Category Archives: Film

Set in Northwest Arkansas – third season of HBO’s TRUE DETECTIVE premieres tonight!

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HBO’s anthology series TRUE DETECTIVE is back. And the buzz is strong!  Partner detectives investigate a macabre crime involving two missing children in the heart of the Ozarks, Arkansas. The story spans three decades. It premieres tonight.

Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (who just picked up a Golden Globe last Sunday) will play detective Wayne Hays, a state police detective from Northwest Arkansas. Stephen Dorff is set to play Arkansas State Investigator Roland West. Carmen Ejogo will play school teacher Amelia Reardon, who is connected to two missing children.

Additional cast members include Josh Hopkins, who will play Jim Dobkins, a private attorney in Fayetteville involved in deposing state police detectives in an ongoing investigation. Scoot McNairy is Tom, a father who suffers a terrible loss which ties his fate to that of two state police detectives over ten years. Mamie Gummer stars as Lucy Purcell, a young mother of two at the center of a tragic crime. Jodi Balfour, Lonnie Chavis, Ray Fisher, Michael Greyeyes, Jon Tenney, Rhys Wakefield, Sarah Gadon, Emily Nelson, Brandon Flynn and Michael Graziadei also star.

Many Arkansas actors (including Corbin Pitts, Grace Pitts, and Jennifer Pierce Mathus) also appear throughout the series. But in the true nature of the project, don’t ask them too many questions if you know them.

Nic Pizzolatto has scripted eight episodes for Season 3, co-writing Episode 4 with David Milch. Little Rock’s Graham Gordy worked on episodes 5 through 8 as a writer and consulting producer. The new season will mark Pizzolatto’s directorial debut.

18 Cultural Events from 2018 – 60th Anniversary of Women’s Emergency Committee

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Image result for the giants wore white glovesOn Sunday, September 16, 2018, the Clinton School of Public Service in conjunction with the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies screened the documentary “The Giants Wore White Gloves” at the Ron Robinson Theater.

The film tells the story of the Women’s Emergency Committee. It was shown on the 60th anniversary of the first meeting of that group.

“The Giants Wore White Gloves” tells the story of the women of Little Rock and their accomplishments during the Little Rock Desegregation Crisis.

The 1958 school year began with a vote to close four high schools in the city of Little Rock and once again avoid integration. A group of middle-class white women, faced with the prospect of no schools as well as the further loss of their city’s good name, turned militant. They quickly put together the Women’s Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC). Largely inexperienced in politics, these women became articulate, confident promoters of public schools and helped others understand that those schools must remain open.

Years later, these women are honored for their work in changing the course of civil rights history. With integrity, they withstood the challenges of the battle, and accomplished their goal of reopening the city high schools.

A few WEC members were in the audience for the film screening. Many children and grandchildren of WEC members were also in attendance as was filmmaker Sandy Hubbard.

Earlier in the day, a full-page ad ran in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette listing the membership of the WEC.  In 1998, the paper carried the first public listing of the names of WEC members. It was, in fact, the first time all the names had been compiled in one place.

18 Cultural Events from 2018 – OXFORD AMERICAN celebrates 50 years of TRUE GRIT

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Image result for true grit 50 oxford americanThroughout April, the Oxford American magazine haled a series of events to mark “50 Years of True Grit.” It culminated with programs over the weekend of April 20-21, 2018, to celebrate the anniversary of the publication of the beloved novel by Charles Portis, one of the magazine’s most acclaimed contributors.

The festivities included panel discussions, readings, tours, museum exhibits, film screenings, and a special Saturday-night variety show, featuring comedy, music by Portis’s fellow Arkansas native Iris DeMent, and appearances and performances by the book’s notable fans.

Published by Simon & Schuster in 1968 (after it was first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post), True Grit earned immediate popularity and critical praise as a rousing frontier adventure tale in which fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross seeks to avenge her father’s murder with the aid of a down-at-the-heels federal marshal named Rooster Cogburn. Over the past half-century, readers of all ages have come to treasure the book as a classic of American literature. The book has inspired two award-winning films-the 1969 version, which earned John Wayne his sole Academy Award, and the 2010 remake by Joel and Ethan Coen starring Hailee Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges.

“So few books stand the test of time but True Grit’s literary reputation and its popularity have only grown in fifty years,” said Jay Jennings, a senior editor at the Oxford American and editor of the collection Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany. “We thought the book’s landmark anniversary deserved a big celebration in the state that is the setting for much of the book and the home of both the author and the magazine.” Portis has published a number of humor pieces in the Oxford American and in 2010 was awarded the magazine’s inaugural prize for Lifetime Achievement in Southern Literature.

