Need a film fix?

Fans of films that are a bit off the beaten path have plenty of options in coming months. Here’s a roundup for those of you needing a frequent film fix:

The Film Bar in Phoenix. Offerings include indie films, including the first screenings of “A Boy in China” Jan. 13 and 14. The film follows a boy from Phoenix who pursues Kung Fu training in China (Andre Magnum, plus his parents and coach, will attend both screenings). www.thefilmbarphx.com.

The Film Festival at Paradise Valley Community College. Offerings, focused this year on women in film, include “Catching Babies” (Feb. 2), “Caramel” (Feb. 8), “Water” (Feb. 22) and “Maria Full of Grace” (March 7). “Catching Babies” is a film about midwifery. Free. www.pvc.maricopa.edu.

The Loft Cinema in Tucson. Offerings include new indie works, mainstream and cult classics, film festival shorts, award-nominated shorts and more. Also National Theatre Live broadcasts — including “The Collaborators” (Jan. 15), “Travelling Light” (Feb. 26), “The Comedy of Errors” (March 25) and “She Stoops to Conquer” (April 15). www.loftcinema.com.

Mesa Contemporary Arts (part of the Mesa Art Center). Offerings include “Community Cinema” screenings (“Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock” by Sharon La Cruise Jan. 19). Free. www.mesaartscenter.com.

Phoenix Art Museum. Offerings include individual films, National Theatre Live broadcasts (including those noted in the Loft Cinema list above) and the Masterpiece Film Challenge (a six-week challenge in which 15 filmmaking teams create 5-7 minute films inspired by art from the museum). Also the Ab/Ex Film Series (“The New York School” Feb. 12) and filmed museum tours (“Leonardo Live” exhibit at the National Gallery of London Feb. 19). www.phxart.org.

Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. Offerings include the “Talk Cinema” series (Jan. 10, Feb. 7, March 20, April 17, May 8) and the “Discovery Film Series” (“This Way of Life” Jan. 22). “Talk Cinema” titles are announced on the center’s website just days before screenings (this month’s film is “Declaration of War,” about a couple whose baby is diagnosed with a brain tumor). www.scottsdaleperformingarts.org.

The Anti-Defamation League and Scottdale Community College. Offerings include “The Many Faces of Hate” film series at SCC (including Jay Rosenstein’s “In Whose Honor” Jan. 18). Free. www.scottsdalecc.edu.

Harkins Theatres. Offerings include various film festivals and broadcasts of  “Opera & Ballet in Cinema Series” performances — including “Le Corsaire” (March 11), “La Boheme” (March 13), “Romeo and Juliet” (March 22), “Rigoletto” (April 17), “The Bright Stream” (April 29), “La Fille Mal Gardee” (May 16) and “Raymonda” (June 24). www.harkinstheatres.com.

Many museums, performing arts centers and universities offer film screenings, so check with your local venues for additional options.

— Lynn

Note: If your venue or organization offers film fare with an arts and culture twist, please comment below to let our readers know.

Coming up: Theater meets classic literature

2012 Film festival fare

For true movie buffs, just one movie never enough. But 145 movies just might be. That’s the number of selections being featured at the 2012 Sedona International Film Festival, which takes place Feb. 18-26. Think full-length features, shorts and documentaries. Also animated, foreign and student films.

I’m told that Kevin Clash, the puppeteer featured in the documentary “Being Elmo” (which is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg) will be making an appearance at the 18th annual festival. “Being Elmo” won the special jury prize for documentary at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

The Sedona International Film Festival is partnering with Arizona Musicfest to present a jazz concert featuring the Brubeck Brothers, and the screening of a new film about Marian McPartland, at the Sedona High School Performing Arts Center.

Advance-sale passes for the 18th annual Sedona International Film Festival are now available through www.sedonafilmfestival.com. Full-time students can purchase a 10 ticket package for just $80 by calling the festival box office at (928) 282-1177.

The 2012 Arizona International Film Festival takes place April 13-29 in Tucson and other southern Arizona communities. They’re currently seeking works by filmmakers age 18 and under to be featured in their “Indie Youth” program.

Submissions are welcome in several categories — dramatic, comedy, documentary, experimental and animation short. Information about opportunities for youth and adult filmmakers is available at www.filmfestivalarizona.com.

