August 17, 2004
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Fall Cinema 2004—
11 evenings of film from around the globe

Summary Facts:

• UCSB Arts & Lectures Fall Cinema 2004
• Eleven evenings of international films, including 4 Santa Barbara premieres
• Thursday, September 23 through Monday, November 29
• Series features a rollicking evening of live music and film when The Jazz Passengers perform with the cult classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon in Shocking 3-D on October 29
• All screenings at 7:30 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall unless noted
• General public: $6 / UCSB students: $5; except for Creature from the Black Lagoon, which costs $25 for the general public and $15 for UCSB students and The Three Stooges—70th Annoiversary Blowout!, for which UCSB students get free admission.
• Tickets may be purchased in advance at the UCSB Arts & Lectures Ticket Office and at the door, if available, beginning at 6:30 pm
• Charge by phone, (805) 893-3535, or by fax, (805) 893-8637
• For tickets and information, phone UCSB Arts & Lectures: (805) 893-3535

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Fall Cinema 2004, eleven evenings of film, featuring four Santa Barbara area premieres and spanning both the globe and cinematic history.

The series begins on Thursday, September 23 with a screening of Shaolin Soccer, the most successful Hong Kong production ever. Part parody of martial-arts superhero pictures and part go-for-it underdog sports movie, Shaolin Soccer tells the tale of former monks who join forces to beat Team Evil (that’s really the opponent’s name). The San Francisco Chronicle calls the film “a delightful blend of comedy, kung fu, soccer and special effects,” while USA Today raves “Shaolin Soccer’s infectious style has a way of lifting spirits.” (Stephen Chow, 2001, 87 minutes)

A much more serious sort of Team Evil gets explored in The Corporation, a documentary that screens on Wednesday, September 29. The Corporation can be considered to be a companion piece to Fahrenheit 9/11, and not just because one of its talking heads is Michael Moore. An incisive look at the ways corporations shape today’s world, this eye-opening film will enlighten and enrage. It includes interviews with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and the inspiring Ray Anderson, green convert and CEO of the world’s largest commercial carpeting manufacturers. Premiere Magazine claims, “Over the course of almost two-and-a-half fascinating hours, the filmmakers make a cogent, compelling, powerful argument, and they also make a terrific movie.” (Mark Achbar & Jennifer Abbott, 2004, 145 minutes)

On Wednesday, October 6 the series presents Control Room, a powerful behind-the-scenes documentary about Al-Jazeera, the Arab news network. Filmed at the start of the Iraq War, Control Room lays bare issues of journalistic objectivity and nationalism. The New York Times writes, “You are likely to emerge from Control Room touched, exhilarated and a little off-balance, with your certainties scrambled and your assumptions shaken. An indispensable example of the inquisitive, self-questioning democratic spirit.” In English and Arabic, with English subtitles, as necessary. (Jehane Noujaim, 2003, 84 minutes)

Bright Leaves, screening on Wednesday, October 20, is the latest work by acclaimed documentarian Ross McElwee (Sherman’s March). A subjective, autobiographical meditation on the allure of cigarettes and their troubling legacy for the state of North Carolina, Bright Leaves is about loss and preservation, addiction and denial. At turns funny and clever, the film explores the notion of legacy—what one generation passes down to the next. Variety calls the film “witty, insightful and illuminating.” (2004, 107 minutes)

The series next features Since Otar Left..., a bewitching drama about three generations of Georgian women attempting to deal with the loss of Otar, the central male figure in their family, on Monday, October 25. An exquisite film powered by terrific, emotion-packed performances from its female leads (Dinara Droukarova, Nino Khomassouridze and the unforgettable Esther Gorintin), this first feature from Julie Bertuccelli, a documentary filmmaker who has worked with Bertrand Tavernier and Krzysztof Kieslowski, won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. In French, Georgian and Russian with English subtitles. (2003, 102 minutes)

