directed by Sasha Waters Freyer

Described as a "poet," an "athlete," or a "philosopher" of photography, Garry Winogrand harnessed the serendipity of the streets to capture the American 1960s and '70s. His Leica M4 snapped spontaneous images of everyday people, from the Mad Men era of New York to the early years of the Women's Movement to post-Golden Age Hollywood, all while observing themes of cultural upheaval, political disillusionment, intimacy and alienation. Once derided by the critics, Winogrand's "snapshot aesthetic" is now the universal language of contemporary image making. Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable is the first cinematic treatment of Winogrand's work, including selections from the thousands of rolls of film still undeveloped upon his unexpected death in 1984. Interviews with Tod Papageorge, Matthew Weiner and more attest to Winogrand's indisputable influence, both as artist and chronicler of culture, while archived conversations with Jay Maisel highlight the gruff, streetwise perspective of "a city hick from the Bronx." In the tradition of Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Winogrand's candid, psychological style transports us to a bygone world, one where image lacked the editing and control possible today.

"This is a film primarily about photography, one that explores Garry Winogrand's tremendous contributions to the art form and his lasting influence on how we think of the medium today. But it is also a film that, I hope, explores and explodes the cliché of the undomesticated, self-destructive genius—one who is fundamentally unsuited to family life ... continue reading >>

 

Written, Produced, and Directed by Roberta Grossman
Executive Produced by Nancy Spielberg

12:30–1:05pm: Facebook Live Event, Part 1: introductions, speeches, prayer.
1:05–2:43pm: Film screening.
2:48–3:33pm: Facebook Live Event Part 2: panel discussion, Q&A

In November 1940, days after the Nazis sealed 450,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, a secret band of journalists, scholars, and community leaders decided to fight back. Led by historian Emanuel Ringelblum and known by the code name Oyneg Shabes, this clandestine group vowed to defeat Nazi lies and propaganda not with guns or fists but with pen and paper. Now, for the first time, their story is told as a feature documentary. Written, produced, and directed by Roberta Grossman, executive produced by Nancy Spielberg, and shot by Director of Photography Dyanna Taylor, Who Will Write Our History (based on the book by Samuel D. Kassow) mixes the writings of the Oyneg Shabes archive with new interviews, rarely seen footage and stunning dramatizations to transport us inside the Ghetto and the lives of these courageous resistance fighters ... continue reading >>

 

(2017, 93 min.)
Produced & directed by Catherine Gund & Daresha Kyi

Plus live music performed by
Sara Rodriguez
Preceding & following the film

Through its lyrical structure, Catherine Gund's & Daresha Kyi's biographical documentary film Chavela takes viewers on an evocative, thought-provoking journey through the iconoclastic life of Mexican musical artist Chavela Vargas. Centered around never before-seen interview footage of Chavela herself shot 20 years before her death in 2012, and guided by the stories in Chavela's songs and the myths and tales others have told about her—as well as those she spread about herself—the film weaves an arresting portrait of a woman who dared to dress, speak, sing, and dream her unique life into being.

The screening at Hallwalls will feature short wraparound live musical sets by Buffalo-based singer-songwriter Sara Rodriguez.

"[Chavela is] a wonderful tribute to a queer icon" (David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle).

"Dazzling. Poignant ... continue reading >>

 

2017 / 115 minutes / Spanish with English subtitles / Color
Directed by: Lucrecia Martel

Please join Cultivate Cinema Circle and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center as we present a year-long series entitled Post-Colonialisms: World Cinema and Human Consequence.

Synopsis (courtesy of press kit):
Zama, an officer of the Spanish Crown born in South America, waits for a letter from the King granting him a transfer from the town in which he is stagnating, to a better place. His situation is delicate. He must ensure that nothing overshadows his transfer. He is forced to accept submissively every task entrusted to him by successive Governors who come and go as he stays behind. The years go by and the letter from the King never arrives. When Zama notices everything is lost, he joins a party of soldiers that go after a dangerous bandit.

