The Beauty Academy of Kabul
Directed by Liz Mermin
Music of Ahmad Zahir
2006, 74 minutes
In English and Dari with English subtitles
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The Beauty Academy of Kabul is a film about beauty in form and in content. And in Afghanistan, beauty raises serious questions: Why were women willing to risk imprisonment, even death, to run beauty salons under the Taliban? It is also a film about globalization: Is the school imposing shallow American materialism, or helping women support and express themselves? These questions are explored through the personal stories of the women whom the school has brought together for this first post-Taliban beauty school class from Afghan-American hairdressers struggling with the guilt of having fled their homeland to Manhattan stylists out to spread the beauty gospel, from mothers who turned to clandestine hairdressing when the Taliban made them leave their jobs to girls who worship Hindi film stars and dream of escaping to the West. Stunning cinematography, accompanied by the music of 1970s Afghan pop-star Ahmed Zahir (“the Afghan Elvis”), captures the beauty of the Afghan characters and the surprisingly game spirit with which they struggle to rebuild their lives in the midst of horrifying devastation.
“The Beauty Academy of Kabul is a spiny, puzzling, and highly entertaining film, and whatever you go into it thinking, you’re likely to come out thinking something else.”
Andrew O’Henir, Salon
“Touching, enlightening and funny.”
IndieWire
“Freedom is beautiful, but sometimes beauty is freedom, too.”
Newark Star-Ledger
Carla’s Song
Directed by Ken Loach
With Robert Carlyle, Scott Glenn, Oyanka Cabezas
1998, 127 minutes
In English
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(no pix on Shadow Web site)
In Glasgow, a Scottish bus driver (The Full Monty’s chief charmer, Robert Carlyle) falls in love with a beautiful Nicaraguan refugee as the Sandinista-Contra war rages across her homeland. A tremendously affecting love story from the legendary British director of Land and Freedom and Riff-Raff, Carla’s Song won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
“A one-of-a-kind-film. Passion and politics come together in Ken Loach’s fierce mix of love and solidarity.”
Jay Carr, Boston Globe
“A moving, rhapsodic love story that’s also part political thriller. Carlyle is an actor of astonishing range and depth.” — Boxoffice
“A striking and memorable film about the emotional firefights that flare up when the personal and the political are linked.”
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, authors of Spirituality and Practice
Hukkle
Directed by Györgi Pálfi
2003, 75 minutes
In Hungarian with English subtitles
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An old man has hiccups sitting on a bench, a drunken youth snores on the carriage, a kind old lady picks lilies of the valleys, women sew in the dressmakers shop, men go bowling in a pub, the beekeeper spins the honey, a mechanical harvester harvests the wheat, which in the mill will be made into flour, and then in grandmas kitchen into dumplings and throughout all this the policeman investigates a murder.
“Luminous. If you’re attracted to pure, exquisitely photographed cinematic depictions of the world, you could almost lie down in Hukkle as if it were a meadow and soak in its sun-drenched atmosphere. If you enjoy the challenge of solving difficult mysteries, Hukkle presents a tantalizing case waiting to be cracked.”
— Stephen Holden, New York Times
“A beautiful eyeful of puckish whimsy and dark-humored mystery that approaches genius. It’s a delight.”
— Stephen Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
“There's virtually no dialogue in this exceedingly curious, fiendishly clever Hungarian contraption devised by 28-year-old György Pálfi. A bizarrely associative montage proceeds from an old man’s hiccups (hence the title) to a barnyard frolic to a murder mystery with a sardonic punchline. The movie’s cartoon pantheism sometimes suggests an eccentric nature documentary (or a comic version of Humanité), but basically Hukkle is one of a kind.”
— J. Hoberman, Village Voice, Apr. 2-8, 2003
Postmen in the Mountains (Nashan Naren Nagou)
Directed by Huo Jianqi
2004, 90 minutes
In Mandarin with English subtitles
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Father (Teng Rujun) has been a postman all his life. He delivers mail in the remote mountain of Hunan on foot. In his late 40s, poor health is forcing him to retire. He cannot trust anyone but his son (Liu Ye) to take over the job. The 3-day , 122-kilometer route is the first trip they have ever taken together. Their initial awkwardness gradually dissipates as they walk the nearly deserted zigzag paths. Son realizes how much Father has given to his work and the people who depend on him to get messages to and from the outside world, and how much Mother has given up to support the family. When they finally get to a creek for a short cut, Son insists that Father should never touch cold water again. He wades across the creek with his father on his shoulders, and the remaining distance between them evaporates.
