Category: Documentary Film & Photography

Indie Lens Pop-Up and SUA Community Cinema Presents:

Thursday, December 1st, 2016

7:00-8:30 p.m. Pauling 216


MEET THE PATELS
Directed by Ravi Patel and Geeta Patel

MEET THE PATELS is a laugh-out-loud real life romantic comedy about Ravi Patel, an almost-30-year-old Indian-American who enters a love triangle between the woman of his dreams … and his parents. Filmed by Ravi’s sister in what started as a family vacation video, this hilarious and heartbreaking film reveals how love is a family affair.

Fresh out of a breakup with his secret white girlfriend, who his parents knew nothing about, and freaked out that he’s almost 30 and single, Ravi goes on a family vacation to India with his head and heart spinning.

Ravi is willing to do whatever it takes to find love—but there’s one tricky detail to consider: In his family, everyone has the last name Patel. Patels marry other Patels. It’s not incest, it means they are from the same 50-square mile radius in India. Struck with how overwhelmingly happy the marriages are of his Patel family and friends, Ravi enters a fool-proof Patel matchmaking system and embarks on a worldwide search for another American Patel just like him.



Upcoming Community Cinema Screenings 2016

January 21st 

In Football We Trust by Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn

In Football We Trust intimately follows four Polynesian high school football players in Utah struggling to overcome gang violence, family pressures, and poverty as they enter the high stakes world of college recruiting and the promise of pro sports. The odds may be stacked against them, but they’ll never stop fighting for a better future.

February 8th 

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution by Stanley Nelson

A new revolutionary culture emerged in the turbulent 1960s, and the Black Panther Party was at the vanguard. Weaving together a treasure trove of rare footage with the voices of a diverse group of people who were there, Stanley Nelson tells the vibrant story of a pivotal movement that feels timely all over again.

April 5th

Peace Officer by Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber

The increasingly tense relationship between law enforcement and the public is seen through the eyes of someone who’s been on both sides: a former sheriff who established Utah’s first SWAT team, only to see the same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff 30 years later. Now a private investigator, Dub seeks the truth in this case and other officer-involved shootings.

April 21st
The Armor of Light by Abigail Disney

Two people of faith come together to explore the contradictions of a nation rife with gun violence: a famously anti-abortion evangelical minister risks losing followers when he questions the morality of gun ownership, while a grieving mother dedicates herself to creating change after the shooting of her unarmed teenage son.

Presentacion del Documental Politico en Argentina, Chile, y Uruguay: De Los Anos Cincuenta a la Decada Dos Mil

Este sábado 26 de septiembre, a las 16.15, en el contexto del Festival de Internacional de Documentales de Santiago (Fidocs) será presentado el libro El documental político en Argentina, Chile y Uruguay: de los años cincuenta a la década del dos mil. El texto editado por LOM reúne 14 artículos de investigadores de los respectivos países. Responsables de la selección de los mismos son los académicos Tomás Crowder-Taraborrelli y Antonio Traverso, quien estará presente en la actividad que se realizará en la torre B del Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral (Alameda Lib. Bernardo O’Higgins 227).


Señalan Traverso y Crowder-Taraborrelli : “El cine documental en Argentina, Chile y Uruguay ha demostrado fuerza, sofisticación y deseos de ser tanto testigo de los eventos políticos como protagonista de los procesos sociales que han marcado a estos tres países desde la década de los cincuenta”. Agregan que al existir hoy un corpus de trabajo y un archivo audiovisual histórico sustancial, este se constituye en una fuente de gran potencial para investigar y teorizar “tanto las historias y experiencias de cambio social y cultural en América Latina como el mismo género documental”.

De esto dan cuenta los trabajos de Mariano Mestman, Moira Fradinger, Antonio Prado, María Belén Ciancio, Kristi Wilson, Jorge Ruffinelli, María Soledad Montañez, David Martin-Jones, Ana Ros; Javier Campo, Patrick Blaine, Walescka Pino-Ojeda, Tomás Crowder-Taraborrelli y Gloria Medina-Sancho.

En ellos examinan en detalle las estrategias utilizadas por documentalistas argentinos, chilenos y uruguayos, tanto para registrar e intervenir en eventos políticos específicos enmarcados dentro de procesos de cambio social más amplios, como para visualizar y reflexionar sobre el pasado y el futuro de estas tres naciones. Así, por ejemplo, en el caso argentino la mirada va desde el documental militante argentino de los sesenta hasta la más reciente producción, ejemplificada en Los rubios de Albertina Carri. De Chile son analizadas obras de Patricio Guzmán, una de las voces más potentes del cine documental a nivel internacional, Silvio Caiozzi y Carmen Luz Parot.

El libro cuenta con una introducción de Carlos Flores del Pino, director del Festival Internacional de Documentales de Santiago, quien señala: « Las turbulencias en las que se desplazan las notables reflexiones de este libro me han hecho recordar una lúcida afirmación de Godard: “el cine no es un arte, ni una industria, el cine es un misterio”. Por eso, creo yo, el cine difícilmente puede cambiar el mundo. El cine sólo puede cambiar el cine».

University of California, Berkeley


THE IMAGE KNOWLEDGE CONFERENCE


FRIDAY 30 October, 2015

15:40-16:55
Room 1 Cinema for Change

The Cinema of the Prague Spring: The Aesthetics of Revolution
Emily Elizabeth Thomas, Visual and Critical Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA
Overview: This paper explores the effects of systematic, oppressive politics on the creative production of socially active works of cinema.

Student Militancy and Documentary Film in Argentina
Tomas Crowder-Taraborrelli, Soka University of America, Aliso Viejo, USA
I will analyze a series of documentary films from Argentina that reclaim the history of the forced disappearances of high school students during the last dictatorship.

Images of the Future: Critical Reflections on “Things to Come” 1936 and “2001: A Space Odyssey”
Prof. H. James Birx, Division of Anthropology, Canisius College/University of Belgrade, Williamsville, USA
Overview: Cinematic images may anticipate the human future. Exemplary films are “Things to Come” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Emphasizing collectivism and individualism respectively, they offer contrasting visions of progressive evolution.

Limited Partnership


COMMUNITY CINEMA AT SOKA UNIVERSITY PRESENTS

Limited Partnership

Date: 05.07.2015

Time: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location: Pauling 216


Directors/Producers:
Thomas Miller, Producer/Director
Kirk Marcolina, Producer
Karen Hori, Co-Producer


limited partnership


Decades before The Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, one gay couple fell in love and took on the US government to fight for marriage and immigration equality. Filipino American Richard Adams and Australian Tony Sullivan met in 1971 in Los Angeles and quickly fell in love. In April 1975, thanks to a courageous county clerk in Boulder, CO, they became one of the first same-sex couples in the world to be legally married. Richard immediately filed for a green card for Tony based on their marriage. But unlike most heterosexual married couples who easily file petitions and obtain green cards, Richard received a denial letter from the Immigration and Naturalization Service stating, ”You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.”

To prevent Tony’s impending deportation, and outraged by the tone, tenor, and politics of this letter, the couple sued the U.S. government. This became the first federal lawsuit seeking equal treatment for a same-sex marriage in U.S. history. Over four decades of legal challenges, Richard and Tony figured out how to maintain their sense of humor, justice, and whenever possible, their privacy. This tenacious story of love, marriage, and immigration equality is as precedent-setting as it is little-known – until now.