EIGHTH ANNUAL VIDEMUS LECTURE AND FILM SERIES
May 7 - 13, 7:00 p.m., Black Hall, Room 151

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Reviews:

• "Coolheaded and incisive, a thorough and informative study of corporations, their origins and their place in the modern world. Evenhanded in its methods, it nonetheless leaves audiences with a cold shiver." (Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle)
• "People on both sides of the globalization debate should pay attention. The Corporation is a surprisingly rational and coherent attack on capitalism's most important institution." (The Economist)
• "This vivid and often mesmerizing film lifts the veil from one of the most important and least understood features of modern age: the extraordinary powers that have been bestowed on virtually unaccountable private tyrannies, required by law to act in ways that severely undermine democracy and the most elementary human rights." (Noam Chomsky, MIT)
• Who's Who in The Corporation
• Other Reviews and Links: Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times); Adam Hart (IndieWire); The Corporation (Official Website); Rotten Tomatoes; Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

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Synopsis:
September 11 came into being as an attempt to forge a cinematic response to the events of 09/11 and make some sense of the planetary echo following the tragedies. A group of eleven eminent international filmmakers were asked to make a short film around the events of 9/11. The directors grasped the subject and expressed their perceptions of the events, each nourished by the concerns and anxieties of their respective countries, memories and stories. The film gathers together diverse sensibilities and commitments with each point of view expressed freely and in a spirit of complete equality. Without adopting a consensus, the resulting cinematographic mosaic is a work of contrasts, a complex dialogue among its authors across the globe. These 11 vignettes masterfully evoke the sheer scale of the tragedy, testify to the global resonance of the event, and bring some reflection to emotion.

Reviews:

• "We are fascinated, moved to tears, shocked, perplexed and even amused. September 11 is a cinematographic tapestry where the essence of different cultures is woven together with the thread of humanity." (Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile)
• "Brilliant, always revelatory, deeply interesting omnibus film... The vignettes' perspectives - even among directors who are deeply critical of U.S. foreign policy - are humanistic and anti-war, full of anger at the massacre and empathy for its victims." (Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune)
• "I find it interesting that 11 filmmakers from different cultures create a movie on the same subject: a universal event, without knowing each other or communicating with each other. This work lets the movie industry use democratic dialogue between authors instead of imposing a one-way one." (Samira Makhmalbaf, Iranian filmmaker on the September11 project; PDF file includes interviews with all September 11 directors.)
• Other Reviews and Links: Peter Rainer (New York Magazine); Jean-Michel Frodon (Le Monde); Christos Tsiolkas (filmbank.org); September 11 (Official Website); Rotten Tomatoes; Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

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Synopsis:

The main character in City of God is not a person. It is a place. Cidade de Deus is a poor housing project started in the 1960's that became one of the most dangerous places in Rio de Janeiro. Based on Paulo Lins' novel by the same name, the story of the place is told through the eyes of a poor black kid, Busca-Pé, who discovers that he can see the reality with a different eye: the eye of an artist and, later, professional photographer. But Busca-Pé is not the real protagonist of the film and his decisions rarely determine the main chain of events. Nonetheless, not only is his life attached to what happens in Cidade de Deus, but it is through Busca-Pé's perspective on life that we understand the humanity of a world seemingly condemned to endless violence. City of God is a true story enacted by the cast of nearly 200 non-professional actors and street kids from different Rio de Janeiro communities similar to Cidade de Deus. The film has received numerous international awards and was nominated for four Oscars, including best director in 2003.

Reviews:

• "City of God is quite a story. I'm sorry, I mean stories. Stories about people who live in the favela and dream, deal, get jealous, struggle, love and hate, out in the open or undercover, just like all of us." (Marcelo Rubens Paiva, author, playwright and screenplay writer)
• Two interviews with Fernando Meirelles, Director, City of God: Slant Magazine and Montreal Mirror.
• "Cities of God and Globalized Violence," Paulo Lins at the Center for Latin American Studies, UC Berkeley, March 2004.
• Other Reviews and Links: Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian); Stephen Holden (The New York Times); Cidede de Deus (Official Website); Rotten Tomatoes.

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Synopsis:

Talking Heads' ringleader David Byrne makes his directorial debut in this charming low-key musical montage about the mythical town of Virgil, Texas, where the lives of many of its eccentric citizens are exposed. A lot of True Stories derives from tabloid newspaper clippings Byrne collected, chronicling occurrences that are much stranger than fiction. These tales might be lurid in another setting, but Byrne prefers to marvel at them in a spirit of innocent good cheer. The town of Virgil, Texas is replete with archetypical shopping malls, tract houses on the edge of nowhere, and bars that serve drinks with umbrellas. Byrne, who cruises through Virgil in a red convertible and a greenish cowboy suit the color of electrified lichen, is on hand to savor every detail.

Reviews:

• "True Stories is a bold attempt to paint a bizarre American landscape. This movie does what some painters try to do: It recasts ordinary images into strange new shapes. There is hardly a moment in True Stories that doesn't seem everyday to anyone who has grown up in Middle America, and not a moment that doesn't seem haunted with secrets, evasions, loneliness, depravity or hidden joy - sometimes all at once." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
• "Byrne closes the film with a title that reads 'If you can think of it, it exists somewhere,' and that comes close to defining the film's notion of veracity. The real world can be seen afresh when its simplest absurdities are regarded, as they are here, with naive fascination." (Janet Maslin, The New York Times)
• Other Reviews and Links: Rock's Renaissance Man (Time Magazine); Davidbyrne.com; Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

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Synopsis:

Thomas Vinterberg's contribution to the Dogme 95 collective is an electrifying achievement, driven by powerhouse acting and hand-held digital camera work so realistic that one might forget they're watching a feature film. Friends and family gather to pay tribute to Helge on his sixtieth birthday, but when it's time for the eldest son, Christian, to give the opening toast, the fireworks begin. The most heart-breaking night in living memory is about to descend on the unsuspecting family. However, irrespective skeletons being mercilessly ripped out of the family closet, stiff upper lips prevail and in a highly macabre way the party just keeps going on. Simultaneously hysterical and tragic, this is a film that has the ability to single-handedly reaffirm one's faith in cinema. The Celebration is the first Dogme 95 film (Dogme #1) produced in strict compliance with the collective's Vow of Chastity. It won the Jury Prize at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.

Reviews:

• "A beautifully calibrated and carefully thought out film about a completely out-of-control situation, it is raw without being off-putting and wrenching without losing its sense of humor. Best of all, The Celebration allows the audience to share the same sense of emotional danger and uncertainty its characters feel. We're in there with them, watching the chaos happen all around, wondering where it can possibly end. The Celebration is so successful because it's that rare film that's as compelling for the way it tells its story as for the tale itself." (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times)
• "Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration mixes farce and tragedy so completely that it challenges us to respond at all. There are moments when a small, choked laugh begins in the audience and is then instantly stifled, as we realize a scene is not intended to be funny. Or is it? Imagine Eugene O'Neill and Woody Allen collaborating on a screenplay about a family reunion. Now let Luis Bunuel direct it." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
• Dogme 95 (Official Website)
• Dogme 95 Manifesto and The Vow of Chastity
Other Reviews and Links: Janet Maslin (The New York Times); Rotten Tomatoes; Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

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Thursday, May 12
The Tragedy of Macbeth
Director: Roman Polanski (UK/US, 1971)
Presented by Laila Abdalla, English Department

Friday, May 13
Bad Education (La Mala Educación)
Director: Pedro Almodóvar (Spain, 2004)
Presented by Stella Moreno, Department of Foreign Languages