Films at MMoCA Spotlight Series, Fall 2013

MMoCAs Spotlight Cinema series returns this fall with the Madison premieres of five critically acclaimed and award-winning documentary and narrative features. The series kicks off Thursday, October 10 with American Promise, a powerful documentary following two African-American boys from the time they enroll in an elite private school as five-year olds through their departure to college. The filmmakers, who are also one of the boys parents, craft an unforgettable and moving exploration of race, class, and opportunity in the American educational system. The series also features two recent French narrative films Our Children on October 17 and acclaimed auteur Claire Denis Bastards on December 5. In between those features, we will also highlight Jem Cohens Museum Hours on October 24, and Jason Osders powerful Let the Fire Burn on November 7, which chronicles a violent clash between the City of Philadelphia and a radical black liberation group in 1985. Spotlight Cinema is curated by Mike King and Tom Yoshikami, and is a program of MMoCAs education department. Funding for the series has been provided by maiahaus and Venture Investors, LLC. Ticket sales begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Museum lobby; films screen at 7:00 p.m. in the lecture hall. Admission is free for MMoCA members and $7 per screening for the general public. For more info, please contact Tom Yoshikami at tsyoshikami@wisc.edu / 608-239-4955.

At-a-Glance Screening Schedule October 10, 2013, 7:00 p.m. American Promise (2013, USA, 140 min., HD) Dirs.: Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson October 17, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Our Children ( perdre la raison ) (2012, Belgium/France, 111 min., HD) Dir.: Joachim Lafosse Cast milie Dequenne, Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup October 24, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Museum Hours (2012, Austria/USA, 107 min., HD) Dir.: Jem Cohen Cast Mary Margaret OHara, Bobby Sommer, Ela Piplits November 7, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Let the Fire Burn (2013, USA, 95 min, HD) Dir.: Jason Osder December 5, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Bastards (Les salauds ) (2013, France, 100 min., HD) Dir.: Claire Denis Cast Vincent Lindon, Chiara Mastroianni, Julie Bataille, Michel Subor

October 10, 2013, 7:00 p.m. American Promise 2013, USA, 140 min., HD Dirs.: Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson

American Promise spans 13 years as Joe Brewster and Michle Stephenson, middle-class African-American parents in Brooklyn, N.Y., turn their cameras on their son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, who make their way through one of the most prestigious private schools in the country. In the spirit of Michael Apteds Up series, the film chronicles the boys divergent paths from kindergarten through high school graduation at Manhattans Dalton School, as they grow up and mature. American Promise is a provocative and intimate documentary that presents complicated truths about Americas struggle to come of age on issues of race, class and opportunity. An official Selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Official Site: http://www.americanpromise.org/ Press Kit/Stills: http://www.americanpromise.org/press.html Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icbq_5RsMB8

October 17, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Our Children ( perdre la raison ) 2012, Belgium/France, 111 min., HD Dir.: Joachim Lafosse Cast milie Dequenne, Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup

Thirteen years after her indelible performance in Rosetta, milie Dequenne was again awarded Best Actress the Cannes Film Festival for Our Children. She stars as Murielle, whose marriage to Moroccan-born Mounir is put under duress when they move in with Andre, his wealthy adoptive father. Andres surface generosity soon proves suffocating, and his closeness with Mounir makes Murielle a pawn in her own family. Based on a harrowing true story, this powerful psychodrama recalls A Woman Under the Influence by way of Gaslight. Nothing short of revelatory youll be convinced [Dequenne] may be the best European actor of her generation Time Out New York. UniFrance Site: http://en.unifrance.org/movie/32673/our-children Press Kit: http://medias.unifrance.org/medias/66/56/79938/presse/our-children2012-press-kit-english-1.pdf Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NahXt2OhS3Y

October 24, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Museum Hours 2012, Austria/USA, 107 min., HD Dir.: Jem Cohen Cast Mary Margaret OHara, Bobby Sommer, Ela Piplits

This thoroughly modern film from independent cinema icon Jem Cohen unfolds largely amongst the 16th century masterworks hanging in the hushed galleries of Viennas Kunsthistorisches Museum. Anne, a Canadian in town to visit her hospitalized cousin, forges an unlikely bond with Johann, a wryly philosophical museum guard. Drawing on his actors biographies and freely incorporating documentary interludes, Cohen treats his characters with the reverence usually reserved for the Rembrandts displayed around them, crafting a deeply human, serene and soulful portrait of cross-cultural friendship. Quietly amazing, sneakily sublime this movie is rigorously and intensely lifelike, which is to say that its also a strange and moving work of art A.O. Scott New York Times. Rapturous. A film of such intelligence and originality that radical seems the only accurate word Village Voice. Official Site: http://www.museumhoursfilm.com/start_E.htm Press Kit/Stills: http://www.museumhoursfilm.com/dl/MH_PressKit.pdf Trailer: https://vimeo.com/67156091

November 7, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Let the Fire Burn 2013, USA, 95 min, HD Dir.: Jason Osder

In the astonishingly gripping Let the Fire Burn, first time documentarian Jason Osder crafts a found-footage film that unfurls with the tension of a great thriller. On May 13, 1985, a longtime feud between the city of Philadelphia and the radical black liberation group MOVE came to a deadly climax. By order of local authorities, police dropped military-grade explosives onto a MOVE-occupied row house. TV cameras captured the inferno that quickly escalated and ultimately resulted in the tragic deaths of 11 people (including five children) and the destruction of 61 homes. It was only later discovered that authorities decided to ...let the fire burn. Using only archival news coverage and interviews, Osder brings to life a tumultuous and largely forgotten clash between government and citizens in modern American history. Official Site: http://www.letthefireburn.com Press Kit: http://bit.ly/17pi9LO Trailer: https://vimeo.com/74386937

December 5, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Bastards (Les salauds ) 2013, France, 100 min., HD Dir.: Claire Denis Cast Vincent Lindon, Chiara Mastroianni, Julie Bataille, Michel Subor

Mysterious and enveloping, the latest cinematic puzzle box from French master Claire Denis (Beau Travail, White Material) follows one familys unraveling at the hand of a wealthy businessman. Loosely inspired by William Faulkners Sanctuary and Akira Kurosawas The Bad Sleep Well, this labyrinthine descent into the darkest realms of capitalism, crime, and family is impossible to shake off. Shooting digitally for the first time, Denis beautifully brings her signature atmospheric, elliptical style into a new age. The rarest of cinematic objects a completely contemporary, disturbingly relevant film noir Amy Taubin, Sight and Sound. Official Selection, 2013 Cannes, New York Film Festivals. Official Site: http://www.lessalauds-lefilm.com Stills: http://www.lessalauds-lefilm.com/presse/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D__eY2cVF5k