes.

Winner of the 1977 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, this film chronicles the bitter and violent struggle waged by coal miners during a strike in 1973 in Eastern Kentucky against the Eastover Mining Company. The story focuses on the miners and their families’ fight for decent living standards in an area where many still live in shacks with no indoor plumbing and work at jobs with little security and dangerous conditions. The film was named by Congress to the National Film Registry, designating it an "official" American film classic.

New 35mm print!

Paul Garrin:
BE THE MEDIA
an illustrated lecture

Sat Nov 12 7pm - buy tix

From the "camcorder revolution" to the "digital convergence" independent media has been on the rise. Despite the push for media diversity and independence through the growth of the Internet and digital technologies, most alternative media producers are still merely consumers of corporate controlled services, thereby unwittingly supporting the very "corporate media" they oppose. New developments in technology and changes in FCC regulations present an opportunity to overcome the "last mile" monopoly that enables large corporations to control local media infrastructure. Artist and Digital Media Pioneer Paul Garrin will present his vision of how citizen producers can have a stake in media infrastructure while bypassing corporate dominance over media means and content.

Paul is an East Village visionary: come and learn from him!

More about Paul Garrin
Some Paul Garrin-affiliated projects: NameSpace - Free.The.Media - WiFi NY

COOKERS

(dir. Dan Mintz, 96 mins, 2001)

Sat Nov 12 11pm

buy tickets at door,
day of show

Is the evil waiting outside worse than what lurks within?

Crystal Meth + A Haunted House = COOKERS

At first it seems that crystal meth-addicts Hector and Derena have reached rock bottom. Willing to break the law by stealing drugs and planning to sell them, the two addicts head to their friend Merl's abandoned house in the woods. All alone, they think they are safe to cook up a major batch of crystal meth that will fill their wallets for months.

Sunday Shorts

Coming Up Short:
Global Women

Sun Nov 13 6:30pm - buy tix

filmmakers & special guests will attend!

A Sunday Shorts program. In the early evening on many Sundays, the Pioneer presents programs of short films.

WHEN THE STORM CAME (dir. Shilpi Gupta)
When the Storm Came is a short documentary profiling Kunnan Pushpora, a village in Indian-Administered Kashmir. Through evocative interviews, the film reconstructs the night of February 23, 1991, when villagers say they were victims of a mass rape at the hands of Indian security forces. When the Storm Came tells the intimate story of a few of the victims and depicts the impact the rape continues to have on the community over a decade later. The film culminates with a stark reminder of the universality of rape as a 'weapon' in conflict across the globe, persisting throughout time. Filmmaker will be available for Q&A after the screening.

SADAA E ZAN (dir. Renee Bergan)
Filmed in March 2002, Sadaa E Zan collects the voices of several Afghan women living in Kabul, Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan. In a land where 50% of women are widows and nearly everyone has lost a family member, these brave women of all ages, recount their struggles and victories from living under twenty three years of war. From the Soviet invasion to the Civil War to the extremist Taliban, women were always the first victims. With the Taliban now gone, Afghanistan finally finds itself with the possibility of peace. But will it last? This, they believe, is in the hands of the international community. Finally, these women have a way to voice their concerns.

Bizarro Monday!

THE TINGLER

(dir. William Castle, 82 mins, 1959)
beautiful 35mm print

Mon Nov 14 7pm - buy tix

A Bizarro Monday program. Every Monday at 7pm the Pioneer presents the finest (and trashiest) in horror, sci-fi, freakshow, exploitation, martial arts, genre, b-movies, z-movies, and just plain weird stuff.

Scream for your life!

Starring Vincent Price!

** WARNING! A TINGLER HAS RECENTLY BEEN SPOTTED WITHIN THE PIONEER THEATER. ATTEND AT YOUR OWN PERIL! **

Vincent Price stars as Dr. Chapin, a scientist who discovers a caterpillarlike parasite that grows in the human spine when someone is afraid and that, unless they scream, can grow large enough to kill them. He solemnly dubs this creature the Tingler. Philip Coolidge plays the owner of a nearby cinema who befriends the doctor and whose deaf-mute wife suddenly receives all sorts of shocks, like the sight of a bathtub full of blood with a hand reaching out from it. Since she can't scream, she dies, and Chapin gets his hands on her oversize tingler. When it eventually escapes inside the movie theater, the film within the film, and then the film itself, stops for an announcement from Price, out of character, urging the audience to scream their heads off.