In October it was announced that the Oxford American was the 2019 recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council’s Governor’s Arts Award for Folklife.

This afternoon – Arkansas Cinema Society presents free sneak preview of RGB biopic ON THE BASIS OF SEX

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Before she was a Supreme Court Justice (and an action figure), Ruth Bader Ginsburg made history as a crusading young attorney.  This chapter of her life is the subject of the new movie ON THE BASIS OF SEX.

This afternoon (Dec 29) at 5pm, the Arkansas Cinema Society presents a free sneak preview of the film.  Doors to the Ron Robinson Theater open at 4:30.

Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer play gender-rights crusader Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her husband Marty in this early-career courtroom drama. Others in the cast include Justin Theroux, Jack Reynor, Cailee Spaeny, Sam Waterston, and Kathy Bates.  The movie was directed by Mimi Leder from a screenplay by Daniel Stiepleman.

Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion. It will feature UA Little Rock Bowen School of Law Dean Theresa Beiner; Professor Beth Levi, JD, of the Bowen School; Justice Annabelle Imber Tuck, retired member of the Arkansas Supreme Court; Judge Ellen Brantley, retired Pulaski County Circuit Court judge; and attorney Tijuana Byrd, who is president of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas board.  The panel will be moderated by Alison Williams, who serves as Chief of Staff to Governor Asa Hutchinson and is a member of the Arkansas Cinema Society Board.

GREMLINS is final entry in CALS “Not-Quite-Holiday” Film Fest

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A boy inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town. This is all a part of GREMLINS as it brings to a close the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) ”Not-Quite-Holiday” Film Fest.

(A scarier film of the same title would be a movie about the 1970s era AMC cars coming to life.)

Starring Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates, this 1984 film also features Hoyt Axton, Keye Luke, Polly Holliday and the voice of Howie Mandel. And because it was a 1980s teen movie, it features one of the Coreys — the Feldman variety.

GREMLINS starts at 6:30 pm at the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 Rock Street in Library Square.  Admission is $5. Tickets are available at ronrobinsontheater.org.

As part of the holiday film series, concessions at Ron Robinson Theater include an expanded hot drinks menu and gourmet candied popcorn options.

The Not-Quite-Holiday Film Fest is sponsored in part by The Point 94.1 and The Ride 106.7.

DIE HARD tonight at the CALS “Not-Quite-Holiday Film Fest” at the Ron Robinson Theater

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Image result for die hardIt’s a wonderful life, unless you happen to find yourself in Nakatomi Tower on Christmas Eve. Tonight, John McClane utters his famous “Yippee Ki Yay…….” quote as part of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) ”Not-Quite-Holiday” Film Fest.

Starring Bruce Willis, this 1988 film also features Bonnie Bedelia, Alexander Godunov, Reginald Vel Johnson (and his Twinkies), Paul Gleason, James Shigeta, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, and De’voreaux White.  It was also the first theatrical film of the ever-cool and charmingly evil Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber.

It starts at 6:30 pm at the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 Rock Street in Library Square.  Admission is $5. Tickets are available at ronrobinsontheater.org.

As part of the holiday film series, concessions at Ron Robinson Theater include an expanded hot drinks menu and gourmet candied popcorn options.

The Not-Quite-Holiday Film Fest is sponsored in part by The Point 94.1 and The Ride 106.7.

Happy Birthday to Pulitzer & Tony winner David Auburn, an alum of Hall High and Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre

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November 30 is the birthday of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning playwright David Auburn. A 1987 graduate of Hall High School, he participated in the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre while he spent his teen years in Little Rock.

Born in Chicago, he grew up in Ohio. He moved to Arkansas when his parents took jobs here, first in Jonesboro then Little Rock. After graduating from Hall, he returned to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago, where he graduated with a degree in English literature.  While there he was involved with a performance group and also wrote theatre reviews.

In 1992, he went to New York to take part in Julliard’s playwriting program.  In 1997, his first Off Broadway play was produced, Skyscraper.  In May 2000, Manhattan Theatre Club produced his play Proof at one of its Off Broadway theatres. Following the success of that run, it transferred to Broadway in the autumn of 2000.

In 2001, Proof won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play, and Best Play awards from the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama League.

That spring he also served as a script consultant for tick…tick…BOOM! a musical written by the late Jonathan Larson. He was asked by Larson’s family to write the book based on the several different drafts Larson had written prior to his 1996 death.

Subsequently, Auburn has moved between writing plays and movies as well as directing. He has also served as a teacher and playwright in residence. His plays include The New York Idea, The Columnist, and Lost Lake.

He is currently one of the screenwriters on the upcoming new Charlie’s Angels movie.