Nashville for Free

There are lots of reasons to love the Belcourt. There are so few theaters like it in the world – theaters that show new independent movies as well as older films, theaters that have awesome community events and in general try to bring really cool things to the community. I have to say, there would be a huge hole in Nashville’s culture without the Belcourt.

The Belcourt’s newest cool film series is even better than most because this one is absolutely free. It’s called Film Forward, and the Belcourt is apparently one of only a few theaters in the world that has it. It’s “a cultural exchange program designed to enhance cross-cultural understanding, collaboration and dialogue around the globe by engaging audiences through the exhibition of film and conversation with the filmmakers” that’s brought to us by the fine folks at the Sundance Film Festival, so you know it’s going to have some top-notch films.

You can find a list of the films that are screening as well as their times at Nashvillest. You can also find it on the Belcourt’s website, but in my opinion it’s a little easier to figure out on Nashvillest (because they are so awesome).

The only bummer is that a lot of these films are showing at noon on weekdays, which I’m sure won’t work for a lot of schedules, at least not mine. If you can attend those screenings then I’m jealous of you lucky folks with awesome schedules. Of course, that means you’re either a student, unemployed, or work really late. Enjoy your free movies dudes.

-Emily

It’s a shame that some movies never get seen outside of their immediate country. Yeah, there are a lot of crap movies out there that have been forgotten, but there are also some masterpieces sitting around in film canisters in someone’s bomb shelter, gathering dust.

I Am Cuba seemed destined to be one of those movies. It has a pretty interesting history. After the Cuban revolution Castro and his new government went to the Soviet Union for, among other things, film partnerships. The USSR agreed to help finance a film that promoted socialism, and that’s how I Am Cuba, a movie about the Cuban revolution, was born.

The director was given a lot of freedom and support to complete the work, which was first screened in 1964, but ultimately the movie wasn’t well-liked among Cubans and Russians because Cubans thought that they were portrayed in a stereotypical manner and Russians thought the movie was simply too naive.

So that was that. The film was largely forgotten by the fall of the USSR in the early 1990s, but in 1992, Cuban novelist Guillermo Cabrera Infante, the guest co-director of the Telluride Film Festival, screened a print of the film at the festival as part of a retrospective on Kalatazov. It was eventually seen by Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola and they apparently absolutely loved it, especially for the beautifully artistic filming techniques employed by the director. The two agreed to lend their name to the Milestone Films release of the movie and it’s been making the rounds ever since.

Tonight International Lens and Vanderbilt University is screening this almost-forgotten classic for the first time in Nashville. You can see it tonight only at Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Cinema at 7pm.

-Emily

I don’t know about you, but I love messed-up movies. Descriptions like “perverse” and “psycho-noir” will draw me into a theater faster than a teenage girl will for a movie about vampires or pirates. And lucky me, this coming Tuesday, January 11th at 7pm, the Belcourt and Arthouse Films are presenting a free screening of Kalamity, a film directed by James Hausler.

This film is about a guy named Billy who is heartbroken over his ex-girlfriend. He then decides to go home to seek the advice and comfort of his childhood friends, only to discover that his best friend from back home, Stanley, has lost his nut. He’s “unstable, mysterious, and withdrawn from those around him” and the farther Billy digs into his friend’s world things get even more terrifying.

Like I said, this is a free screening, but you’re going to need a voucher to get in. All you have to do is go to the Belcourt’s box office to get one, but the fine folks who are putting on the film will be hanging around the streets handing them out, and lots will be left in local stores across Nashville, so keep your eyes out.

-Emily

Editors note: This blog post was written by Matt Kraatz, a senior at Belmont University and a good friend of N4F.

Yo, so I understand that Food, Inc. is screening tonight for free. Now, admittedly, I’ve only seen the second half and *spoiler alert* corporate greed could care less about quality of output (as long as it’s in volume), or careers in the agricultural sector, or general sustainability. And they definitely don’t care about baby seals *end spoiler alert*. And that’s only the half of it. Basically it’s like Wall Street 2 (lol, unpaid reference). Though I can’t imagine myself being impressed by Shia LaBeouf after that really awkward Tom Hanks impersonation in Indiana Jones…

But seriously, the screening is sponsored by Re/Storing Nashville, which has brought to light critical food accessibility issues right under our noses and are taking great leaps to eliminate “food deserts” from Nashville’s vocabulary. Tonight is an opportunity to get informed, and to get involved, in the root cause of several issues plaguing America (food = health).

You ever see that episode of This American Life where they talk about artificial insemination at hog farms and it turns out that just about every pig is some sort of half-sibling with one another because the controller orders semen out of a catalog? That’s wild stuff, and there’s a good chance you eat that crap. But anyway, check it, Food, Inc. is screening tonight at Bethlehem Centers of Nashville off Charlotte; the lights dim at 5pm.

-Matt

I would imagine that it isn’t exactly easy to convince people to sit through a silent film, much less a Swedish one from 1913. I think it goes without saying that if you enjoyed Transformers 2 you probably want to skip this one.

But if the history of cinema interests you then this might be something worth checking out. This social drama has often been called the “first realistic feature film” and, according to Wikipedia, caused debate about social security and poorhouse laws in Sweden.

It’s a film about a woman who, after her husband dies, has to take an extremely low-paying job in a poorhouse and is forced to put her children up for adoption. She later loses her sanity when one of her daughters doesn’t recognize her. According to the event description, “For its age, the film shows remarkable sophistication and depth of characterization, as well as skillful photography and editing before these aspects of cinematography were more advanced and developed. Any rawness in style only heightens the gripping and heart-rending drama in this historical and cinematic classic.”

