The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Film Theater
Fall Showings 2009

Gish Film Theater and Gallery
Located in Hanna Hall, first floor
Bowling Green State University
Park in Lot A, corner of South College Drive
and East Wooster Street.

Thursday Nights: International Film Series

All films begin at 7:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

Organized by the Department of German, Russian & East Asian Languages and sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Film and the Gish Film Theater Endowment

All films begin at 7:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

Thursday, Sept. 17, 7:30 p.m.
Munyurangabo
(2007) Rwanda, 97 minutes
Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Munyurangabo and his friend steal a machete in the market in Kigali and depart the city on a journey into their pasts. Munyurangabo seeks justice for his parents, who were killed in the genocide; his companion wants to visit the home he left. The boys stay there several days. Their friendship is tested when the wary parents disapprove of Munyurangabo, warning that “Hutus and Tutsis are supposed to be enemies.”

Thursday, Sept. 24, 7:30 p.m.
Zamani barayé masti asbha (Time for Drunken Horses)
(2000) Iran-Kurdistan, 80 minutes
Director: Bahman Ghobadi

A family tries to survive on the border of Iran and Iraq. The children, who labor desperately to earn enough to eat, become involved in smuggling through the mountains in perilous conditions. The film’s documentary style starkly conveys the uncomplicated family story and the Kurdish people’s trials. It won the Camera d'Or for best first film at Cannes in 2000.

Thursday, Oct. 15, 7:30 p.m.
Sorok pervyi (The Forty-First)
(1956) Russia, 100 minutes
Director: Grigorii Chukhrai

Red Army sniper Mariutka has killed 40 White Army enemies during the Russian Civil War. A captured White officer is to become her 41st, when they are stranded alone in the Central Asian desert. The film–a superb exposition of the female figure in Russian art–was awarded a prize for best scenario at Cannes in 1957.

Thursday, Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m.
La graine et le mulet (The Secret of the Grain)
(2007) Tunisia, 151 minutes
Director: Abdel Kechiche

Filmed in France by the Tunisian-born writer-director, this is the story of an aging port worker who dreams of opening a restaurant but sticks with his job for family reasons. Subtle exploration of relations within the immigrant family, which includes a Russian daughter-in-law, constitutes the genius and surprise of this award-winning film.

Thursday, Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m.
Cautiva (The Captive)
(2005) Argentina, 115 minutes
Director: Gaston Biraben

One day Cristina is unexpectedly escorted from her strict Catholic school in Buenos Aires and told that she is really Sofía Lombardi, the daughter of activists who “disappeared” in the 1970s. She embarks on a journey to discover her true identity. Meeting others like herself, the young girl soon discovers the horrors of Argentina’s past that claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Tuesdays at the Gish, presented by The Culture Club: Cultural Studies Scholars’ Association in conjunction with the Department of Theatre and Film and the Gish Film Theater Endowment

All films begin at 7:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

Tuesday, Sept. 8, 7:30 pm
Bad Taste
(1987) New Zealand, 91 minutes
Director: Peter Jackson

The first feature-length film by Peter Jackson, Bad Taste follows a group of special government agents in their attempt to save the world from flesh-harvesting aliens. Made over the course of four years on a budget of $25,000, this film demanded that Jackson and a core group of his friends play many roles themselves both on- and off-screen. This movie, with its splashy visual effects and bravura camera work, is a great introduction to the filmmaking style that eventually made Peter Jackson a star.

Tuesday, Sept. 15, 7:30 pm
Peeping Tom
(1960) Great Britain, 101 minutes
Director: Michael Powell

This film tells the story of Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm), a soft-spoken cameraman with a deadly secret: he murders young women and captures their dying moments on film. At the time of its release, this thriller, directed by the legendary Michael Powell, was accused of being a sadistic exercise in bad taste. Over the years, however, the film has come to be recognized as a powerful meditation on the seductive lure of the cinematic apparatus, the nature (and violence) of representation, and the misogyny of patriarchal culture. Nearly fifty years after its release, Peeping Tom still has the power to shock and provoke thought. 

