SOUTHERN BELLES

(dir.  P. Myers & B. Shroff, 90 mins, 2005)

Screening from professional quality video

Sat Apr 1 7pm - buy tix

starring Anna Faris & Laura Breckenridge

Bell and Belle want to break out of their trailer park lives and get up and out to the "Big City" of Atlanta. Just when they think they are on their way to getting a nest egg Bell falls for a handsome police officer named Rhett Butler.

Feature Presentation

TORO NEGRO

(dir. Pedro González Rubio & Carlos Armella, 87 mins, 2005)

Fri Mar 31 7pm - buy tix
Fri Mar 31 9pm - buy tix
Sat Apr 1 9pm - buy tix
Sun Apr 2 5pm - buy tix
Sun Apr 2 9pm - buy tix
Mon Apr 3 9pm - buy tix
Tues Apr 4 9pm - buy tix
Weds Apr 5 9pm - buy tix
Fri Apr 7 7pm - buy tix
Sat Apr 8 5pm - buy tix
Sun Apr 9 5pm - buy tix

"Undeniably powerful, and quietly devastating."
- Grady Hendrix, NY SUN

"Harsh, intense. . .continually takes you one step further than you thought you'd go."
- Stuart Klawans, THE NATION

"You end up on the scary, decaying lip of civilization. . . a monstrous portrait of economic annihilation on the outskirts of the global village."
- Mike Atkinson, VILLAGE VOICE

"Harrowing, deeply suspect. . .an unflinching look at bullfighting and debasement in the Yucatán Peninsula."
- NY TIMES

"I was profoundly impressed; the impact was 100% emotional."
- Alejandro González Iñarritu (Director of Amores Perros)

"These talented co-directors create an especially intimate environment; at times it seems they must be invisible to their subjects, as several of the moments they capture on film are hard to believe – and, at times, hard to stomach."
- Diana Sanchez (Toronto Film Festival programmer)

Best Film (Horizontes) – San Sebastian Film Festival 2005
Best Film – Morelia Film festival 2005
Audience Award – Nantes “3 Continents” Film Festival 2005
Special Mention for Best Documentary – Nantes “3 Continents” Film Festival
Best Documentary – Havana Intl Film Festival 2005

Fernando Pacheco, aka El Suicida, is a young bullfighter who doesn’t fight in the great arenas of Mexico, but rather in the popular festivals of the small Mayan communities of the Yucatan Peninsula. With unbelievable, and at times disturbing, closeness, documentary filmmakers González-Rubio and Carlos Armella follow Pacheco’s life in and out of the bullring. A warm-hearted and honest character, Pacheco is a man whose self-destructive behavior – heavy alcohol and drug use, even in the ring – bring his private life and public performance to extremes of insanity. But it is ultimately Pacheco’s wife (who is also his manager) who pays the highest price for his behavior, and the camera relentlessly stays on their relationship, even during the crude scenes of domestic violence. Toro Negro achieves moments of extreme realism that fascinate and produce high tension. Human passions and conflicts are explored with rawness and humor and the film proves that reality can have much greater suspense and be far more captivating than fiction.

NEW YORK DOLL

(dir. Greg Whiteley, 78 mins, 2005)

Sat Apr 1 11pm - buy tix
Fri Apr 28 11pm - buy tix

"As journeys go, this is one to treasure."
- Kenneth Turan, LOS ANGELES TIMES

"Greg Whiteley's small, tender documentary portrait looks at life after rock 'n' roll as experienced by the original bassist for the New York Dolls."
- Stephen Holden, NEW YORK TIMES

A recovering alcoholic and recently converted Mormon, we first meet mild-mannered Arthur Kane on the LA bus he takes most days to his job at the Family History Center library. No one would connect the shy 55-year-old in the suit and tie to Arthur "Killer" Kane, statuesque bassist for the legendary '70s rock band, The New York Dolls.

Arthur became the bass player for the Dolls in 1971 and helped form, in rocker Morrissey's words, "one of the most raucous, notorious bands in musical history." Decked out in platform heels, skin-tight pants, smeared lipstick and hair a mile high, the Dolls' gender-bending stage antics belied a ferocious sound that presaged punk and influenced a generation of musicians. But drug abuse and inner-band bickering led to a split in 1975, with Arthur himself bottoming out.

In the early spring of 2004, Morrissey, former President of the New York Dolls fan club and curator of the 2004 Meltdown Festival in London, asked the Dolls to reunite for two shows. Arthur was ecstatic.

But how would it all turn out?
(synopsis adapted from RottenTomatoes)

Sunday Shorts

Chicago City Limits First Sundays Comedy Films

First Sundays

Sun Apr 2 7pm - buy tix

filmmakers & special guests will attend!

This is a Sunday Shorts program. Early evenings 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.

The amiable and odd Jay Stern and Victor Varnado host each screening, which features new films, audience and judges awards, and an after party sponsored by Stella Artois.

Visit the First Sundays website

TIME OUT NEW YORK article by Raven Snook

Bizarro Monday!