The 2012 Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival, featuring works that honor Jewish tradition and heritage, takes place Feb. 12-26 at three Harkins Theatres in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

The festival includes numerous Arizona and “area” premieres, and several guest speaker presentations. I’m especially pleased to see “The People v. Leo Frank” and “Hidden Children” in the festival line-up.

If you’re eager to sample a bit of independent film fare before 2012 festivals open, check out FilmBar in Phoenix (which has a nifty “Arizona Storytellers Project” event taking place Mon, Dec. 5 to benefit Republic Charities), The Loft Cinema in Tucson (which is doing a fun Eames chair giveaway on Thurs, Dec. 8) and Reel Arts 6 in Tucson (which is just wrapping up this year’s “Native Eyes Film Showcase“).

Or head to Harkins Camelview 5 in Scottsdale, Harkins Valley Art in Tempe, or the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts — which is featuring an especially controversial mature content movie for this month’s “Talk Cinema” selection.

— Lynn

Coming up: More film festival news, Family fun in Prescott

Film finds

!Women Art Revolution is one of several current offerings at FilmBar in Phoenix

You can find much more than film fare at plenty of movie theaters these days. Even Shakespeare in Cinema works that seem to transport you straight to the Globe Theatre in London.

And film offerings seem to be finding their way to lots of places other than traditional cinemas. Think bookstores, museums, performing arts venues and more. Even stores like Hoodlums Music and Movies and Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, which presents “In Transition” during their next community movie night, scheduled for Fri, Aug 26.

When you have a hankering for films or movie venues that are just a bit out of the ordinary, consider making an afternoon or evening of it with one of these Valley options…

Finding film at a joint called FilmBar Phoenix is hardly a shocker, but their offerings are certainly out of the ordinary. In August alone featured works deal with martial arts, the culture of war, feminist art and changes wrought on nature by increasing industrialization.

The 2011-12 Talk Cinema series at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts opens in October. You can enjoy the surprise of not knowing what to expect or check the center’s website the day before each screening to explore the month’s offering. Each “Talk Cinema” screening is introduced and followed by “moderated conversations hosted by distinguished guest speakers.”

Performing arts venues like Tempe Center for the Arts and Mesa Arts Center sometimes present special movie screenings, so film buffs should watch the calendars of these venues to see what pops up throughout the season.

Several community colleges offer film series or festivals with diverse themes. Scottsdale Community College has partnered for many years with the Anti-Defamation League to present a film series with an anti-hate theme.

Paradise Valley Community College is focusing on “women in film” this season. The first film of the season is “Amelie” — a French film they’ll present on Wed, Sept 7. Other fall films in the series hail from Spain, China and the U.S. Offerings next year include films from Germany, Lebanon, India and Columbia.

Several Valley museums, including the Heard Museum in Phoenix and the Phoenix Art Museum, present intriguing film works — including some it’s hard to find anywhere else.

Several films being shown this month and next at the Phoenix Art Museum are Spanish-language films with English subtitles — including works about circus life, women matadors, immigration and more. My favorite is a one-hour film called “Biblioburro” about a one-of-a-kind library and librarian in a violence-ridden region of Colombia.

Cultural Centers like the Arizona Latino Arts and Cultural Center in downtown Phoenix sometimes offer screenings of independent works, as do other cultural resources like libraries.

The Arizona Humanities Council website offers event listings by region so its always easy to find film and other offerings in your area. Film screenings and discussions of “Johnny Guitar” take place later this month in Florence and Glendale — and they’ve got several “Borderlands” films listed for the coming months.

Films don’t need to include talking animals or non-stop explosions to be fun. You’ll even learn to love them without salty popcorn or sugary drinks. Leave the kids behind once and a while to expore a world where films foster adult conversations on fascinating topics other than organic baby food and homework wars.

— Lynn

Coming up: Film festivals in the Valley — and beyond, Lynn & Liz review “Glee: The 3D Concert Movie”

Art with a cherry on top

Cherry Ice Cream (oil on canvas) by Barry Levitt

I learned a day too late that the third Sunday in July is National Ice Cream Day thanks to a 1984 proclamation by President Ronald Reagan, though I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to celebrate after the fact with a small scoop or two. 

