FILMMAKERS IN CONVERSATION
IN CASE OF NO EMERGENCY: THE FILMS OF RUBEN ÖSTLUND
January 17–18
Walker Cinema
One of Scandinavia’s most innovative directors, Sweden’s Ruben Östlund visits the Walker for the Filmmakers in Conversation series. Known for works that confront our prejudices while examining human behavior in everyday situations, Östlund returned from this year’s Cannes Film Festival with the Jury Prize for Force Majeure. This new film, set in a ski resort in the majestic French Alps, takes an intimate look at ways that people cope with unexpected situations. Join the filmmaker for a discussion after the Walker Cinema screening.
Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $9 ($7 Walker members, students, and seniors). Films are in Swedish with English subtitles.
The touring retrospective is produced by Comeback Company, in partnership with the Swedish Film Institute and Plattform Produktion, with additional support from the Embassy of Sweden in the United States and the Consulate General of Sweden in New York.
INVOLUNTARY (DE OFRIVILLIGA)
Saturday, January 17, 2 pm
“A challenging and intelligent Swedish drama that still raises laughs.” —Empire
This comedy of Swedish manners offers five interset stories in which respect for authority is challenged. Whether focused on a famous actress unwilling to confess a crime or teens exploring their sexuality via webcam, the film poses questions about group mentality and social influences. 2008, 35mm, 98 minutes.
PLAY
Saturday, January 17, 7:30 pm
“The boldest formal experiment” —Slant
Set in Sweden and drawn from 40 actual cases of bullying by a single group, Play follows a gang of teens who intimidate and rob three younger boys without using any physical violence. Issues of race become paramount as shifts in attitude are exposed, illustrating the path between open-mindedness and racial profiling. 2011, 35mm, 118 minutes.
FORCE MAJEURE (TURIST)
Sunday, January 18, 2 pm
$12 ($10 Walker members, students, and seniors) Filmmakers in Conversation: Join Ruben Östlund for a post-screening discussion with Dennis Lim, director of programming at Film Society Lincoln Center, New York.
“Precisely calibrated . . . visually stunning . . . emotionally perceptive”
—Variety
When faced with harm, do people decide to save themselves or their loved ones? In this darkly comedic tale, Tomas makes a split-second decision in a sudden crisis during his family ski vacation. Featuring “the most spectacular avalanche scene in cinema history” (Swedish Film), Force Majeure examines ways that family roles, masculinity, and heroism are perceived (and rejected) by others. Winner of the 2014 Cannes Jury Prize and Sweden’s entry for the Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film. 2014, DCP, 118 minutes.
FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS SCREENINGS
FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS NOMINATED FILMS SCREENINGS
For Walker and IFP MN members
January 13–February 11
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 6 and 8 pm FREE
Walker Cinema
The 30th-annual Film Independent Spirit Awards celebrates artist-driven cinema and recognizes the finest achievements of today’s dynamic filmmakers. In advance of the awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 21, members of the Walker and Independent Filmmaker Project Minnesota have a chance to see the nominated films in four categories—Best Feature, Best First Feature, Best Documentary, and the John Cassavetes Awards.
Tickets are available to general members at 5 pm on screening nights on a first-come, first-served basis. Walker Film Club and IFP Minnesota members can reserve two free tickets in advance.
RSVP to donors@walkerart.org or 612.375.7641; IFP MN: rsvp@ifpmn.org.
EXPANDING THE FRAME
Expanding the Frame
January 22–29
Continuing Walker’s tradition of combining film and performance, Expanding the Frame presents three unique and stimulating programs that use revolutionary techniques and inspiring approaches to immerse the audience in a multidisciplinary experience. Presented in conjunction with Out There 2015. For details, visit walkerart.org.
Expanding the Frame is made possible by generous support from Elizabeth Redleaf.
CINEASTAS
Mariano Pensotti
Thursday–Saturday, January 22–24, 8 pm
Thursday, $20 ($18 Walker members); Friday–Saturday, $25 ($22)
McGuire Theater
“A tour de force in which fiction and reality converge.” —British Theatre Guide
Four filmmakers in Buenos Aires each start a new project, not knowing that the creative process will change their lives forever. This “filmic drama” is performed by a handful of actors seamlessly switching characters on an elaborate two-story, split-screen set that allows for fluid shifting between the lives of the filmmakers and the works being shot. Cinematic techniques adapted for the stage tell compelling stories of love, loss, joy, and despair. The Walker introduced this virtuoso director on his first US tour as part of Out There 2012. In Spanish with English surtitles.