Clayton Patterson presents

Mon Apr 3 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.

LOSING GROUND

(dir. Bryan Wizemann, 90 mins, 2005)

Tues Apr 4 7pm - buy tix

This is 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.

“A fine, stark, totally uncompromised drama.”
Matt Zoller Seitz, NYPress

“...the downbeat ensemble drama impresses with its gritty realism, low-key dramatic focus and honed performances. . .Performers, all retained from the original stage production, are uniformly excellent.”
Dennis Harvey, Variety

(Four Stars) “LOSING GROUND makes its greatest connection in knowing us just as much as we know these characters. It is fascinating filmmaking that gets to the core of humanity, scrapes out even the most bottommost parts of it, and holds it up to examine it.”
Rory L. Aronsky, FILM THREAT

Adapted from the critically acclaimed New York stage play presented by Tom Noonan, LOSING GROUND unfolds in real-time over a single night in a Las Vegas video-poker bar where seven people come in, interact, strike up friendships of convenience, win, lose, and go home.

Bryan Wizemann’s haunting and elegiac feature film debut is a contemporary portrait of ritual and superstition, intimacy and estrangement. In direct contrast with the current zeitgeist of a Las Vegas myth, LOSING GROUND is a personal and closely observed work on the addictions of human nature.

LGBT Wednesday

Newfest presents

PING PONG LOVE
(dir. Bo Mehrad, 10 mins, 2004)

and
CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA
(dir. Harmage Singh Kalirai, 90 mins, 2005)

CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA screening from DVD

Weds Apr 5 7pm - buy tix

This is 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, though not always, feature LGBT programming.

PING PONG LOVE
Only one thing stands between Adam and the Great American Romance Novel: a beginning. Caught in the throes of writer's block, Adam finds inspiration in the most unlikely of sources: his two awkward and fretful neighbors. While each inspires the other, none of them suspects where their story will ultimately lead.

CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA
It's celebration time for the Chopra family in suburban London, and this middle-class British-Indian family has lots to celebrate. Not only is their son Jimi set to graduate medical school, he's to marry Simran, his arranged bride fresh from India. She's perfect in the eyes of the family, but the trouble is that Jack is Jimi's true love. Jimi has been living in the closet for years. . .and the door is suddenly stretching very thin.

Cultural Thursdays

Doors Art Foundation presents films from Croatia

A HAPPY CHILD
(SRETNO DIJETE)

(dir. Igor Mirkovic, 97 mins, 2003)
screening from DVD

Thurs Apr 6 7pm - buy tix

A Cultural Thursdays program. 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.

The Doors Art Foundation presents a new film from Croatia.

During the eighties a fantastically popular music scene was born on the streets of the otherwise gray and sleepy Zagreb. The filmmaker recalls it all from his boyhood years. Twenty-five years on he realizes that the period was critical in creating his personality. He travels from Zagreb to Ljubljana, Vienna, Belgrade, Budapest, Paris, Utrecht, and New York in search of the heroes of his youth. He seeks to put together a story combining punk-rock and decaying socialism in order to understand his roots.

Production: Gerila DV Film production, Croatia, 97 MIN * Director: Igor Mirkovic
Cinematography by: Silvestar Kolbas and Domagoj Lozina;
Performances by: Azra, Bijelo dugme, Elektricni orgazam, Film, Haustor, Idoli, Pankrti, Patrola, Prljavo kazaliste and others.

Feature Presentation

QUALITY OF LIFE

(dir. Benjamin Morgan, 85 mins, 2004)

Thurs Apr 6 9pm - SOLD OUT
Fri Apr 7 9pm - buy tix
Sat Apr 8 9pm - buy tix
Sun Apr 9 9pm - buy tix
Mon Apr 10 9pm - buy tix
Tues Apr 11 9pm - buy tix
Weds Apr 12 9pm - buy tix
Sat Apr 15 7pm - buy tix
Sun Apr 16 7pm - buy tix

View the trailer

"Extraordinary"
- Berlin International Film Festival Jury

"A powerful and emotionally satisfying film"
- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"Streetwise honesty...powerful"
- SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER

Shot on location in San Francisco's Mission District, QUALITY OF LIFE sheds light on a clandestine graffiti subculture, telling an authentic and gripping story of two young graffiti writers who struggle to maintain their friendship as their lives unravel and the cops close in.

The moving and controversial ending of the film has ignited the graffiti and hip hop subculture, making this the #1 underground film on MySpace, the world's leading youth-oriented website. The soundtrack features an eclectic mix from the rising stars of hiphop, punk, electronica and indie rock including Modest Mouse, Andre Nickatina, Sebadoh, Mr. Lif, Lifesavas, Halou, Good Riddance, Top.R., Amon Tobin, and Built To Spill.

Stand-out performances in the film include Lane Garrison as the conflicted Mikey "Heir" Rosario and newcomer Brian Burnam as the destructive Curtis "Vain" Smith. QUALITY OF LIFE is the feature film debut for both.

