Category Archives: Film

Tonight at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, a FREE film: LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM

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In partnership with AETN, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History will host a preview screening of the “American Experience: Last Days in Vietnam.”  The screening starts at 6:30pm tonight at the museum in MacArthur Park.

Free admission. Free popcorn and beverages provided.

During the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as South Vietnamese resistance crumbles. The United States has only a skeleton crew of diplomats and military operatives still in the country. As Communist victory becomes inevitable and the U.S. readies to withdraw, some Americans begin to consider the certain imprisonment and possible death of their South Vietnamese allies, co-workers, and friends.

Meanwhile, the prospect of an official evacuation of South Vietnamese becomes terminally delayed by Congressional gridlock and the inexplicably optimistic U.S. Ambassador. With the clock ticking and the city under fire, a number of heroic Americans take matters into their own hands, engaging in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations in a desperate effort to save as many South Vietnamese lives as possible.

Last Days in Vietnam was produced and directed by Rory Kennedy, an Emmy Award-winning independent documentary filmmaker and co-founder and president of Moxie Firecracker Films. Her work has been shown on PBS, HBO, A&E, MTV, and Lifetime.

The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History is a program of the City of Little Rock’s Parks and Recreation Department.

 

Atticus Finch prevails in CALS March Madness Heroes vs. Villains Character Face-Off!

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atticusThe man who has probably single-handedly inspired generations of attorneys was named the winner of the Central Arkansas Library System March Madness Heroes vs. Villains Character Face-Off!

Harper Lee’s Atticus Finch was the winner!

Atticus is a lawyer and resident of the fictional Maycomb County, Alabama, and the father of Jeremy “Jem” Finch and Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. Lee based the character on her own father, Amasa Coleman Lee, an Alabama lawyer who, like Atticus Finch, represented black defendants in a highly publicized criminal trial.

Book Magazine’s list of The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 names Finch as the 7th best fictional character of 20th century literature. In 2003, the American Film Institute voted Atticus, as portrayed by Gregory Peck, as the greatest hero in American film.

FANTASTIC MR FOX today at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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Fantastic_mr_foxToday at 2pm at the Ron Robinson Theatre, the animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox will be shown on the big screen. Admission is $5.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a 2009 American stop-motion animated film based on the Roald Dahl novel. The film is about a fox who steals food each night from three mean and wealthy farmers. They are fed up with Mr. Fox’s theft and try to kill him, so they dig their way into the foxes’ home, but the animals are able to outwit the farmers and live underground.

Development on the film started in 2004, but it was released in autumn 2009.  It features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Michael Gambon, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody.  The film’s director, Wes Anderson, also voiced one of the characters.  This was Anderson’s first animated film.

The film was nominated for two Oscars: Best Animated Film and Best Original Score (Alexandre Desplat).

 

Vietnam Documentary Premieres at CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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The emergency evacuation of U.S. forces in the final days of the Vietnam War is examined in Last Days in Vietnam, a PBS American Experience film which has been nominated for numerous awards including an Academy Award for Best Documentary.

The film’s theatrical premiere in Arkansas is at the Central Arkansas Library System’s (CALS) Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave., on Saturday, March 21, at 2 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served, and the doors will open at 1:30 p.m.

The film’s television broadcast premiere is Tuesday, April 28, at 8 p.m. on AETN.

Last Days in Vietnam documents the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War, when the North Vietnamese Army closed in on Saigon as South Vietnamese resistance crumbled. The United States had only a skeleton crew of diplomats and military operatives still in the country.

As Communist victory became inevitable and the U.S. readied to withdraw, some Americans began to consider the certain imprisonment and possible death of their South Vietnamese allies, co-workers, and friends. Meanwhile, the prospect of an official evacuation of South Vietnam became terminally delayed by Congressional gridlock and the inexplicably optimistic U.S. Ambassador.

With the clock ticking and the city under fire, a number of heroic Americans took matters into their own hands, engaging in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations in a desperate effort to save as many South Vietnamese lives as possible.

Last Days in Vietnam was produced and directed by Rory Kennedy, an Emmy Award-winning independent documentary filmmaker and co-founder and president of Moxie Firecracker Films. Her work has been shown on PBS, HBO, A&E, MTV, and Lifetime.

The screening is presented by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, a department of CALS. For more information, call 501-918-3033.

Film 14 WOMEN screened today

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14womenLittle Rock Central High School National Historic Site, in partnership with the Little Rock Central High School Feminist Alliance, will host a series of film screenings on women’s rights and feminist issues.  The series will run on selected Saturdays in March and April at 2:30 p.m. and will be screened at the National Historic site visitor center. Each screening will be followed by a post-film dialogue moderated by local advocates/activists.  Admission is free.

14 Women will be screened on Saturday, March 21st at 2:30pm at the Central High National Historic Site, 2120 W. Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive.

Between 1789 and 2006, only 35 of the 1,875 people who were chosen to serve in the United States Senate were women, so 2006 became a banner year when 14 women held seats in the Senate (and two more were elected in the mid-term elections held that year).  14 Women offers an inside portrait of women in politics and allows its subjects a chance to talk about the “glass ceiling” in American politics, the hard work that goes into serving in Congress, and how gender can sometimes trump party allegiances in dealing with their colleagues on Capitol Hill. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi (New York Times)

The screening will have a post-film dialogue moderated by Stephanie Harris, Arkansas Supreme Court’s Communications Counsel and founder of Women Lead Arkansas, a non-partisan non-profit organization whose mission is to empower women and girls to engage in politics, policy and leadership.

For more information, contact Brian Schwieger at brian_schwieger@nps.gov or Sally Goldman (LRCHS Feminist Alliance) at sjgoldman1996@gmail.com

Films from creators of “Beasts of the Southern Wild” are featured at Arkansas Times Film Series

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As part of the Arkansas Times monthly film series at the Ron Robinson Theater, tonight they will be showing a series of shorts from the creators of Beasts of the Southern Wild. The series is produced in partnership with the Little Rock Film Festival.

This will be a special presentation of short films and music videos from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Benh Zeitlen and others in Court 13–a New Orleans film and arts collective.

Following the screenings, Court 13 members Casey Coleman and Nathan Harrison will participate in a panel discussion.

The films being screened are:

  • “Glory at Sea”
  • “Death of a Tin Man”
  • Music videos from MGMT and Big Freedia

Tickets are $5. The screening starts at 7pm.

NATIONAL GALLERY film shown tonight through Clinton School/LR Film Festival partnership

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Frederick Wiseman’s “National Gallery” takes the audience behind the scenes of a London institution, on a journey to the heart of a museum inhabited by masterpieces of Western art from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century. 

The documentary is the portrait of a place, its way of working and relations with the world, its staff and public, and its paintings. In a perpetual and dizzying game of mirrors, film watches painting watches film. 

Fred Wiseman is one of today’s greatest living documentary filmmakers. For close to thirty years, he has created an exceptional body of work consisting of thirty full-length films devoted primarily to exploring American institutions.

The film will be shown tonight at the Ron Robinson Theater at 6pm. It is sponsored by the Clinton School for Public Service and the Little Rock Film Festival.