This film will be shown tonight, September 15th at 7pm at the Sarratt Cinema on Vanderbilt’s campus.

I’m sad to report that this Saturday will bring the last showing of this year’s Second Saturday Drive-In at the Belcourt. I’m really freaking excited to announce that the movie they’re showing is Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

I don’t even know where to start. I adore this movie. I think it’s one of the funniest films ever. Disagree with me if you wish, but you’d be wrong. Straight up wrong. Actually I just asked my roommates what they thought about The Holy Grail and they responded “eh, it was alright, Spamalot was better” so maybe my beliefs aren’t as universal as I thought…

But I digress! I don’t think I really need to write anything about this movie to pique your interest. Apparently you either love this movie or you don’t, but that’s to be expected with British Comedy. Whatever, I’ll post the event description anyway:

The Monty Python comedy clan skewers King Arthur and his knights of the round table as they quest far and wide for the Holy Grail in this inspired piece of lunacy. We’ll spare you the ever quotable quotes for now, as no doubt you’ll hear them scattered about on our final evening outdoors this year.

So there you have it. Be there or don’t be there. If you don’t like hearing people quote movies then you probably don’t want to be there. If you love laughing then go go go go go! This event is this Saturday, September 11th at the Belcourt. It’ll start at sundown. Also, bring a small lawn chair or pillow to sit on. That pavement is not forgiving.

-Emily

It’s my opinion that Films at the Frist is one of the most consistently good film series’ in Nashville. The Frist does a great job at picking fun and classic films that people actually want to see that coincides with their different exhibits.

To Catch a Thief is a classic Hitchcock film that stars two of the greatest stars of their era: Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. In this movie Cary Grant plays a retired cat burglar with the not-so-creative handle “The Cat.” Unfortunately for him, someone starts robbing people in a style very similar to his, so the cops think that he’s back to his old ways. They come to arrest him but he gives them the slip and tries to prove his innocence. Somewhere along the lines he picks up Grace Kelly.

If you know anything about Grace Kelly then you’re not wondering why this film was picked. Her wardrobe in this movie is apparently completely fantastic, so it fits in perfectly with the Frist’s current major exhibit, The Golden Age of Couture. This film will be shown Friday September 10th at 7pm at the Frist.

Let me recap for you: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Hitchcock, pretty dresses. For free. Touchdown. What? Yes. Rock’n'roll.

-Emily

If you’ve been reading N4F for awhile then you know that I LOVE the International Lens Film Series at Vanderbilt. I just don’t think that people see enough foreign films, not because it doesn’t interest them, but because they’re never really presented with an opportunity to see them.

International Lens is great because they usually show a few different films a week, all from different countries. For example, tomorrow Wednesday September 1st they’re screening a film in the Sarratt Cinema called The Good, the Bad, and the Weird. It’s a Korean Western. How does that not sound awesome?

This film was released in 2008 and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It was inspired by the classic western the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I think it’s pretty easy to guess who’s the good one, the bad one, and the weird one from the poster. That dude in the middle is obviously weird, but he looks pretty awesome.

And now, the synopsis:

(2008) Dir: Ji-woon Kim. Set in the 1930s Manchurian desert where lawlessness rules, a bounty hunter, a bandit, and a train robber fatefully meet. Their chase across Manchuria for a mysterious map escalates, growing as unpredictable as it is good, bad, or weird. Korean with English subtitles.130 mins.

Just try to tell me that doesn’t sound like a cool movie. Again, it’s tomorrow night at Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Cinema.You can park for free Zone 2 lot 2 on West End. Here’s a map.

-Emily

Everyone knows that Movies in the Park is the perfect place to bring your family for a night out. They always show popular movies that your kids can watch. They’d never show anything with a rating higher than PG-13.

The Belcourt, however, is the place to go when you want to have a little bit of adult time. Not to say that their movies are always flat out inappropriate for a child, but how many kids would want to sit through a movie called Wrestling Women vs Aztec Mummy?

Basically, the movies the Belcourt chooses to show aren’t the obvious choices, but they’re completely awesome ones. This Saturday the Belcourt will be screening my favorite Steve Martin movie, The Jerk, as part of their 2nd Saturday Outdoor Cinema series.

I think I was in high school when I saw this movie, and it was still before any of my friends had seen it (something tells me that most of them never got around to watching it). Sometimes a friend would come over and we’d be looking through my family’s DVD collection for something to watch, and after a few minutes of me saying “you HAVE to watch this movie! You HAVE to, you HAVE to, you HAVE to!” my friend would relent and ultimately be happy at our choice. It’s a classic movie, and I think that everyone should see it at some point.

The Jerk is one of the most quotable movies I’ve ever seen. Lines like “I was born a poor black child” and “you should name that dog Shithead!” just stick with you for some reason. This is the Steve Martin that the world fell in love with. Long before Cheaper by the Dozen and The Pink Panther he was an edgy comedian who would spout off one hilarious joke after another.

If you haven’t seen The Jerk, go to this! If you’ve seen The Jerk, you should go too! Just be sure you bring a small chair or pillow to sit on, as the pavement on the parking lot is rather unforgiving.

I hope you find your special purpose at this screening. It’s at the Belcourt on Saturday, July 10th at sundown (8-ish). Get there early for a good spot.

-Emily