Pioneer Late Nights

DR. STRANGELOVE
OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB

(dir. Stanley Kubrick, 93 mins, 1964)

Fri Apr 7 11pm - buy tix

MEMBERS OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION ADMITTED FREE

"The most shattering sick joke I've ever come across."
- Bosley Crowther, NEW YORK TIMES

"It's one of the greatest - and undoubtably the most hilarious - antiwar statements ever put to film. See it before the world ends."
- Marjorie Baumgarten, AUSTIN CHRONICLE

DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB is Stanley Kubrick's Cold War masterpiece. Based on the novel RED ALERT by Peter George, the film is set at the height of the tensions between Russia and the United States, when all it would take to destroy the world was one push of a button. And General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) is just the man to do it.
(synopsis adapted from Rotten Tomatoes)

THE RAMONES
End of the Century

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

Sat Apr 8 11pm - 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.

Sunday Shorts

Tricky Women

Sun Apr 9 7pm - buy tix

filmmakers & special guests will attend!

culture2culture, based in Vienna/Austria, has been organizing cultural as well as scientific and interdisciplinary events focusing on women, film & video since 1991.

culture2culture is increasingly establishing itself as a service centre in the field of event, media and cultural marketing. It is a member of the European Coordination of Film Festivals and of the Working Group Women and Film in Europe.

The Tricky Women Festival’s focus on female makers of artistic animated film is unique in Europe. The festival, which takes place every two years in March in Vienna, is the highlight of the diverse cultural activities carried out by culture2culture.

The international competition is the heart of the festival and a jury of renowned experts awards the winners. Furthermore, country focuses, retrospectives, special programmes as well as lectures and discussions are regulars of the Tricky Women Festivals.

www.culture2culture.at

Presented with the generous support of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. And with special thanks to Alina Bliumis, and Signe Baumane.

This is a Sunday Shorts program. Early evenings on many Sundays, the Pioneer presents programs of short films.

A remarkable, representative cross section of films from the "Tricky Women" festival in Vienna, Austria. A high degree of perfection, an incredible diversity of techniques, great stories, groovy rhythms, innovative ideas, account for the fascination for animation films by women.

Solo Mutant, Markéta Plachá, Czech Republic 2002, 6´
Science-fiction, cafe universe, spaceship, astronaut sugars, planet of safety matches, with a cut, encounter and solo for mutant.

Glosa/Gloss, Markéta Plachá, Czech Republic 2001, 1´14
She already did not remember her youth…

Crying & Wanking, Alys Hawkins, UK 2002, 6´
A domestic drama about shame and loss. Alone in her private space a woman chews over a recently ended relationship. Through her eyes we learn her side of the story.

The Old Fools, Ruth Lingford, UK 2002, 5´37
A clear-eyed look at the inevitability of our own decay and death. Based on the poem of the same name by Philip Larkin.

Fish Never Sleep, Gaëlle Denis, UK 2002, 6´
Naoko is a complete insomniac. She has tried everything to sleep. She lives in Tokyo, nearby the Tsukiji-market, the biggest fish market in the world – why do the fish never sleep then?

Puleng, Ali Taylor, UK 2004, 3´07
A short atmospheric film set in a Southern African landscape.

Everything was life, Ellie Land, UK 2004, 4´
An experimental documentary about female genital mutilation.

Pocedi Trymion / Heavy Pockets, Sarah Cox, UK 2004, 5´58
A film about a girl who loses her gravity.

City Paradise, Gaëlle Denis, UK 2004, 6´
When Tomoko arrives in London, she has no idea that soon she will discover a mysterious secret hidden beneath the city.

Introspection, Maya Yonesho, Japan 1998, 1´30
We can communicate with each other without understanding each other´s language.

Feuerhaus/Firehouse, Bärbel Neubauer, Austria 1998, 5´50
Metamorphoses of colours and forms, created by flashlight exposures of plants and stones on print stock directly.

Rien, Kunyi Chen, UK 1998, 2´25
Learning the French word "rien" (nothing).

Cloning Factory 2, Alina and Jeff Bliumis, Austria / US 2006, 8´
Two scientists are determined to create and clone a perfect woman. They follow their plan but the results are not satisfactory – for what they have created instead is a multitude of happy, genderless pink bunnies. Frustrated and tired, they become destructive. The last bunny escapes, and its memories are all that remain.

Monster Monday!

Fangoria presents

ABOMINABLE

(dir. Ryan Schifrin, 94 mins, 2005)

Screening from digital video.

Mon April 10 7pm - SOLD OUT

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.

FILM IN THE CITY PRESENTS

Showbiz Power Talks
Panel Series

"Indie to Hollywood:
Playing the Game to Win"

Tues Apr 11 6pm - buy tix
No student, senior, or member discounts on this event.

