Category Archives: Film

Revel in B-movie greatness at the Ron Robinson Theater tonight with 1987’s MIAMI CONNECTION

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The CALS Ron Robinson Theater strives to showcase all types of movies: classics, action, children’s, fantasy, etc.  Tonight they add another genre to their repertoire with the 1987 B-movie MIAMI CONNECTION.

Admission is $5. The screening starts at 8pm.

So put on your sleeveless shirt, mousse up that hair, and come on down!

The year is 1987. Motorcycle ninjas tighten their grip on Florida’s narcotics trade, viciously annihilating anyone who dares move in on their turf. Multi-national martial arts rock band Dragon Sound have had enough, and embark on a roundhouse wreck-wave of crime-crushing justice.

When not chasing beach bunnies or performing their hit song “Against the Ninja,” Mark (Tae Kwon Do master/inspirational speaker Y.K. Kim) and the boys are kicking and chopping at the drug world’s smelliest underbelly. It’ll take every ounce of their blood and courage, but Dragon Sound can’t stop until they’ve completely destroyed the dealers, the drunk bikers, the kill-crazy ninjas, the middle-aged thugs, the “stupid cocaine”…and the entire MIAMI CONNECTION!!

GONE WITH THE WIND on the big screen at the CALS Ron Robinson Theatre tonight

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Gone with the Wind (1939) PosterAs God is my witness, you can see Gone with the Wind on the big screen tonight! And frankly my dear, you should give a damn!

The doors to the CALS Ron Robinson Theater open tonight (10/30) at 6pm for the 7pm screening of the 1939 Best Picture winner.  Filled with romance, action, and witty dialogue (as well as melodrama and some embarrassing dialogue too), this film was destined to be a hit before it even started filming.

Everyone who was anyone (and a lot of noones) auditioned to be in the movie.  It went through a plethora of directors and screenwriters before it was completed. But through it all, producer David O. Selznick used a steel fist to keep it on course.

Nominated for thirteen Oscars, it won eight: Best Picture, Actress (Vivien Leigh), Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, who became the first African American to win an Oscar – and had to sit in the segregated section at the awards ceremony), Director (Victor Fleming – who only directed about half the film, having been brought in after it had started), Screenplay (Sidney Howard – who had died in a farming accident and became the first posthumous Oscar winner), Cinematography, Art Direction and Editing.

Admission is $5, with concessions available for purchase.

 

 

Creative Class of 2015: Kathryn Tucker

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KFTuckerFilmmaker Kathryn Tucker returned to her native Little Rock three years ago after spending time in New York (four years) and Los Angeles (six years). In NYC, she worked for Miramax Films. She left Miramax to help make an independent film (Loggerheads) in North Carolina that was accepted at Sundance. She then moved the LA for 6 years and became of member of the Director’s Guild of America (DGA).

During that time she worked with a wide range of movie stars, including Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Anniston, Adam Sandler, Al Pacino, Katie Holmes and Ryan Gosling. Among her projects in LA were This Is 40, Oblivion, Gangster Squad, Knocked Up and the TV shows “Glee,” “Private Practice,” “Bones,” “Gilmore Girls,” and “7th Heaven.”

She returned to Little Rock (where she was a 1996 graduate of LR Central High) three years ago and has produced an award winning short (“One Please”) and a feature (All the Birds Have Flown South) written by the Miller brothers. She is currently completing a screenplay for a movie she will direct in 2016 and is under contract with AETN to produce and direct a documentary bio of former Gov. Mike Beebe.

 

Creative Class of 2015: Frank Thurmond

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thurmond_frankFrank Thurmond is a writer-musician-actor-filmmaker-teacher. He is, in short, a multi-hyphenate!

Thurmond was born in Paragould and grew up in Crossett and Little Rock, where he attended Hall High School.  He studied English and music as a Donaghey Scholar at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and pursued graduate degrees at Southern Methodist University and Oxford University. Thurmond is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and has been a visiting writer in residence at Lyon College in Batesville.

