Category Archives: Film

ANNIE (1982 version) at the Ron Robinson Theater tonight

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Leapin’ Lizards, the John Huston-directed 1982 version of ANNIE is being shown on the big screen at the Ron Robinson Theater tonight.  The film starts at 7pm; admission is $5. 

Based on the 1977 Tony winning musical and the 1930s Harold Gray comic strip, the film stars Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry, Raymond Thorne, and Geoffrey Holder. Playing the title role is Aileen Quinn.  

In the depths of the 1930’s, Annie is a fiery young orphan girl who must live in a miserable orphanage run by the tyrannical Miss Hannigan. Her seemingly hopeless situation changes dramatically when she is selected to spend a short time at the residence of the wealthy munitions industrialist, Oliver Warbucks. Quickly, she charms the hearts of the household staff but can Annie charm the seemingly cold-hearted Mr. Warbucks or discover what happened to her real parents? 

Marines of Montford Park focus of film at MacArthur Museum tonight 

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The winter weather delayed this event twice, but tonight the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History will show the film The Marines of Montford Point: Fighting for Freedom.  the movie will start at 6:30 at the museum in MacArthur Park.

Hosted and narrated by Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr., this movie profiles the first African Americans recruits in the United States Marine Corps. It begins with their experiences at Montford Point Base, a segregated boot camp in the heart of the Jim Crow South.

All-black battalions from Montford Point loyally served their country (some as officers) in three major conflicts: World War II, Korea and Vietnam.  All the while they were fighting for their country, they were also fighting for their own civil rights back home.

During the film, Montford Point veterans recount the racism they encountered both within and outside the military. They also reminisce about the rigors of basic training, the harsh conditions of the barracks, and the perils of combat.

There is no admission cost.  Light refreshments will be available.

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

Lights! Camera! Arkansas! book signing with Robert Cochran and Suzanne McCray

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The authors of a new book that explores the legacy of Arkansas on film will be center-stage for a panel and book-signing at the Old State House Museum. 

On Sunday, March 8, at 2 p.m., Robert Cochran and Suzanne McCray will be discussing their new book, “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” on a panel hosted by Ben Fry, general manager of KUAR and host of Second Friday Cinema. 

“Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” traces the roles played by Arkansans in the first century of Hollywood’s film industry, from the first cowboy star, Broncho Billy Anderson, to Mary Steenburgen, Billy Bob Thornton and many others. 

The Arkansas landscape also plays a starring role: Crittenden County as a setting for Hallelujah (1929), and various locations in the state’s southeastern quadrant in 2012’s Mud are all given fascinating exploration. 

Cochran and McCray screened close to two hundred films—from laughable box-office bombs to laudable examples of filmmaking – in their research for this book. 

They’ve enhanced their spirited chronological narrative with an appendix on documentary films, a ratings section and illustrations chosen by Jo Ellen Maack of the Old State House Museum, where “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” debuted as an exhibit curated by the authors in 2013.

 The exhibit will close on July 31, 2015. 

It’s a Bolly Holi Day at Ron Robinson

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Zokkomon

Celebrate the festival of Holi on Saturday, March 7, during Bolly Holi Day, a day of Bollywood films, at the Central Arkansas Library System’s (CALS) Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Avenue, on the Main Library campus. All Bolly Holi Day films are free and open to the public.

The day, designed by the Main Library Adult Non-Fiction department, includes three Bollywood films which are in Hindi with English subtitles and Bollywood dance performances.

  • Qurbani (NR)
    noon
    Two best friends and the woman they both love are caught up in a plot to steal a fortune from a powerful crime boss and find themselves in mortal danger.
  • Zokkomon (PG)
    3:15pm
    With the help of a scientist hermit, an orphan poses as a ghost to haunt the uncle who abandoned him and becomes a hero to the abused children attending his uncle’s school.
  • Dance Performances
    5:15pm
  • English Vinglish (NR)
    5:30pm
    During a visit to Manhattan, a woman decides to learn English and gains new friends who are on the same transformational journey to find confidence and master the language.

Holi is a popular Hindu festival that celebrates the arrival of spring. The festival coincides with the full moon in March, and begins on Friday, March 6, 2015. It is traditionally celebrated by throwing vibrantly colored powder and water, playing music, dancing, and eating special treats. During Holi celebrations the strictness of social structures is loosened, closing the gaps between classes and bringing people together. Legends associated with the festival depict triumph of good over evil.

For more information on Bolly Holi Day or other CALS programming, call 918-3000.

 

Black History Month Spotlight: Sheryl Underwood

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Sheryl Underwood was born in Little Rock in 1963. After graduating from college, she served in the military. In 1989 she became the first female finalist in the Miller Lite Comedy Search.  Today, she is a panelist on CBS Daytime’s hit show “The Talk.”

In addition to her TV appearances, she is an entrepreneur, entertainer, studio executive and  International President of her beloved Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

Named one of today’s hardest working comediennes, Underwood has starred in such films as “Bullworth,” “I Got the Hook Up” and “Beauty Shop,” starring Queen Latifah. In addition, Underwood was the host of Black Entertainment Television’s (BET’s) “Comic View” and “Holla,” a talk show she created and produced which was loosely based on Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect.”