SHOWBIZ POWER TALKS is a new monthly event, which brings together the city’s professionals, to network, taste great food and to meet high profile guests. This event was created to help urban, hip, professionals network without the burden of the typical meat-market packing session. We are a group of entertainment industry professionals who understand what it means to "Power Network". Join us as we introduce you to new friends, business networking opportunities and most of all, great people. The "Showbiz Power Talks" are designed to be intimate settings where guests get a chance to meet and network one-on-one with VIP panelists from the entertainment industry. Each month "Showbiz Power Talks" will introduce you to VIP guest speakers from the film, music, television,media and publishing industries. The program is a forum for "Power Networking" with some of the city's most high profile guests discussing the business of entertainment and media. Don't miss this new exciting series, designed to stimulate your mind and help you find your way to the next business deal or career opportunity.

LGBT Wednesday

Newfest presents

JARED
(dir. Joyce Draganosky, 16 mins, 2002)

and
RONDA NOCTURNA
(aka NIGHT WATCH)
(dir. Edgardo Cozarinsky, 80 mins, 2005)

RONDA NOCTURNA screening from DVD

Weds Apr 12 7pm - buy tix

This is 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, though not always, feature LGBT programming.

JARED
A 12-year old boy experimenting with crossdressing develops a crush on his mom's new boyfriend in this sweet short.

RONDA NOCTURNA
A dark urban odyssey of an emotionally calloused young male prostitute and the demons that begin to haunt him one night.

This dark, sensitive tale of an atypical night in the life of Victor, a 20-year-old Buenos Aires prostitute, puts a fresh, intelligent twist on the frequently told drama of young male hustlers. Victor plies his trade in a foreboding, seedy world with its nocturnal denizens – horny businessmen, drug addicts, fellow prostitutes, transvestites, and the homeless- and the threat of violence simmering just below the surface of most encounters.

Comedy Fortnight

April 13-26, 2006

Take some of NYC's funniest stand up comics. Mix in some of NYC's most talented filmmakers. Add Stella Artois, and, um, pizza, and, um, a Jacques Tati classic. Stir. Out comes the Pioneer's “Comedy Fortnight,” two weeks of hilarity with funny movies and hilarious q&a sessions following and in between many movies.

Too often good comedians make films with poor filmmakers, or good filmmakers make films with bad comedians. This program shows what can happen when there are talented people on both sides of the camera.

New York Times Critic's Choice!

Comedy Fortnight
Best of "First Sundays":
a hilarious retrospective

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. Films in this program have screened at Sundance, the Aspen Comedy Festival, and on Comedy Central, while producers range from the BBC to the writers and stars of The Daily Show.

Every month, First Sundays puts together a show of short comedy films, many of them made by the First Sundays guys themselves, but many of them collected from elsewhere. Then, in between the films, Jay Stern and Victor Varnado showcase deep intelligence and dry, hilarious wit. Most months, at the end of the show, someone in the audience yells out a title for a movie, and someone else in the audience is cast to star in that film. That film then becomes part of the next month's show.

That said, the April shows are a little different, because they will be "best of" shows. There will still be lots of funny banter between Stern and Varnado, and the shows will still showcase a wide variety of shorts - some of them local, some of them not. Most of them very funny. The five shows will include a "producer's pick," within the First Sundays regular time slot of April 2, at 7pm (First Sunday of the month). Then, later on, the programs will include "Documentary / Real Life," "Low Budget Shorts" (meet some of the cheapest filmmakers in the world and then drink free beer and eat free pizza), "Romantic Comedy," and "Animated Shorts."

During the comedy fortnight, First Sundays celebrates its fourth anniversary - and first at the Pioneer! - with a retrospective of terrific and very funny movies from across a very wide spectrum.

hosted by Jay Stern and Victor Varnado - other filmmakers & special guests will attend!

TIME OUT NEW YORK article by Raven Snook

Comedy Fortnight

Best of First Sundays:
Producer's Pick

Sun Apr 2 7pm - buy tix

(yes, I know, it's technically before the comedy fortnight begins)

The First Sundays producers present their own favorite films they've screened over the past 4 years.

Comedy Fortnight

Best of First Sundays:
Documentary / Real Life Shorts

Thurs Apr 13 7pm - buy tix

A night of funny documentaries, reality shows, and a few mockumentaries for good measure.

Comedy Fortnight

Best of First Sundays:
Low Budget Films

Tues Apr 18 7pm - buy tix

Followed by beer & pizza reception

Comedy Fortnight

Best of First Sundays:
Romantic Comedy

Sat Apr 22 7pm - buy tix

Comedy Fortnight

Best of First Sundays:
Animated Shorts

Sun Apr 23 7pm - buy tix

Feature Presentation

BLACKBALLED:
The Bobby Dukes Story

(dir. Brant Sersen, 90 mins, 2004)

Thurs Apr 13 9pm - SOLD OUT
Brant Sersen, DJ Hazard, Darren Goldberg, Brian Steinberg, Chris Lechler in person

