Cornell Cinema's upcoming calendar is packed with films from around the world, and the popular IthaKid Film Festival starts this weekend with a film accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra.
In fact, the Alloy Orchestra returns to Cornell to perform two new innovative scores for two shows: first, with the Douglas Fairbanks film "The Black Pirate" at Nov. 2 5 p.m., then with the classic Soviet silent "Earth" by Alexander Dovzhenko, at 8 p.m. "The Black Pirate" is an adventure-filled swashbuckler featuring fabulous stunts. This event kicks off the IthaKid Film Festival, which features children's films screening on Saturday and Sunday afternoons through Dec. 15, including other classics like the big-bug movie "Them!" and "Jason and the Argonauts," as well as recent films like "Stuart Little 2" and the original "Harry Potter."
The screening of "Earth" is part of the series "Landscapes of the Soul: The Cinema of Alexander Dovzhenko," which began Oct. 27. Cornell Cinema is one of several North American venues taking advantage of this special touring package from the Ukraine that includes all of Dovzhenko's (1894-1956) 14 films. Cornell Cinema will present four films in addition to "Earth," a meditation on Ukrainian culture, which is considered Dovzhenko's masterpiece. A man of many genres, the series includes his Western-like adventure thriller set in the Soviet Far East, "Aerograd," and "Shchors," a Civil War epic based on Bolshevik icon Nikolai Shchors."The Battle for the Soviet Ukraine" was the first of several war documentaries made by Dovzhenko, most of which are screening in the United States for the first time as part of this tour. The last film in the series is Dovzhenko's unfinished final film, "Farewell, America," which was loosely based on the real-life story of an American journalist who defected to the Soviet Union.
The series, "Iranian Cinema: The Amazing Makhmalbaf Family and More," should be of particular interest in light of current events. The prolific and talented Makhmalbaf family is unique in the world of cinema. From father Mohsen, to mother Marziyeh Meshkini, to daughter Samira, to son Maysam, to youngest daughter Hana, the family has produced an unprecedented number of internationally acclaimed feature-length and short films and videos.
For a complete lineup, call 255-3522 or visit http://cinema.cornell.edu.
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