Film Series

"The Essential Cinema: Films of the Middle East and Beyond" series runs from January 12 through February 16, 2010.

Laila's Birthday
Tues Jan 26, 7 PM
Written and directed by Rashid Masharawi, Laila's Birthday centers around a Palestinian taxi driver (and former judge) in Ramallah who wants to make his daughter’s 7th birthday a very special one, but first he must spend his day making money picking up passengers. Each person who gets in and out of his cab reveals a bit of their lives -- young lovers simply wanting a place to be together, a man recently freed from prison, a woman unable to decide whether to go to a hospital or cemetery first, and a man who leaves his cell phone in the cab and creates chaos for the cab driver. In the course of the day Masharawi shows a Palestinian city often in the news but never observed in such objective detail.

"The Essential Cinema: Films of the Middle East and Beyond" series runs from January 12 through February 16, 2010:

The Land (Al-ard)
Tues Jan 19, 7 PM
Considered by many critics to be one of Chahine's finest films, in the classic The Land Chahine focuses his lens on the plight of the peasants in a small village exploited by a powerful local landowner, at a time that Britain and the corrupt Egyptian monarchy still run the country.

The series run from January 12 through February 16, 2010, and screenings for this month include:

Cairo Station
Tues Jan 12, 7 PM
The bustling Cairo train station is the setting for a dramatic love triangle involving Kenaoui, a handicapped newspaper vendor (played by the director himself Youssef Chahine), Hanouma, a voluptuous lemonade seller, and her fiancé Abou Serib, a muscular train porter involved in union organizing. This classic 1959 Egyptian film noir was banned in Egypt for twenty years after its controversial premiere.

The Land (Al-ard)
Tues Jan 19, 7 PM
Considered by many critics to be one of Chahine's finest films, in the classic The Land Chahine focuses his lens on the plight of the peasants in a small village exploited by a powerful local landowner, at a time that Britain and the corrupt Egyptian monarchy still run the country.

Laila's Birthday
Tues Jan 26, 7 PM
Written and directed by Rashid Masharawi, Laila's Birthday centers around a Palestinian taxi driver (and former judge) in Ramallah who wants to make his daughter’s 7th birthday a very special one, but first he must spend his day making money picking up passengers. Each person who gets in and out of his cab reveals a bit of their lives -- young lovers simply wanting a place to be together, a man recently freed from prison, a woman unable to decide whether to go to a hospital or cemetery first, and a man who leaves his cell phone in the cab and creates chaos for the cab driver. In the course of the day Masharawi shows a Palestinian city often in the news but never observed in such objective detail.

From Weird Wednesday programmer Lars Nilsen:

"'12 Hands. 12 Feet. 12 Reasons To Die!' OK, so no prizes for originality in this movie about a group of veterans who get the old platoon back together to come to the aid of their sarge, who's been scammed out of all his money and crippled by bad guy Cameron Mitchell. It's one of the basic templates for shitty action movies. But the whole thing is so cheap and strange that it powers ahead of the pack and becomes really good and even oddly exciting. One of my favorite things about KILL SQUAD is that everybody knows martial arts - a little. They're all probably like green belts, but they're so happy to be in a karate movie that the whole thing has a kind of 'kids playing in the back yard' enthusiasm. So gather up all your friends; the black guy, the Asian guy, the muscleman, the other black guy and the guy with the beard; and come get some KILL SQUAD."

Let's just defer to Terror Tuesday programmer Zack Carlson's inimitable description:

"If you think you've been entertained in the past, here is your white-hot scholarship to FUN SCHOOL!! Blue-skinned undead samurai? Check! Cannibalistic rump-chasing monks? Yes sir!! Drunken kung-fu yacht party? To the max!!! Wall-eyed flesh-trading seaplane pilot with a Hitler moustache? Man ohhh MAN!!! In absolute honesty, all this is just the tip of the trashberg! Blowtorches blaze, teeth fly, bullets zing, dialogue is botched and cages full of virgins are sent to their heartless demise! So packed with action, you'll have to blink every three seconds to keep your eyes from catching on fire! The legendary Cameron Mitchell (THE TOOLBOX MURDERS) semi-stars in this Filipino/American co-production that would have brought the world to its knees if it wasn't 200,000 YEARS AHEAD OF ITS TIME! If you see just one movie in your entire life, it better be here, now, tonight: RAW FORCE! If you're blind, deaf and comatose, only one film will STILL kick your ass through the wall: RAW FORCE!! Look, I don't care if you're reading this at a funeral...scream it out loud right now: RAAWWW FORRRCE!!!"

