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Last week was the art opening/art fair blowout. This week, by accident or design, is a pretty amazing one for film. Let us count the ways:
Thursday, September 11
I'll be filling in at KDHX for the poetry ladies, and will miss these films, both one-night-only engagements (I'd have to choose anyway, since they're screening at the same time). At 7 p.m., The History Museum shows Brett Morgen's Chicago 10, which recreates the Chicago 8 trial using animation, archival footage and a wild soundtrack that includes Eminem and Steppenwolf. Though the film attempts to document the specific circumstances behind the "Days of Rage," it also pushes the story to an archetypal place. The event's sponsored by Channel 9, which has assembled a post-screening panel that includes Chuck Smith from Veterans for Peace, Howard Brick, professor of History at Washington University and author of Age of Contradiction: American Thought and Culture in the 1960s and T. Michael Ruddy, professor of History at St. Louis University specializing in U.S. foreign relations. For more info, go here. Over at the Winnie Moore Auditorium on the Webster Campus, the Film Series screens Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness. It's actually sponsored by litmag 52nd City, which (in full disclosure) I volunteer for. My co-editor Thomas Crone was the one who discovered the film, and it was his enthusiasm that resulted in its addition to the film calendar. The doc follows folks who don waders, steel-toed boots, Cardhardts and (if necessary) gas masks, and then go spelunking through abandoned buildings, sewer drains and in some cases, abandoned rocket silos. I was lucky enough to be in on a pre-screening and can say it's well worth a watch even if you never anticipate crawling through the catacombs beneath Paris. The Webster Film Series site has all the details.
Friday September 12
I actually put a reminder in my iCal for this one: tonight, What We Do is Secret, Rodger Grossman’s biopic of Germs frontman Darby Crash, opens at the Tivoli (details here). It stars Shane West from E.R., but don’t let that keep you away; apparently the lad does an amazing job. The film itself took 10 years to make, and from what I have read from the critics, it was worth the wait. On the other end of the spectrum, Unity’s Spiritual Movies screens The Kite Runner at 7 p.m. at Unity Christ Church, 33 N. Skinker.
Saturday September 13
For the fourth year, the Idaho Avenue Film Festival will show local, student and amateur films outside at (where else) 5229 Idaho Avenue. It's free, and there will be punch and popcorn (but bring your own chaise lounge or stadium seat, cause sitting on the ground for more than 15 minutes is not conducive to fixing your attention on the films). The screening itinerary is posted on the festival's Myspace page; the event runs from 7 to 11 p.m. Also tonight, the Webster Film series continues their German Expressionist festival with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, with live music by Gideon Freudmann. and on Sunday, they'll screen a Polanski two-fer, including the psycological thriller Cul-de-Sac and perhaps one of his most famous films, Rosemary's Baby, the second film in his classic "Aparment Trilogy."
