Tag Archives: CALS

Spike Lee celebration at CALS Ron Robinson Theatre – Part 1: DO THE RIGHT THING

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Do the Right Thing PosterThe Central Arkansas Library System is celebrating the works of Spike Lee in the CALS Ron Robinson Theater and you’re invited!

Join CALS on Friday July 12 as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Do The Right Thing” with a screening of Spike Lee’s 1989 classic film.

On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone’s hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.

The film stars Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Giancarlo Esposito, John Turturro, Frankie Faison, Robin Harris, Joie Lee, Bill Nunn, and Spike Lee himself.  Aiello earned an Oscar nomination in the Supporting Actor category, and Lee picked up an Oscar nom for his original screenplay.

Tickets for the “Do The Right Thing” screening are $5 for general admission seating. The doors open at 7:00 pm and the film starts at 8:00 pm.

Six Weeks of STAR WARS at CALS Ron Robinson Theater starts tonight with PHANTOM MENACE

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official poster for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom MenaceFor six weeks this summer, the Central Arkansas Library System is showing the first six episodes of the STAR WARS saga on Thursday evenings.  They are being shown in episode order, not release order, or any of the other orders dreamed up by fans.

Tonight is Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

Stranded on the desert planet Tatooine after rescuing young Queen Amidala from the impending invasion of Naboo, Jedi apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Jedi Master discover nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker, a young slave unusually strong in the Force. Anakin wins a thrilling Podrace and with it his freedom as he leaves his home to be trained as a Jedi. The heroes return to Naboo where Anakin and the Queen face massive invasion forces while the two Jedi contend with a deadly foe named Darth Maul. Only then do they realize the invasion is merely the first step in a sinister scheme by the re-emergent forces of darkness known as the Sith.

The film that re-started the franchise was released 20 years ago.  Telling the backstory of some of the characters from the first trilogy, it starred Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Frank Oz, Terence Stamp, and Jake Lloyd.  Written and directed by George Lucas, it was nominated for three Oscars (Sound, Sound Effects Editing, and Visual Effects).

The screening starts tonight, July 11, at 7pm. Admission is $5.00.

$2 Terror Tuesdays at CALS Ron Robinson Theater – Tonight is 1959’s TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE

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Teenagers from Outer Space Poster$2 Terror Tuesdays continue tonight (7/9) at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater with 1959’s TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE.  Now while most parents may feel their teens are from another planet at times, this movie is about some teens who really were.

Teenagers from Outer Space is a 1959 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film released by Warner Bros. The film was produced, written, and directed by Tom Graeff. In the film, alien teenager Derek abandons his crew to search for a new life on Earth, while one of his crewmates is sent to kill him while they attempt to eradicate human life in order to farm Earth with giant lobster-like livestock they call Gargons.

For this film, all the dialogue was recorded first and the actors lip synced to it. This is the reverse of where actors usually record sound while filming and may have to go back into a sound stage to re-record dialogue and match the mouth movements on film.

The film was picked up by Warner Brothers for release because the studio needed a second film to be part of a double feature with a Godzilla sequel.

The showing starts at 7pm.  Cost is $2.

Hear Jay Jennings discuss nonfiction writings of Charles Portis today at noon as part of CALS Legacies & Lunch series

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Jay Jennings is the foremost expert on the writings of Charles Portis. (And a very talented writer himself!)  Today (July 3) at noon, he will speak about Portis at the CALS Butler Center Legacies & Lunch series.

Charles Portis is well known for his novels, such as the classic True Grit, but his journalism, travel writing, and other short works—many of them touching on his Arkansas roots—remained largely unknown until the collection Escape Velocity was published by Butler Center Books in 2013. Author/editor Jay Jennings, editor of that tome, will discuss the process of bringing together this miscellany and how it relates to Portis’ career.

The program starts at 12 noon in the Darragh Center of the CALS Main Library Branch.

Legacies & Lunch is a free monthly program of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies about Arkansas related topics. Program are held from noon to 1 pm on the first Wednesday of the month. Attendees are invited to bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert are provided. A library parking discount is available for attendees.

$2 Terror Tuesdays on the CALS Ron Robinson Theater screen – THE TERROR

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The Terror Poster$2 Terror Tuesdays continue tonight (7/2) at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater with 1963’s THE TERROR.

The Terror unites two men who have each starred in classic suspense/thriller movies. It was made toward the end of Boris Karloff’s career, but he had caused many a chill as the monster in Frankenstein and other classic horror films.  Up and coming Jack Nicholson would later terrorize moviegoers in The Shining.

The Terror is a 1963 Independent American Vistascope horror film produced and directed by Roger Corman. The plot concerns a French officer who finds an intriguing woman who is believed to be the ghost of a baron’s long departed wife.

Corman used the same sets and some of the same actors from 1963’s The Raven which he completed filming immediately before this project.  He shot all of Karloff’s scenes in four days. However, he and the other actors improvised much of the film over a nine month period – the longest shoot of his career. One of the second unit directors on this project was Francis Ford Coppola.

The showing starts at 7pm.  Cost is $2.

Tonight on CALS Ron Robinson Theater screen: STONEWALL UPRISING presented by CALS and AETN.

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When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world.

Join CALS as it commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots with this screening of the PBS American Masters documentary “Stonewall Uprising”.

This event is FREE and open to the public. Doors open at 7:00pm with general admission seating on a first come, first served basis.

Presented by CALS and AETN/PBS.

Stephen King Rules! Book Club presents 1983’s CUJO tonight on CALS Ron Robinson Theater screen

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Cujo (1983)The “Stephen King Rules!” Book Club is presenting one of the films based on a King novel tonight at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater. The screening will start at 7pm; admission is $5.

Cujo, a 1983 American horror film directed by Lewis Teague, was based on the 1981 psychological horror novel by American writer Stephen King.

In this tale of a killer canine, man’s best friend turns into his worst enemy. When sweet St. Bernard Cujo is bitten by a bat, he starts behaving oddly and becomes very aggressive. As Cujo morphs into a dangerous beast, he goes on a rampage in a small town.

The cast includes Dee Wallace, Danny Pintauro, Ed Lauter, Christopher Stone, and Daniel Hugh Kelly. Five St. Bernards, one mechanical head, and a person in a dog costume were used to play the title character. The dogs enjoyed the filming so much that their tails often had to be tied down to keep them from wagging with excitement.