 
Most recently, he released Ring of Five: A Novella and Four Stories.  Thurmond’s first book was a memoir entitled Before I Sleep: A Memoir of Travel and Reconciliation, which recounts his adult experience of meeting his previously unknown birth father.  He is a member of the bands ODYSSEY and JET420 and can often be found playing at local stages.
The film The Dealer’s Tale, which he wrote and produced (and is directed by Justin Nickels) will screen as an Official Selection at the Indie Memphis film festival on Friday, November 6th.  When it screened at the El Dorado Film Festival, Thurmond was awarded the Best Screenplay Award at the El Dorado Film Festival.
           
He has been featured at both the Arkansas Literary Festival and the Little Rock Film Festival.  Previously, Thurmond’s writing has appeared in various publications, including the International Herald Tribune; The Best of Tales from the South, Volume 6; Toad Suck Review; and in William Safire’s language book, No Uncertain Terms.

Creative Class of 2015: Mark Thiedeman

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mark thiedemanAfter attending Catholic High and Parkview Arts & Science Magnet High School, Mark Thiedeman studied filmmaking at NYU.  Though he started his film work in New York, he returned to Little Rock a few years ago to continue making films in a more expressive and less expensive environment.

It is a proverbial chicken & egg question as to whether Thiedeman helped usher in the expansion of the Arkansas film industry, or whether he benefitted from it — probably a little of both.

Thiedeman is a true auteur, serving as director, writer, editor and often producer of his works. His feature films are The Scoundrel and Last Summer.  His shorts are “A Christian Boy,” “Cain & Abel” and “Sacred Hearts, Holy Souls.” The latter, which won the Best in Arkansas award at the 2014 Little Rock Film Festival, is being turned into a feature film.

Stephen Farber in The Hollywood Reporter has called him “a director worth watching.” In Filmmaker magazine, Howard Feinstein said of Thiedeman, “a star is born – and I mean a director.”

Celebrate BACK TO THE FUTURE day tonight at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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back_to_the_future2In Back to the Future, Part II, Marty McFly visits October 21, 2015. So hop on your hoverboard and go to the CALS Ron Robinson Theatre tonight to see the 1989 film.

Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Thomas F. Wilson all recreate their roles from the 1985 first film.  Elisabeth Shue, Billy Zane and Casey Siemaszko join in the time travel fun for this film.

The future will arrive at 7pm. Admission is $5 (which is $2.24 in 1985 dollars).

Architecture & Design Network focuses on architectural photographer Pedro E. Guerrero

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pedro e guererroTonight at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center, the Architecture and Design Network, in collaboration with the Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN), will present an  American Masters Series film “Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey.”
Following the film, there will be a panel discussion with Dr. Ethel Goodstein-Murphree, Associate Dean, Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, and Professor of Architecture, Chair; Brian Lang, Chief Curator, Arkansas Arts Center; and Tim Hursley, architectural photographer. A reception at 5:30 will take place prior to the screening and discussion.
Directed and produced by the award winning team of Ray Telles and Ivan Iturruaga, the American Masters Series film, Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey, recounts the Arizona native’s life (1917-2012) and remarkable career. In 1939, the then 22 year old Guerrero, a novice photographer who had studied photography at the Art Center in Pasadena, CA, was hired by Frank Lloyd Wright to document the construction of Taliesin West, then being built on a site overlooking Paradise Valley. Wright’s spur of the moment decision to hire him led to a relationship that lasted until Wright’s death in 1959, interrupted only by the young man’s Army Air Corps service during WW II.
Guerrero’s twenty year association with Wright catapulted him into the center of modernist art and architecture. Moving to New York City following the war, while still working with Wright, Guerrero was much sought after by major magazines that focused on architecture and design. He also went on to photograph the work of sculptors Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson as well the artists themselves.
In addition to  excerpts of interviews with art historians and critics long familiar with Guerrero’s work, the film offers a view of  his early life experience – his growing up in an Arizona town, not far from Taliesin West, where educational opportunities for offspring of families with Mexican roots were limited. While  he intended to study art after high school, his introduction to photography altered his course.
Support for  Architecture and Design Network (ADN), a non-profit organization, is provided  the Arkansas Arts Center, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the Central Arkansas Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and friends in the community. The film’s showing and the reception that precedes it are free and open to the public. For  additional information contact ardenetwork@mac.com.