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Featured Screenings 2004
Along with workshops and a
program of new short films, the 2004 Flickerings at Cornerstone
Festival will present three different tracks of feature film screenings.
We are pleased to team for two screenings with
The Matthews House Project and
Christians for
Biblical Equality. Other films will be introduced by various film critics
including J. Robert Parks and Peter Chattaway.
Great Awakenings
This year's main film track is "Great
Awakenings," a series of often challenging but extraordinarily rich and
visual films that will more than repay the effort to engage with them. In
each of these films, life opens up suddenly for one or more of the main
characters, and more importantly, for the viewer, too. The implicit series of
questions: What if the world is bigger than we realized? What if we can't
see this, unless we learn to see differently? What if learning to see
differently isn't easy? And if we should get the chance to grow, will we take it?
The Man Without a Past
Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2002; 97 mins.
Amnesia victim launches into a new life, haunted by his old one —
classic tale made more classic by this deadpan Finnish treatment.
"A wistful, romantic concoction served straight-up, with no chaser to brace
you against the strong kick of reality. . . . unforgettable." — VUE WEEKLY
"Kaurismäki films offer the most consistently uplifting signs of life in
European cinema." — FILM COMMENT |
Whale Rider
Niki Caro, New Zealand, 2002; 101 mins.
11-year-old Pai draws upon her own surprising inner strength to face down a
millenia of tradition and her stubborn grandfather Koro.
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"...Whale Rider's innocence seesaws between archetype and
innocence — it's a re-founding myth that happens in real time, before an
audience's wondering eyes." — BOSTON GLOBE
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Yi Yi (A One and a Two)
Edward Yang, Taiwan, 2000; 173 mins.
In newly-globalized
Taiwan, the Jian family encounters all the usual joys and sorrows,
alone and together: the human experience in all its messy richness.
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"As I watched the final credits of Yi Yi through bleary eyes, I
struggled to identify the overpowering feeling that was making me tear up.
Was it grief? Joy? Mirth? Yes, I decided, it was all of these. But mostly, it
was gratitude." — A. O. Scott, THE NEW YORK TIMES |
The Wind Will Carry Us
Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1999; 118 mins.
Busy Iranian
filmmaker is forced to slow down and see the world for the first time
in this gorgeous, possibility-stretching film.
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"...Kiarostami's films have a knack for taking us away to a clearer, more
vivid place, allowing us to breathe for what seems like the first time in
years."
— COMBUSTIBLE CELLULOID |
The Gospel According to Tax Collectors & Sinners
"Jesus Movies" have been in the news, an uneven genre which has produced
its share of glitzy, self-congratulatory epics. As usual, we're drawn to
more disreputable districts, shady corners Jesus himself frequented,
listening for the quiet confessions of known sinners. The company Christ kept
provoked scandal, and these films are not for everybody. Yet they
are indispensable if the discussion topic is "Christ in Film." Each in its
way is problematic, due to issues of style, content, or the filmmaker's life
and career. Nevertheless, a judicious and thoughtful confrontation with
these films in the shadow of Gibson's Passion seems appropriate, and
within a solid faith context, even overdue.
Jesus of Montreal
Jésus de Montréal
Denys Arcand, Canada, 1989; 118 mins.
A scruffy band of actors hired to update a local Passion Play find the story
reflected in themselves and those around them.
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"Long regarded as one of the pinnacles of Canadian filmmaking, Jesus of
Montreal is Denys Arcand's tragic story of a group of unknown actors who are
commissioned to produce a play based on the life and death of Jesus. Its star
soon finds his life mirroring that of his character, and by the film's end,
it's hard to tell where one person ends and the other begins." — FILMCRITIC.COM
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The Last Temptation of Christ
Martin Scorsese, USA, 1988; 164 mins.
The essential human
conflict between flesh and spirit is waged within a Gospel setting: a
provocative (if very problematic) and often rich film.
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"If cultural conservatism is not to produce a backlash against itself, we
must distinguish between seriously attempted efforts within the legitimate
bounds of artistic creativity and ad hoc throwaways..."
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THE LAST TEMPTATION RECONSIDERED, FIRST THINGS |
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Il Vangelo secondo Matteo
Pier Paulo Pasolini, Italy, 1964; 131 mins.
A simple and
unassuming Gospel from a scandal-plagued Italian director: startling in the
power of its stark humility.
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"Pasolini's starkly shot, straightforward telling of the life of Christ
stunned audiences on its first release and made the
Vatican's film list for
religious content." — GREENCINE
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Lost Boys
Our third feature track, "Lost Boys,"
gathers recent films in a variety of styles that among other things touch
upon boyhood interrupted by a cruel world, the struggles of various kinds of
orphans. For some, it's too late: bad things happen when kids are left to
fend for themselves. For others, the loss of innocence opens the door to
second chances, possible redemption, and maybe even growing up.
The Son
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, France, 2002; 103 mins.
Tightly wound narrative of a man and young boy whose tragedies intertwine,
raw pain in raw style, Dogme-like journey toward emotional closure.
"The most spiritually potent and questioning movie we are likely to see this
year, one whose basic and often elusive lesson is how rigorous, demanding and
costly it can be to behave with charity and act with forgiveness." —
JOHN ANDERSON, NEWSDAY
"On first sight it could even be confused with a
Dogme film — but it would be
unfair to attach a tag to a film that certainly stands in a class of its own
and opts for an altogether quieter type of genius." — KAMERA.CO.UK
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Hard Goodbyes: My Father
Penny Panayotopoulou, Greece, 2002, 113 mins.
Small boy works through Big Issues in the shadow of the Apollo moon landing:
bittersweet and well-told, like a good short story.
"Beautifully and subtly acted — and a lovely, humane film." — GUARDIAN UNLIMITED (UK)
"Technically speaking, the Greek film Hard Goodbyes: My Father is a
contender for the Oscars and the Golden Globes. But don't be surprised if
you've never heard of it. It's a Greek film about a boy and his father and
their dream of watching the first moon landing in 1969..." NPR
>>BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO FEATURE ON THIS FILM.
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Bus 174
Felipe Lacerda & Jose Padilha, Brazil, 2002; 122 mins.
Brazilian documentary on bus hijacking-turned-media-event, here contrasting
shrill tv coverage with a deeper investigation of the young culprit.
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"A compelling, heartbreaking story of a human being — one of many
— who was simply tired of being a nowhere man." — LOS ANGELES DAILY
NEWS |
>>> The screening of Bus
174 at Flickerings 2004 is sponsored by The Matthew's House Project, who will introduce the film and lead the discussion afterwards.
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SEE ALSO SCHEDULE AND FILMMAKERS
FOR OUR 2004 FLICKERINGS FILM SHOWCASE
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