Woodstock in the City

Tues Nov 15 7pm - buy tix

A Tuesdays@7 program. Every Tuesday at 7pm features special guests presenting their film, and is followed by a beer and pizza reception for ticket holders, sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery.

The Woodstock Film Festival and Reel Works Teen Filmmaking presents:

The Best of The Lab 2005
an evening of extraordinary short documentaries produced by NYC teens

The Lab, supported by HBO, is a four-time Emmy award winning youth media program that challenges teens to create short films about their lives.

Powerful, personal and uncensored, the films of The Lab take us inside the real life challenges teens face every day. Stories about racism, teen pregnancy and depression. Stories of love and survival. With courage, artistry, and great storytelling, our young filmmakers break down the wall between the neighborhood and New York City.

If you ever wondered whether or not teens today had powerful and profound things to say about the world, listen to the stories of The Lab.

more info about the lab
more info about Woodstock Film Festival year round events

Feature Presentation

ARISTIDE and the Endless Revolution

(dir. Nicolas Rossier, 83 mins, 2005)

Thurs Nov 17 9pm - SOLD OUT
Fri Nov 18 9pm - SOLD OUT
Sat Nov 19 9pm - SOLD OUT
Sun Nov 20 9pm - almost sold out
Mon Nov 21 9pm - SOLD OUT
Tues Nov 22 9pm - SOLD OUT
guests:
- Danny Glover, actor and Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations
- Margaret L. Satterthwaite, Head of Research / Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, NYU School of Law

Wed Nov 23 9pm - SOLD OUT
guests:
- Doctor Marise Narcisse, Official Representative of President Aristide
- Kim Ives, Journalist & Editor, Haiti Progress

Fri Nov 25 5:30pm - almost sold out
Sat Nov 26 5:15pm - SOLD OUT
Sun Nov 27 7:15pm - buy tix
Fri Dec 2 5pm - buy tix
Sat Dec 3 2:45pm - buy tix
Sat Dec 3 7:15pm - buy tix
Sun Dec 4 5:15pm - buy tix
Sun Dec 11 5:15pm - buy tix

“Informative and very moving. An excellent film about the sad recent poltical history of Haiti that not only provides a rich, well-detailed context for understanding the rise and fall and rise and fall of Aristide but also offers a provocative meditation of the role of outside, especially American, forces and interests in his tumultuous career.”
- Richard Peña, Program Director, Film Society of Lincoln Center

Participants: Danny Glover, Paul Farmer, Noam Chomksy, Jean Bertrand Aristide, Maxine Waters, and many more. . .

An hour south of Miami, the elected president of the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation has twice been forced from office with the complicity of the international community. ARISTIDE and the Endless Revolution investigates the tragic events that led to the second violent expulsion of Jean Bertrand Aristide from Haiti. This documentary reveals the tangled web of hope, deceit, and political violence that has brought the world's first black republic to its knees. Filmmaker Nicolas Rossier (BROTHERS AND OTHERS) travels to Haiti, Pretoria, Boston, Miami, New-York and Barbados to investigate the events that led to the collapse of Aristide' s government.

Present your membership card from any of following organizations to receive member price admissions: Docuclub, Film Video Arts (FVA), Docuclub, IFP

UNDERCOVER MAN

(dir. Sherman Jones, Kenya Cagle, Gail Rorant, 159 mins, 2005)

Sat Nov 19 6pm - buy tix

A woman gets away with murder

A woman who got away with murder decides to sue the agency that pursued her case. Diana LaCharm, a black business woman, is investigated for throwing her business partner out of a 17th floor window. During the course of the investigation, she becomes romantically involved with the lead undercover investigator. Unbeknownst to the undercover agent, their affair is secretly recorded. He denies this during the trial until she produces the tapes. The case is immediately thrown out and Diana is released.

The agency is in a fight for survival as she initiates a civil suit. The agency decides to reinvestigate the charges. The agency's best investigators seem to not be able to get anything on her. The lawsuit commences. Dark secrets start to unveil about the different agency heads and Diana LaCharm herself. The professionalism of the agency suffers. Street tactics are used as they attempt to destroy each other.

DEEP THROAT

(dir. Gerard Damiano, 61 mins, 1972)

Sat Nov 19 10:45pm - buy tix
Fri Nov 25 10:45pm - buy tix

The movie that changed the film industry (probably for the worse)

How far does a girl have to go to untangle her tingle?

