| Thurs., Feb 7, 7pm Middle of Nowhere, US, 2012, 1 hr. 39 min. Director: Ava DuVernay Winner of Sundance Film Festival Directing Award: Dramatic Competition 2012 Middle of Nowhere follows Ruby, a bright medical student who sets aside her dreams and suspends her career when her husband is incarcerated. As the committed couple stares into the hollow end of an eight-year prison sentence, Ruby must learn to live another life, one marked by shame and separation. But through a chance encounter and a stunning betrayal that shakes her to her core, this steadfast wife is soon propelled in new and often shocking directions of self-discovery - caught between two worlds and two men in the search for herself Thurs., Feb 14, 7pm "Valentines Day Treat" An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, US, 2012, 1 hr. 35 min. Director: Terence Nance You've just arrived home after a bad day. You're broke and lonely, even though you live in the biggest and busiest city in America. You do, however, have one cause for mild optimism: you seem to have captured the attention of an intriguing young lady. You've rushed home to clean your apartment before she comes over. In your haste, you see that you've missed a call. There's a voice mail; she tells you that she won't be seeing you tonight. With arresting insight, vulnerability, and a delightful sense of humor, Terence Nance's explosively creative debut feature, AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY, documents the relationship between Terence and a lovely young woman (Namik Minter) as it teeters on the divide between platonic and romantic. Utilizing a tapestry of live action and various styles of animation, Terence explores the fantasies, emotions, and memories that race through his mind during a singular moment in time. Chicago Premiere Thurs., Feb 21, 7pm One Mind, Four Hands, US, 2013, 80 min, Director: Greg Gantner Classical realist sculptors, Anna Koh Varilla and Jeff Varilla were commissioned by the students of the University of Texas at Austin (USA) to design and create a bronze sculpture of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, to be installed on the once severely segregated Southern campus as a permanent memorial. This documentary is a look at the physical and psychological steps involved in the making of a contemporary work of public art. It portrays the artist’s role in American culture with insights and commentaries on the challenges and conditions that they must address and overcome throughout, including racism and the near complete destruction of the Dr. King statue. Thurs., Feb 28, 7pm The Manuscripts of Timbuktu, 52 minutes, 2009, South Africa, Mali, Morocco Director: Zola Maseko One of the definitions for Timbuktu in the Oxford Dictionary is “any distant or remote place”. Featuring the knowledgeable commentary by African scholars, rich reenactments, and an original musical score by Vieux Farka Touré, the essential documentary The Manuscripts of Timbuktu critiques this limited view by firmly demonstrating that Timbuktu was once thriving and home to an advanced civilization. It was a leading cultural, economic, scientific and religious center that made a significant and lasting impact on Africa and the entire world. The film successfully documents that Africa had vibrant scholarly institutions and written cultures long before European intervention. It establishes the importance of preserving the thousands of manuscripts from long ago as an exciting and empowering legacy for Africana scholarship today. |