This engagement of Mariano Pensotti is made possible through Southern Exposure: Performing Arts of Latin America, a program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.
THIS WORLD MADE ITSELF
Miwa Matreyek
Thursday, January 29, 6:30 and 8:30 pm FREE
Walker Cinema
“Matreyek’s work is an enchanting blend of animation and live performance; one of the few digital artists who is able to keep a strong element of human presence in her work.” —Venu
This kaleidoscopic, dreamlike merger of the fanciful and the scientific takes you to a world rich in surrealism and metaphor. Miwa Matreyek’s shadow silhouette interacts with video projections to create a history of the Earth—from its epic beginnings to the complexities introduced by human beings to this universe. Preceded by the short work Myth and Infrastructure. Presented in conjunction with the Expanding the Frame series and the Out There festival.
THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS
Directed by Sam Green
Friday, February 6, 7 and 9 pm
$15 ($12 Walker members, seniors, and students)
Walker Cinema
In Person: Director Sam Green with musicians Todd Griffin (The Quavers), Brendan Canty (Fugazi), and Catherine McRae (The quavers)
“The experience of it was absolutely delectable, not to mention unreproducible.” —ScreenCrave
Academy Award–winner Sam Green presents a live musical documentary meditating on time, fate, and overall human experience. Inspired by entries in The Guinness Book of World Records, Green unites trio Todd Griffin, Brendan Canty, and Catherine McRae as he provides in-person narration about record-holding people, places, and things. These include the world’s quietest room at the Orfield Labs in Minneapolis, the tallest man (7 ft. 9 in.), the man struck by lightning the most times (seven), and the woman with the longest name. At the Walker in 2013, Green performed The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller with Yo La Tengo. 2014, 65 minutes.
TWIN CITIES EXCLUSIVE
TIMBUKTU
Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako
Fridays, February 20 and 27, 7:30 pm
Saturday, February 21, 2 and 7:30 pm
Sunday, February 22, 2 pm
Saturday, February 28, 7:30 pm
$9 ($7 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Walker Cinema
“Sissako’s passionate and visually beautiful film Timbuktu is a cry from the heart—with all the more moral authority for being expressed with such grace and such care.” —Guardian (UK)
Based on real-life events under the 2012 northern Mali takeover by religious fundamentalists, Timbuktu focuses on the humanistic effects on the townspeople. The familiar woes of everyday life and remarkable resistance to a hostile takeover encircle a narrative that follows a herder and his family residing on the outskirts of town. Universal truths of human nature emerge as he experiences an upturned idea of “justice” following a dispute over his slaughtered prize cow. 2014, DCP, in French and Arabic with English subtitles, 97 minutes.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the Bentson Foundation.
FREE FILS ON VIEW
FRAME UP
Directed by Ericka Beckman
Lecture Room
January 6–March 29
Screens daily from 11 am
Ericka Beckman’s dual-screen projection reimagines the construction of the Walker’s Herzog & de Meuron–designed building as a video/pinball game. The short film is edited from hours of footage shot during her 2003–2005 Walker artist residency.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the Bentson Foundation.
ALIVE FROM OFF CENTER
Various directors
Best Buy Film/Video Bay
Through February 7
Alive from Off Center took performance into the realm of broadcast television by featuring groundbreaking work on the frontiers of comedy, dance, music, performance, and video. On view are episodes from the first three seasons of this classic Walker/Twin Cities Public Television (KTCA) collaboration (1984–1987). Program length: 28 minutes each.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the Bentson
MNTV
Various directors
Best Buy Film/Video Bay
February 9–June 28
Showcasing the talent of Minnesota filmmakers, MNTV is produced in collaboration with the Walker, IFP/MN, and Twin Cities Public Television. Program length: 60 minutes each.
Program 1: FILMETTO—Porta 241, Ann Prim; Ayananta, Neha Belvalkar; Funeral for Fun, Annie Enneking and Kevin Opsatz; Into the Roil, Kevin Russell; home. not home., Andrea Shaker; Home Near Water, Christopher Lange.
Program 2: Artist Series: Shelly Mosman, Jami Olson; Sermon of the Serpent, Mark Brown; The Hammer and the Axe, Preston Johnson; The Job of the Architect, Horacio Devoto; Albert Einstein, John Akre; INCONTEXT, Mike Hazard.
Program 3: Former Best Friends Forever, Peter Nelson; Rosie, Alexander Kohnstamm; A Mind of Winter, Katie Rensch and Jes Reyes; The Last of Fall, Peter Franco; City of Fear, Cody Brown.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the Jerome Foundation.