Fri Apr 14 7pm - buy tix
Brant Sersen, DJ Hazard, Darren Goldberg in person

Fri Apr 14 9pm - buy tix
Brant Sersen, DJ Hazard, Darren Goldberg in person

Sat Apr 15 9pm - buy tix
Brant Sersen, Chris Lechler in person

Sun Apr 16 5pm - buy tix
Sun Apr 16 9pm - buy tix
Mon Apr 17 9pm - buy tix
Tues Apr 18 9pm - buy tix
Weds Apr 19 9pm - buy tix
Thurs Apr 20 9pm - buy tix
Brant Sersen, Rob Corddry, Chris Lechler, Curtis Gwinn, Darren Goldberg in person

Fri Apr 21 9pm - buy tix
Sat Apr 22 9pm - buy tix
Sun Apr 23 9pm - buy tix
Mon Apr 24 9pm - buy tix
Brian Steinberg in person

Tues Apr 25 9pm - SOLD OUT
Brant Sersen, Rob Corddry, Brian Steinberg in person

Weds Apr 26 9pm - buy tix
Sat Apr 29 3:15pm - buy tix
Sun May 14 5:15pm - buy tix

"A great film and one destined for cult status"
- Aint it Cool News

Rob Corddry * Rob Riggle * Paul Scheer * Rob Huebel * Ed Helms

SXSW Audience Award for Best 'Narrative' Feature
Oxford Film Festival Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize
International Film Festival of Boston Grand Jury Prize

Second place is first place for losers!

"Gentlemen, and Canadians, may I have your attention please. . ."

June 12th, 1993, the darkest day in paintball history. It was the day that Bobby Dukes cheated! While leading his team to their unprecedented fourth consecutive victory Bobby was shot. Desperate to stay in the game, Bobby intentionally wiped the paint from his jersey, thus committing paintball's most heinous crime -- "wiping." Banned from the game and rejected by the paintball community, Bobby disappeared in disgrace.

Ten years later, the ban lifted, a well-traveled and mature Bobby is back to prove himself on the field that made him famous. To his dismay, he finds that no one will play with him. To them, he still is and always will be a cheater.

Assembling a team of misfits, Bobby is determined to win back his title and his soul.

Rob Corddry interviews:
* NY DAILY NEWS * TIME OUT NY * THE ONION *
* COMING SOON * CHUD * NY POST *

Back-handed compliments:

"Intermittently amusing."
- TIME OUT NEW YORK

"Plays out in a string of sketches that gently prick the
self-delusions of geeky subcultures"
- THE ONION

"Loose, scruffy charm"
- NY TIMES

"Would play better as a TV sketch."
- NY POST

"That the film appears to have been made for roughly the same price as a New York City dinner for two greatly enhances its off-beat charm."
- WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS

"Moderately amusing."
- NY SUN

"The performances are surprisingly good."
- TV GUIDE

Comedy Fortnight

MANHATTAN

very good 35mm print

(dir. Woody Allen, 1979, 96 mins)
(written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman)

Fri Apr 14 11:30pm - buy tix
Weds Apr 19 7pm - buy tix

Woody Allen * Diane Keaton * Michael Murphy * Mariel Hemingway * Meryl Streep

Woody Allen finished his first decade of filmmaking, the 1970s, with one of his greatest and most deliberately artistic films, the love song to his home city MANHATTAN. Allen plays Isaac Davis, another one of his thinly veiled self-portraits, who finds himself suffering from a mid-life crisis. Unhappy in his career as a variety show comedy writer and newly divorced from a woman who has since come out as a lesbian, Isaac waffles between two relationships: that with emotionally honest and open, but far too young, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway in an Academy Award nominated performance) and with pseudo-intellectual, neurotic Mary (Diane Keaton). Allen uses these two women to contrast the naiveté and lack of pretension of youth with the growing cynicism of middle age.

Although the acting and writing is some of the sharpest of Allen's filmmaking career, what is truly memorable and endearing about MANHATTAN is its romantic view of New York. Whereas the character relationships in the film are largely dysfunctional and fueled by a vision of perfection, by contrast the city itself is envisioned by Allen as an object of perfection. In order to create aesthetically pleasing images of the city, Allen and his longtime cinematographer Gordon Willis decided to shoot the film in black and white and in the 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, the first time that Allen had used either format. The images are backed by the songs of quintessential New York composer George Gershwin, setting a tone of romanticism and grandeur that underlies Isaac's (and Allen's) inherent dissatisfaction with the mundane aspects of his life. The magnificence of the city of New York is the backdrop to the search for a similar splendor in human relationships in MANHATTAN.
[synopsis from RottenTomatoes.com]

Comedy Fortnight

Jim Carrey is

THE CABLE GUY

(dir. Ben Stiller, 1996, 96 mins)

Sat Apr 15 11:30pm - buy tix
Sat Apr 22 11:30pm - buy tix

There's No Such Thing as Free Cable

Jim Carrey * Matthew Broderick * Leslie Mann * Jack Black

When Steven Kovacs orders cable TV for his apartment, he has no idea how much he'll regret it. That's because the installer sent to his home is Chip Douglas, a lonely, lisping, parasitic geek, who just might be psychotic. Chip immediately bonds with vulnerable milquetoast Steve -- and then refuses to leave him alone. Chip's wild behavior proceeds to make his victim's life a living hell, and even jeopardizes Steve's attempt to reconcile with his girlfriend. How far will Chip go... and will Steve ever put his foot down?
[synopsis from RottenTomatoes.com]

Comedy Fortnight
Special Event

Rocketboom:
The best of casual Friday

Amanda Congdon and Andrew Baron in person!