Linda, frustrated that her hugely energetic sex life leaves her unsatisfied, seeks medical help. The doctor informs her that the reason for her problem is that her clitoris is mistakenly located at the back of her throat - but there is a very simple remedy, which the doctor, and various other men, proceed to demonstrate. . .

Sunday Shorts

Tank Film Shorts

Sun Nov 20 7pm - buy tix

filmmakers & special guests will attend!

A Sunday Shorts program. In the early evening on many Sundays, the Pioneer presents programs of short films.

The filmmakers - and other cool people - from the Tank offer their good taste, and their short film program of new films from emerging NYC filmmakers.

Bizarro Monday!

SIMULTANEOUSLY COINCIDENTAL

(dir. Scott M. Phillips, 72 mins, 2005)

Mon Nov 21 7pm - buy tix

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

Cinewomen NY presents

The Mosaic of Biography

co-sponsored by
Women Make Movies

Tues Nov 22 7pm - buy tix

A Tuesdays@7 program. Every Tuesday at 7pm features special guests presenting their film, and is followed by a beer and pizza reception for ticket holders, sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery.

Dreams Of Jogadina
directed by Nora Malone - 29 minutes
A portrait scripted from the experiences of Serbian émigré Suzana Jeremic, Dreams of Jagodina merges experimental dreamlike visuals and documentary storytelling to intimately explore the mother-daughter relationship within the context of domestic violence. Using the motif of Suzana’s vivid, recurring nightmares, her haunting family history unfolds.

She makes passionate attempts to end her family’s suffering but when on the verge of womanhood, she must make the most difficult decision of her life: to assume the role of victim in keeping her family legacy, or to strike out on her own to create a life that is different.

Another Brother
directed by Tami Gold - 60 minutes
A moving biographical portrait of one ordinary yet extraordinary man, Clarence Fitch. An African American veteran of the Vietnam War, Clarence was like many veterans in the hardships he endured -- racism, poverty, substance abuse, and HIV/AIDS -- yet uncommon in his ability to transform these experiences through a life of political activism.

In telling Clarence's gripping personal story, the film provides a unique window onto the Vietnam War, racism in America, and a host of social problems which have ravaged America for the past three decades. The film is narrated chiefly by Clarence in an audio taped interview by William Short, a fellow Vietnam veteran, before Clarence's death from AIDS.

A MOST PARTICULARLY PECULIAR BANK HEIST

(dir. Ms. Divine, 58 mins, 2005)

Weds Nov 23 7pm - buy tix

For more info visit www.msdivine.net

"Give me back my freedom! Give me back my cocaine!"

A lonely young girl is tired from the routine of a meaningless corporate job, and drained from the narrow minded mentality of humans born to follow. Her sorrows instantly vanish when a peculiar puppet comes to life and befriends her. The duo soon plans a daring bank robbery.

However, the puppet's weakness for nachos causes their plan to go awry. Now, they have to escape the wrath of a sadistic member of the Russian Mafia who poses as a super in the very same building that she lives in. And to make matters worse, the puppet is kidnapped by a crazy Army General, Ox Malford who is determined to spread freedom and democracy to anyone and anything in his way.

Things get even more complicated when Mr. Weird Man, who happens to live in the same building, complains to the crazy Russian Mafia super about a leaky ceiling.

Will our favorite loony characters get out of this scrape in one piece? Watch this zany adventure unravel and let out a few laughs in the middle of the excitement. Director creator, Ms. Divine brings each cartoon character to life in this one lady sketch comedy film.

Feature Presentation

MY BIG FAT INDEPENDENT MOVIE

(dir. Philip Zlotorynski, 80 mins, 2004)

Fri Nov 25 9pm - buy tix
Sat Nov 26 9pm - buy tix
Sun Nov 27 9pm - buy tix
Mon Nov 28 9pm - buy tix
Tues Nov 29 9pm - buy tix
Weds Nov 30 9pm - buy tix
Thurs Dec 1 5pm - buy tix
Fri Dec 2 7pm - buy tix

THE LOW BROW COMEDY FOR THE HIGH BROW CROWD!

BLAZING SADDLES did it to the Western. AIRPLANE did it to the Disaster Flick. SCARY MOVIE did it to the Horror Film. NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE did it to the, uh, Teen Movie. And now, it’s time for "Independent Films" to get what they’ve got comin’ to ‘em.