“It’s a simple tale of father-and-son bonding that director Huo Jianqi injects with a quiet power, and it benefits greatly from the gorgeous lushness of its backdrop.”
Megan Lehmann, New York Post
“Beautifully shot in austere, yet lush, mountainous territory, the movie quietens the spirit into almost trancelike contemplation of the huge emotions that surge through the most insignificant lives.”
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly
“A quietly touching little Chinese film that wrings considerable beauty and poignancy from seemingly the simplest of subjects.”
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus
Directed by Andrew Douglas
2005, 82 minutes
English
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Searching for The Wrong-Eyed Jesus is a captivating and compelling road trip through the creative spirit of the South. Director Andrew Douglas’s film follows Alt- Country singer Jim White through a gritty terrain of churches, prisons, truckstops, biker bars, juke joints, swamps, and coalmines, a world of marginalised white people and their unique, homemade culture. Along the way, there are roadside encounters with present-day musical mavericks, including The Handsome Family, Johnny Dowd, 16 Horsepower and David Johansen, banjo player Lee Sexton, Rockabilly and Mountain Gospel churches, and novelist Harry Crews telling grisly stories along a dirt track. These testimonies invariably concern sudden death, sin, and redemption, and all the while a strange Southern Jesus looms in the background. Along the way, narrator White reflects upon what it is about this baffling region that inspired writers and musicians, all of them, as he puts it, “trying to find the gold tooth in God’s crooked smile.”
“. . . a remarkable film, part documentary, part travelogue, part metaphysical musical.”
Silvie Simmons, San Francisco Chronicle
“Utterly fascinating . . . a travelogue unlike any other!”
David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
“An amazing piece of work. The film essentially follows one man, Jim White, as he deals with both his own and the South’s demons . . . and in the process we are given a musical tour of another planet. Beautiful dark and weird stuff.”
David Byrne
Touch the Sound
Directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer
Original music by Evelyn Glennie and Fred Frith
2005, 99 minutes
In English
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Evelyn Glennie is a Grammy-winning classical percussionist whose solo work is unrivalled. She is also deaf. With boundless energy and determination, Glennie created a role for solo percussionist in contemporary classical music. She has performed with the world’s greatest orchestras, as well as with Balinese gamelan orchestras, Japanese kodo drummers, Brazilian samba groups, and the Icelandic rock musician Bjork. She also commissions new works to enlarge her repertoire. For Glennie, sound is literally palpable, and rhythm is the basis of all perception. Without vibration, there is nothing. From silence to music, sound is felt through every one of our senses, and she aspires to make that visceral perception as conscious for others as it is for her. Following the performer through Japan, California, New York, England, and her native Scotland, director Thomas Riedelsheimer (Rivers and Tide) maps her world of the senses in transcendent images mingled with evocative sounds.
“Exquisitely beautiful for the eyes as well as for the ears.”
David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
“Overturns conventional notions of human hearing.”
Stephen Holden, New York Times
Under the Sun
Directed by Colin Nutley
2001, 118 minutes
In Swedish with English subtitles
Academy Award Nominee Best Foreign Language Film
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In the summer of 1956 in lush rural Sweden, sweet but lumbering Olof (Rolf Lassgard) is living alone on his family’s farm after the death of his mother. Unable to read or write and therefore forced to take people on trust, Olof depends on his handsome younger friend Erik (Johan Widerberg), who helps him with the farm work and many other things. Once a sailor and now a part-time gravedigger, Erik brags of having known hundreds of women; Olof has never known any. Then, out of the blue and much to everyone’s shock, one day Olof places an advertisement in the local paper:
“Lonely farmer, 39, own car. Seeks young lady housekeeper. Photograph appreciated.”
Before long, the ad draws a surprising response: Ellen (Helena Bergstrom), a beautiful, 34-year-old, well-heeled city woman, answers it. That summer she effectively takes over both the house and Olof’s heart. Erik, also much taken with Ellen, likewise tries to win her favor. All three have secrets that they are keeping from the others.
“Casts a lovely spell, as warm and captivating as its summertime setting.”
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
“Gentle and gorgeous . . . delicious eroticism.”
Gregory Weinkauf, New Times (Los Angeles)
“Not just a handsome film but a gently humane and beckoning one.”