Thurs Apr 20 7pm - buy tix

Rocketboom is currently one of the most popular videoblogs on the internet with more daily subscribers for original syndicated multimedia content than nearly any other site, including podcasts.

www.rocketboom.com

Comedy Fortnight

LOVE AND DEATH

archival 35mm print

(dir. Woody Allen, 1975, 85 mins)

Fri Apr 21 11:30pm - buy tix
Weds Apr 26 7pm - buy tix

Woody Allen * Diane Keaton * Georges Adet

The bridge between Woody Allen's early slapstick satires and his later romantic comedies and dramas, LOVE AND DEATH is also a broad parody of his numerous influences. The film tells the tale of Boris Grushenko (the filmmaker himself), a cowardly Russian who miraculously survives the Napoleonic Wars only to discover that his heroism does nothing to advance his romantic prospects with his philosophical cousin Sonia (Diane Keaton). Her convoluted reasoning dictates that the pair of them must attempt to assassinate the French dictator, a proposal Boris agrees to in the hopes that he will finally win Sonia's love through the act. The contrast between Sonia's analytical mind and Boris's lustful one provides Allen with numerous opportunities to joke about gender differences, but it is the multiple parodies of both literature and film that drive LOVE AND DEATH's comedic narrative.

The most obvious target in the film is Russian literature: many jokes are built around the blend of fatalistic philosophy, historical narratives, and complex familial and character relationships that characterize novels by such authors as Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy (the most obvious source for the film being his WAR AND PEACE). However, the filmmakers that have influenced Allen are also parodied; themes and even shots are taken directly from the work of Ingmar Bergman and Sergei Eisenstein. The musical score is assembled from compositions by Prokofiev, who wrote the scores for Eisenstein's later sound films, which were also heavily affected by Russian literature and history. Finally, the quick-witted, under-the-radar verbal hijinks in the film (like in other Allen films) bear the mark of the Marx Brothers, perhaps the most famous Jewish comedians aside from Allen himself. Although LOVE AND DEATH is not among the most well-known of Allen's comedies, there are few films that lay bare the influences of a master filmmaker as readily as this.
[synopsis from RottenTomatoes.com]

Comedy Fortnight

MON ONCLE

(dir. Jacques Tati, 1958, 116 mins)

35mm print

Mon Apr 24 6:30pm - buy tix

Jacques Tati's second feature film and first film in color reintroduces his hilarious Chaplinesque alter ego, M. Hulot. After having followed Hulot on his sun-drenched, foible-filled seaside vacation in MR. HULOT'S HOLIDAY, MON ONCLE finds Tati contrasting Hulot's bohemian provincial home life with the modern, contraption-filled concrete and glass home belonging to his sister and her family, the Arpels, where Hulot's nephew, Gerard, is drowning in boredom. When Hulot comes for a visit, the gadgets get the better of him, in a seamless spectacle of electric switches, slamming doors and malfunctioning accoutrements. Tati shuttles back and forth between Hulot's quaint home of friendly, if mischievous neighbors and music filled provincial café's and the Arpel's surreal and cold ultra modern lifestyle, creating an evocative and whimsical contrast that Tati would develop further in his future masterpieces, PLAYTIME and TRAFFIC. When Mr. Arpel contrives to secure Hulot a position at his rubber tubing factory, Mrs. Arpel simultaneously conspires to fix him up with an eccentric neighbor, Hulot's clumsy and gullible nature lead him into myriad tangles with the Arpels modern lifestyle, climaxing in an intricately absurd garden party.

Bizarro Mondays program

FearsMag.com presents

One Dark and Stormy Night

Mon Apr 17 7pm - buy tix

filmmakers & special guests will attend

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.

IN HER LINE OF FIRE

(dir.  Brian Trenchard-Smith, 90 mins, 2006)

Fri Apr 21 4:30pm - buy tix
Sat Apr 22 4:30pm - buy tix
Sun Apr 23 4:30pm - buy tix
Mon Apr 24 4:30pm - buy tix
Tues Apr 25 4:30pm - buy tix
Weds Apr 26 4:30pm - buy tix
Thurs Apr 27 4:30pm - buy tix

When the Vice President's plane goes down near a remote South American island, he is kidnapped by rebel forces and held for ransom. It is up to his female Secret Service agent and a press secretary to infiltrate the camp and save him.

Distributed by Regent Releasing. Four-wall Theater Rental.

A Pioneer Hit!