If live performance art was ice cream, live simulcasts would be the cherry on top. They allow folks to enjoy works of dance, music and theater that they wouldn’t otherwise experience.

National Theatre Live presents “the best of British theatre broadcast live to cinemas around the world” — and you can see their latest offering at the Phoenix Art Museum Sun, July 24 from 2-5pm.

It’s a new version of Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” by Andrew Upton, starring Zoe Wanamaker — known to “Harry Potter” fans as Madame Hooch from the movie “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” It’s being performed at London’s Olivier Theatre.

This production of “The Cherry Orchard,” directed by Howard Davies, is being presented at the Phoenix Art Museum by Arizona Theatre Company. The Phoenix Art Museum is the only Phoenix-area venue to offer this presentation of “The Cherry Orchard.” Here’s their description of the work…

You can see a new production of The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov July 24 at the Phoenix Art Museum

Set at the very start of the twentieth century, Anton Checkhov’s The Cherry Orchard captures a poignant moment in Russian history as the country rolls inexorably towards the October Revolution of 1917. Madame Ranyevskaya returns home, more or less bankrupt after ten years abroad. Luxuriating in her fading moneyed world and blissfully unaware of the growing hostile forces outside, she and her brother snub the lucrative scheme of Lopakhin, a peasant turned entrepreneur, to save the family estate. In so doing, they put up their lives to auction and seal the fate of the beloved orchard.

“The Cherry Orchard,” which was Chekhov’s last play, is being presented in high definition and Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. Tickets are just $15 for Phoenix Art Museum members, ATC subscribers and students with I.D. — and $18 for others. Space is limited and tickets can be purchased online.

Other providers of live simulcast and taped performances include Emerging Pictures, which offers Ballet in Cinema, Opera in Cinema and Shakespeare in Cinema series. Also Fathom Events — which recently presented a revival of the musical “Company” at several Valley movie theaters.

It’s all art with a cherry on top. Yum.

— Lynn

Note: The Phoenix Art Museum also offers films with an arts twist.  And the Film Bar in Phoenix presents two visual arts-related titles this month — “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child” and “!Women Art Revolution.”

Coming up: What would Robin Hood do?

Follow the film

Intrigued by Google art commemorating the April 16, 1889 birthday of Charlie Chaplin, I decided to learn a bit more about the man I know only as a comedic talent from black and white film days. I was still in my teens when Chaplin died on Christmas Day of 1977, and I’ve seen very little of his work.

One of the first articles I found had a scholarly bent, exploring in greater detail than most the mental illness that plagued Chaplin’s mother for most of her life — and the likely impact of her illness, supposedly related somehow to the ravages of syphillis, on his life and career.

I was particularly struck by references to the “Cane Hill Lunatic Asylum” and the “Lambert Hospital Register of Lunatics.” No one wishes to be on such “lists” or to see their mother battle the dual inhumanity of illness and inhumane treatment.

Chaplin’s father died when Chaplin was just 1o years old. By 14, Chaplin had his first legit acting gig — and he went on to earn awards and accolades for his film work.

Chaplin worked as a performer and film producer, but also wrote several books and scripts. Chaplin, who played violin and cello, was a composer as well.

You can learn more about Charlie Chaplin, his family and his career by visiting www.charliechaplin.com.

But if contemporary cinema is more your style, you’ll also want to check out www.thefilmbarphx.com — the website for a 21 + film and wine/beer venue located in “Roosevelt Row.”

I first learned of the Film Bar from Denise Kronsteiner with Scottsdale Community College, my contact for all things wonderful at SCC — including “The Many Faces of Hate” film series they present with the Anti-Defamation League.

Kronsteiner alerted me to a screening for the film “Afghanistan: Between Light and Darkness,” directed by Penelope Price, founding director of the film school at SCC — which led me to an organization called PARSA and their program titled “Children of Afghanistan.”

I’ve learned some pretty fascinating things just following these films. Check out current and upcoming fare at the Film Bar — including “Idiots and Angels,” “Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story” and “Eat the Sun” — and you just might feel the same way.

— Lynn

Note: Click here for details about the April 27 film being presented in “The Many Faces of Hate” series from SCC and the ADL.

Coming up: Parents meet prose, If you build it…