She is a weekly contributor on the “Steve Harvey Morning Show,” also serving as guest host, and appears on “The Steve Harvey Project,” the television version of the show airing on TV-ONE. Underwood also hosts “The Sheryl Underwood Show” on Jamie Foxx’s “The Foxxhole,” airing on Sirius 106/XM 149, where she provides a mix of political satire, comedy and music.

In 2007, she was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.  To learn more about Sheryl Underwood and other inductees, visit the exhibit at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. that museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Black History Month Spotlight: Phyllis Yvonne Stickney

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mtcc nps stickneyPhyllis Yvonne Stickney is a world-class artist, producer, director, author, motivational speaker, clothing designer, community activist, businesswoman and surrogate mother to many.

Born in Little Rock, Stickney was raised in the various US cities to which her father, a YMCA executive, was transferred. However, she settled in Harlem, where her theater work began at the Frank Silvers Workshop, and the New Heritage Theater, under the late playwright/director Robert Furman.

Her theatrical performances were before sell-out crowds in the 1998 National Black Arts Festival, where she also served as performing arts curator and starred in Nathan Ross Freeman’s The Contract. She  made her national television debut as single mother Cora Lee in the ABC miniseries The Women of Brewster Place, which also starred Oprah Winfrey and Cicely Tyson. Her subsequent television credits include sitcoms New Attitude, The Cosby Show and A Different World, PBS ‘ Great Performances production of The Colored Museum. Ms Stickney has also appeared on the silver screen in such notable movies as New Jack City Jungle Fever, Talkin’ Dirty, Malcolm X, The Inkwell; What’s Love Got To Do With It, Die Hard With A Vengeance and How Stella got Her Grove Back.

Ms Stickney’s Conscious Comedy Concerts have been featured in a number of venues across the country, including Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Concert show titles include, Live and in Chocolate, All That and Brains Too, and An Evening, With An Endangered Species. Her written work appears in an anthology of nine black comedy plays, edited by Pamela Faith Jackson. She also created The Crystal Pyramid, a chorepoem for children.

In addition, she served as the first solo female host for Essence’s 1997 Music Festival and was a speaker for the 1998 African American Women on the Tour.In 1983 she won the Audelco Award for her performance in Furman’s adaptation of Moliere’s Tartuffe, and later won a second Audelco for her original on-woman show, Big Mama an Nem. 

Though she has had success worldwide, she often returns to Little Rock to share her talents. She also played Lena in Lorraine Hansberry’s award-winning play A Raisin in the Sun at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. The play was produced in January 2011 and received great reviews and exceeded box office expectations. Earlier this month, she headlined an event at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center highlighting the works of Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, Ruby Dee and Beah Richards.

In 1998, she was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.  For more on Phyllis Yvonne Stickney and other inductees into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, visit the permanent exhibit at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. That museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Black History Month Spotlight: Henry Shead

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bhm shedHenry Wallace Shead, Sr., better known as “Shed” was born in Fordyce, Arkansas, on March 31, 1941.  He was raised in Little Rock, the son of a reverend, Henry Arthur Shead.  At the tender age of six, Henry was introduced to the keyboards by his mother, Willie LeBethel, who immediately recognized his natural talent. Henry’s mother saw to it that her son had piano lessons, while his father’s church provided the place for his early public performances.

At the start of his career, he performed regularly on a local American Bandstand-type TV show called Center Stage. He also became a fixture at the Little Rock Country Club. He made his mark playing in intimate settings as a solo artist, dazzling listeners with his absolute mastery of the piano, singing in that slightly raspy, yet smooth sounding baritone voice. Shead was awarded a scholarship to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and majored in music while entertaining around the area. Henry met his wife, Jeanette Mazique, while attending college in Pine Bluff. They married in January of 1964 and had four children.

He became a high school choral director and music teacher, all the while continuing to work in local nightspots like the Drummer‘s Club in Little Rock. In 1971, he moved to Los Angeles where he made his acting debut appearing with Henry Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss and Jane Alexander in William Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life. He wrote and arranged music for stage plays and television, sang the title song for a United Artist film, did studio work on a Johnny Mathis album, and recorded for the Liberty/United Artists and Cream labels.

Shed created national radio jingles and appeared on network television with Dinah Shore, Johnny Carson and Jerry Lewis. He has also performed at parties for the Rockefellers, Pearl Bailey, The Carpenters, President Lyndon Johnson, President Bill Clinton, Henry Mancini, Sergio Mendes, hotelier Peter Morton, Ed McMahon and Barbra Streisand.

In Las Vegas, the city where he lived since 1974, Shed entertained at most of the major hotels, with long engagements at the Aladdin, Stardust, Hacienda, MGM Grand, Caesar’s Palace and Sahara. In 1977, the Henry Shead Band with Denise Clemente was voted Las Vegas’ Best Lounge Act of the Year. His last long-term run was at AJ’s Steakhouse at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, retiring in 2007. In October 2006, he was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.

He died on October 5, 2012 in Las Vegas and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood CA.

For more on Henry Shead and other inductees into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, visit the permanent exhibit at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. That museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.