Tuesday, Sept. 22, 7:30 pm
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
(1986) U.S., 83 minutes
Director: John McNaughton

Based loosely on the life of infamous serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, this low-budget film shocked audiences not with gratuitous violence and gore, but with a powerful screenplay and blistering performances from its cast. When the eponymous homicidal drifter (Michael Rooker) moves in with his friend Otis (Tom Towles) and Becky (Tracy Arnold), Otis’ abused sister, Henry introduces Otis to a life of crime at first unimaginable to the small-time hood. At the same time, Henry unintentionally woos Becky with his surprising vulnerability. The lives of these lost souls collide in a climax that is both unforgiving and unforgettable.    

Tuesday, Sept. 29, 7:30 pm
Swoon
(1992) U.S., 82 minutes
Director: Tom Kalin

In 1924, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two young thrill-seekers obsessed with planning and committing the “perfect crime,” kidnapped and murdered a 14-year-old boy. Their scandalous story has been endlessly adapted for stage and screen, but few of these adaptations are as audacious as Swoon, the feature-length debut of writer/director Tom Kalin. Swoon became a landmark film in the “New Queer Cinema” movement of the early 1990s due, in part, to the ways in which Kalin interrogates how the news media, lawmakers and even scientists “blamed” the pair’s murderous behavior on their homosexuality and how the vestiges of this homophobia remain with us today.

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 7:30 pm
Cine-Posium
Department of Theatre and Film – Student Work in Recent Film Production Courses

This evening will feature short films and other material created in production courses such as Film I: Cinematography; Film II: Editing, Image and Sound; Film III: Sync Sound Production; Acting/Directing for Film, and Digital Technology for Film. Screenings of individual and group projects by the department's film majors will be accompanied by discussions that include feedback from members of the film faculty as well as question and answer periods between student filmmakers and audience members.

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 7:30 pm
White Zombie
(1932) U.S., 69 minutes
Director: Victor Halperin

Long before 28 Days Later and Night of the Living Dead, Victor Halperin introduced the walking dead to the silver screen with White Zombie. Featuring Bela Lugosi as the evil-eyed Murder Legendre, a sinister plantation owner and voodoo sorcerer, the film weaves a diabolic web of infatuation, jealousy and murder set in the rural cane fields of Haiti. Halperin’s inaugural entry into zombie cinema offers a haunting portrait of the racial anxieties that plagued the United States’ ill-fated occupation of Haiti from 1915-34.

Tuesday, Oct. 27, 7:30 pm
I Walked with a Zombie
(1943) U.S., 69 minutes 
Director: Jacques Tourneur

This eerie film tells the story of Betsy (Frances Dee), a young nurse sent to a Caribbean island to care for the comatose wife of plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway). As Betsy settles into her assignment, she begins to uncover the bizarre world of secrecy and voodoo that permeates the island’s lush tropical environment. Is her charge really suffering from a naturally occurring illness, or is she the victim of something significantly more malevolent? Produced by legendary horror guru Val Lewton, this adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is a classic tale of mystery and suspense.

Tuesday, Nov. 3, 7:30 pm
Fully Awake: The Black Mountain College Experience
(2007) U.S., 70 minutes 
Directors: Cathryn Davis and Neeley House

Black Mountain College was an experimental college based in North Carolina from 1933-57 and was the location for such events as Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome, John Cage's first multimedia happening and the publication of early Beat poets in the Black Mountain Review. This documentary looks at the unique educational style and long-term significance of Black Mountain College through interviews with students, teachers, historians and current artists.

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 7:30 pm
The Quorum
(2004) U.S., 60 minutes 
Directors: Maurice M. Martinez and Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer

In the politically and racially charged atmosphere of the 1960s, The Quorum coffee house created a successful model for multicultural exchange. Opened in 1963 to persons from all racial backgrounds, The Quorum became a frequent target of segregationist harassment in New Orleans. In 1964, police raided The Quorum taking 73 people to jail and accusing them of things like “playing guitars out of tune.” Combining oral history and rare archival materials, this documentary shows what happens when ordinary people become involved in extraordinary events.

