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All contents © 2008
by Mark Jenkins,
unless otherwise noted.

Design by Smallpark




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FRIDAY, JUNE 6

THE MAN FROM LARAMIE Jimmy Stewart plays The Stranger in Town in this tale of a New Mexico burg that's covering up the real story of a recent massacre. (1955, 104 min) (Also June 8 & 9) 4:45 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75


THE ACCORDION KINGS: THE STORY OF COLOMBIAN VALLENATO MUSIC The premiere of this documentary film about Colombia's vallenato music will be followed by a question period and a performance by some of the musicians seen in the film. 6 pm, Baird Auditorium, Museum of Natural History, 10th & Constituion Ave NW. Free.


DRAGON GATE INN Inspired by the graceful movements of Beijing Opera, the fight scenes in this King Hu action epic redefined the genre, and were as widely imitated as the movie's sword-wielding heroine. (1967, 111 min) 7 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Independence Ave SW. Free; tickets distributed one hour before screening.


QUEEN OF BURLESQUE Backstage competition leads to murder in this B-movie, whose performers include "original TNT girl" Rose La Rose. (1946, 70 min) Shown with TIGER FANGS, in which an American explorer is sent to a Asian plantation where tiger attacks are diminishing the production of rubber needed for the ear effort. (1943, 60 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.


AFRICA UNITE This new Marley-family documentary combines concert sequences with footage of the clan's first trip to Ethiopia. The non-Marley musicians include Lauryn Hill and Angelique Kidjo. (2008, 91 min) 7:30, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75


THE HARDER THEY COME The movie that sold reggae outside Jamaica, this tale of an aspiring musician (Jimmy Cliff) who becomes a cop killer is basically an exploitation flick, but with a soundtrack that shook the pop world. (1973, 103 min) 9:45 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75


SATURDAY, JUNE 7

LE GAI SAVOIR Jean-Luc Godard's break with narrative was shot mostly on an empty set, where Jean-Pierre Leaud and Juliet Berto discuss revolution and cinema. The result is, surprisingly, one of Godard's livelier late-'60s films, and not just because of the street scenes that sometimes interrupt the chatter. (1969, 95 min) (Also June 8) 12:30 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75


THE NAKED SPUR A farmer turns bounty hunter, and acquires a unruly posse, in this western, one the best that star Jimmy Stewart made with director Anthony Mann. (1963, 91 min) (Also June 8 & 10) 1 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75


ENAMORADA This film transplants The Taming of the Shrew to a small Mexican village during the Juarez revolution. (1946, 98 min) 2 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.


LES CARIBINIERS Derived from a play, this parable of war is one of Godard's least cinematic early works, a bitterly ironic one-liner that owes more to Brecht than B-movies. (1963, 80 min) (Also June 10) 3 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75


LAS PERLA Adapted from John Steinbeck's The Pearl, this is the tale of a poor Mexican diver whose life is not improved by his discovery of the valuable gem. (1947, 85 min) 4 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.


ALPHAVILLE An inspired collage of fact and pulp fiction, Jean-Luc Godard's anti-sci-fi masterpiece borrows a character, Eddie Constantine's Lemmy Caution, from French B-movies, and creates a futuristic Paris by carefully editing out its older buildings. 1984 is all around you, if you just know where to look. 4:45 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75


RAGING BULL Shot in stunning black-and-white by Michael Chapman, the saga of boxer Jake LaMotta's brutal rise and fall is one of Martin Scorsese's most dazzling and least involving films. (1980, 129 min) (Also June 8 & 9) 9:20 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75


SUNDAY, JUNE 8

CINEMATIC COLLABORATION: FELLINI & ANTONIONI Film historian Max Alvarez discusses the relationships of two Italian directors and their on-screen alter egos: Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni, and Michelangelo Antonioni and Monica Vitti. 1 pm, S. Dillon Ripley Center. 1 pm, Smithsonian S. Dillon Ripley Center $25.


A TOUCH OF ZEN Martial-arts filmmaker King Hu's most ambitious film is a visually ravishing genre-shifter that begins as ghost story, then becomes a political thriller, and ends as a metaphysical showdown. (1971, 170 min) 2 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Independence Ave SW. Free; tickets distributed one hour before screening.