This week's Music Monday is the surreal 1968 cult classic The Magic Christian, starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, with a script by Terry Southern. Tons of very strange, often funny cameos too.

The Eyes of Me is screening as part of Screen Door Film and UT Documentary Center's 2010 Texas Cinema Series. The documentary will be followed by a panel discussion that includes director Keith Maitland. Read Debbie Cerda's review.

Along Came Kinky is screening as part of Screen Door Film and UT Documentary Center's 2010 Texas Cinema Series. The documentary will be followed by a panel discussion that includes director David Hartstein. Read our interview with Hartstein from last March.

More about the film from the press release: "Along Came Kinky chronicles singing Jewish cowboy Kinky Friedman’s 2006 independent gubernatorial campaign in Texas. See the outspoken Kinky and his army of grassroots volunteers combat voter apathy in the Lone Star State while his campaign staff strategizes for an unprecedented four-way race, raising awareness and money for their unlikely but incredibly sharp candidate."

Evan Smith (Texas Tribune, Texas Monthly) will host the post-screening panel discussion, which will include:

• David Hartstein -- director of Along Came Kinky
• Laura Stromberg -- Kinky Friedman campaign press secretary
• Jason Stanford -- Democratic political strategist, 2006 Chris Bell campaign manager

The documentary will be preceded by a short film, Great Grandmama for Obama, by Austin filmmaker Micah Barber.

Weird Wednesday programmer Lars Nilsen describes the 1975 film Poor Pretty Eddie:

"Everyone who sees this stunning, brain-scraping masterpiece is amazed by it. It tells the story of Liz Weatherly, a famous African-American singer played by Leslie Uggams, who sets out on a drive through Georgia to get away from it all. When her car breaks down in a rural area she gets a room at the only hotel in the area. The innkeeper, played by maniacal method actress Shelley Winters, keeps a tenuous hold on her much younger, handsome but evil country singer boyfriend Eddie. Within five minutes of her arrival, he's making advances to Liz and things go way downhill from there. When Liz tries to escape, her way is blocked and the local populace turns from creepy to unbearably horrifying.

"Directed by Chris Robinson and David Worth but the real MVP is editor Frank Mazzola (who also edited PERFORMANCE and DEMON SEED). He should have won at least an Oscar, and maybe even the Nobel Prize. With Slim Pickens, Dub Taylor and Ted (Lurch) Cassidy. One of the best movies of the '70s or ever. A truly unforgettable experience. AKA REDNECK COUNTY RAPE!"

Terror Tuesday programmer Zack Carlson has this to say about the Lucio Fulci film Gates of Hell:

"Normally, when a priest hangs himself, it's cause for celebration. But in the case of this Italian blood-chiller, said act opens up a gateway to the darkest corners of the Netherworld, unleashing a rabid bounty of demons, zombies, spastic fireballs and even less sensible threats to mankind. The requisite clueless American lead is Christopher George of Pieces, who faces paranormal annihilation with a wink and a grin as everyone around him is torn to quivering chunks. This unrepentant humanity-destroyer is easily the best of the late-'70s/early '80s Euro-horror avalanche, cutting through all competition with a thousand vicious, barbaric fists formed of sheer hatred, sweaty perversity and shrieking meat. Up yours, Dario Argento!

"Here, true Italian terrormaster Lucio Fulci writes and directs the most sanity-free exploration into Hell ever captured on camera, rich with unholy possession, power drill trepanation, brain-mangling squishery, inflatable sex doll sorcery and a truly unforgettable segment in which a teenage girl bleeds from the eyes while vomiting up her entire digestive tract. No rules!"