Bluegrass Film Society
Bluegrass Film Society 2006/2007: 24 Films, From 24 Countries, in 24 Weeks
By Michael Benton (7/13/06)
In a globalized world it is imperative that we begin to develop a broader awareness of the interconnected cultures and societies that influence and shape world events. Anyone remotely aware of the American social landscape must recognize that many of our citizens are unaware of the broader relations and connections of the world in which they live in. Many Americans tend to have a narrow understanding of world history, filtered as it is through ethnocentric American textbooks and mediatized narratives filtered through the lenses of the dominant center, which effectively ignores the realities of the margins (culturally, economically and socially). Many concerned citizens struggle to carve out meaning in the contemporary data stream and suffer the neglect of a mainstream media that limits itself to predigested dualistic positions. In this simplified media environment, vast regions of the world are presumed to be unable to speak for themselves and rarely, in the mainstream media that serves as the news for a majority of American citizens, do we receive sustained and in-depth critical analysis of issues through the voices and experiences of multiple interested parties.
With this in mind I began last year to develop the Bluegrass Film Society as a forum for increasing the awareness of different cultures, histories and perspectives. We presented a broad-ranging selection of films that were chosen to represent multiple voices and realities. As I start the second year of the BFS I remain committed to bringing to our campus and community a program that will continue to expand our awareness of world cultures, histories and experiences. This Fall/Spring 2006/2007 schedule is a journey of 24 films, from 24 countries, in 24 weeks. The BFS is set up as an extension of my film courses for my students, but keeping Bluegrass Community and Technical College’s mission to serve the community in mind, we open this up to all interested community members. All showings are at 7:30 pm and are free of charge. We hope you will join us. The final dates will be available on the website in August and we also have a listserv that sends out notices for each film being showed. If you would like to be added to the listserv please leave your name and email address in the comments (and let me know something about you, if you are so inclined).
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I broke some ribs this summer and had some downtime to watch a lot of films--having sifted through some promising films, here is my proposed schedule for the coming year. I have tried to give a wide perspective (culturally/geographically/themes) of contemporary international films.
Please feel free to comment on the second schedule, on our previous year, or whatever else moves you.
I have not yet set dates (I'm thinking of either wed or thurs night--or perhaps a combination for the fall, spring will depend on my teaching schedule)--I will make a schedule with dates/times as soon as they are available.
Princess Monoke (Hayao Miyazaki: Japan, 1997) 134 mins
Kontroll (Nimrod Antal: Hungary, 2003) 105 mins
The Edukators (Hans Weingartner: Germany, 2004) 127 mins
Dirty Pretty Things (Stephen Frears: British, 2002) 97 mins
Gift (Perry Farrell and Casey Niccoli: US, 1993) 80 mins
Farewell My Concubine (Kaige Chen: China, 1993) 156 mins
House of Fools (Andrei Konchalovsky: Russia, 2002) 104 mins
No Man's Land (Danis Tonavic: Bosnia, 2001) 98 mins
What Time Is It There? (Ming-liang Tsai: Taiwan, 2001) 116 mins
Bad Education (Pedro Almodovar: Spain, 2004) 106 mins
The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg: Denmark, 1998) 105 mins
101 Reykjavik (Baltasar Kormakur: Iceland, 2000) 88 mins
Hop (Dominique Standaert: Belgium, 2002)
Carandiru (Hector Babenco: Brazil, 2003) 146 mins
Tsotsi (Gavin Hood: South Africa, 2005) 94 mins
The Tracker (Rolf de Heer: Australia, 2002) 90 mins and Gulpilil: One Red Blood (Darlene Johnson: Australia, 2002) 56 mins
Time of the Wolf (Michael Haneke: France, 2003) 114 mins
Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami: Iran, 1997) 95 mins
Amores Perros (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu: Mexico, 2000) 153 mins
The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky: Russian Director and Sweden/UK/France funding, 1986) 149 mins
In the Mood for Love (Kar Wai Wong: Hong Kong, 2000) 98 mins
Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman: India/US, 2004) 85mins
The Magdalene Sisters (Peter Mullan: Ireland, 2002) 119 mins
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