Free Screenings from January 9 to March 13, 2009
The River Cities Film Series (RCFS) is a non-profit organization that presents free foreign and domestic films representing some of the best examples of cinematographic art to the citizens of the Mid-Ohio Valley. Each film is preceded by a brief introduction and audience members are invited to stay afterwards for free refreshments and informal discussion.
Now in its tenth year, RCFS is funded in part by Washington State Community College (WSCC), Marietta College (MC), and The Eye MDs, George, Strickler, & Lazer PLLC. The group is composed of the colleges' faculty and administrators, as well as community members from Washington and Morgan counties.
Films are screened on Friday nights at 7:30 p.m.
| Washington State Community College Harvey Graham Auditorium 2nd Floor, Arts & Sciences Center, 710 Colegate Drive Parking is available in Washington State Community College’s lower lot. |
Marietta College McDonough Auditorium, located off of Putnam and Sixth streets Parking is available outside the auditorium. Additional parking is available at the Hermann Fine Arts Center on Butler Street. |
January at Washington State Community College
1/9 |
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Diving Bell and the Butterfly At the age of 43, Elle France magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body except his left eye. He used a blinking code to write his memoir and eloquently described his life from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he’d only visited in his mind. In French and English with English subtitles
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1/16 |
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Fantasia One of the most highly regarded of the Disney classics, a symphonic concert with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, embellished by Disney animation. The film includes eight sequences: "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" (Bach), "The Nutcracker Suite" (Tchaikowsky), "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (Dukas), "Rite of Spring" (Stravinski), "Pastoral" (Beethoven), "Dance of the Hours" (Ponchielli), "Night on Bald Mountain" (Mussorgsky), and "Ave Maria" (Schubert).
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1/23 |
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Persepolis In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Statrapi watches events through her young eyes and observes her idealistic family's long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However, as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own. With Marji dangerously refusing to remain silent at this injustice, her parents send her abroad to Vienna to study for a better life. However, this change proves an equally difficult trial with the young woman finding herself in a different culture loaded with abrasive characters and profound disappointments that deeply trouble her. Even when she returns home, Marji finds that both she and homeland have changed too much and the young woman and her loving family must decide where she truly belongs. Written by Kenneth Chisholm
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1/30 |
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Tuvalu A small town indoor pool and a limitless mind make the setting for this stunning comedic fantasy. The pool is where local residents go to escape the daily grind and enter a fantastic dream world. Adrift in these daydreams, the Anton (Denis Lavant) finds Eva (Chulpan Hamatova), a beautiful woman who has the power to take this working class visionary into a strange, surreal world to live together in love. With roots in the circus Tuvalu has garnered many comparisons to the works of filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, Chuck Jones, Buster Keaton, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
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February at Marietta College
2/6 |
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4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days During the course of one day in 1987 in Communist Romania, Otilia helps her friend and roommate Gabita to get a late-term abortion done (at that time, any sort of abortion, as well as any kind of contraceptive were illegal in Romania). The film is very realistic and shows the rough and gritty situation in which the girls, particularly Otilia, must make decisions and deal with their consequences. Not for the faint of heart.
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2/13 |
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Away from Her Married for almost 50 years, Grant and Fiona must come to terms with Fiona’s increasing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. She opts for the care of a nursing home but Grant is devastated when after her 30 day orientation to the facility she has all but forgotten him and transferred her affections to another man in the home. Grant must then perform an act of self-sacrifice in order to ensure her happiness.
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2/20 |
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The Fall Little Alexandria ends up in the hospital after breaking her arm in a fall. Roy, a fellow patient who is paralyzed, strikes up a conversation with Alexandria and begins to spin a fantastic tale to help her pass the time. His stories involve characters such as an Indian, a masked bandit, an Italian demolitions expert and Charles Darwin, who change and shift at his whim as he pulls the young girl into his incredible imagination.
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2/27 |
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Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead Two brothers need cash to get themselves out of their respective debts. They plan what they consider a victimless crime. They will rob their parents’ jewelry store while no one is inside and insurance will cover what they steal. When an accomplice ignores the rules and crosses the line, his actions trigger a series of events in which no one is left unscathed.
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March at Washington State Community College
3/6 |
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My Man Godfrey One of the truly great screwball comedies of the Thirties, this pointed take-off on Depression realities has Wiliam Powell as one of the "nouveaux poor" ruined by the crash and adapting himself to life in the city dump. A group of addle-brained socialites turn him up in a scavenger hunt and hire him as a butler. He proceeds to enlighten his employers with his hard-earned experience, and ends up converting them to social responsibility. Gergory La Cava's direction is as smooth as silk; William Powell gives a superb comic performance etched in acid; and Carole Lombard gives her definitive version of the daffy, empty-headed blonde.
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3/13 |
Audience ChoiceAudience members attending the first six films will have the opportunity to vote on the choice for the final film of the series. |