THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23

SHOWN AT 5:00PM

This is a story about the wrong person in the right place at the wrong time. Two heinous crimes have left a suburban town reeling. Police quickly connect them but are desperate for witnesses as the local community enfolds itself in a shroud of secrecy, borne from fear and an untrammeled mistrust of authority. A young police constable, Graham McGahan, suffers from a chronic hearing problem and applies for worker’s compensation. To his chagrin, he is stationed at a police caravan near the crime scene. Living on the periphery of the investigation, McGahan crosses paths with the various people affected by the tragedies and uncovers an unraveling nightmare of guilt and suspicion.

This free show is part of our Thursday FilmMovement series, which in November becomes

“It’s clear from the first few minutes of Matthew Saville’s “Noise” that this highly compelling first feature has no intention of being your average, run-of-the-mill thriller…[Noise] kicks off with a wallop, then constantly confounds expectations by approaching its subject matter from fresh directions.”
-Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter

SHOWN AT 7:15PM
Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) are the perfect American couple traveling from Beijing to Moscow on the legendary Trans-Siberian Express train. The two strike a bond with another couple, Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and Abby (Kate Mara), who are not exactly as they appear. Unwittingly, Roy and Jessie are caught in a web of drug trafficking and murderous deceit when all four become targets of ex-KGB detective Grinko’s (Ben Kingsley) investigation.

“‘Transsiberian’ starts in neutral, taking the time to introduce its characters, and then goes from second into high like greased lightning. I was a little surprised to notice how thoroughly it wound me up. This is a good one.” -Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24

SHOWN AT 12:30PM
Nejat initially disapproves of his widower father Ali’s choice of prostitute Yeter for a live-in girlfriend. But the young professor warms to her when he learns that most of her hard-earned money is sent home to Turkey for her daughter’s university studies. After Yeter’s accidental death, Nejat travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter’s daughter Ayten. Political activist Ayten has fled the Turkish police and is already in Germany. She is befriended by a young woman, Lotte, who invites rebellious Ayten to stay in her home, much to the displeasure of her conservative mother, Susanne. When Ayten is arrested and her asylum plea denied, she is deported and imprisoned in Turkey. Passionate Lotte abandons everything to help Ayten. A tragic event brings Susanne to Istanbul to help fulfill her daughter`s mission.

“Like a more personal, less pretentious version of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s ‘Babel’, this spiraling dissection of circumstance, choice and fate is more about thoroughness of vision than tricky storytelling.” -Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

SHOWN AT 2:45PM
Tuya, hardworking and hardheaded, is a Mongolian desert herder who refuses to be settled in a town in accordance with the new industrialization policy. She is kept busy with two kids, a disabled husband and 100 sheep to care for, but one day she hurts her back. The only way for the family to survive is for her to divorce her husband on paper and look for a new spouse who can take care of the whole family. A series of suitors lines up, but it’s not easy to find a man who fits the bill. This warm, endearing tale, featuring stunning cinematography, won the top prize at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival.

“A compact near-masterpiece that combines a slow-motion romantic comedy with a docudrama-style portrait of a remote, nomadic culture as it is gradually eroded by the tides of the 21st century.” -Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

SHOWN AT 5:00PM
Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) are the perfect American couple traveling from Beijing to Moscow on the legendary Trans-Siberian Express train. The two strike a bond with another couple, Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and Abby (Kate Mara), who are not exactly as they appear. Unwittingly, Roy and Jessie are caught in a web of drug trafficking and murderous deceit when all four become targets of ex-KGB detective Grinko’s (Ben Kingsley) investigation.

“‘Transsiberian’ starts in neutral, taking the time to introduce its characters, and then goes from second into high like greased lightning. I was a little surprised to notice how thoroughly it wound me up. This is a good one.” -Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

SHOWN AT 7:15PM
On an August day in 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York’s twin towers, then the world’s tallest buildings. After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail before he was finally released. Structured as a caper, “Man On Wire” meticulously follows the story of a young juggler who becomes infatuated with the planned twin towers, through years of preparation to create the unique and magnificent spectacle that became known as “the artistic crime of the century.”

“They say that seeing is believing, but ‘Man On Wire’ will make you doubt what your eyes are telling you – it really will – as you shake your head in amazement and awe.” -Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

SHOWN AT 9:30PM

Five years ago, I wrote an action/horror script called “God Of Vampires” about Chinese vampires. It could described as an ultra-violent kung-fu horror movie, like a combination of a Hong Kong Action flick and “Evil Dead.” Having no money and knowing that nobody gives you money to make your first film (at least in my world), I set out to raise enough money to make the film myself on a barebones budget. I got people to invest about $26,000 and we started shooting on weekends and whenever people were available. Because our budget was so low, we all had to work regular jobs. As the years passed on I changed jobs many times but kept plugging away at “God Of Vampires.” Interestingly enough, as we progressed, the film became more involved and bigger in scale. The sets got more elaborate and the FX became more graphic. Instead of the enthusiasm fading away and slowing down, it would build and gain momentum even with the production being halted for several months at a time due to an array of bizarre circumstances. We’ve had our lead actor in a really bad car accident, we’ve run out of funds, our cameraman actually went to Iraq to film the war during the first couple of months as an entreched journalist. He actually got mortar shrapnel in his ass when one blew up next to him! There are a million things that happened to us over the years both good and bad, but we pulled through anyway and five years later, we have completed “God Of Vampires.”

Sincerely,
Your most humble Director,
Rob Fitz

Mr. Fitz will be on hand after the film to talk about the journey that was “God Of Vampires,” which is part of our Friday Night Frights series, which ends on Halloween Night with the Lovecraft tale, “Cthulhu.”

“A fun, bloody action/horror hybrid that actually presented us with a different kind of bloodsucker for once (always a good thing) and knew exactly what it was doing.” -Johnny Butane, Dread Central