“[I]n his attempt to imagine why, and how, we try to preserve memories, Cheney unearths something beautiful.”
98 minutes. Not Rated. Directed by Ian Cheney. In English. DCP.
NOTE: Director Ian Cheney will be in attendance at the Sunday, April 28 screening of this film.
The Arc of Oblivion explores a quirk of humankind: in a universe that erases its tracks, we humans are hellbent on leaving a trace.
Set against the backdrop of the filmmaker’s quixotic quest to build an ark in a field in Maine, the film heads far afield – to salt mines in the Alps, fjords in the Arctic, and ancient libraries in the Sahara – to illuminate the strange world of archives, record-keeping, and memory.
Playfully weaving stop-motion animation, spellbinding cinematography, and fascinating interviews from the director’s inner circle and experts in the field of science, culture and art – including documentarians Werner Herzog and Kirsten Johnson – Ian Cheney’s The Arc of Oblivion reveals how nature inspires the human drive behind filmmaking.
$7 for SPACE members
103 min.
“In exchange for three hours of your time, Yi Yi will give you more life.”
173 minutes. Not Rated. Directed by Edward Yang. In Mandarin, Taiwanese, Japanese, and English with English subtitles. DCP.
The extraordinary, internationally embraced Yi Yi (A One and a Two . . .), directed by the late Taiwanese master Edward Yang, follows a middle-class family in Taipei over the course of one year, beginning with a wedding and ending with a funeral. Whether chronicling middle-age father NJ’s tentative flirtations with an old flame or precocious young son Yang-Yang’s attempts at capturing reality with his beloved camera, the filmmaker deftly imbues every gorgeous frame with a compassionate clarity. Warm, sprawling, and dazzling, this intimate epic is one of the undisputed masterworks of the new century.
newly restored 1998 classic starring Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn, directed by Marc Levin
Starring Saul Williams, Sonja Sohn, and Bonz Malone, Slam is a powerful work of cinemaverité that portrays the story of a young black performance poet, Raymond Joshua (SaulWilliams), who is arrested and imprisoned for a petty marijuana charge in a Washington, D.C. jail. Although the confining prison walls do little to shield him from danger, it is within those walls that Raymond establishes his identity, strength, and voice and meets a prison gang leader (Bonz Malone) and a prison writing teacher, Lauren Bell (Sonja Sohn). Bell inspires Raymond to use the power of creative expression to free himself from the struggles and demise of the black male as another victim of the judicial system. Sublime poetry and heart wrenching realism, Slam is itself a testament to the importance and the impact of artistic expression.
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and Caméra d’Or at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival
“SLAM anticipated a cycle of poetry via the spoken word movement that democratized the voices and voicing of poetry for new generations,” says Saul Williams, Screenwriter and star of SLAM. “We are still experiencing its ripple in popular culture and academia, worldwide. With its focus not only on poetry, but criminal justice and marijuana, SLAM remains a testament of the times.”
Marc Levin’s SLAM is a landmark film that defies easy categorization. This emotionally powerful and technically innovative film deserves to be seen on the big screen.“
-Emanuel Levy, Variety