A scene from Jodie: An Icon, screening April 15 at 7:15 p.m.
Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning documentaries and an ode to Jodie Foster are among Cornell Cinema's offerings this week.
Troublesome Creek, which won a best documentary award at the 1996 Sundance film festival and received an Oscar nomination this year, will be shown on April 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. Admission is $4.50; $4 for students. The film chronicles a family's struggle to hold on to its Iowa farm after foreclosure threatens 125 years of family farming.
The 16th Annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival, on April 13 at 4:30 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre, will feature the 1997 Oscar-winning documentary Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien by Jessica Yu. The film is a story of the perseverance and vitality of Mark O'Brien, who contracted polio as a child. Also on the program are Chronic, Study of River, Jules at Eight, Robot Rerun and Portland. Admission is $3.50
Jodie: An Icon (1996), a look at the trans-Atlantic phenomenon that has made Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster an icon for lesbians who adore and identify with her screen personas, will be shown along with other works by filmmaker Pratibha Parmar on April 15 at 7:15 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. In Jodie, fans and cultural critics share their favorite lesbian readings of Foster's key films, celebrating her celluloid roles, which range from tomboy to strong-willed woman.
Other works by Parmar to be show include Khush (1991), which explores the lives of South Asian gays and lesbians in Britain, North American and India; Sari Red (1988), a moving film made in memory of Kalbinder Kaur Hayre, a young Indian woman killed in a 1985 racist attack in England (the film examines the threat of violence in public and private lives of Asian women); and Emergence (1986), which features four women artists, including African-American feminist poet Audre Lorde and Palestinian performance artist Mona Hatoum.