FILMS
Night of the Kings
A young man is sent to “La Maca,” a prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest ruled by its inmates. Aa tradition goes with the rising of the red moon, he is designated by the Boss to be the new “Roman” and must tell a story to the other prisoners. Learning what fate awaits him, he begins to narrate the mystical life of the legendary outlaw named “Zama King” and has no choice but to make his story last until dawn.
04/06 4pm
MR3
Director and screenplay: Philippe Lacôte
Producer: Banshee Films
Drama/Fantastic
French
93 min.
France, 2020
04/19
Online
Drama
French; Bambara
117 min.
France/Mali, 2006
Bamako
Outside the modest home that singer Melé and her husband Chaka share with other families stands a make-shift open-air courtroom. The accused: The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the inequities of globalization perpetrated on all of Africa. One by one, witnesses take the in stand Sissako’s pointed, nuanced meta-drama.
Director and screenplay: Abderrahmane Sissako
Producer: Archipel 35 / Archipel 33
BAMAKO will be available for viewers to access on 04/19.
Once accessed, viewers will have a 72-hour window of time to watch the movie.
Use the following promocode to redeem access to the movie: BRYANTUALBERTINE
Proceed to rent the film, log in and then apply the promo code!
35 shots of rum
Films about families and their complications all too often pierce eardrums with shrieks of dysfunction. Amid the din, Claire Denis’s sublime 35 Shots of Rum stands out all the more for its soothing quiet, conveying the easy, frequently nonverbal intimacy between a widowed father, Lionel, and his university-student daughter, Joséphine. An homage to Yasujiro Ozu’s similarly themed Late Spring (1949), 35 Shots is Denis’s warmest, most radiant work, honoring a family of two’s extreme closeness while suggesting its potential for suffocation. 35 Shots is firmly rooted in place, several scenes unfolding in an apartment building in a run-down section of Paris’s 18th arrondissement, home to Lionel and Joséphine; Gabrielle, an ex of Lionel’s who still aches for him; and Noé, nursing a crush on Joséphine. Dyads align, shift, break, and regroup among the foursome, jealousy simmering during an unforgettable scene at a café, in which Noé cuts in on a sweetly dancing Lionel and Joséphine as the Commodores’ “Night Shift” plays. Nonsexual filial devotion is immediately supplanted by heat and desire. Father and daughter’s comfortable life together will need to end—an inevitability that even Lionel recognizes as necessary, no matter how painful.
“For 20 years, Claire Denis has been among France’s foremost filmmakers with her acute yet subtle observations of the ebbs and flows within relationships. Her perception and understanding seem to grow only richer over the years, and her newest film, “35 Shots of Rum,” is surely one of her finest — and thereby one of the best films of the year.” Kevin Thomas, The Los Angeles Times..
04/21
Online
Director: Claire Denis
Screenplay: Claire Denis and Jean-Pol Fargeau
Producer: Soudaine Compagnie
Arena Films
Drama
French
100 min.
France, 2009
35 SHOTS OF RUM will be available for viewers to access on 04/21 through 04/23.
Once accessed, viewers will have a 48-hour window of time to watch the movie.
Use the following promocode to redeem access to the movie: 35S_BRU
Proceed to rent the film, log in and then apply the promo code!
04/13 10am
Janikies
Director: Eric Baudelaire
Producer: Poulet-Malassis – Les Films d’Ici
Drama
French; Bambara
117 min.
France/Mali, 2006
A dramatic film
Commissioned as a dedicated artwork for the newly constructed Dora Maar middle school on the outskirts of Paris, Un Film Dramatique is a lively portrait of the first class to attend the school, filmed over the course of four years. The group of 21 middle schoolers discuss the drama of their daily lives and experiment with cameras and equipment. They are the film’s subjects, and also its makers.
With a refreshingly uninhibited approach, Éric Baudelaire (Letters to Max, The Anabasis of May…) offers a new perspective on the realities of our current socio-political moment that is both playful and purposeful. As the students debate the approaching elections and the immigration crisis, they also seek to answer a key political question—what are we doing here together?
Slalom
This riveting, Cannes-selected #MeToo drama from debut filmmaker Charlène Favier follows the relationship between a teenage ski prodigy and her predatory instructor, played by frequent Dardenne brothers collaborator Jérémie Renier. In a breakthrough role, Noée Abita plays 15-year-old Lyz, a high school student in the French Alps who has been accepted to an elite ski club known for producing some of the country’s top professional athletes. Taking a chance on his new recruit, ex-champion turned coach Fred decides to mold Lyz into his shining star despite her lack of experience. Under his influence, she will have to endure more than the physical and emotional pressure of the training. Will Lyz’s determination help her escape Fred’s exploitative grip?
04/13 2pm
Janikies
Drama
French
92 min.
France, 2020
Director: Charlène Favier
Screenplay: Charlène Favier and Marie Talon
Producer: Mille et Une Productions
04/27 4.15pm
DR1
Documentary
French
1h20 min.
France, 2020
Little girl
Little girl is the moving portrait of 7-year-old Sasha, who has always known that she
is a girl. Sasha’s family has recently accepted her gender identity, embracing their
daughter for who she truly is while working to confront outdated norms and find
affirmation in a small community of rural France. Realized with delicacy and intimacy,
Sébastien Lifshitz’s documentary poetically explores the emotional challenges, everyday feats, and small moments in Sasha’s life.
Director: Sébastien Lifshitz
Producer: Agat films – Ex nihilo