Sunday Matinees

Sponsored by the Gish Film Theater Endowment
All films are shown at 3 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

Sunday, Sept. 27, 3 p.m.
A Matter of Life and Death
(1946) England, with David Niven, Kim Hunter, Raymond Massey, 105 minutes
Directors: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

The incredible duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, together known as The Archers, gave us The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus and this one, known in the U.S. as Stairway to Heaven. Their collaborations enjoyed the happy fortune to have as cameraman Jack Cardiff, supreme master of the Technicolor medium. The British Technicolor lab was the best there was. So, if you love gorgeous, breathtaking color at its zenith, a Powell-Pressburger production is not to be missed. To top it off, the plot of A Matter of Life and Death is compelling. David Niven and Kim Hunter are caught in a struggle between heaven and earth during World War II, with two remarkable actors (Raymond Massey and Roger Livesey) representing this life and the afterlife.

and
A George Pal Puppetoon in Technicolor
10 minutes

Commentary by Dr. Jan Wahl.

Sunday, Oct. 11, 3 p.m.
Hearts of the World
(1918) U.S., with Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Robert Harron, Erich von Stroheim, 100 minutes
Director: D. W. Griffith

No American director is more important than David Wark Griffith, mighty innovator of The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance and Broken Blossoms. At the height of World War I, Great Britain invited him to go firsthand into the trenches to gather documentary material, offering any assistance he required to make a feature to show the effect of this brutal enterprise upon ordinary citizens. The result was to shatter his Victorian sensibilities, and to help convince fellow countrymen to partake in what was called The Great War. He chose as his stars young Robert Harron and Lillian and Dorothy Gish. Although they joined him overseas, for safety’s sake France was skillfully recreated on the back lot of the studio back home. It is, rather than the battle scenes, the human element and particularly Lillian as the tragic war bride that make the film so memorable.

Piano accompaniment by Stuart Oderman, who is the silent film pianist for films shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Hearts of the World is being shown in remembrance of Lillian Gish’s birthday on Oct. 14, 1893, in Springfield, Ohio.

and
The Runaway Horse
(1908) France, Pathé Frères, 7 minutes
Piano accompaniment by Stuart Oderman.

Commentary by Dr. Jan Wahl.

Sunday, Oct. 18, 3 p.m.
The Devil and Miss Jones
(1941) U.S., with Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Spring Byington, 95 minutes
Director: Sam Wood

Once you hear the voice of Jean Arthur, you never forget it–husky, almost a croak, beguiling and very sexy. In Shane, her last film, she’s the careworn pioneer ranch wife gazing at Alan Ladd with sad eyes. Earlier in comedies and dramas, she was full of spunk and energy, the perfect partner to Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper or Ronald Colman. The Devil and Miss Jones deals, in an offhand way, with the tail-end of the Depression era. More than any other actress, Arthur is able to represent the working girl–self-reliant yet yearning for romance. The theme is a worthy one–labor versus management–interwoven with sly humor and wonderful surprises. The bright, superlative Jean Arthur is supported by an often-undervalued Robert Cummings and the magnificent character actor Charles Coburn.

The Devil and Miss Jones is being shown in memory of Jean Arthur, who received an honorary degree from Bowling Green State University in 1988 and whose memorabilia are housed in the Center for Archival Collections, Jerome Library.

and
The House I Live In
(1945) U.S., with Frank Sinatra, Academy Award winner, 10 minutes

Commentary by Dr. Jan Wahl.

Sunday, Nov. 1, 3 p.m.
Rembrandt
(1936) Great Britain, with Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Gertrude Lawrence, 90 minutes
Director: Alexander Korda

Some producers–Selznick being the prime example–think they are directors. Alexander Korda was not only a producer, he was one of the finest directors in the business; brother Vincent one of the most talented set designers. Sir Alexander (later knighted because of secret war work) employed charismatic actor Charles Laughton, who’d astounded international audiences with a portrayal of that rascal, Henry VIII. As Rembrandt and then in America as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, as Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty, as Javert in Les Miserables, as Marmaduke Ruggles in Ruggles of Red Gap, Laughton gave spectacular performances. But as Rembrandt for Korda he brought to life in monumental fashion the artist of artists–while Vincent Korda built the most beautiful sets of a long career.

and
The Horse on the Merry-Go-Round
(1937) U.S., a cartoon by Ubbe Iwerks in Technicolor, 10 minutes

Commentary by Dr. Jan Wahl.