A special Halloween treat awaits those who attend the campy The Creature from the Black Lagoon in Shocking 3-D on Friday, October 29. The Jazz Passengers, an all-star collective of downtown New York City talent, do a radio play-style take on the 1954 horror classic, turning off the film’s sound and performing hilarious new dialogue and terrific music. Although the “beauty and the beast” plot is a bit hackneyed, the underwater cinematography is still hailed as an achievement. Rolling Stone calls the performance “an absurdist mix of jazz and musical comedy.” 3-D glasses provided. (Jack Arnold, 1954, 79 minutes)

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring, screening on Thursday, November 4, is a Korean masterpiece about growth and transcendence. Set on and around a tree-lined lake where a tiny Buddhist monastery floats on a raft amidst a breath-taking landscape, the film is divided into five segments with each season representing a stage in a man’s life. The Observer says the film is “visually beautiful, spiritually austere and deeply involving. It is also erotic in a youthfully innocent fashion, and witty in a Zen-like way.” In Korean, with English subtitles. (2003, 103 minutes)

On Tuesday, November 9, the series continues with Home of the Brave, which won the Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice Award at the 2004 SB International Film Festival. Narrated by Stockard Channing, Home of the Brave is about Viola Liuzzo, the only white woman murdered during the civil rights movement, and follows the on-going struggle of an American family to survive the consequences of their mother’s heroism and the mystery behind her killing. Variety calls the film “required viewing by all citizens.” (Paola di Florio, 2003, 75 minutes)

The series moves from serious to silly with The Three Stooges—70th Annivoisary Blowout!, screening on Wednesday, November 17. To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Three Stooges’ emergence as a “solo act,” we present brand new 35mm prints of seven of Moe, Curly, Larry and Shemp’s zaniest classics, including “In the Sweet Pie and Pie,” “An Ache in Every Stake,” and “You Nazty Spy.” These shorts are sure to be slapstick, lowbrow fun for adolescent boys of all ages and genders. In a language soitenly the Stooges’ own, yet it needs no subtitles. (various directors, 1934-1947, 125 minutes)

Riding Giants, screening on Monday, November 22, captures the unimaginable thrills of surfing monster waves. In this jaw-dropping film Stacy Peralta, director of the groundbreaking skateboarding movie Dogtown and Z-Boys, turns his attention to the big wave surfers on Oahu’s North Shore and at Mavericks near San Francisco, particularly focusing on legends Greg Noll, Jeff Clark and Laird Hamilton. “Riding Giants may well be the most thrilling and educational surfing movie ever,” claims the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “With rare footage narrated by those who lived it, this history of big wave surfing packs several lifetimes of daredevil excitement into 105 minutes.” (2003)

The series concludes on Monday, November 29 with the moving romantic melodrama Springtime in a Small Town. Acclaimed Chinese director Tian Zhuangzhuang (The Blue Kite, The Horse Thief) has created an exquisite period drama of repressed love and thwarted destiny, rich in pictorial beauty, and set in a bombed-out Chinese village in 1946. J. Hoberman of the Village Voice writes, “Springtime in a Small Town is a movie of indefinable moods and subtle emotional coloration.... Tian’s movie seems to be among the finest expressions of the Chinese new wave.“ (2002, 116 minutes)

All film screenings begin at 7:30 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall, except for Shaolin Soccer on September 23, The Three Stooges—70th Annivorsary Blowout! on November 17 and Riding Giants on November 22, which screen at both 7:30 and 10 pm. The Creature from the Black Lagoon screens at 8 pm. Tickets for all films are available in advance at the UCSB Arts & Lectures Ticket Office (893-3535) and may be purchased in person or charged by phone. Tickets can also be bought at the door, if available, starting at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $5 for UCSB students, except for The Three Stooges—70th Annoiversary Blowout!, for which admission is free for UCSB students who show valid ID at the door and except for The Creature from the Black Lagoon with The Jazz Passengers, for which tickets are $25 for the general public and $15 for UCSB students.

The series is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Santa Barbara Independent, KCSB Radio 91.9 FM, Blue Agave and the Daily Nexus. The screening of The Creature from the Black Lagoon is co-presented with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.