MY BIG FAT INDEPENDENT MOVIE is a feature comedy that includes spoofs of some of that paradoxical place, the high profile "independent" film world's most sacred cows movies, such as MEMENTO, PULP FICTION, MAGNOLIA, MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, AMELIE, RUN LOLA RUN, EL MARIACHI, THE GOOD GIRL, PI, SWINGERS, and many others.

The story follows Johnny Vince (Darren Keefe), a hipper-than-thou swingin’ hepcat and trombone player. Two talkative hitmen, Sam (Neil Barton) and Harvey (Eric Hoffman), mistakenly believe Johnny to be the third member of their gang, assembled by their evil crime boss to pull a "botched robbery" in Las Vegas. Along the way, they take a beautiful hostage – the lovely, desperate and lonely cashier Julianne (Paget Brewster). Little do they know that she will forever change their pathetic lives.

During the journey our foursome encounter their share of freaks including a bald genius, a forgetful thug, a jogging red-head, a well-dressed mechanic, a bound and gagged girl, rabbis on a mission, Pete Jones, and lots of lesbians. As in many of sacred cow "indie" films, they form an unlikely bond. Hilarity ensues. As does violence.

WHERE IS THE FRIEND'S HOME?

(dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 85 mins, 1987)

Fri Nov 25 7:15pm - buy tix

AND LIFE GOES ON
(LIFE AND NOTHING MORE)

(dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 108 mins, 1992)

Sat Nov 26 7pm - buy tix

Abbas Kiarostami x 2

rediscover two classics from the great Iranian filmmaker

WHERE IS THE FRIEND'S HOME?
"a visually gripping travelogue in which the more the director is thwarted, the more his journey acquires metaphoric weight."
- Stephen Holden, NY TIMES

"a sustained meditation on singular landscapes and the way ordinary people live in them; an obsessional quest that takes on the contours of a parable; a concentrated inquiry that raises more questions than it answers; and a comic as well as cosmic poem."
- Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER

Ahmed, an eight-year-old boy, desperately hunts through two tiny Iranian villages trying to return a notebook to his classmate, who will be expelled from school if the book is not returned. WHERE IS THE FRIEND'S HOME? is a remarkable statement about responsibility and morality but is foremost an unsurpassed rumination on the lives of children.

AND LIFE GOES ON
(LIFE AND NOTHING MORE)
"a masterpiece. . .one of the very best Iranian features I've seen"
- Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER

*Winner, Roberto Rossellini Prize, Cannes Film Festival*

Part fiction, part documentary and part road movie. In the aftermath of an earthquake which killed more than 50,000 people in northern Iran in 1990, a father and his young son set out to learn the fate of the two young boys who starred in Kiarostami’s WHERE IS THE FRIEND'S HOME? As they travel through the devastated yet beautiful landscape, their interviews with survivors coalesce into a moving portrait of human resilience.

THE RAMONES
End of the Century

(dir. Jim Fields & Michael Gramaglia, 110 mins, 2003)

Sat Nov 26 10:40pm - buy tix

Hey! Ho! Let's go!

In 1974, the New York City music scene was shocked into consciousness by the violently new and raw sound of a band of misfits from Queens, called The Ramones. Playing in a seedy Bowery bar to a small group of fellow struggling musicians, the band struck a chord of disharmony that rocked the foundation of the mid-'70s music scene. This quartet of unlikely rock stars traveled across the country and around the world connecting with the disenfranchised everywhere, while sparking a movement that would resonate with two generations of outcasts across the globe. Although the band never reached the top of the Billboard charts, it managed to endure by maintaining a rigorous touring schedule for 22 years.

Bizarro Monday!

MANHATTAN CONFIDENTIAL

(dir. Milo Savage, 82 mins, 1995)

Mon Nov 28 7pm - buy tix

A Bizarro Monday program. Every Monday at 7pm the Pioneer presents the finest (and trashiest) in horror, sci-fi, freakshow, exploitation, martial arts, genre, b-movies, z-movies, and just plain weird stuff.

Tuesdays@7 presents

Clayton presents

Tues Nov 29 7pm - buy tix

A Tuesdays@7 program. Every Tuesday at 7pm features special guests presenting their film, and is followed by a beer and pizza reception for ticket holders, sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery.

Clayton Patterson from the Clayton Gallery and Outlaw Art Museum presents a program of his choosing.

Come to the show, but also buy Clayton's book. It's incredible!

Film & Video Arts Fundraiser

Weds Nov 30 6pm