More information: cultivatecinemacircle.com/zama/

 

I Knew Her Well
(Io la conoscevo bene, Antonio Pietrangeli, 1965, 115 minutes)

Plus live music performed by 1960s Italian-style pop trio Baci e Ceci

(Kristin Gilmet, lead vocals; Cathy Carfagna, accordion/keyboards/back-up vocals; Jesse Reiter, electric guitar/back-up vocals/bass. With special guest Dave Meinzer on percussion. All songs sung in Italian!)

Acting in effect as guest-curator, Baci e Ceci vocalist Kristin Gilmet (Global Village Idiots, After Hours, Bipolaroids) approached us with the idea for this film/live music program, and selected this little-known mid-'60s Italian film with its Euro pop-infused soundtrack, Mod style, and eye-popping performance by the 19-year-old Stefania Sandrelli (Divorce Italian Style, The Conformist, We All Loved Each Other So Much, 1900, and many other films of the 1960s, '70s, and early '80s).

"Antonio Pietrangeli's I Knew Her Well deserves to take its place in the canon of classic cinema that defined Italy in the 1960s, alongside such films as Federico Fellini's La dolce vita, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Mamma Roma, Michelangelo Antonioni's L'eclisse, and Dino Risi's Il sorpasso. Like those others, it describes the country at a moment of crucial transformation—a period of economic boom in which a poor agrarian society found itself becoming a richer, urban one ... continue reading >>

 

This screening was rescheduled from January 19, 2019. All tickets from the original screening will be honored.

A Film in Two Parts by Patrick Wang

PART ONE: 3:00 p.m.

Dinner break.

PART TWO: 7:00 p.m.

Please join Cultivate Cinema Circle and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center as we screen both parts of Patrick Wang's latest film A Bread Factory (2018), which The New Yorker and rogerebert.com listed as one of the best movies of 2018. We'll be screening Part One at 3:00pm and Part Two at 7:00pm so attendees can grab dinner off-site during the hour-long intermission.

Special thanks to our sponsors BreadHive Bakery & Cafe, Community Beer Works, and Hydraulic Hearth!

Synopsis:

PART ONE:

"Forty years ago, Dorothea and Greta moved to the town of Checkford and bought an abandoned bread factory. They transformed it into an arts space. Here they host movies, plays, dance, exhibits. All types of artists visit. It's where civic groups and immigrant communities can meet, where there are after school programs for children. Now a celebrity couple—performance artists from China—have come to Checkford. They've constructed a huge building, the FEEL Institute, down the street. It is a strange sight for a small town.

"Dorothea and Greta learn about a new proposal to give all the funding from the school system for their children's arts programs to the FEEL Institute. Without this funding, the Bread Factory would not survive. They quickly rally the community to save their space. The commercial forces behind the FEEL Institute fight also, bringing a young movie star to town to help make their case ... continue reading >>

 

2017 / 121 minutes / German with English subtitles / Color
Directed by: Valeska Grisebach

Please join Cultivate Cinema Circle and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center as we present a year-long series entitled Post-Colonialisms: World Cinema and Human Consequence.

Synopsis (courtesy of press kit):
An intense, slow-burning thriller, Western follows a group of German construction workers installing a hydroelectric plant in remote rural Bulgaria. The foreign land awakens the men's sense of adventure, but tensions mount when Meinhard, the strong, silent newcomer to the group, starts mixing with the local villagers. The two sides speak different languages and share a troubled history. Can they learn to trust each other—or is the stage being set for a showdown?

With sweeping cinematography and tightly modulated pacing, Western tells a universal story of masculinity and xenophobia on the contemporary frontier of Eastern Europe. Drawing remarkably nuanced performances from a cast of non-professionals, Valeska Grisebach uses the trappings of the western genre to poke and prod at current anxieties about borders and our relationships with our neighbors.

More information: cultivatecinemacircle.com/western/