Jay Carr, Boston Globe
The Weather Underground
Directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel
2003, 92 minutes
In English
Academy Award Nominee Best Documentary
http://channel.creative-capital.org/project_image_popup_249.html (Rudd mugshot)
In the early 1970s, a group of young American radicals announced their intention to overthrow the U.S. government. Fueled by outrage over racism and the Vietnam War, the Weather Underground waged a low-level war against the U.S. government through much of the 1970s, bombing material targets (but not people) that they considered emblematic of the real violence being created throughout the world by the U.S. The group’s members eluded one of the largest manhunts in FBI history, only to reenter civilian life in a country that was not at all like the one they had hoped their efforts would produce. Photographs, film footage, and FBI documents help trace the group’s path, from pitched battles with police on Chicago streets, to the bombing of the U.S. Capitol, to Timothy Leary’s jailbreak. The film studies the Weathermen in the context of other social movements of the time and also examines government suppression of dissent. Former Underground members Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Mark Rudd, David Gilbert, and Brian Flanagan speak about the idealistic passion that drove them to “bring the war home.” Looking back at their years underground, the former members paint a compelling picture of the idealism that drove their resistance to a nation that they believed had lost its way.
“. . . does something that’s almost impossible to do in works of historyit conveys a sense of what the past actually felt like.”
Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
“Fascinating! A potent time-capsule of a movie.”
Will Blythe, MSNBC
“. . . a fascinating window into American political history . . . one of the most thought-provoking documentaries of recent times.”
Desson Howe, Washington Post
“An impressively sturdy documentary about a difficult-to-master slice of American history.”
Ray Pride, Indiewire
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Directed by Judy Irving
2005, 83 minutes
In English
Rated G
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This remarkable movie is the true story of a Bohemian St. Francis and his remarkable relationship with a flock of wild red-and-green parrots. Mark Bittner, a dharma bum and former street musician in San Francisco, falls in with the flock as he searches for meaning in his life, unaware that the wild parrots will bring him everything he needs.
“That rare documentary that has romance, comedy and a surprise ending that makes you feel like you could fly out of the theater. . . .”
Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News
“Judy Irving’s terrific documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is ostensibly about birds, but only in the way that a game of Scrabble is about tiles . . . these are creatures as complicated as we are.”
Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe
Irving’s film seduces you with its easy rhythm and unexpected dramatic potency. . . . A beguiling, moving, and just plain fun documentary. Four stars!”
Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun
“An intelligent, beautifully made and sensitive exploration of the deep relationships that can be formed between humans and other creatures. It’s a story that leaves audiences with a glow.”
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Windhorse
Directed by Paul Wagner
1999, 97 minutes
In English and Tibetan with English subtitles
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Secretly filmed inside Tibet, as well as in Kathmandu and in remote locations 12,500 feet up in the Himalayas, Windhorse is a riveting story full of unforgettable images. In this remarkable drama, three Tibetan children are scarred by the murder of their grandfather by the authorities for protesting the Chinese occupation. Years later, the three young Tibetans are drawn back to the search for freedom when one of them is arrested and beaten. They are aided by a young American tourist Amy, who documents the Chinese atrocities on video. The Chinese government has been so shaken by Windhorse that they’ve tried to halt U.S. showings of it. Many of the Tibetan cast and crew have had to have their names withheld from the film’s credits for fear of reprisals. Windhorse is a beautiful and powerful film, full of the color and sound of Tibet and full of its longing for freedom.
“Stunning and courageous.”
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
“A searing political drama.”
Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
Yang Ban Xi
Directed by Yan Ting Yuen
Netherlands, 2006, 90 minutes
In Mandarin with English subtitles
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History changes all the time. What is good today can be considered bad tomorrow. During the ten years of Cultural Revolution, traditional opera was banned by Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, and replaced by a new art forma genre of lavish Maoist movie musicals typified by the Eight Model Works (Yang Ban Xi). In these films, the world was presented simply. All the good guys were farmers and revolutionary soldiers, forever singing and dancing in the broad spotlight. All the bad guys were landlords and counter-revolutionaries, always poorly lit in dark makeup. It was pure propaganda dished up in beautiful images and stories, using song, dance, and modern cinematography.
In this film the rise and fall of the propaganda opera is remembered by those who starred in it. They had ten years of unimaginable stardom followed, often, by years sweeping floors. They look back to a time when they believed that Mao was leading them to a righteous world with equal opportunities for everybody. Nowadays the eight model works have become popular again, as middle-aged Chinese bring their children to share their nostalgia and help them recall the idealism of their youth.
“This enthralling documentary . . . not only reclaims the Chinese propaganda opera but niftily positions it in the rush of Chinese cultural history.”
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly
“A proper labor of love profiling many of the principles involved in the making of the films, peppered with a generous helping of wonderful clips.”
G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
“Yan opens a window on the past that Westerners in particular will find almost too bizarre for words, yet which never degenerates to the level of outright mockery.”
Wade Major, Box Office