ORANGE REVOLUTION This acclaimed documentary uses archival footage, interviews, and music to depict Ukraine's 2004 nonviolent revolution. Myroslava Gongadze, widow of a slain Ukrainian journalist, will answer questions after the screening. (2007, 106 min) 2 pm, Shirlington Library, 4200 Campbell Ave. Arlington. 703 228 0322. Free.


THE THIRTEEN Possibly modeled on John Ford's The Lost Patrol, this tale from Russia's wild, wild East is about a 13-man patrol that's hounded by bandits in the central Asian desert. (1936, 87 min) 4:30 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.


MONDAY, JUNE 9

CROSSING BORDERS: SPAIN AND CHINA This program of shorts includes Spain's In the Net, a documentary about fishing in northern seas, and China's Smile, in which an immigrant family has its portrait taken. Part of Crossing Borders. At KORUS House, 2370 Massachusetts Ave NW. Free; RSVP to awoj@koreaembassy.org or 202-587-6168.


YOUNG BESS Jean Simmons plays the future Elizabeth I in director George Sidney's account of her pre-coronation days. (111 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.


WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11

BLEACH THE MOVIE: MEMORIES OF NOBODY This is the U.S. theatrical premiere of the 2006 animated adaptation of one of Japan's most popular manga series. A new interview with the film's director, Noriyuki Abe, will be included. (Also 6/12) At Ballston Commons, 671 N. Glebe Rd and other suburban multiplexes. For venues and times visit the Bleach website.


CROSSING BORDERS: ITALY AND INDIA This program of shorts includes Italy's Our Secret, in which a boy faces his grandmother's punishment, and India's The Last Dance, a tale of an older woman's search for love. Part of Crossing Borders. At the Japan Information and Culture Center, 1155 21st St NW. Free; RSVP to jiccrsvpspring08@embjapan.org


BUNKER HILL Seemingly threatened by a terrorist attack, the residents of a small Kansas town turn to torture, illegal searches, and finally murder in the new film by historical fantasist Kevin Willmott (CSA: Confederate States of America). Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will introduce the film, and a panel discussion will follow. 6:30 pm, University of the District of Columbia Auditorium. Free; for reservations e-mail Johnny.Barnes@ACLU-NCA.org or call 202-457-0800.


20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH An American spacemen and a Venusian egg land off the coast of Italy. Soon the egg hatches, releasing a creature that goes on a rampage in Rome. The special effects are by stop-action maestro Ray Harryhausen. (1957, 82 min) 7 pm, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 7th St & Independence Ave SW. Free.


THREE COMRADES Adapted from Erich Maria Remarque's novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edward E. Paramore — Fitzgerald's sole screenwriting credit — this is the tale of three World War I veterans who struggle to make a living in a ravaged postwar Germany that will soon turn to Nazism. (1938, 100 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.


FULL MOON LIGHTNIN' John C. Gardiner's documentary follows New York-based bluesman Floyd Lee as he returns to his native Mississippi, finally ready at age 73 to reconnect with the family he left behind 60 years earlier. 8 pm, Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Ave NW. Free, but advance tickets required. 202 412 0390.


REAR WINDOW Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film offers an up-to-date view of the business of seeing. Although the plot ultimately involves some action, most of it is predicating purely on watching. Like Hitchcock's Rope, the movie is in part a stunt: It's shot mostly (though not entirely) from the point of view of protagonist "Jeff'' Jeffries (Stewart), a daredevil photographer confined to his Greenwich Village apartment with a broken leg. Jeff spends lots of time looking out the window, and soon becomes convinced that his neighbor Thorwald (Raymond Burr) has murdered his wife; Jeff then persuades his young and glamorous girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) and his blunt-talking visiting nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) of the truth of his theory. The resolution of this scenario is much more conventional than the setup, but despite its stock thriller-movie ending the film has rich conceptual undertones. Hitchcock emphasizes the movie's artifice, suggesting a dangerous link between voyeurism and cinema, and drawing a dyspeptic parallel between the Thorwalds and Jeff and Lisa. 9:15, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75