We’ve got some real heavy-hitters screening this week, including our first 35mm film screening of the semester! Welcome back, film, we missed you terribly. After a year and half of watching movies on a laptop or TV, it’s incredible how much better a 35mm film print looks. You can find out for yourself this Wednesday with Ingmar Bergman’s stone-cold classic, The Seventh Seal! We inspected the print last week and it looks sublime.
But first, we start the week with last year’s Academy Award winner, Nomadland (Tues & Wed)! Frances McDormand carries this entire film on her talented shoulders, and she was justly rewarded with an Oscar for Best Actress. Chloe Zhao, subject of one of our film series this semester, also won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture.
We’ve got three documentaries this week, all making their Ithaca Premiere:
Los Hermanos (Thur) details the musical reunion of two Afro-Cuban brothers, separated years ago but united through their music. The Obama-era thaw in relations with Cuba allowed the brothers to reunite and tour the US, with support from violinist Joshua Bell.
The art-house hit Gunda (Sat & Mon 9/20; pictured) is a day in the life of a pig and her piglets. Paul Thomas Anderson called it “pure cinema,” and we’re inclined to agree.
Also screening this week is the dance doc Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters (Fri & Sun). The film follows a group of college students as they re-stage a legendary choreography that came to be seen as one of the most important artistic responses to the AIDS crisis, screening in partnership with the LGBT Resource Center and LGBT Studies.
Finally, we have last year’s Fred Hampton biopic Judas and the Black Messiah (Thurs & Sat), featuring Daniel Kaluuya in an Oscar-winning role as Chairman Fred and Cornell alum and recent Cornell Cinema guest Dominique Thorne '19.
We’re also screening 2001: A Space Odyssey this weekend (Fri & Sun), as part of our belated 50th Anniversary series! Please note: even though 2001 isn’t much longer than most movies released these days, we are including a 10-minute intermission during the film, as was intended for its theatrical release. We will also present the original overture and entr’acte.
But there's more! If you attended our screening of Sisters with Transistors last week, you'll want to check out the great Zoom panel discussion we hosted with it.
Finally, an important heads up: we'll be hosting an incredibly special event next week: a screening of The Goddess (1934), a masterpiece of Chinese silent cinema, that will be accompanied live by two extraordinary musicians: Min Xiao-Fen, a virtuoso on the Chinese stringed instrument pipa, and guitarist Rez Abbasi. “The music [Min Xiao-Fen] has written draws from across the spectrum of Chinese heritage, including references to Tibetan chants as well as other folk forms, while remaining in contact with her jazz influences.” (NY Times) The event took place at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in August and we're thrilled to be able to offer it to Ithaca audiences on Thursday, September 23 at 7pm. Ticket prices are $12 general/ $10 students ($2 off for All-Access Pass holders), and can be purchased here.