24 HOURS ON CRAIGSLIST

(dir. Michael Ferris Gibson, 82 mins, 2005)

Sun Apr 23 2:45pm - buy tix
Fri May 5 11pm - buy tix
Fri May 12 11pm - buy tix
Fri May 19 11:30pm - buy tix
Fri May 26 11:30pm - buy tix

“It’s an absolute blast. . .24 HOURS ON CRAIGSLIST is the ultimate people zoo.”
- FILM THREAT

“a whirlwind tour. . .a colorful mosaic. . .crowd-pleaser. . .engaging. . .zippy. . .sharp”
- VARIETY

“Hilarious”
- EYE WEEKLY

“fun and titillating. . .mesmerizing. . .this film is poignant”
- Wired News

You know Craigslist-- it's the secret engine that drives the local economy, the place you likely found your last job, apartment, car, couch, bandmate, dance lesson, bankruptcy attorney or Friday-night date. Everybody's got a Craigslist story, and filmmaker Michael Ferris Gibson came up with an ingenious idea to find a few of them: he set out to document one random day on Craigslist. What he delivers is a rollicking portrait of the urban experience in all its eccentric glory - a cross section of folks doing everything from selling 250 pairs of women's army-surplus pants to everything-they-own (to finance a trip around the world); guys looking for roommates or wives; an Ethel Merman impersonator looking for a back-up band and a strange fellow hoping some hot chicks will show up for his basement sex party. Looking for a support group for your diabetic cat? Need to rent a husband, find a horny poodle, a gay sperm donor or a pre-op transsexual escort? Maybe you need a movie crew (that's right - Gibson's cast, crew and music were all found through Craigslist). Gibson even found what can only be called the Ultimate Craigslist Story, which you've just gotta hear. There may be Craigslists all over the globe at this point, but Craigslist will always be a uniquely American creation, and Gibson's terrific movie is a giddy celebration of total freedom and everything we love and hate about it. Find a date on Craigslist, and come and see it!

Cinewomen NY presents

BLUE VINYL

Tues Apr 25 7pm - buy tix

Cinewomen NY website

This is 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.

a film program presented by the Cinewomen, NY filmmaker group

BLUE VINYL
94 minutes - Director Judith Helfand, Co-Director/Cinematographer Daniel B. Gold
BLUE VINYL, recently released on DVD by Docurama and winner of the Excellence in Cinematography Award at Sundance and nominated for two Emmy Awards (Best Research / Best Documentary), is a deeply personal and vital expose that has been applauded as "scary and hilarious!" (Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times)

Skeptical of her parents' decision to "re-side" their home with vinyl siding (polyvinyl chloride or PVC), Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand set out with award-winning cinematographer/co-director Daniel B. Gold in search of the truth about vinyl, one of the fastest selling plastics in America. With a deep appreciation for irony, a great deal of chutzpah, and a piece of vinyl siding firmly in hand, Helfand and Gold travel from suburban Long Island to the vinyl-manufacturing capital of Louisiana and as far as Venice, Italy - where 31 former executives from a PVC-producing company are on trial for manslaughter.

Artfully balancing the horror with the humor, unexpected twists with unbelievable turns, BLUE VINYL is a sobering, shockingly funny, uniquely personal exploration into what it takes to be a really educated consumer.

What the critics have said about BLUE VINYL:
"Scary and hilarious!" - Elvis Mitchell, NY TIMES

"That rare muckraking film with a sense of humor."
- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Cultural Thursdays

INDEPENDENT AMERICA

(dir. Hanson Hosein, 90 mins, 2005)

Thurs Apr 27 7pm - buy tix

Filmmakers will be present!

A Cultural Thursdays program. 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.

www.independentamerica.net

"INDEPENDENT AMERICA could have been a polemical screed like Robert Greenwald's recent WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE. Fortunately, however, Hosein and Hughes adopt a much more reasonable approach, granting time to both sides of the issue, including Wal-Mart PR executive Mona Williams. They recognize the problems that overly homogenized retail landscapes can pose without demonizing Home Depot or Starbucks out of hand. That approach makes their film all the more persuasive."
~Marc Mohan, Film Critic for THE OREGONIAN

"David vs. Goliath, the hare and the tortoise—even Beauty and the Beast are woven into the digital fabric of journalists Heather Hughes and Hanson Hosein as they trek across America in search of truly free (and local) enterprise." *** (3 STARS)
~James Wegg, Film Critic

“The film was fantastic and reaffirmed my conviction about an optimistic and bright near future where sustainable, local and small is not possible just for a minority here at home, in big cities and the West Coast but the first option for all educated consumers everywhere."
~Seattle Bon Vivant

These days, you have to go out of your way if you want to do business with Mom & Pop.  One couple has taken that notion a little bit farther 13,000 miles farther to be exact.

Independent filmmakers and award-winning former NBC news journalists, Hanson Hosein and Heather Hughes, take the road less traveled in a thought provoking new documentary, which uncovers the growing opposition to big box retail across the U.S. and the often desperate fight being waged by independent retailers to stay alive.

INDEPENDENT AMERICA: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop an entertaining account of Hosein and Hughes's expedition through 32 states as they look for an America unchained by corporate retail. Self-imposed road rules bar them from major highways and corporate chain retail. Traveling on alternative roads, the duo can only do business with Mom & Pop.

