Tag: Community cinema

The Bad Kids


SOKA COMMUNITY CINEMA PRESENTS INDIE LENS POP-UP – THE BAD KIDS
Date: 02.23.2017

Time: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location: Pauling 216


Located in an impoverished Mojave Desert community, Black Rock Continuation High School is an alternative school for students at risk of dropping out; Black Rock is their last chance. Extraordinary educators believe that empathy and life skills, more than academics, give these underserved students command of their own futures.

Admission: Free

For more information about the films and Indie Lens Pop-up, visit: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/indie-lens-pop-up/

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Inner Borderlines: Visions of America Through the Eyes of Alejandro Morales

Thursday, September 22nd, 2016
7:00- 8:30 p.m. Pauling 216

Q&A with Professor and protagonist of Inner Borderlines Alejandro Morales (University of California, Irvine).

 

 

INNER BORDERLINES: VISIONS OF AMERICA THROUGH THE EYES OF ALEJANDRO MORALES

 

(72 min, English and Spanish, dir. Luis Mancha)

 

Inner Borderlines follows Alejandro Morales around Southern California as he explores a variety of topics that concern the Chicano/Latino community including: history, immigration, race relations, ethnicity, family, labor, education, religion, memory, gender, power, border, borderlands, and the fantastic.

Recognized by many as a pioneer of Chicano literature and precursor of bilingualism-he writes in Spanish and English-, Morales presents a unique vision of America, different from the image that the United States projects abroad.

 

Morales has authored several historical biographies in which he tells the fictional story of a character’s life using historical personages and events, bringing together his love for both history and writing. His works are examples of Miguel de Unamuno’s idea of Intra History, writing about the significance of the lives of ordinary people; of Linda Hutcheon’s theory of Historiographic Metafiction, the practice of writing aware of theory, history and fiction as strategies to rethink and reevaluate the past; and Irving Stone’s practice of writing biographical novels.
He considers that the sites between epistemological discourses have coalesced and are continuously intersecting. In reference to any one of his books Morales says “If you read my books like works of history, you are reading fiction; if you read my books like works of fiction, you are reading history.” He believes that creative, imaginative works are equal in importance as empirical works, perhaps even more important as catalysts for inquiry and change.

SUA Community Cinema presents:

Tuesday October 4th, 2016 
7:00- 8:30 Pauling 216


Rodando en La Habana: bicycle stories

(30 min, Spanish with English subs, dir. Santos and Hosek) 


Q&A with Professor and director Jennifer Hosek

When the Soviet Union fell, Cuba pedaled its way to independence–by bicycle. What has become of Havana’s sole-powered communities born out of the need to move without petrol? Many city inhabitants live, love or hate the bicycle these days. However, unlike in the toughest part of the Special Period, they struggle with difficulties like expensive spare parts and inadequate public infrastructure. This documentary by Jaime Santos Menéndez and Jennifer Ruth Hosek takes us into the diverse and yet similar lives of five Havana cyclists. Guided by a Virgilesque, street-wise mechanic, it maps the city and relates a unique people’s history begun in the nineties past of the Chinese Forever bicycle. Rodando’s bicycle-level vision reveals a lot about Cuba’s present and future.

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».

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.

The Homestretch


COMMUNITY CINEMA AT SOKA UNIVERSITY  PRESENTS


The Homestretch

Date: 03.12.2015

Time: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location: Pauling 216

Directors/Producers:
Anne de Mare, Director/Producer
Kirsten Kelly, Director/Producer


The homestretch


The Homestretch follows three homeless teens as they fight to stay in school, graduate, and build a future. Each of these smart, ambitious youths — Roque, Kasey, and Anthony — will surprise, inspire, and challenge audiences to rethink stereotypes of homelessness as they work to complete their education while facing the trauma of being alone and abandoned at an early age. While told through a personal perspective, their stories connect with larger issues of poverty, race, juvenile justice, immigration, foster care, and LGBTQ rights.

With unprecedented access into Chicago public schools, The Night Ministry “Crib” emergency youth shelter, and Teen Living Programs’ Belfort House, The Homestretch follows these kids as they move through the milestones of high school while navigating a landscape of couch hopping, emergency shelters, transitional homes, street families, and a school system on the front lines of the homelessness crisis. The Homestretch examines the struggles these youth face in obtaining a high school level education, and then follows them beyond graduation to focus on the crucial transition when the structure of school vanishes, and homeless youth often struggle to find the support and community they need to survive and be independent. A powerful, original perspective on what it means to be young and homeless in America today, while building a future.