Speaking with business owners, politicians, economists, everyday Americans and a VIP from the world’s largest company, Wal-Mart; the filmmakers capture a snapshot of a country at loggerheads with the free market economy it has so proudly mastered.

Visions, Voices, Videos:
Documentaries by Women Filmmakers:
Irina Patkanian, Annette Danto and Irene Sosa

Fri Apr 28 7pm - buy tix

"My American Neighbor" (30 min)
A look at America and its dream from a distance. The filmmaker travels to Russia, France, Italy, Greece and Egypt to interview Americans who live there and reflect on the importance of distance in one's understanding of homeland.

"Sueño Paria: Wilfred Merle" (18 min)
A documentary about an ecological tourism project in the western coast of Venezuela and its main promoter Wilfred Merle.

"The Never Ending Path" (35 min)
Tells the stories of the women living in Tamil Nadu, southern most state of India, the only state effected by the Tsunami Disaster of 2004.

Feature Presentation

Free Culture at NYU presents

ALTERNATIVE FREEDOM

(dir. Twila Raftu & Shaun Cronin, 68 mins, 2006)

Thurs Apr 27 9pm - buy tix
Fri Apr 28 9pm - buy tix
Sat Apr 29 5pm - buy tix
Sat Apr 29 9pm - buy tix
Sun Apr 30 9pm - buy tix
Mon May 1 9pm - buy tix
Tues May 2 9pm - buy tix
Weds May 3 9pm - buy tix

copyright, intellectual property, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act -

but what is the future of free culture?

this fascinating documentary about the invisible war on free culture features perspectives from such luminaries as DJ Danger Mouse, Lawrence Lessig, Richard Stallman, and many others

While Congress changes our copyright laws under the behests of a few powerful corporations, individuals across the United States are losing their digital rights. Activists are working together to change this oppressive regime and create an alternative of freedom. Two filmmakers uncover the problems in one of the most important legal battles of our time: copyright law and digital rights management.

www.alternativefreedom.org

THE EVIL DEAD

(dir. Sam Raimi, 85 mins, 1981)

35mm print is 1.33:1 aspect ratio

Sat Apr 29 7:15pm - buy tix

Pioneer Late Nights

COACHELLA

(115 mins, 2006)

Sat Apr 29 10:45pm - buy tix

"An excellent overview of the ambiance and showcased talent at arguably the best annual U.S. rock festival ..."
- Dennis Harvey, VARIETY

Experience it for the first time...or in a whole new way! Coachella will feature two-hours of highlights from the previous six years of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Featuring:
The Arcade Fire * Radiohead * Red Hot Chili Peppers * Belle & Sebastian * Bjork * Bright Eyes * The Chemical Brothers * Fischerspooner * The Flaming Lips * Iggy & the Stooges * Mars Volta * Spearhead * The White Stripes * Saul Williams * many more. . .

PEN World Voices presents

CITY OF GOD

(dir. Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, 130 mins, 2002)

Sun Apr 30 3pm - buy tix
No TriBeCa Film Festival badges or passes accepted

at 3pm: Paulo Lins, author of CITY OF GOD, in conversation with Antonio Skarmeta

at 4:15pm: screening

Conversation: Paulo Lins & Antonio Skármeta

Paulo Lins (author of CITY OF GOD) joins Antonio Skármeta (author of BURNING PATIENCE* (Ardiente Paciencia), adapted by the author into a film of the same name released in 1983, then into Michael Radford's 1994 movie, IL POSTINO) on the transition from book to movie.

Followed by screening of CITY OF GOD:

Youth gangs took over the slums of Rio de Janiero during the 1960s and didn't relinquish their stronghold until the mid-1980s. Only a sucker wouldn't have turned to crime and this is exactly how naive teen Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) views himself. His attempts in illegal activity fail as he finds potential victims too friendly. Equally unsuccessful in love, he regularly fails to lose his virginity. Blood spills throughout the streets of the Ciudad de Deus as gang leader Li'l Ze (Leandro Firmino da Hora) is challenged by local druglords and a gang of pre-teens known as the Runts. Rocket shoots all of this action with his weapon of choice, a camera.

Director Fernando Meirelles combines visual flashiness with dark history in telling the story of three decades of unrest in underground Rio de Janiero. Technically flawless, the Brazilian film uses a rapid-cutting style to flash back and forth in time. Cinematographer Cesar Charlone shoots with an overexposed glow in a film that may seem numb to violence, but reveres photography. Director Meirelles was assisted by Katia Lund, a filmmaker who had previously shot in the Rio ghettos.

Presented by PEN World Voices: A New York Festival of International Literature * For more information on PEN World Voices, or to view a complete schedule of events, visit here.

* BURNING PATIENCE (ARDIENTE PACIENCIA) will screen at the TriBeCa Film Festival, with Antonio Skármeta in attendance at the first screening. For dates, times, and tickets, visit here.